only 69 days until the 500!

[Edited on December 10, 2018 at 12:00 PM. Reason : nice]

12/10/2018 12:00:24 PM

And 23 days till the "Roar Before the 24." Any word on what NASCAR drivers will be racing? There are usually 1, or 2. I've seen some Indy Car guys will be in the Rolex again. Looks like AJ Allmendinger will be in the Rolex 24 again.

[Edited on December 11, 2018 at 9:48 PM. Reason : .]

12/11/2018 9:44:26 PM

^haven't heard of any nascar driver doing the 24


team spending caps could be coming soon. the owners agreed to have an accounting firm audit their books so they can make a plan maybe for 2020.

12/12/2018 6:12:46 PM

RCR bringing the 8 car back to cup. cool

if you like racin history podcasts check this shit out

https://marshallpruett.podbean.com/e/mp-438-my-racing-life-and-career-bobby-unser-at-pikes-peak/

12/15/2018 11:07:19 AM

Looking at Jayski, changes:

#00 Starcom car - purchased an idle Richard Childress charter that they leased in 2018
#36 Front Row car - was the charter from the bankrupt #23 BK car
#77 Spire car - was the charter from the #78 Furniture Row car

Driver lineup, teams divided into their rough tiers:

Chip Ganassi - Kurt Busch #1, Larson #42
Penske - Keselowski #2, Blaney #12, Logano #22
Richard Childress - A. Dillon #3, Hemric (R) #8 (was #31)
Stewart-Haas - Harvick #4, Almirola #10, Bowyer #14, Suarez #41
Roush Fenway - Newman #6, Stenhouse #17
Hendrick - Elliott #9, Byron #24, Johnson #48, Bowman #88
Joe Gibbs - Hamlin #11, Kyle Busch #18, Truex #19, Jones #20
Wood Brothers - Menard #21

JTG Daugherty - Buescher #37, Preece (R) #47
Front Row - McDowell #34, Tifft (R) #36, Ragan #38
Richard Petty - Wallace #43
Germain - T. Dillon #13
Leavine Family - DiBenedetto #95

Premium - Chastain #15 (not eligible for points)
Go FAS - LaJoie #32 (step down for this team)
StarCom - Cassill #00
Rick Ware - many drivers #51
TriStar - TBA #72
Spire - TBA #77
Obaika - Berryhill (R) #97

[Edited on December 18, 2018 at 12:22 PM. Reason : .]

12/18/2018 12:20:55 PM

^sad no Ding-a-lings

12/18/2018 6:41:46 PM

wish Chastain could get a better cup ride. dude drives his balls off. can't wait to see what he does full time in the 42 in xfinity.

12/18/2018 9:57:57 PM

12/19/2018 6:34:03 AM

Winn Dixie might be the most successful Busch/ Nationwide/ Xfinity sponsorship ever.

12/20/2018 7:43:06 AM

SMI bought Nashville fairgrounds!!!

12/20/2018 2:29:06 PM

hope this DC solar crap doesnt bone watermelon boy or larSON

[Edited on December 22, 2018 at 8:29 AM. Reason : 57]

12/22/2018 8:27:11 AM

AJ Allmendinger joins NBC NASCAR and IMSA broadcast teams

https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2018/12/19/aj-allmendinger-joins-nbc-sports-group-analyst/

12/22/2018 11:47:10 AM

12/30/2018 6:08:07 PM

So I just saw Monster Energy Supercross and Monster Jam have both been dropped by Fox and picked up by NBC. That leaves Fox with NASCAR Cup and Xfinity half seasons, NASCAR Truck Series, and the NHRA. I wonder if they drop NASCAR next? They seem to be getting out of motor sports broadcasting. They also recently dropped the WEC (Velocity) and IMSA (NBC).

12/31/2018 3:37:10 PM

we really need a streaming subscription direct from NASCAR. it will eventually go to that anyhow.

12/31/2018 3:55:23 PM

^that will prob happen in 2025 when new tv deal starts

12/31/2018 6:05:37 PM

Quote :

"we really need a streaming subscription direct from NASCAR. it will eventually go to that anyhow."

