Totally NASCAR

"Totally NASCAR" is a newscast about NASCAR racing that aired on Fox Sports Net from 2001 to 2004. The show aired nightly and replaced the recently cancelled weekly show "Inside NASCAR" that had aired on TNN until late 2000 when NASCAR began a new television contract.

The show debuted on February 12, 2001, six days before "NASCAR on FOX" was unveiled at the Daytona 500. The program's first host was Steve Byrnes and its first field reporter was Kirsten Gum, who also hosted each week when Byrnes was at the track for FOX. In 2002, Gum left for OLN (now Versus) and was replaced by Krista Voda, who became primary host of the by show by 2004. John Roberts, host of FSN and Speed Channel's weekend programming, also served as host from time-to-time.

The program was a mix of news, highlights, features, and interviews. There were regular weekly appearances by NASCAR on FOX analysts Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond, and weekly weather reports provided by Fox News Channel.

In 2004, reporter Sean Pragano played Driver Guy in a series of vignettes that can be described as a mini-mockumentary (think Borat in the NASCAR garage). Pragano also contributed rap and country songs to the show.

"Totally NASCAR" aired at 6 p.m. local time Monday through Friday from 2001 to 2003 and re-aired at 6:30 pm ET on Speed Channel. By 2002 it was the highest rated studio show on both FSN and Speed. In 2004, the time was changed to 5:30 p.m., then to 7:30 p.m. about halfway through the season. The time shift made the original feed unavailable in most of the country, due to scheduled live play-by-play coverage that aired on FSN affiliates and ratings suffered.

In 2005, FSN relinquished the show rights to Speed Channel. Speed chose not to bring the show back after the November 21, 2004, episode and set up a successor program, "NASCAR Nation", on SPEED Channel. Fox Cable, a division of News Corporation, owns both SPEED and FSN.

Controversy

When "Totally NASCAR" was launched, NASCAR allowed it access to race highlights. At the same time, "RPM 2Night", an established show on ESPN2, was denied them. This was done by classifying "Totally" as a news program, and "RPM" as a magazine show. In response, ESPN did not allow Totally NASCAR to use footage from any race carried by ESPN or ABC prior to 2001 or footage from NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events, which were carried on ESPN2.

The footage battles, which many believed showed de facto favoritism to FSN, led to a large number of complaints, both from viewers and television critics. Some fans blame the policy for the eventual end of "RPM 2Night" in 2002, but no one ever substantially proved this. Ironically, the two shows were produced only a few miles apart in south Charlotte, NC and a large chunk of the original "Totally NASCAR" production staff was made up of former RPM staffers.

Misc. Totally NASCAR Facts

* Dale Earnhardt's final live interview was done on Totally NASCAR's 4th show, conducted by Steve Byrnes from the Victory Lane studio.
* In the days after Earnhardt's death, Totally NASCAR was the first news outlet to run a stress test on a Simpson lap belt, which many blamed for the tragedy.
* The show was nominated for a 2002 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Daily Studio Show, losing to ESPN's Baseball Tonight, despite a staff of less than 20 and a production office that was essentially a double wide trailer in an office parking lot.
* That same year Matt Kenseth's World Pit Crew Championship-winning team performed a live pit stop in the studio.
* When Larry McReynolds made his predictions for the weeked he would wear a turban a la Johnny Carson and called himself The Amazing Car-Mac.
* Jeff Hammond performed weekly on-set tech demonstrations using two full-size stock cars and made an annual visit each Halloween in costume, one year as Darth Hammond.
* Hammond's first demo car was sponsored by America's Most Wanted and featured the photos of missing children on its hood. In at least one instance, information called in by a Totally NASCAR viewer helped to solve the mystery of a missing girl.
* When Krista Voda became full-time host in 2004, she is believed to be the first full-time female host of a national sports program.
* During college football season, 2-time Daytona 500 champion Sterling Marlin provided his Pigskin Pick, predicting the score for his beloved University of Tennessee Volunteers. One year Marlin's friend and Carolina Panthers All-Pro tight end Wesley Walls countered with his NASCAR predictions.
* The show's original producer, Ryan McGee, was also a NASCAR columnist for FOXSports.com from 2001-2006 before joining ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com.