SIRIUS Satellite Radio will be providing comprehensive coverage of the Daytona 500 on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio channel 128, which will include the live race broadcast and like last year, multiple channels carrying in-car audio.

Channel 128 will be providing full coverage of the Gatorade Duels on Thursday, Feb. 14 (1:15 pm ET), the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday, Feb. 15 (7:30 pm ET) and the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, Feb. 16 (12:45 pm ET).

On the big day, Sunday, February 17, SIRIUS is giving listeners 15 hours of live coverage of the 50th running of the Daytona 500 starting at 8:00 am ET. (Oh my god, set your alarms!) SIRIUS NASCAR Radio channel 128 will carry the race broadcast live nationwide (2:30 pm ET) and additional Driver2Crew Chatter™ channels will carry the in-car audio of NASCAR’s top drivers. The Driver2Crew Chatter™ combines the race broadcast with the driver-to-crew chatter, allowing fans to follow the overall race call and the in-car audio of a driver on a single channel.
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For the Tony Stewart fan that enjoyed listening or calling into Tony’s SIRIUS radio program, you can rejoice. The critically acclaimed talk show, Tony Stewart Live is returning for a 2nd season starting Monday, February 4th, 2008.

The show, hosted by Tony Stewart with co-host Matt Yokum, has a new time slot / night moving from Tuesday nights last year to Monday nights from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm ET. Be sure to mark your calendars, phones, digital assistants, email and other nefarious calendar methods so you don’t miss it as it hits the satellite waves on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, Channel 128.

“It’s hard to believe we’re already starting our second year on SIRIUS,” Stewart said. “I felt more and more comfortable with each show last year, as Matt and I learned something new every time we hung up the headphones. Our second year on the air will be even better. Our rookie ‘stripe’ is officially off. The show is a great way for us to connect with NASCAR fans, and really, fans of any type of racing. It’s two of the best spent hours of my week.”

Stewart is a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion (2002, 2005), one of only 15 drivers in the history of NASCAR to win multiple Cup Series titles. In addition to his achievements on the NASCAR circuit, Stewart is the first and only driver to have won championships in stock cars, Indy cars and in USAC’s Midget, Sprint and Silver Crown divisions.

Check out SIRIUS’s web page, Tony Stewart Live.

by Bruce Simmons

In case you didn’t know, SIRIUS Satellite is broadcasting from the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Champions Week from New York City.

Matt Yocum, the co-host of “Tony Stewart Live” will be broadcasting from the 20 car as the top 10 drivers in the Nextel Cup points standings drive their cars through Manhattan.

The Morning Drive will be broadcasting from the Hard Rock Café in Times Square from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday. (Marty Snider and David Poole have all the fun!)

On Thursday, “Sirius Speedway” will broadcast from the Aflac Fan Fest at the Hard Rock Café from 3 to 6 p.m.

Following “Sirius Speedway”, Tony Stewart and Matt Yocum will unveil their “Stewie Awards” during a special broadcast of “Tony Stewart Live”.

Friday will see a special live broadcast with NEXTEL Cup rookie of the year Juan Pablo Montoya and Chip Ganassi. That’s 11 a.m. est.

Then, Sirius will carry MRN’s coverage of the Awards Ceremony at 7 p.m. from the Waldorf-Astoria.

See these and many more details over at SIRIUS.com.

You see Marty Snider on pit road, in the booth, and interviewing Dale Earnhardt Jr.. Marty is a driven man, pursuing his goals, living out his dreams, and through it all, remembering where he came from.

This interview compliments a profile I did on Marty back in July 2007, and some of my questions were designed to verify my information and to find out more about the man that the profile couldn’t tell us.

Marty grew up in High Point, North Carolina and hung around auto racing since the age of 10, over at Caraway Speedway (Caraway Speedway opened as a dirt oval in 1966. It was paved in 1972 when the track joined the NASCAR weekly racing series.)

Marty’s sports coverage career started in 1991 while he was at the University of North Carolina where he obtained his Political Science Degree* and worked at covering NASCAR and other sports for the NBC affiliate, WYFF (Where he got an award for his photography), Motor Racing Network(MRN), CNNSi, ESPN, NASCAR.com and is presently working for TNT / NBC Sports. In my original profile, some dates overlapped, but Marty said it is not uncommon for reporters to work for multiple organizations.

*A PoliSci degree was the degree to get when you wanted to get into broadcasting.

While Marty was being mentored in his early days by Dave Despain, he learned about every aspect of his chosen industry to get the job done. From this, Marty developed a very deep appreciation for what his support crew does for him.

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SIRIUS Satellite Radio and Tony Stewart, two-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Champion, announced today the nominees for the first annual ‘Stewie Awards,’ honoring the best, boldest and funniest moments of the 2007 NASCAR season.

The ‘Stewies’ will be awarded during a special broadcast of Tony Stewart Live, on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio channel 128 on Thursday, November 29 (6:00 – 8:00 pm ET) during 2007 NASCAR Champions Week. The 2007 Stewie Award winners will be decided by fans around the country who can cast their votes online at www.sirius.com/stewieawards.

Here are the nominees:

Golden Stewie Award – Honoring a legendary driver from the Golden Era of racing (1960-85)

Best Duet – For outstanding teamwork by a driver and crew chief
· Jeff Burton & Pat Smith: Start at rear of field due to engine change and win Dollar General 300 NASCAR Busch Series race (Oct. 12)
· Casey Mears & Darian Grubb: Fuel strategy in Coca-Cola 600 leads to Mears’ first career NASCAR Nextel Cup win (May 27)
· Clint Bowyer & Gil Martin: Martin keeps Bowyer calm and team performs only one adjustment all day to get Bowyer’s first career NASCAR Nextel Cup win in Sylvania 300 (Sept. 16)

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by Bruce Simmons

The most fan and industry coveted announcement occurred on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 in regards to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s new sponsor and car number from the Dallas, Texas Convention Center.