What is wrong with networks showing sports? I hope we never get to a point where every sports league has its own streaming service. That's too many subscriptions to keep up with. I'm still sort of shocked that Fox is dropping so many racing leagues so quickly. Plus NBC dropped F1 and picked up some of the lesser known ones. Racing is sort of a 24 hour sports networks dream. They take about 3+ hours to broadcast. Sports networks need events to show, if they want to be a sports network.

1/2/2019 8:57:37 AM

I don't want to pay for satellite or cable just so I can watch nascar. That's really all I keep satellite for at this point. Honestly I'm probably just going to drop satellite and watch pirate streams this year. I'd pay if there's a legal way.

1/2/2019 9:37:40 AM

^^ NBC didn't drop F1 so much as Liberty GAVE it to ESPN. That's how we got commercial free coverage and all of the practices, they only needed to cover basic expenses and Sky Sports fees instead of a full studio production crew, 3 hosts, having Buxton on-site, and Bernie's massive fees.

1/2/2019 10:49:05 AM

No one watches streams (when I say no one, I'm not talking a handful, I'm talking getting to where the audience is measured by tens of thousands). A journalist I follow, Dave Meltzer, said UFC for example which always reports their numbers, best they ever did for a streamed and broadcast show was 2% of their audience viewed the stream. Even looking at areas where the coverage on Fox gets pre-empted so the stream is the only way to watch the card, they don't really go up. All indications are DAZN lost their ass with that Canelo fight, but they have funding so...enjoy throwing money down holes.

Quote :

"SMI bought Nashville fairgrounds!!!"

Yeah, a Cup series return there seems to have been planned for some time. There is one more tea leaf. Also, shock of shock, no track is getting a new date in the current setup unless ISC or SMI owns it.

[Edited on January 2, 2019 at 11:58 AM. Reason : .]

1/2/2019 11:54:37 AM

Lots of folks watch pirate streams. Those folks aren't in the numbers.

1/2/2019 2:45:35 PM

Lots? Define lots. If we're talking 2000, that's nothing.

The American Le Mans Series once did an all streaming deal with a couple next day tape delayed highlight packages of the races. I had to listen to this one dumbass on a racing board talk about how this was great for ALMS, they weren't tied to the obsolete broadcast model, this is the future. You could watch all of the race. The stream maxed out at 10k viewers, which they never hit. The tape delayed broadcast highlights package got a little under a million viewers. The teams were just about in open revolt and said when going to find sponsors or the car manufacturers, they only cared about the tape delayed broadcast numbers, the 3000 or so watching on a stream were irrelevant. ALMS died shortly after in what was politely called a merger with GrandAm.

I'll find what Meltzer wrote on it and post it up. But F1's service has not hit great numbers in the U.S. when they were forced to give the races away for free in order for them to just be broadcast. (And European journalists that cover the sport have kept the bit of they gave away the rights pretty quiet from what I read of them.) If they went in with no American broadcast of races and just the streaming service, the paddock probably would have revolted at Liberty's running of the series.

[Edited on January 2, 2019 at 3:05 PM. Reason : .]

1/2/2019 3:04:09 PM

i watch the cable only races using someone i knows spectrum password for the legit stream. they use my netflix



[Edited on January 2, 2019 at 5:33 PM. Reason : s]

1/2/2019 5:32:10 PM

Cable and satellite are dying a slow death. Eventually we'll all be streaming everything. I'm just saying I wish it would hurry up.

1/2/2019 6:48:30 PM

I have a USAC package I subscribe to now to watch, it's more to support USAC as I only watch a few races really.

There's free N.C. State games on ESPN+ that are the only way for me to watch these games because I'm out of market. I don't watch them simply because I'm doing other things and scheduling stuff to watch on the internet is out of sight, out of mind. And I'm an N.C. State fan.

I pirate Star Trek Discovery online. I know where to get all the episodes for Season 1. I've still only watched up to episode 4.

USA Rugby of which I'm a paying member for 10 years now and am involved with lower-level governance hitched their wagons to creating their own rugby footage streaming network complete with international tests and foreign leagues. They then got undercut by their own business partners putting games on NBC Sports and the network financially collapsed within 3 years. They had to take an offer from another minor streaming platform (Flosports) just to not make the national governing body insolvent that practically condemns rugby in this country from getting any larger footing as far as fans or people watching the national team on TV for the next 7 years. You can't even say its amateurs running the show that had no idea what they're doing because it was the brainchild of the CEO, a co-owner of the San Francisco Giants.

