Thoughts on Wind Tunnel last night

[Waiting for May]

I thought a couple of things were very amusing on Wind Tunnel last night.

1) How about the guy from Indiana calling out NASCAR for claiming Bristol is the "fastest half-mile racetrack". That was perfect!! I thought it was disgusting that Dave kind of laughed it off. In all of the NASCAR bs that gets regurgitated on that show, the topic of NASCAR revisionist stat-quoting could be quite interesting. This further sank my opinion of Mr. Despain.

2) He may be a great guy, but why would you ever put that Sportscar guy on the TV??? He has the personality of an ashtray. At least Robin plays up for the camera. Besides that, I thought it was interesting that Mr. Personality seemed to relish in the fact that some of the CCWS teams were not coming to the ICS and he keeps hearing about them moving to ALMS in '09. Newsflash for Mr. Personality, any team that was even remotely legit is already in the ICS, the others are looking for a check. I was wondering why Despain kept letting this guy talk when he has one of the most powerful people in motorsports sitting next to him (Penske) and all DD can muster for him is some insane question about Goodyears in NASCAR.

What a waste this show has degraded to. It is truly a shame. I used to really enjoy Despain.

[Seadog]

I thought a couple of things were very amusing on Wind Tunnel last night.

1) How about the guy from Indiana calling out NASCAR for claiming Bristol is the "fastest half-mile racetrack". That was perfect!! I thought it was disgusting that Dave kind of laughed it off. In all of the NASCAR bs that gets regurgitated on that show, the topic of NASCAR revisionist stat-quoting could be quite interesting. This further sank my opinion of Mr. Despain.

2) He may be a great guy, but why would you ever put that Sportscar guy on the TV??? He has the personality of an ashtray. At least Robin plays up for the camera. Besides that, I thought it was interesting that Mr. Personality seemed to relish in the fact that some of the CCWS teams were not coming to the ICS and he keeps hearing about them moving to ALMS in '09. Newsflash for Mr. Personality, any team that was even remotely legit is already in the ICS, the others are looking for a check. I was wondering why Despain kept letting this guy talk when he has one of the most powerful people in motorsports sitting next to him (Penske) and all DD can muster for him is some insane question about Goodyears in NASCAR.

What a waste this show has degraded to. It is truly a shame. I used to really enjoy Despain.

I got rid of the cable tier that had Speed TV on it last year. Absolutely nothing of value on there IMO.

[Plectraholica]

Funny how $$$ can change a persons views.....

[Richard Kimble]

2) He may be a great guy, but why would you ever put that Sportscar guy on the TV??? He has the personality of an ashtray. At least Robin plays up for the camera. Besides that, I thought it was interesting that Mr. Personality seemed to relish in the fact that some of the CCWS teams were not coming to the ICS and he keeps hearing about them moving to ALMS in '09. Newsflash for Mr. Personality, any team that was even remotely legit is already in the ICS,.....

yeah, who was that guy? He was incredibly nervous and it made the whole segment very uncomfortable to watch.

And, it would be interesting to know what CC teams he was talking about as I see every viable team already in the ICS. His news sounded like it was three weeks old........yet no one corrects him on it, pathetic!

[mdkiel]

I only caught it in passing, but I think that was Marshall Pruett. He writes for Speed TV.com.

He also has experience working for IRL teams; he has a website with some pretty interesting stuff on it. One thing in particular that I remember reading there is that he was part of Davey Hamilton's team in '01 when he had his bad crash at Texas. (Sorry for that sentence -- Nyquil hangover. )

Judging from the reaction here, I'm glad I only saw this while channel surfing and actually missed most of this segment. WT used to be a Sunday night staple in the mdkiel household. Now, not so much.

[midtown]

Glad I watched John Adams on HBO instead.

[drdisque]

Marshall Pruett was connected to the IRL for a few years, he worked for Vertex/Cunningham Racing and Sam Schmidt Motorsports

http://www.marshallpruett.com/category/indy-racing-league/

[CCR/CART]

I don't see any of the CC teams going to ALMS next year except for PG and if he goes that would be no loss.

[Waiting for May]

Glad I watched John Adams on HBO instead.

I heard good things about the show. The book was long, but very good.

I can't wait for it to come out on Netflix.

[Mack Too]

Glad I watched John Adams on HBO instead.

and, I forgot to set the TiVo.

As for Despain, the longer he remains on the show the more I dislike the shill he has become. The show in it's original format was as good as it got, it has been all downhill since. Dave has become the Larry King of racing-related TV, embracing every counter-culture hack and opinion he can find.

[Indymarlin1]

I was wondering why Despain kept letting this guy talk when he has one of the most powerful people in motorsports sitting next to him (Penske) and all DD can muster for him is some insane question about Goodyears in NASCAR.

What a waste this show has degraded to. It is truly a shame. I used to really enjoy Despain.

You are exactly right! So far this year, WT has been very poor. I did not watch last nights show, because all of the other shows this year have been worthless. I don't doubt what you say about Penske wasting his time is true. Dave did the same thing with Mario on the Unification show. He asked Mario one stupid question at the very tail end of the show. They have been wasting a whole lot of money on all of the satellite hookups for guests.

Dave does not spend enough time preparing for the show. And, I think Dave has forgotten this is only a 1 hour show, once a week. He has had some very good guests on the show this year, but gave them very little time and very poor choice of questions.

The production of the show is awful, dating back to last year. Whoever screens the callers is worhless. Very seldom do they have a caller with a good question that is prepared when on the air. If you don't have any good callers, then don't put anybody on. Give more time to the great guests you have had on the show.

The commercials are waaaay out of hand. The 1 hour show is cut down to a half hour because of the number of commercials. I could not stomach the unification show. The show was, question, response, commercial, question response, commercial, question response commercial, unbelievable!!

Now that it is realy a half hour show, they are trying to fit waaaay too much into the show, news, callers, e-mails, guests, eye candy, etc. Get rid of the damn eye candy!!! Unless they are going to expand WT to 2 or 3 nights a week, stop covering so many forms of racing. Decide what you are!!!

[midtown]

and, I forgot to set the TiVo.

I think its being replayed tonight, check your listings.

[Indyracin]

I reduced my cable TV package along with the SPEED channel. I won't miss it a bit.

[frodo13]

I am glad I stopped watching Speed!!!

[Rosco]

and, I forgot to set the TiVo.

As for Despain, the longer he remains on the show the more I dislike the shill he has become.

I removed WT from my automatic record program, the original program with Chip was great, been downhill from there, if I wanted to see news about NASCAR there are many other NASCAR programs I could tune into, WT has become just another NASCAR feeder program