Basically, Dale Earnhardt Jr will be driving the Hendrick Motorsports 88 car, sponsored by Mountain Dew Amp Energy Drink AND The National Guard.  The sponsor duties will be shared amongst these 2 sponsors through the year.

Rick Hendrick noted that during this whole process while we, the press and fans were waiting, he kept doing things to throw us off…  One example is that Rick had his decal shop print up 81 decals and other such little things.  (But no one took the bait on the decal stunt!)  Tricky guy!

See the Hendrick Motorsports site for the announcement, and the home page address is splashed with the new car images!

ADDITIONALLY, as far as Jr’s 2007 Sponsor is concerned, Budweiser, it was announced on Tuesday, the 17th that Kasey Kahne will be driving the #9 Budweiser car for 2008!!

See the Evernham website announcement

It was probably one of the most intense, busiest media weeks that NASCAR has seen in quite some time and I think these changes are pretty good mixes of drivers and sponsors.!

SIRIUS ANNOUNCES COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF 2007 CHASE FOR THE NASCAR NEXTEL CUP

* SIRIUS will broadcast every race of the Chase live nationwide; Ten additional channels will carry in-car audio from NASCAR’s top drivers
* SIRIUS NASCAR Radio to provide the most extensive daily radio coverage available

NEW YORK – September 13, 2007 – SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI), the Official Satellite Radio Partner of NASCAR, will provide the most comprehensive radio coverage of the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup, broadcasting all ten races live and providing listeners with in-car audio from NASCAR’s top drivers as they compete for the coveted NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Championship.

On Sunday, September 16, SIRIUS will broadcast the first event of the Chase, the Sylvania 300 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race (1:15 pm ET) live from New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, NH on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, channel 128. For all ten Chase races, SIRIUS will provide the live race call on channel 128, plus ten additional Driver2Crew Chatter™ channels that will combine the race broadcast with the in-car audio of ten different race teams.

For every race, SIRIUS will provide in-car audio for the top nine drivers in the championship points standings. The tenth Driver2Crew channel will be the “Fan’s Choice” and will carry the in-car audio of a driver chosen by fans who cast their vote by logging on to www.sirius.com/driver2crew.

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I’ve heard numerous complaints on air, or bulletin boards. I’ve also seen people praise his efforts. On occasion, I’ve heard his radio co-host, David Poole drop the hint that he’s a very busy man and I’ve implied from other subtle statements that he’s got his fingers in more than we know about up front. I wanted to know more about Marty, this guy I listen to on the radio every morning on SIRIUS Satellite Radio, or pit reporting on TV and so I dug around on the internet and came up with some info and wanted to share this with you.First off, YES, there’s much more to Marty Snider than meets the eye!!

Marty Snider has covered NASCAR over the years for several media outlets including Motor Racing Network(MRN), CNNSi, ESPN, NASCAR.com and TNT / NBCSports.com as a NASCAR Insider. And as you all know, he is also a co-host with David Poole of “The Morning Drive” which airs every weekday from 7:00-11:00 AM ET on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, channel 128.

On top of all this, he has other underlying aspirations, or maybe, I should say endeavors moving full steam ahead, but that’s for a little later. (more…)

At 8:05 am, Pacific time, during his live televised press conference, Dale Earnhardt Jr announced, his “new boss for 2008″, Rick Hendrick, of Hendrick Motorsports.

At the time of this posting, no news on how this is going to pan out in the team, with rumors of who may be leaving.

Rick Hendrick notes that he and Kyle had been in negotiations since the end of last year, and they both realized that Kyle will have better opportunities else where.

So Dale Earnhardt Jr will be taking the slot that Kyle Busch has held and the contract is a 5 year contract.

Sponsorships have not been worked out yet. (IE: Is Budweiser coming along with Jr?)

Jr said he wants to keep the number 8, and that they would have to present that to Teresa (Earnhardt) and see how that pans out. The audience erupted into some entertaining laughter with that statement.

In regards of whether Jr’s present crew will come over from DEI, it was noted that this specific set of details will be worked out over the next couple of months as to staffing set ups for his team.

When asked about the reports of Jr going to Gibbs or Childress, Jr noted that info came out of thin air.

The other day I was enjoying listening to my Sirius Satellite Radio, and specifically, I was listening to NASCAR channel 128, The Morning Drive, with Marty Snider and David Poole. I enjoy their banter, their opinions, and their expertise. I particularly enjoy David Poole’s perspective on all things NASCAR. I wondered who he is and what he’s about. After a few emails and a couple of phone calls, he graciously granted my request to spend a little time with me and I had a candid conversation with Mr. David Poole.

David Poole is one of the most widely-read and well-respected journalists in the sport of NASCAR. He has covered NASCAR for The Charlotte (NC) Observer for 10 seasons. He’s a regular contributor to ThatsRacin.com. He co-hosts Sirius Satellite’s “The Morning Drive” on Sirius NASCAR channel 128. We hear him every day interacting with his co-host, (Marty Snider), the show’s listener’s and dispensing opinions, wisdom & postulates in regards to the latest news and events that occur in and around NASCAR.

David got the bug to go into reporting when he was 12 when he had attended a basketball game. The next day when he saw the write up in the newspaper about the game, he thought he could do a better job. Before long, Poole was doing high school reports for that paper. He worked a news internship there while in college at North Carolina and, after a brief stop in Norfolk, Va., after graduating he returned to Gastonia and eventually became the paper’s sports editor, covering everything from junior high girls’ basketball to ACC basketball. (The paper referred to is the Gaston Gazette, which back when David Poole worked there, was called the Gastonia Gazette.)

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