Bill Weber is gone from the NASCAR on TNT coverage for the final two Sprint Cup Series events on the network. TNT confirmed this with The Daly Planet on Wednesday morning.Shaheen handled the play-by-play last weekend too, and in this story tells how much preparation time he got:
Weber was scheduled to call the Wide-Open coverage for the network from Daytona on Saturday night. The summer race in Daytona is TNT's showcase event for the network's six race TV package.
Ralph Sheheen will handle the play-by-play duties for Daytona and Chicago with Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach alongside. TV ratings for the Sprint Cup Series race from Loudon, NH were up slightly and that may have played a role in this decision.
Weber was involved in a late night incident last Friday night at the TNT hotel in Manchester, NH. It spilled-over into Weber being sent home by TNT executives on Saturday and now his release from the TV package.
TNT has been tight-lipped about the issue and gave no indication whether or not Weber would continue with the network in 2010. Here is the official TNT release:
Bill Weber will not be part of TNT's NASCAR coverage of the Cup Series for the network’s last two races. Ralph Sheheen will handle play-by-play duties for The Coke Zero 400 in Daytona and the LifeLock.com 400 from Chicagoland. Sheheen will be calling the races alongside analysts Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach in the booth.
It was certainly a surprise to see Joey Logano grab a victory in the rain-shortened Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but it was also a surprise to tune in to Sunday's telecast of the race to find Ralph Sheheen in the anchor position in place of Bill Weber.
“It was exciting, but also nerve-wracking,” said Sheheen Monday afternoon about his first time anchoring a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. “I got the call Saturday night, so I had no time to worry about it. The challenge is to just hop in there and go. Luckily, the TNT folks have a great team – from Wally (Dallenbach) and Kyle (Petty) in the booth to the woman who brought me the jacket I wore. It arrived about 10 minutes before we went on the air.”I have to admit, I've always had a problem with Weber. When NASCAR created the new TV contract beginning with the 2001 season the year was split between Fox and NBC. Fox had the first half and NBC the second. Weber was a pit reporter for NBC, and the play-by-play broadcaster was Allen Bestwick.
The native of Sacramento is very familiar to SPEED viewers and racing fans from his work in nearly every form of motorsports since he first appeared on a live ESPN broadcast of an IMSA Camel GT race in 1988. This year alone, he has gone from a long list of motorcycle series (including AMA Supercross and Superbikes) to NASCAR and even public-address announcing at the Indianapolis 500. His versatility and a wide array of motorsports coverage meant he was uniquely suited as the choice to step into the TNT booth on late notice.
“It was so last minute, I didn’t have the time to research as I would have liked,” Sheheen explained. “As a pit reporter, you might concentrate on the 10 teams that you are covering, but if you’re in the booth, the research is much different. You’re suddenly worried about all 43 cars and a lot more.”
I liked Bestwick, who in addition to hosting the NBC broadcast was the host of "Inside Winston Cup Racing", a favorite NASCAR show of mine. During the 2004 season Bestwick broke his leg in a charity hockey game and missed two races. Weber was elevated to play-by-play in Bestwick's absence.
When the 2005 season opened Weber was given the play-by-play duties and Bestwick had been demoted to pre-show host and pit road reporter. Neither guy was as good in those new roles.
It's probably too late to do anything about this season, but if TNT was smart they'd sign Bestwick up for next year.
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