Trackside is a show on SPEED that normally hosts some good conversation with drivers and team owners. Two guests appear in each hour show and the panel of Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds talks about a wide variety of topics. Steve Byrnes is the host.
Friday night from California, Darrell Waltrip tried to explain once and for all the decision by NASCAR to end the Daytona 500 shortly after 7PM on a Sunday evening.
Here are his well-chosen words:
Most of us are self-serving. We would prefer to have it this way or we would prefer to have it that way. We want everything kind of the way we want it.
NASCAR, in their defense, and people get on us all the time for taking up for them...but you have got to understand something. They don't just look at what is good for Steve Byrnes, for Larry McReynolds or Jeff Hammond or SPEED Channel or Fox.
They look at what's good for everybody. In these economic times, keeping those teams there another night in hotels to come back the next day and run 38 laps...I know it's the Super Bowl and I know that we would all have liked to see it finish...but it did not make sense to put everybody through that.
And besides that, even if the forecast for Monday was good...what if it wasn't good?
Waltrip also mentioned the fact that he was a guest on the WindTunnel show on SPEED and as he left the studio in Daytona and returned to him motorhome slightly after 10PM, it was still raining.
So, thank you for all the email about whether or not Fox interfered or suggested or pushed for the end of the Daytona 500 so the network could get off the air in time for the primetime entertainment line-up.
What Waltrip is saying and we are agreeing with is that the TV networks did not play a role in the decision to end the race. A bad weather forecast, a long travel week to California and even a common sense decision about team expenses combined to motivate NASCAR to act quickly, declare the race over and move-on to California.
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Thanks again and happy posting.
