WindTunnel with Dave Despain

"WindTunnel with Dave Despain" is a live viewer call-in show exclusively for auto racing fans that debuted on SPEED Channel on February 22, 2003. During the course of the show, host Dave Despain fields telephone calls and reads e-mail from viewers, some of them directed at the guest Despain is interviewing, which is done just after the first segment, titled "Hot Topics", which Despain reads the big stories from the racing world. After the interview segment, Despain does a segment just for him, titled "My Take", in which he gives his opinion on news from the racing world. There is also an award for the best e-mail or phone call from each show, as the winning viewer receives a Despain bobblehead. It's a coveted prize among viewers.

When the show first started, it aired only on Friday nights, and was aired very late. The pilot episode was only a half-hour long. The time length was changed to an hour the very next week. In August 2003, the show became a 4-nights-a-week show, airing from Monday nights to Thursday nights at an earlier time, but in 2005, the show began airing only on Sunday nights, beginning at 9 p.m for 2 hours. Eastern Standard Time. Some of the show's viewers, called "Tunnelheads", are said to be none too thrilled about this decision and were even less so when the 2 hour time slot was compressed into 1 hour in 2006. Also, the 2006 season brought about guest co-hosts in the form of racing personalities like drivers (such as Tony Stewart, Mario Andretti) and journalists (such as David Hobbs, Ed Hinton, and Bob Varsha).

The show takes a hiatus from mid-December to late January during the racing off-season. During this time, best-of episodes titled "WindTunnel: The Interviews" are shown. Only the most popular interviews from the previous season are shown, and have included interviews with NASCAR great Richard Petty, NASCAR star Jeff Gordon, and drag racing legend John Force. The show returned at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time on SPEED Channel on February 18, 2007 and went on hiatus after November 18 of that same year. It returned to television on February 17, 2008 after the 2008 Daytona 500.

Programming segments

*Eye Candy - A high energy musical video package including clips from that weekend's races.
*Fired Up (2006-) - A short segment with callers (via voice mail) expressing frustrations about automotive races.
*Last Call - The last call from a viewer or a driver. Last call is announced by a graphic of what is likely intended to be an Italian bartender, but fans call him the "pizza guy" saying he looks like a worker in a pizza restaurant and that his long sleeves would get wet if he were a bartender. Despain counters, "Why would a pizza guy be saying "last call!"?
*My Take - A short editorial segment where Despain offers his opinion on a controversial topic in motorsports, usually offering a potentially simple solution to a complex problem.
*Stat Rat (debutted July 15, 2007) - A reference of statistics regarding the performance of a team, driver, or manufacturer over a specific time period.

Programming history (All times EST)

*February 22, 2003: 9:00 PM - 9:30 PM
*February 28 - August 1, 2003: 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM (Fridays only)
*August 4, 2003 - November 22, 2004: 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM (Mondays-Thursdays)
*February 20 - November 20, 2005: 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM (Sundays only)
*February 19 - November 19, 2006: 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM (Sundays only)
*February 18 - November 18, 2007: 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM (Sundays only)
*February 17, 2008 - July 20, 2008: 9:00PM to 10:00 PM (Sundays only)
*July 27, 2008 - present: 9:00 PM - 11:00 PM (Sundays only)

References

* [http://www.speedtv.com/windtunnel/ Program information from SPEEDtv.com]
* [http://www.tv.com/wind-tunnel-with-dave-despain/show/22622/summary.html?q=Wind%20Tunnel%20with%20Dave%20Despain&tag=search_results;title;0 TV.com information on "WindTunnel with Dave Despain".]