WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ESPN2 U.S. NATIONALS FINALS COVERAGE?

When most drag racing fans sat down to watch the finals from Indy on Monday afternoon, they found a rain-delayed New York Yankees-Red Sox game. Later in the afternoon, after the leisurely Red Sox 8 to 4 win, Marty Reid joined in by picking up the second round of U.S. Nationals eliminations.

Most of the weekend Marty had pimped the viewing audience about the incredible commitment to NHRA U.S. Nationals coverage by ESPN2, but when the chili hit the cheese it came down to ratings. Baseball brings in more dollars than drag racing for advertising sales bumping the "commitment to NHRA." Ultimately the wrong TV commercials ended-up on the wrong show. While America watched the Yankees game, they were treated to the POWERade John Force and Tony Schumacher commercials, Illegal Street Racing Video games, and other automotive related advertising.

Here's the way it goes: ESPN has purchased the rights to NHRA POWERade Drag Racing; NHRA doesn't buy the time on ESPN2. ESPN then makes a television show out of it with Marty Reid, Mike Dunn, and company. The problem arose from the Labor Day holiday weekend. As with any large media company, the advertising traffic department at ESPN had no possibility of changing the placement of drag racing oriented ads on the delayed baseball programming. Those advertising positions are purchased in advance, usually under large contracts between the network and advertisers. Those commercial positions are then programmed into a large computer system on the assumption that the 48th Annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals would be on time.

The inability to change the placement of the drag-oriented ads on Major League Baseball will probably result in a rebate or adjustment of the billing to those advertisers who missed their target audience. On the other hand, drag racing oriented advertising got some mainstream exposure; although, much of the time during commercial breaks was spent at the fridge grabbing another cool one to watch the tedious baseball game. [9-05-2002]

SILLY SEASON BEGINS AT NHRA

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The Agent heard a pretty strong rumor at Indy that there might be a new crew chief in the Prudhomme camp right after the U.S. Nats. In fact, one source told the Agent that Prudhomme was talking to a tuner who was committed to another team through the U.S. Nationals. However, based upon the performances of the Prudhomme tuning trio of Dick LaHaie, Ed McCulloch and Rob Flynn -- all three of whom put their drivers into the finals of Indy's big races -- personnel changes, if they were to occur, probably wouldn't be any of the guys spinning the wrenches. The Agent did hear at Indy that Wes Cerney, who has been tuning for Cory Mac among others, may be leaving for the Don Schumacher camp soon. [9-05-2002]

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