NASCAR asks How bad have you got it?'

By By Amanda Vincent
January 25, 2003
NASCAR kicked its "How bad have you got it?" promotion into high gear during the 2002 season with commercials featuring fans that really have it bad for NASCAR. Beginning with the 2003 season, Speed Channel plans to see that NASCAR fans who "have it bad" get enough coverage of their favorite sport by featuring not only NASCAR's premier series, the Winston Cup Series, but also providing an abundance of coverage of the sanctioning body's two other national touring divisions, the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series.
The Speed Channel, formerly Speed Vision, already has programming featuring mainly the Winston Cup Series. The channel televised several Winston Cup qualifying sessions in 2002 in addition to "Trackside," a show it premiered last year on Friday evenings with a round-table discussion among Darrell or Michael Waltrip, Larry MacReynolds, Mike Joy, Jeff Hammond, and guest drivers at the track the Winston Cup Series would race at the following Sunday.
The channel also rolled out its "Winston Cup Wednesday" package of programming 2002. The highlight Wednesday night lineup was an "enhanced" replay of the previous Sunday's Winston Cup race, complete with interviews from competitors explaining happenings throughout the week. The Wednesday night programming also included the shows "Men Behind the Wrenches," that featured an accomplished Winston Cup crew chief or other crew member, and "Past Champions," a 30-minute program that honored past Winston Cup champions.
In addition, the Speed Channel replayed Fox Sports Net's "Totally NASCAR" daily news program each evening and broadcast a weekly "NASCAR This Morning" show on Sunday mornings to preview the day's Winston Cup race and "NASCAR Victory Lane" on Sunday evenings to recap the event earlier that day.
Despite all the new programming the channel rolled out in 2002, it kept its "Inside Winston Cup" Monday night program that featured Allen Bestwick and drivers Michael Waltrip, Ken Schrader, and Johnny Benson in a round-table discussion about the previous weekends event and previewing the upcoming Winston Cup race.
The Speed Channel plans to continue all that programming in addition to adding all the Craftsman Truck Series races to its broadcast schedule. ESPN had televised all the Truck Series races since its beginning in 1995 through the completion of the 2002 season when NASCAR awarded television rights of the series to Speed Channel.
In 2003, the channel also plans to expand its Busch Series coverage with a show featuring the series on Wednesday night as part of the NASCAR TV lineup.
The show will be similar to the "Inside Winston Cup" show that airs on Monday. Busch Series drivers Randy LaJoie and Hank Parker Jr. will join Bestwick. A third, guest driver will also be featured each week.