Gentleman, start your Super Bowl

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer | Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:29 PM PST ∞

It's like the NFL starting the season with the Super Bowl. Or Major League Baseball opening its schedule with the World Series.

But that's exactly what NASCAR does by starting the racing season with the Daytona 500.

The Indianapolis 500 was once regarded as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." But the race has lost its luster, ceding much of it to "The Great American Race" ---- the Daytona 500.

And, as it is apt to do, Fox will pull out all the stops for Sunday's race at Daytona, the event's 50th installment.

"We want our NASCAR coverage to be as good as the Super Bowl," Fox Sports president David Hill said.

"Ratings for NASCAR were down last year, but they were up for last week's Bud Shootout. So we're optimistic.

"And all our ad spots are sold out, the earliest we've sold out."

To enhance its coverage of the Daytona 500, Fox has come up with "Gopher Cam." Hill explains it as cameras buried at the apex of all four turns, "giving viewers the most-dynamic coverage in racing."

"We tried a demo of Gopher Cam last year, and it worked really well," said Artie Kempner, Fox's coordinating director for race coverage.

"With the banking (of the track) at Daytona, we feel this is going to work really well. We think it will add to the viewer's experience. We're trying to bring the viewers closer to the race.

"I think they'll see some really unique views."

Darrell Waltrip, winner of 84 career NASCAR races and a key member of Fox's broadcast team, thinks viewers will enjoy Gopher Cam.

"It's like seeing the race in 3-D," Waltrip said. "This is a touch-me, feel-me sport. And I think the viewers will get hooked on this."

In addition to Gopher Cam, Fox will use 20 manned cameras, 10 robotic cameras, 12 in-car camera packages, four pit/garage cameras and a pair of super slow motion cameras.

The flag drops on the race at 12:40 p.m.

Pre-race coverage, which begins at 11 a.m., includes a tribute to past winners.

Rev it up

- NASCAR has been slammed in some circles for confrontations involving racers and even their crews. Waltrip and Fox race announcer Larry McReynolds believe confrontation is a good thing.

"Fans like good guys and bad guys," Waltrip said. "Fans don't like cookie-cutter race tracks and they don't like cookie-cutter drivers.

"The fans want to see passion. They want to see drivers getting excited about winning a race. They want to see drivers express their emotions.

"But I don't like violence."

McReynolds agrees.

"NASCAR had a line in the sand, but it has moved the line," McReynolds said. "They now are letting the drivers show some emotion, and I like that.

"But I'm a big advocate of not using your race car to retaliate."

- Ray Evernham, a three-time NASCAR Cup champion crew chief and a successful NASCAR owner, has joined ESPN's NASCAR coverage. He will work as an analyst at selected NASCAR Nationwide Series races as well as working on "NASCAR Now" and "NASCAR Countdown."

- DirecTV's "NASCAR Hot Pass" goes high-def this season. Fans can go behind the wheel ---- via dedicated channels ---- with Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick.

All-Star weekend

- TNT is the destination for Sunday's NBA All-Star game. Marv Albert will call the action along with Doug Collins, Reggie Miller and Craig Sager. Kenny Smith hosts the studio show. Tipoff is 5:30 p.m. with the pregame show at 5.

- Collins believes there could be nine 50-win teams in the West, meaning a 50-win team won't make the playoffs.

- At the all-star break, Collins' MVP contenders are LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant. Smith likes Bryant and Garnett. Albert is going with Bryant, James, Garnett and Chris Paul.

- ESPN will have coverage of today's NBA All-Star celebrity game at 4 p.m. The contest pits celebrities ---- including actor Chris Tucker and recording stars Common, Ne-Yo and Master P ---- with athletes like Deion Sanders, Swin Cash and Ruth Riley.

- After the celebrity game, ESPN will carry the rookie challenge and youth jam at 6 p.m. Seattle's Kevin Durant, Atlanta's Al Horford and Milwaukee's Yi Jianlian are expected to lead a rookie class against a sophomore team that features Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge of Portland and Rudy Gay of Memphis.

- Saturday's coverage shifts to TNT and begins at 5 p.m. It includes the shooting stars event, the skills challenge, the 3-point shootout and the slam dunk contest.

- ABC will have an NBA All-Star special with Ahmad Rashad at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

It was a big deal

In case you were wondering if Roger Clemens' testimony Wednesday before the Congress was important, no less than 10 stations carried the event live.

Naturally, ESPN and ESPNews had live coverage, but it was also carried by the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, Headline News, CNBC, E!, Bloomberg and the mtn.

Tough luck Pac-10 fans

Sunday's USC-UCLA men's basketball game is in prime time at 7 p.m. But the game is on FSN Prime Ticket, which isn't available in most of San Diego County. It's just another of example of why hard-core sports fans need to lobby their cable companies to get FSN Prime Ticket.

Not only are San Diego fans going to miss USC-UCLA, but FSN Prime Ticket also has Sunday's Duke-Wake Forest game and Saturday games featuring Washington State and Oregon State, Santa Clara and Pepperdine, and Pacific and Cal State Fullerton.

Sideline shift

ESPN announced that "Monday Night Football" sideline reporters Suzy Kolber and Michele Tafoya will have different roles in 2008.

They will continue to appear at games and will probably appear in pregame and postgame segments, but may not have a role on the game coverage.

The feeling is that with three announcers ---- Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser ---- in the booth, drop-in guests and two sideline reporters, there was too much chatter and not enough football.

And it appears that Kornheiser, who was thought to be the broadcast team's weak link, will survive and work a third season.

Around the dial

- FSN has a 45-minute interview with NBA legend Jerry West on its "Lakers Live" show immediately after Tuesday's Hawks-Lakers game ---- about 10:30 p.m. Bill Macdonald hosts the show.

- HBO's "Inside the NFL" ---- a staple on the network for 31 years ---- ended its run last week. Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, said the decision wasn't totally financial, but that there are just too many highlight-driven NFL shows.

- The rating for Sunday's Pro Bowl on Fox was up 37 percent ---- 4.6 to 6.3 ---- from last year's game on CBS. The game drew 10 million viewers and was the most-watched Pro Bowl since 2000. In an era in which all-star games are on the decline, the Pro Bowl had a better rating than the NBA Finals (6.2), NCAA tournament (6.1) and PGA Championship (6.2).

- CBS Sports is rebranding CSTV as the CBS College Sports Network. The change begins in March. CBS hopes to develop the network as a cross-platform property with an emphasis on developing original programming. The anchor program will be "College Sports Tonight" ---- a news and information show that will air twice a night.

John Maffei's TV/Radio Column appears every Friday. He can be reached at (760) 740-3547 or jmaffei@nctimes.com.