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Highlights from ESPN NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Conference Call

Tuesday July 22, 2008

 

ESPN will have live, high definition coverage of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 27, at 1 p.m. ET, the first of 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races to be televised on ESPN and ABC to close out the 2008 season. Rich Feinberg, ESPN vice president, motorsports, studio and event production, and the members of the telecast booth – lead announcer Dr. Jerry Punch and analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree – participated in a media conference call today. Some highlight quotes:

RICH FEINBERG
Do you have any new tricks up your sleeve for your Sprint Cup coverage?
We’ve been in a year of refinement. We launched a tremendous amount of things last year, from the first high-definition on-board cameras to Draft Track. It was such a Herculean effort to get all of that from conceptual paper to reality. What we’ve done now is to take the off-season and leading up to our Sprint coverage to reflect on last year and figure out how to use things in a better, more dynamic and entertaining way. Just as we’ve done with some of our talent assignments, is taking a step back, what worked, what areas do we think we could do better, implementing those, and then getting it all out on the road. It’s an ongoing process of refinement and our goal is quite simple, and that’s to put on the best show we can and serve race fans all over the world.
Why did you pick Tony Stewart as your In-Race Reporter for Indianapolis?
Here at ESPN, it’s pretty simple – we love Tony Stewart. Tony speaks his mind. And sometimes our coverage wants some criticism and feedback, and we welcome that. We always think we can be better. Like a race team, you’re only as good as your last time around the track. I think that people take some of Tony’s comments and misconstrue them and read things into them. Tony Stewart has won the Brickyard 400. We’re all very, very familiar with his passion about that racetrack and his love of the Indiana area and the Midwest, and to me it made absolute perfect sense to have the defending champion and a very outspoken one be our In-Race Reporter and add to the show for the fans.

DR. JERRY PUNCH
What is the significance of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard to you?
For me to have stood on pit road in the early years of the 400 and to interview Andy Petree as a crew chief, and he was the only one who was able to help Dale Earnhardt get something he didn’t have, which was a Brickyard 400 win. And I got to stand there and watch him live that moment. And I was there when Dale Jarrett won the Brickyard 400 and began the tradition of kissing the bricks. And now I get to stand beside those two guys and let them relive those moments through the eyes of other people on pit road, the crew chiefs and the drivers. Hopefully they can take those moments into living rooms throughout the afternoon.
While the race itself may not have three-wide drafts, like the fans see at Daytona and Talladega, it is one of the most spectacular events of the year. It’s one of the all-time great sports venues along with Augusta and Wimbledon. And while the Masters may not be the best golf tournament of the year, because it’s at Augusta, it is special. And I think that’s what we say about Indianapolis.

ANDY PETREE
You’re in your second year in TV – what makes Indy special for you?
The perspective is quite a bit different from the Pagoda than it is from pit road. Having won that race, it was actually the biggest win of my crew chief career. We really value that trophy and that ring more than any other race other than the Daytona 500, which I was never lucky enough to win. Learning a lot about the sport from the television side the last year has given me a lot more experience going into this Brickyard 400 than last year. I’m really excited about it. We have Dale Jarrett up there with us this year and we have a long relationship. We actually started racing together back when we were kids. We’ve worked together already on some of the Nationwide races, and our chemistry was immediate, so I’m just really looking forward to getting started.

DALE JARRETT
It’s your first time covering the Sprint Cup Series as an announcer – what are you looking forward to?
I’ve been anticipating this day of getting to the coverage of the Sprint Cup Series on ESPN and working with Andy and Jerry has just been a lot of fun to this point. I think that we can look in each other’s eyes while we’re in the booth calling the races and we know what direction each one is going. Hopefully it’s coming across to the fans and as we get down to the Cup Series and they understand the chemistry that we have and how much fun we’re having. I’m still learning the business and what TV is all about, and looking at races from a different perspective than I have for 30 years in the driver’s seat. I’m looking forward to going to the Brickyard this weekend as an announcer. It is a very special place, and having had the opportunity to race there and visit victory lane a couple of times, it’s just incredible what that means.
Is this race moving the Indianapolis 500 aside as the biggest race at the speedway?
The Indy 500 is a huge event in itself and I don’t know that anything that goes on at that speedway will ever replace that and I don’t think that anyone with NASCAR ever went there with the idea of making that happen. What has happened is we have been able to go there and have a very successful event year after year. It’s not necessarily the side-by-side and three wide racing because you’re not going to get that on this track because of the way the track is designed and the rules. But what you do get is a very compelling story throughout each one of these races as to how it’s going to unfold. It’s just become an event that fans look forward to. Not trying to replace the Indy 500, but I think that we have put ourselves on the map in that when fans look to this race, they see the importance and excitement of it.

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This report was provided by an outside PR source and posted by Kim DeHaven.

 

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