Tonight is the award show. I’ve been looking forward to it since it was announced. Imagine my disappointment to have my ears accosted by Danielle Trotta. Really????? I thought this event was as important to the sport as the Daytona 500, but the SpeedTV coverage indicates otherwise since none of the senior broadcasters deigned to appear on the show leaving it to beavis and butthead – I mean Danielle (ooops I forgot to try on my dress before the cameras rolled) Trotta and Rutledge – if that guy on Fox can be on a sports show and be considered funny so can I – Wood. Moving the show from NYC to Vegas lowered the class of the show and the ‘E team’ of broadcasters presenting the show hosted by Howie Mandel dropped the bar even further. Keselowski doesn’t have a date. Okay. His Mom and Sister were busy??? Danielle said they’re dressed to impress. She appears to be dressed to stress – the seams!!! What a nightmare! She looks like 3 Taylor Swifts in one dress. She doesn’t seem to own a mirror, nor a dictionary. STOP THE MADNESS!!!
Howie’s piece aggravating the people attempting to do interviews was kind of amusing, but he really seemed to piss off quite a few people.
Jeff Gordon’s speech was elegant and his acknowledgement of Ingrid, Ella and Leo’s contributions were heartwarming. He also paid tribute to the late Chris Economaki.
Smoke’s speech was lovely.
The running man award to Clint Bowyer was hysterical!
Harvick got the job done and paid a sweet compliment to Delana.
Kenseth was, unsurprisingly for the fastest talker in NASCAR, a rapid-fire success, including his ‘joke’. He had a point though regarding Brad’s drinking, cussing, tweeting and everything else. In my mind Kenseth highlighted how tacky Brad behaved and how NASCAR is condoning some pretty bad behavior from him.
Surprisingly, Denny discretely mentioned his impending fatherhood, in his very nice speech. It appears he hasn’t given up the mantle of senior JGR driver yet. He was thorough and complimentary.
And then there’s the ‘fan voice’ awards. Wow. So, these could only be voted on by facebookers. Okay, so it’s only the facebook fans voice awards, which explains the odd winners. I believe NASCAR’s shoveling social media into every third slot will further the alienation of their core audience. NASCAR should grow its audience, but don’t alienate your current and long-time fans in the process. Many corporations that have lost headlines and favor, did so following that strategy – gain new ‘customers’ at all costs and the biggest cost was old customers.
Danielle continues to talk about food through the ‘half-time’ section. I wonder if she realizes she will need a new dress if she eats, because that one has reached the limit of what spandex and spanx can handle. When not talking about food she, Rut and that other chick are frequently stepping on each other’s inane comments. Please restart the show. It is a sad state of affairs when I’d rather hear Howie Mandel talk over NASCAR folks, but the real NASCAR folks aren’t talking. More Mike Joy, less everybody else! Krista & the yellow dress was a topic of conversation. It was bright. It did stand out. Bunny said she looked like summer. Inappropriate, as usual, but okaaay – its a party. I don’t know that it really merited as much discussion as it received, but then again what else did they have to talk about?
I wish all of the Champions Week events were broadcast, or available unedited on video, like the After the Lap. I’d love to get a copy of that stuff – unedited.
The show’s pace is dragging a bit. The energy seems a bit low. Apparently I’m not the only one who noticed since Johnny Damon said they’re starting to tell them to speed it up. I like the drivers telling their history when announced and then hearing the other drivers talk about each driver. Those features are entertaining. Part of me wishes the sponsors could simply get shown during those pieces so we didn’t have to listen to the roll call at the ends of the speeches.
OMG!!! A visit to Biffle-ville. The world revolves around Biffle. Emma has a point – most things are more interesting than watching Daddy drive in circles, including the Backyardagains.
Who is Robin Meade related to or doing? Why is she all over this show??? And who is she really? She leaves me asking, why?
Yaaaaaaayyyyyyyy Kasey! Stilted speech, but nice.
Howie announced that we’d reached the halfway point and he needed to kill some time. More of his antagonistic interview thing followed by a bit of a rant over the teleprompter person. Wow. Brutal.
Lesa France Kennedy did not look well to me. Her look and speech concerned me. Congratulations Lorri Shealy Unumb on the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. She went up against the insurance industry and got a law passed to improve the lives of the citizens of South Carolina. Good going!
Rather abrupt transition to commercial after the presentation of that award. Now I grow nervouse regarding the rest of the show. We had to site thru two Cirque du Soleil songs, the social media awards, the half-time foolishness, and now they’re hurrying the show? Come on people!!! Let the people eat during the Cirque du Soleil/Train/Lifehouse/Other awards presentations/BJF Humanitarian award portion of the show. The ‘celebrity’ introductions – didn’t really work – also lowered the energy and made the show seem long, especially that Riggle guy.
YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY Jimmie!!! Highest driver rating 109.5. How does that work? I don’t understand the quarterback rating either, and I have a feeling its the same thing. Guess I’ll have to look that up later.
Apparently the talk of Champion’s week has been the ongoing issues between Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon. Apparently Clint won’t let it go and won’t acknowledge the issue. Weird. Clint’s surprised the teleprompter works after Howie pissed off the lady back there. Clint has a new niece Blakely born last night. Great close Bowyer, “this was my last job of the year, so my ass is clocking out!”
Roger Penske’s speech was lovely though his thing about it being bittersweet to have left Ford 10 years ago to go to Dodge and to be heading to a different manufacturer next year was a bit odd. If he’s going to Ford does he really want to antagonize them at this point?
The camera work on this show has been pretty awful. We saw Brian France a lot – usually when someone was talking about someone else. He seemed to be the cover shot. It was pretty bad when Dan Hesse attempted to honor the outgoing champ Tony Stewart, but we didn’t see him throughout the applause, nor afterward.
Brad, according to Howie Mandel, is sick. He was hoarse when they talked to him earlier. I hope that hasn’t dampened his night too much. The ring presentation was kind of a hit and run event, but at least he got it. Keselowski apologized for his voice and tried to get Howie back for the ‘brad joke’. When Howie was doing his wigged antagonisms he asked Brad how to pronounce his name and Brad gave him a smartass answer, starts with K and ends with skee, then pronounced his name, then Howie asked him how to pronounce his first name which totally stopped Brad. He was so outdone and angry he couldn’t speak.
No truer words by Brad, “I can’t believe my name is anywhere near Dale Earnhardt. I don’t deserve that.” No truer words.
I appreciate them acknowledging the incredible work of Scott Corriher, chief engine builder, who never had an engine failure the entire season. Brad mentioned that it was a hard sell to get Paul Wolf to come to work which has been a story in the press the past couple of weeks. Brad was trying hard to recruit Paul and Paul kept telling Brad no. Eventually he told Mr. Penske yes.
At then end of the show Howie mispronounced Brad’s last name – twice – kes-owl-ski and kes-low-ski. Whoops!!!
Brad’s parents are in the audience and he acknowledged them while talking to Mike Joy and Krista Voda after his official speech.
Brad has proven a driver can be named Sprint Cup Champion without gaining the respect of his fellow drivers. It’s sad, but appropriate.