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March 16, 2007

NASCAR News Rewind
Hot Lanta Edition
By Dennis Michelsen

Every week so much happens in the world of NASCAR. As a public service we will attempt to wrap up the three biggest stories of the week in one easy to follow story every week. Just because we can't resist being wise guys we will also present our take on the news!

Bill France Hospitalized
Former NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. was hospitalized Wednesday night at Halifax Medical Center, where he was under the care of his personal physicians. His condition was not known, and NASCAR officials confirmed only that the 73-year-old France had been admitted. (Associated Press)

My Take: Bill France Jr. carried the torch from Big Bill and helped lead the sport to where it is today. It is always ominous when there is such little information when someone goes into the hospital. Get well soon Mr. France.

Hornish to run Brickyard 400
Defending the Indianapolis 500 title will be tough enough for Sam Hornish Jr., but he says he'd like to win twice on the historic 2 1/2-mile oval this year. Hornish, who already has driven in two Busch Series races this season, said Wednesday he likes the idea of trying to drive in both major American races at the track - Indy and the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. "The biggest thing would be our resources," Hornish said. "But if they asked me to do it, I'd do it." It's not unprecedented. A few NASCAR drivers, most notably Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon, have competed in Indianapolis on Memorial Day weekend and later returned to compete in the Brickyard 400. Hornish won the second-closest finish in Indy 500 history by 0.0635 seconds in 2006. Hornish might be setting himself up for even greater expectations. When asked if he had any inkling about running in the July 29 Nextel Cup race in Indianapolis, he didn't hesitate. "I'm trying to work on Roger (Penske) as far as that goes," Hornish said. "I think it would require a little bit of testing, and the biggest thing would be our resources. Obviously, we don't want to take away from what Kurt (Busch) and Ryan (Newman) do there." #2-Busch and #12-Newman are the two regular drivers for Penske's NASCAR team. Hornish also is trying to become only the sixth driver in Indy history to repeat as champion, something his teammate Helio Castroneves accomplished in 2001-02.(Associated Press)

My Take: In past years a driver with great equipment would have had an excellent chance to make the Brickyard 400. But this is 2007 and we have fifty-four cars show up every week and most are well funded. Even if Penske has everything running great it will not be easy for Hornish to make the field for the second biggest race of the season in NASCAR.

Busch Series TV Ratings Up
After four races of ESPN's new NASCAR agreement, the Busch Series is averaging 2,234,000 households, including a big jump from last year's audience for Saturday's race from Las Vegas, the first of six in 2007 to be aired on ABC. The broadcast earned a 2.4 rating and averaged 2,699,000 households, an increase of 58% compared to the same race in 2006 (1,713,000 homes). Also, ESPN2's three races are the network's top three ratings of 2007. The telecast of the season-opening event from Daytona International Speedway was ESPN2's most-viewed auto racing telecast ever with 2,200,600 household impressions (2.4 rating). It was the seventh-most-viewed telecast overall in ESPN2 history, with a larger audience than anything the network aired in 2006. ESPN's eight-year NASCAR agreement provides benefits far beyond the race telecasts and television alone. This past weekend, the motorsports section of ESPN.com enjoyed 79% more traffic than the same weekend a year ago (739,000 page views, up from 414,000). For the season to date, racing content has generated nearly double the number of page views per day than 2006 (up 98%, from 199,000 to 393,000). The NASCAR Busch Series will continue Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway on ABC with NASCAR Countdown at 2:30pm/et. ABC will also televise the March 24 event from Bristol Motor Speedway. (ESPN PR)

My Take: The Busch series is finally being treated as a major draw by a network and the results are evident. You can't turn on ESPN for more than 20 minutes without seeing a promotional message for NASCAR in general and the Busch series races in particular. Even last weekend when the Busch race was moved from ESPN2 to ABC because of college basketball, the race at Las Vegas pulled huge numbers compared to past Busch races. ESPN knows how to promote their programming and the results for the Busch series are proof. Now if we could only get them to encourage NASCAR to give the Busch only drivers more of a chance to compete with the Busch Whackers!