I get how streaming is great if you're a hardcore fan. The surest way to go out of business is to focus on your hardcores and ignore the casuals. I'm not sure how you're ever going to grow an audience and get casuals, some of whom will later become hardcores. I'm also not sure how in a sport like auto racing that is dependent on very large audiences for its product in order to get the sponsorship that pays for all the cars - otherwise it's a bunch of ride buyers because purse money covering costs is long ago in the past - is supposed to survive its current audience getting divided by say 20.

I just do not grasp this "future". I watched more than half the Formula 1 races from last season, which is probably more than anyone in this thread outside of maybe 1 person. If the only way for me to watch F1 was to buy the F1 streaming service for $30, I wouldn't do it.

The notion of what cable is is here to stay. ESPN is here to stay in some form or fashion. NBC Sports and NBC Gold are the same thing, the difference is Gold gets a miniscule fraction of the audience NBC Sports does. What's going to happen is a lot of people will go out of business, and who is remaining will get higher quality content and pay less for it, which is how things work for industries in recession. The recession sucks, but if you can make it through to the end, boy is it good times for you when all your weak competitors are out of business. I think that's what's going to happen, the broadcast networks are going to rule the world again because that will become again the only places where the country comes together to view something, the weak and medium cable channels will either disappear or merge in a 3 channels combine into 1-like thing, and the stronger cable channels will become pseudo-networkish.

[Edited on January 2, 2019 at 11:05 PM. Reason : /]

1/2/2019 10:55:01 PM

December 24th, 2018 Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Quote :

"The best thing for emotion and atmosphere this weekend wasn’t the Omega & Ibushi vs. Tanahashi & Ospreay match, or the last several minutes of the main event at TLC, or the video on BTE of The Elite leaving the Hammerstein and saying goodbye to ROH. It was the entire Ilima-lei Macfarlane presentation on the 12/15 Bellator show in Honolulu. There were so many lessons here about individuality, and letting people handle their own creative and thinking outside the box. The unfortunate thing is that, being on the DAZN subscription service, whose early numbers have been scary bad compared to how much money it has been spending, so few so it that outside the MMA media types who raved about it, and those in the Neil Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, few saw it or know about it. Macfarlane is Bellator’s flyweight champion. She has a natural charm to her and she really is tremendous as a brand ambassador both for Bellator and her home state. While UFC stars like B.J. Penn and Max Holloway pushed for years the idea of running a show in Hawaii, for a number of reasons having to do with costs, taxes and venue size, UFC never did it. The NBC was too small and while they would have drawn huge at Aloha Stadium, the weather is too unpredictable. She pushed Scott Coker to run a show there and they ended up doing one better, making it a doubleheader with shows on 12/14 and 12/15, the first being their version of “Tribute to the Troops” on the Paramount Network. The TV show heavily built the next day’s show as the big thing, and even with the debut of Lyoto Machida, everything was built around Macfarlane. Back in September, she had the moment deeply in her head, saying it would be a “chicken skin” (Hawaiian for goose bumps) moment. Macfarlane grew up in Honolulu, and nine years ago won the high school state championship at the NBC Arena, which has been the indoor sports home for Hawaiian sports for more than 50 years. She went to the same high school as Barack Obama, as well as Curtis Iaukea and Don Muraco. She set up a native-themed entrance, with a popular Hawaiian song, men carrying state flags, and a video put together by Impact’s Kevin Sullivan with photos of her from childhood through her recent title defenses, including a photo of a ring outfit she wore early in her career where, at the waist, it read “place belt here,” leading to a photo of her with the championship belt. The only thing I could compare this spectacle to was the ultimate Mirko Cro Cop 2005 ring entrance at the Saitama Super Arena before his title fight with Fedor Emelianenko. But that was really about the amazing video showing his father’s tombstone and his relentless training. This was more girl next door becomes a superstar. The sold out crowd of 6,500 fans were on their feet, many with tears in their eyes, with seemingly everyone taking cell phone photos at once, very much like the start of a major rock concert. She was crying from the moment she came from the curtain until she was inside the cage. DAZN, with its crisp picture quality that is a level above what we see on WWE, UFC or New Japan shows, created an emotional visual that everyone in entertainment strives to create, but rarely comes close. Bellator promoter Scott Coker compared it with the atmosphere of the Frank Shamrock vs. Cung Le fight that he promoted more than a decade ago in San Jose. "It was amazing," said Coker. "When we do the walk-ins, we just say, `Look, you guys have the ability to express yourself, and do what's important for you, and build your brand. 'You can tell that her culture was important to her, and Hawaii was important to her. It was entertaining. I loved it. I loved that the crowd knew all the chants and everything. It was just a magical night. I can't explain it. You had to be here to feel it." Then there was the fight. Macfarlane struggled with challenger Valerie Letourneau. Letourneau was a solid fighter, but hardly a worldbeater. She was 10-6 coming in, and was 3-3 in UFC, including a loss to Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the strawweight title on the Ronda Rousey-Holly Holm show from Australia. Macfarlane may have lost the first two rounds close. Things turned around in the third when she got a takedown, went for an armbar, then locked on a triangle. While holding the triangle, she kept throwing elbows and Letourneau tapped at 3:19. That led to the second emotional response, with the cameras panning the audience with tears in their eyes. Those live, including Scott Coker, said it was one of the most memorable fight moments they had seen. The reaction was so impressive that Coker wants to make the NBC Arena a regular stop on the Bellator circuit. With the loud crowd, sounding both younger and with more of a female sound than is usual at an MMA event, cheering her on, this was that rare superstar moment, like Ronda Rousey's win over Liz Carmouche, Conor McGregor's win over Chad Mendes, Georges St-Pierre's win over Matt Serra and Matt Hughes or Jon Jones' win over Shogun Rua. Now, it is completely unfair at this stage of the game to put Macfarlane in the same category as the greatest stars in the sport's history and their breakouts nights. But the emotion in the crowd at the end of those fights was very much the same. "This was something that will be memorable as a fight promoter," said Coker after the show. "This was a magical environment, and I think you guys saw the power of Hawaii get behind her. There's a couple of times in my life I felt that. And I've been doing this a long time. So, it was a magical night, and they love her here. She's going to be a big star here." The problem is that the next day, it was not on the Google search list. Almost nobody past the most hardcore of fans and those in the MMA media were commenting on it. In many ways, this was this amazing thing in an arena and on a streaming service one night, but it was also a giant tree falling in an empty forest moment as well."

