FanHouse SPEED

Driver Kenny Wallace still works for four to five hours every day the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series takes the green flag for a race of a few hundred miles.

The big difference between the 43 cars battling for position and Wallace, however, is what truly nabs at the current Nationwide Series driver. Instead of being on track, Wallace sits in front of the cameras to tell the NASCAR nation about what will happen and what just happened on the track.

Such a role isn't all that bad, as Wallace told the NASCAR Scene, but its led to some terrifically disheartening experiences.

Jimmie Johnson won his third-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup championship Sunday night at Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway, but nothing could have prepared him for a certain question he faced in a post-race interview.

After celebrating his title with a nice burnout and confetti shower in front of the track's main grandstand at the start/finish line, Johnson headed over to SPEED's NASCAR Victory Lane to talk with the program's host John Roberts and two analysts and drivers Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace.

Johnson answered a question or two using his typical politically correct rhetoric with plenty of sponsor plugs and good things to say about his car, team and his main rival Carl Edwards. Then, Johnson faced a question from Spencer that went like this:


Literally, I hit the ground in laughter.

Luckily for you, I was able to get the clip uploaded to YouTube below, but please, forgive me for the shaky hands at the beginning. Go on, watch it!

If nothing else, at least they let us know ahead of time.

ESPN announced today that Friday night's Nationwide Series Lipton Tea 250 will get the shaft end of the deal and will get moved to ESPN Classic, instead of its originally scheduled ESPN2 home in favor of an NBA Playoff game. From the release:

Friday night's ESPN production of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race from Richmond International Raceway has been moved to ESPN Classic and also will be simulcast on ESPN360.com and SPEED. The telecast begins at 7 p.m. ET with NASCAR Countdown. The change was made to accommodate NBA playoff game six between Washington and Cleveland.

Additionally, for fans without ESPN Classic, a special encore presentation of the race from start to finish will air that evening following the NBA game beginning at approximately 9:30 p.m. on ESPN2.

If nothing else, I suppose, ESPN has at least worked out a deal for the race to be on SPEED for those without ESPN Classic.

Friday night's Richmond race will mark the second race in-a-row that the Nationwide Series wasn't on ESPN2, as last week's event at Talladega was on ABC. That seems quite confusing to me after NASCAR and ESPN2 tried to make a big point that ESPN2 would be the "home" of the Nationwide Series back when the current television package began.

I understand that the NBA Playoffs is a big deal, but it can't be in ESPN2's best brand interest to be shipping NASCAR to ESPN Classic and to another network entirely.

Here's round two of the FanHouse NASCAR FanVote.

Today's topic? NASCAR television coverage.

You've heard plenty of resent towards ESPN around the FanHouse, but now its time to tell us what you think. Was ESPN's coverage actually good? Are you hoping TNT could make all of their races commercial free? Who are the best guys in the booth for NASCAR racing?

Tell us what you think! Be sure to click after the first poll to answer the rest of the questions.

Did you miss Day 1 of the FanVote? No problem, just click here to go back and vote for those questions.

Be sure to come back at the end of the week to see the results, and Happy Voting!


Click to continue voting!

SPEED will cover an announcement Tuesday at Joe Gibbs racing, where Kyle Busch is expected to announce he'll be in the No. 18 in 2008.

Will people actually watch?

SPEED covered the Dale Earnhardt Jr. saga live (just like the FanHouse!) so they must feel that Kyle Busch has the same power for ratings.

I don't see it, but I suppose there a few people that will stop their day, wake up, or at least laugh at the press coverage for an announcement that carries much less weight across the NASCAR Nation as Dale Jr.'s did.

And that's not a diss on Busch.

The announcement also isn't expected to carry any deep surprises or reveal major unknowns like Dale Jr.'s two announcements seemed to carry.

ESPN had a beat on the announcement Sunday night after Watkins Glen:

Kevin Harvick has a premonition about tomorrow's UAW-Daimler Chrysler 400:

"The race will suck. The paving is awful. It's rough. They had some guys that pave parking lots out there doing it. It's pretty awful ... It's too bad they repaved it and screwed it up for the next four or five years. The track is extremely fast. And I am worried about the tires and how they are going to wear on the new surface."

Happy never has been one to hold back.

The change in the track's surface caused Goodyear to come up with harder compound tires and many drivers commented on how hard it was to come to grips with the track as they ended up slip-sliding away.

Tony Stewart's not happy with the tires, which come with a recommended 62 pounds of air pressure, 32 more than last year:

"We're pretty much on the verge of wrecking on every lap. This is the worst, by far, tire I've ever had in my nine years in the Nextel Cup."

According to Mark Martin, the parking lot pave job Harvick mentions doesn't help either:

"It's real bumpy in Turn 1, real bumpy. I don't know that I've ever seen a new paved racetrack be that wavy with the speeds we are running and the setups that we run. It poses a real challenge to us."

Yeah ... sounds like this race might suck. And if today's Busch race is any indication with a record 12 caution flags and a few DNFs, we can expect plenty of Cup carnage.

Few things awe people more than the act of speed. I sit here writing this while the Daytona 500 plays out on my television screen, cars ripping across asphalt at nearly 200 miles an hour. The main event at the Olympic games is the 100 meter dash. In college football, our fastest players have quite often been amongst the most celebrated.

Reggie Bush and Adrian Peterson came along and spent three seasons simply running right by defenders. They gave way to Ted Ginn who capped his career with a kick return touchdown that was Ohio State's lone highlight in January's BCS Championship Game.

But now that those guys are gone, who is left to fill the void as captivating speedster?

For players already on college rosters, Clemson has two of the zoom zoomiest around in receiver/returner Jacoby Ford and tailback CJ Spiller, both sophomores. There are other players out there yet to make their mark and we'll be on the lookout for them. One such burner is Jamere Holland, a redshirt freshman receiver at USC who clocked somewhere in the 10.3 range in the 100 meters in high school.

Florida sophomore receiver Percy Harvin is also a superb choice, weaving expertly through defenses any time he so much as has a step on a defender. West Virginia junior tailback Steve Slaton has excellent speed and is a worthy candidate. Junior Arkansas tailback and Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden is an obvious selection here. Finally, there is junior Texas tailback Jamaal Charles who ran somewhere in the 10.2 range in high school and owns several long touchdown runs to his name.

Among incoming recruits, many people have made comparisons between Louisiana's Joe McKnight (a USC signee) and Reggie Bush, but McKnight is probably a step slower with a personal best of 10.71. There are some reports of him having clocked a 10.4, but I have yet to find anything legitimate and official backing that up. He's definitely a playmaker but I'm not sure he's quite in that class of guy who simply runs right by college defenders as Peterson and Bush and Ginn were able to do.

My nominee among this year's incoming freshmen to fill the speed vacuum would be tailback Jahvid Best, a 10.41 runner who has signed with California.

Noble reader: now that you've seen my list, I ask you now who else should be under consideration as an impact player with awe-inspiring speed? Feel free to leave a comment below.