NASCAR media members--good and bad

Nate Ryan is a favorite, thought-provoking and well-researched tidbits to be found here. Understands business. I hate it when sports reporters get the business parts all wrong, as many do with alarming frequency.

Bob Pockrass is a favorite, the hardest worker on the Nascar beat. Understands business and pursues business angles frequently. The Dean of the Nascar press corps.

Jeff Gluck is a favorite for his youthful gee-whiz enthusiasm, his fan-centric orientation, and his DGAF independence. However, I am disappointed by his slant toward social media as something that needs to be reported on extensively. Where is the meat?

Ryan McGee is a favorite for his excellent writing and his sense of perspective based on long experience and good common sense.
 
I'm not too familiar with many of the reporters anymore. Jamie Little and Krista Voda aren't bad. I think Rutledge Wood is an utter buffoon. I do like that walkthrough that DW does right before the race where he asks a quick question to the top starters, but his race commentary? Not so much. Eli Gold on the radio was always excellent. I don't know if he even does that anymore, but he could paint a picture with words.
 
R Clarence said:
FOX should hang onto DW with the walk thru thing. Good stuff.
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That's MW with the walk through not DW. Mikey sometimes gets on my nerves.
I don't like Chris Myers mainly because he's a football guy and shouldn't be doing Nascar.
 
Brigeton said:
That's MW with the walk through not DW. Mikey sometimes gets on my nerves.
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That's right, it sure is. I must say I detest his commentary, but the walk through is usually good. You can tell some of the drivers are thinking, "Get the hell out of here Mikey."
 
I like Jamie Little, she knows her stuff, doesn't seem to be a NASCAR suckup and can stand her ground as she showed during this little incident between Kez and Gordon.
 
It's easier to say who I don't like:

Jim Utter

Jenna Fryer

Dave Moody

All three are pretty big trolls.

Most of the rest I'm okay with, enjoy their content, or don't really care about them.
 
Reck said:
^Kyle Petty needs to be in the booth somewhere. That guy doesn't give a sh!t. He 100% calls it when he sees it.

Probably a little unprofessional but the dude is also a funny ****.
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Those TNT broadcasts with Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach were a ton of fun. I was hoping NBC would've put those two on.
 
In terms of social media information and updates I like Pockrass and Gluck. Stories and articles I find myself reading a lot of what Tom Jensen has to say.

Jim Utter is a troll as someone put it, I don't have satellite radio so I can't comment on those guys.
 
I've probably got about 20 NASCAR Media folk that I follow on Twitter. I use TweetDeck. I've set up 6 column's for NASCAR related content. About 8 more column's for non NASCAR related topics. Tweetdeck is pretty sweet for my use.
 
Maybe because Jim Utter like me is a natural contrarian but I like him same as Moody. God forbid they support all the stupid stupid ideas fans have.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Disagree. He brings up a lot of valid arguments and usually has some good discussions. We've had some debates on Twitter and it's never escalated to trolling or blocking, and he's always been cordial to me.
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I've never had an issue with him, disagree on some points but in general is a good guy. He was on Jeff Glucks podcast recently and explained his deal with blocking people and it makes complete sense.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I wonder if Jenna Fryer regrets publishing that Fernando Alonso piece she wrote. Honestly, I don't think I've seen anyone say a single positive thing about her since she wrote that.
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I think she could've gotten away with it if it weren't for how she reacted. She doubled down on Twitter and the mea culpa piece was terrible too.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Bob Pockrass is a favorite, the hardest worker on the Nascar beat. Understands business and pursues business angles frequently. The Dean of the Nascar press corps.
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Unfortunately, it appears that the dean of the Nascar press corps is out of a job...

 
Bob Pockrass was the first one at the track and the last one to leave. Most of my in race info came from his tweets. Jenna Fryer had too many other interests. I took her out of my timeline. I follow 10 other members of Nascar media but none tweet as often as they did years ago. Not getting the at track info I use to see.
 
Other than Jayski, was Pockrass ESPN's only NASCAR writer? Makes me wonder if they're just going to copy and paste wire service version of stories of the sport from now on.
 
Gluck and Dave Caldwell are about the only two I read.
 
LewTheShoe said:
Nate Ryan is a favorite, thought-provoking and well-researched tidbits to be found here. Understands business. I hate it when sports reporters get the business parts all wrong, as many do with alarming frequency.

Bob Pockrass is a favorite, the hardest worker on the Nascar beat. Understands business and pursues business angles frequently. The Dean of the Nascar press corps.

Jeff Gluck is a favorite for his youthful gee-whiz enthusiasm, his fan-centric orientation, and his DGAF independence. However, I am disappointed by his slant toward social media as something that needs to be reported on extensively. Where is the meat?

Ryan McGee is a favorite for his excellent writing and his sense of perspective based on long experience and good common sense.
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I agree that Gluck IS social media focused, but lacking a broadcast/big media platform he has to work with what he's got. And I agree that his DGAF allows him to sometimes say what others won't.
 
Social media is paying most of Gluck's bill hopefully. I do see the slant towards social media with him. They all have somebody on their bond.
 
I have to believe that Bob Pockrass will land on his feet. Possibly landing in PR like so many reporters I know have.

And I'm probably the only one to admit this, but I like what Rutledge Wood brings to the broadcasts. I lived in the South a bunch of years and he reminds me of a lot of guys I knew.
 
Hawaii808 said:
I have to believe that Bob Pockrass will land on his feet. Possibly landing in PR like so many reporters I know have.

And I'm probably the only one to admit this, but I like what Rutledge Wood brings to the broadcasts. I lived in the South a bunch of years and he reminds me of a lot of guys I knew.
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I actually like Rutledge on the rare occasion he's assigned to do something other than what I call 'lifestyle pieces'. He lucked into interviewing a driver once; I forget who, and he did a very good job. Not Costas or Bestwick good, but far better than I expected. It took me a while to realize it isn't him I can't stand. It's 99% of the crapola he's assigned to cover, and the racing we're missing while he's covering it. I don't give a hoot what's being cooked in the infield when there's green flag racing going on. That isn't Rut's fault, that's a production issue.

I always enjoyed Marty Smith's writing back when he was on NASCAR.com.

It's a sin that Allen Bestwick isn't calling a top-series race every weekend.

Wherever Chris Myers went, please leave him there. His pre-race and infield booth work was unbearable, even compared to Mikey. Myers would put on this 'Aw Shucks' persona that he didn't use in his coverage of any other sport. If I had to hear 'We kid because we care!' one more time, I would have damaged my TV. That's just a BS way of pretending you didn't just deliver an insult. And 'we'? How many of you are in there, Sybil?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Wherever Chris Myers went, please leave him there. His pre-race and infield booth work was unbearable, even compared to Mikey. Myers would put on this 'Aw Shucks' persona that he didn't use in his coverage of any other sport.
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We already have the Waltrips, our "aw shucks" quota is filled.
 
Hawaii808 said:
And I'm probably the only one to admit this, but I like what Rutledge Wood brings to the broadcasts. I lived in the South a bunch of years and he reminds me of a lot of guys I knew.
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Not sure where you lived in the South, but he's not like many Southern men I know, expect for some hipsters. Rutledge is okay in my book, just far from a typical Southerner.
 
I am sure I have read pieces from many Nascar reporters but I am unfamiliar with most of the names or personalities. IDK why ESPN cut a writer loose but between ESPN needing to slash costs and Nascar’s precipitous drop in popularity it makes sense. It was reported that Nascar dropped 770,000 fans per race this year so with less people paying attention less coverage is needed.
 
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