1/2/2019 11:28:22 PM

Supercross starts Sat night! NBC signed Ralph Shaheen and Ricky Carmichael but no Jeff emig. Bummer about jeff

[Edited on January 3, 2019 at 5:22 PM. Reason : T]

1/3/2019 5:21:43 PM

the 60 and the 42 xfinity teams both shutting down. holy shit. really sucks for Chastain.

1/4/2019 1:38:53 PM

^^ already bought tickets to attend the Indianapolis Supercross

Make or break year for Cooper Webb. Moved over to KTM.

1/4/2019 3:52:51 PM

^^

^i wish supercross came to NC. marcus smith needs to get on that shit



[Edited on January 4, 2019 at 8:34 PM. Reason : f]

1/4/2019 8:31:26 PM

Quote :

"Lots? Define lots. If we're talking 2000, that's nothing. The American Le Mans Series once did an all streaming deal with a couple next day tape delayed highlight packages of the races. I had to listen to this one dumbass on a racing board talk about how this was great for ALMS, they weren't tied to the obsolete broadcast model, this is the future. You could watch all of the race. The stream maxed out at 10k viewers, which they never hit. The tape delayed broadcast highlights package got a little under a million viewers. The teams were just about in open revolt and said when going to find sponsors or the car manufacturers, they only cared about the tape delayed broadcast numbers, the 3000 or so watching on a stream were irrelevant. ALMS died shortly after in what was politely called a merger with GrandAm. I'll find what Meltzer wrote on it and post it up. But F1's service has not hit great numbers in the U.S. when they were forced to give the races away for free in order for them to just be broadcast. (And European journalists that cover the sport have kept the bit of they gave away the rights pretty quiet from what I read of them.) If they went in with no American broadcast of races and just the streaming service, the paddock probably would have revolted at Liberty's running of the series."

