TV Times – Juan Pablo Montoya Is “Darling of NASCAR”

We noticed that Juan Pablo Montoya was being shadowed by a throng of media after he cut a tire in the second Gatorade Duel At Daytona! Then Fox pit reporter Dick Berggren was somewhat in awe of JPM in his post race interview. Like it or not JPM is the darling of NASCAR and has replaced Dale, Jr. as the “anointed one”. The Columbian driver is going to succeed in NASCAR because the sanction, TV networks and Chip Ganassi, his team owner, in Cup racing all want it to happen. The prevailing wisdom in NASCARland right now is that JPM will bring fans into NASCAR to replace some of the core base that have abandoned NASCAR for reasons we’ve covered before.

Montoya’s coming to NASCAR legitimizes their segment of the sport. F1 has always looked down on NASCAR and the France crowd started to believe that they were inferior which was, in all reality, the wrong mind set. NASCAR, with all of it’s faults, is still the best racing on the planet. That’s why drivers from the IRL, Champ Car and now F1 want in. Let’s face it, JPM came to NASCAR because of the money and the fact that he had no shot at landing a ride in the front running Ferraris and Renaults and it was time to move on. If he had been hired by Ferrari or Renault, the only two teams capable of winning on any given weekend, he wouldn’t be in NASCAR right now.

In its continued commitment to provide the most comprehensive coverage of the 2007 NASCAR season, ESPN, Inc. will present ESPN Full Circle: NASCAR Busch Series from Mexico City Sunday, March 4 at 2 p.m. ET, live from Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez – the latest installation of an ESPN Full Circle presentation, in which various ESPN outlets carry the event live using different coverage approaches, in addition to extensive content surrounding the race across additional ESPN outlets such as TV, radio, internet, etc. ESPN2, the home of the NASCAR Busch Series in 2007, will present a traditional race telecast (also available on ESPN2 HD), while ESPN will simulcast ESPN Deportes’ U.S. Hispanic Spanish-language flag-to-flag coverage. Additionally, ESPN360 will feature a live stream of the ESPN2 telecast.

NASCAR Busch Series at Mexico City Full Circle highlights follow: ESPN: Will present a simulcast of ESPN Deportes’ Spanish-language flag-to-flag coverage of the race to more than 92 million homes in the U.S. ESPN Deportes will feature a unique telecast of the race, with its own on-site production team, Spanish-language graphics and commentary, highlighting key Hispanic drivers. Play-by-play commentator Andrés Agulla will be joined in the booth by Alex Pombo for analysis. Claudia Trejos and Marcelo Vivo will serve as pit reporters.

Carlos Contreras, the first Hispanic driver in NASCAR, has joined ESPN Deportes’ experienced team of hosts, analysts and reporters for ESPN Deportes’ coverage of the 2007 NASCAR season. Contreras will serve as analyst for numerous races, joining analyst Alex Pombo and play-by-play commentator Andrés Agulla in the booth. He will make his first appearance on ESPN Deportes’ flag-to-flag coverage of the NASCAR Busch Series: Stater Bros 300 this Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live from the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

“We are excited to have Carlos on our team,” said Chris Calcinari, vice president of production and operations, ESPN Deportes. “Carlos will bring real world insight, experience, and inside information to our productions, and his on-the-track experience will be a tremendous asset for our NASCAR telecasts. For the first time in the history of Spanish-language television fans will be able to follow NASCAR action in Spanish and we have assembled the most knowledgeable team to offer top-notch coverage.”

“I am happy to be joining ESPN Deportes’ NASCAR team,” said Contreras. “While my main goal is racing and I continue to look for sponsorship to stay on the race track this is a great opportunity for me. I can work together with ESPN Deportes and NASCAR to help grow the popularity of the sport in the Hispanic community. That has always been a priority for me. I look forward to using my NASCAR experience to add a driver’s perspective to ESPN Deportes’ telecasts and hope this is the beginning of a long relationship with the network.”

Contreras, an eight-time Mexican racing champion, has 84 career starts in NASCAR’s top series, including 70 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and 14 in the NASCAR Busch Series, the most of any Hispanic driver. Contreras made his NASCAR debut by qualifying 7th and finishing 14th in the season finale NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at the California Speedway in 1999. He ran the full Truck Series season in 2000 and was runner-up in the Rookie of the Year standings to future NASCAR NEXTEL Cup champion Kurt Busch.

After three seasons in the Truck Series, Contreras made his debut in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2003. In 2005 Contreras joined FitzBradshaw Racing, piloting entries for the team at Watkins Glen, Fontana, Kansas, Phoenix, Miami and the inaugural Busch Series race in Mexico City. Contreras finished a Busch series career best of 11th at the 2006 Mexico City race, leading all Hispanic drivers.