Yep, having an actual TV contract is huge for promoting any sports league. I read a few years ago that when IMSA signed on with Fox for full season coverage they had an increase in viewership on TV and had something like a 20% increase in crowd size at the actual race tracks. Now IMSA has switched to NBC, but it looks like the way it is presented on TV won't change all that much. The standard races will be on TV and the endurance races will be streamed online and partially on TV.

1/4/2019 10:49:44 PM

1/5/2019 8:30:31 AM

DC Solar gets raided by FBI causing Ganassi to shut down the 42 xfinity car and kicking ross chastain out of his big shot. Damn

1/5/2019 8:22:09 PM

Re North Carolina and Supercross, I don't know why Charlotte doesn't have one. I know Charlotte Motor Speedway hosted an FIM Motocross event a couple years ago but it disappeared after 1 year. Eli Tomac and some other American riders did the event, Tomac won both motos.

Joe Gibbs Racing out of Charlotte area fields the Suzuki team. (It's Coy Gibbs' baby.)

[Edited on January 5, 2019 at 8:42 PM. Reason : .]

1/5/2019 8:36:55 PM

1/6/2019 9:24:01 AM

Quote :

"Supercross starts Sat night! NBC signed Ralph Shaheen and Ricky Carmichael but no Jeff emig. Bummer about jeff"

Is Juliana Daniel still helping with the broadcast coverage like she did at Fox? What a hottie!

1/6/2019 11:08:06 AM

It's a few days old, but NASCAR Xfinity driver Austin Cindric announced on twitter that he is racing in the Rolex 24 again. This year it is with AIM VASSER SULLIVAN Lexus (GTD). IIRC, he raced a prototype in the Rolex last year.

1/6/2019 6:06:36 PM

Wacky A1 in Supercross. Heavy rain for the night in Anaheim. Justin Barcia got his first win in 6 years and Yamaha's first in 7 years. Roczen 2nd. Tomac recovered from starting 12th or so to take 3rd. Newport, N.C.'s own Cooper Webb crashed at the start but flew through the field to take 5th. He beat his teammate Musquin as well. Defending champion Jason Anderson meanwhile started well but progressively went backward and finished 14th getting lapped.

1/6/2019 8:14:42 PM

^^ we definitely know which car is going to crash. Lexus + Cindric is just asking for trouble


^ I never know how to feel about muddy races. I feel some guys just take it easy and are happy to finish and not get injured, others go balls out and fall a few times (250s had this problem), but the first event of the season on a slick track will always be a crapshoot at t1.

1/6/2019 9:32:44 PM

Quote :

"I never know how to feel about muddy races. I feel some guys just take it easy and are happy to finish and not get injured,"

yeah jason anderson wasnt even trying to do all the jumps

1/7/2019 6:35:17 AM

Still though, "Dude, you're the defending champ. Defending champs don't get beat by Vince Friese." RacerX which is where I get my Supercross news said Anderson and his Husky team had packed up and got out of there before they could get there to ask the "what happened?" question.

[Edited on January 7, 2019 at 10:08 AM. Reason : .]

1/7/2019 10:05:11 AM

I like how Stewart Haas waited until 41 days before the 500 to announce Swervez driving the 41

1/7/2019 11:54:03 AM

^was 41st post!

was a bad day for nascar yesterday. 50 people laid off, jd gibbs died. the 48 paint scheme was ugly AF

1/12/2019 11:30:47 AM

^should have been 36, i cant math.

supercross was pretty good last night other than malcom stewart broke his femur and needs surgery now

1/13/2019 7:24:38 AM

larSON won his prelim for chili bowl

1/16/2019 6:07:40 PM

christopher bell won his chili bowl prelim

1/18/2019 6:50:13 AM

RIP Glen wood

1/18/2019 12:34:55 PM

bell passed larson on last lap for 3rd chili bowl in a row!



[Edited on January 20, 2019 at 7:24 AM. Reason : e]

1/20/2019 7:20:06 AM

1/22/2019 6:47:15 AM

In what'll surely be a less celebrated sendoff than Danica's last year, Jamie McMurray will drive the #40 Spire car at Daytona in conjunction with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Spire's car in other races will be raced in select events by...(drumroll)...Quinn Houff.

(confetti)


[Edited on January 23, 2019 at 12:21 PM. Reason : /]

1/23/2019 12:19:13 PM