Contreras also took on the role of team owner with Busch Series owner Armando Fitz in creating FitzContreras Racing in NASCAR’s Busch East and NASCAR Mexico series. FitzContreras Racing went on to win its first race in its inaugural season and also took home Rookie of the Year honors with driver Ruben Pardo. In addition to his duties with ESPN Deportes, this 2007 season Contreras is slated to run several Busch series races for Armando Fitz and Fitz Motorsports, beginning with Mexico City on March 4th.

Fox’s broadcast of Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout from Daytona International Speedway earned the second-highest overnight rating for any weekend sports broadcast, according to numbers posted by Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily.

The non-points race for last year’s Nextel Cup pole winners and previous event champions earned a 4.2 overnight Nielsen Media Research rating from the nation’s largest markets and a 7 market share. CBS posted the highest overnight ratings with a 5.1/10 for its coverage of the NFL’s Pro Bowl game.

Fox’s coverage of Sunday’s qualifying session for next week’s Daytona 500 Nextel Cup season opener earned a 2.5 overnight rating and a 6 share. Comparison figures from last year for the two NASCAR events weren’t immediately available.

Here we go with this gem from the Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter-Yes, He REALLY Said That- Dale Earnhardt Jr., on his on-going contract negotiations with Teresa Earnhardt. “The main factor is the ownership (of DEI) part. It has nothing to do with money and nothing else really . . . My father has been gone for almost six years now. I want majority ownership.”

AMA Racing and MavTV have announced a unique broadcasting partnership that will result in additional AMA professional and amateur racing disciplines receiving televised coverage. Beginning with the 2007 racing season, AMA Hillclimb, Speedway, Trials and Ice Racing as well as amateur Dirt Track, Road Race, Motocross Manufacturers Cup and Hillclimb Championships will all be featured in a series of original hour long programs to be carried on the emerging MavTV network. The programs will also be webcast on MavTV’s broadband player at the MavTV website located at www.mavtv.com after premiering on the cable network.

These programs join AMA Prostar drag racing coverage which also airs on MavTV. In making the announcement, AMA Vice President, Racing, Douglas Neubauer commented on the importance of increasing television coverage for all forms of AMA Championship Racing: “This is a significant milestone for the growth of AMA Racing and the advancement of all our racing properties,” said Neubauer. “We’re excited about the added awareness that will result from this broadcast package. Not only will it benefit each series individually, but also the riders, teams, manufacturers and sponsors invested in AMA Racing.”

MavTV’s CEO, Steve Severn, shared Neubauer’s enthusiasm. “We’re thrilled to be the network the AMA has chosen to carry these great racing products. MavTV is growing rapidly across multiple media platforms and this programming will fit right in with a strong appeal to our core demographic of men 18-54,” said Severn. “In addition, it strengthens our ability to provide more original sports content only found under the MavTV brand for men that can be seen on cable or satellite or be viewed and enjoyed directly on the MavTV broadband player on the internet.”

MavTV is an independently-owned cable network created specifically to appeal to the interests of men. Launched on Oct. 1, 2004 the network features a mix of original sports and gaming programming as well as general content related to the male demographic. MavTV can currently be seen in over 2 million households in more than 55 key markets. Additional information can be found at www.mavtv.com.

CCMJ.PK is the stock symbol for Cruise Cam, LLC in Farmington Hills, MI and they have some interesting technology for TV cameras inside race cars among other leading edge of technology products. There website is www.cruisecam.com where you can get in touch with them.

Let’s see what’s on TV that would interest the gearheads over the weekend. We go into the second round of NASCAR 2007 this time at Fontana starting at 1:30 p.m. Friday with ESPN2 offering Busch Practice. At 2:30 p.m. it’s Nextel Cup Practice from Fontana this time on Speed. Then Speed returns at 4 p.m. with practice of the Craftsman Trucks at that same track followed by CTS qualifying at 5:30 p.m. Then Speed returns with the CTS race at 9 p.m. Saturday’s offerings include Cup practice on Speed at 3 p.m. followed by Busch qualifying on ESPN2 at 4 p.m. Speed then airs Cup Final practice at 5 p.m. ESPN2 returns with the Busch race at that west coast venue at 7:30 p.m. Sunday’s deal is the Cup race from Fontana on Fox at 3 p.m. ESPN2 kicks in the NHRA Final Eliminations from Phoenix at 7 p.m. and again at 8:30 p.m. The Speed Report at 7 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. with updates will get you all caught up on the weekend happenings. It’s pretty busy even this early in the season on TV. When the rest of the sanctions kick in with there schedules it’s going to be wall-to-wall motorhead action on the tube. Especially during the month of May when the Indy 500 gets most of the focus like Daytona did for two weeks earlier this month.

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES AND NOTES.