6 Daytona 500 to re-air on Classic

TexasRaceLady

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From Jayski:

ESPN Classic Televising Six Classic Daytona 500 Races; Viewers Can Choose Favorite: In advance of the 50th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 17, ESPN Classic will be televising six of the best Daytona 500 races of all time every Monday at 2:00pm/et starting Jan. 7th. During the period, ESPN.com's NASCAR page will feature a poll where viewers can log on to choose their favorite Daytona 500 from the six. Then, on Saturday night, Feb. 16, the night before the 2008 version of NASCAR’s biggest race, ESPN Classic will show the top five races as chosen by the fans in their order of preference, starting at 10pm/et. The six races are:
1976 - On the last lap, David Pearson and Richard Petty wreck together while running first and second, both are the only cars on the lead lap. Pearson gets his car moving first and goes on to win the 500 at a snail's pace. Petty finishes second, a lap down, after he is penalized for having his car pushed across the finish line.

1979 - The first live, flag-to-flag live televised Daytona 500, drawing a huge audience as it is shown on a day when much of the Northeast was paralyzed by a snowstorm. Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough wreck late in the race while leading, propelling Richard Petty to victory. Donnie's brother Bobby and Yarborough fight in the infield. The race helped accelerate NASCAR to a national phenomenon.

1990 - Dale Earnhardt is all but the 500 winner when he blows out a tire in turn 3 of the last lap, leading to an unlikely Daytona 500 victory for Derrike Cope. Cope cruised by Earnhardt to win the 500, his first career NASCAR win, and one of only two in his career, the other coming later that season.

1998 - Dale Earnhardt Finally Wins - After years of heartbreak and bad luck, Dale Earnhardt finally wins the biggest race on the NASCAR schedule. Every crew member for all 43 teams lines up along pit road to congratulate Earnhardt.

1999 - Jeff Gordon pulls a risky pass by Rusty Wallace with 11 laps to go, almost driving through the grass and getting into the back of the lapped and crash-damaged car of Ricky Rudd. Wallace gives him room, possibly preventing a wreck and Gordon holds off defending-champion Dale Earnhardt for the win.

2007 - After the two best cars driven by Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart crashed early in the race, the race continues to take more twists. Cars are shuffled and reshuffled, culminating in a last lap "big one," which took out many contenders, including Kyle Busch and a sliding, flaming Clint Bowyer. Mark Martin, a part-time driver who was a NASCAR star but never won a championship or a Daytona 500, is nosed out by Kevin Harvick by inches at the finish line. Closest 500 finish with electronic scoring.(ESPN PR)(1-4-2008)
 
Wonderful.

I don't get espnCL still, so, yeah, useless.

Eff ESPN.
 
Just my opinion, but I'd bet a dollar that the Earnhardt win will win this competition hands down, though I wouldn't put it first. Both of those first two listed would be my favs, but there's been others that I liked as well.
 
I was in the stands for the 1999 race --- sitting down toward Turn 1 where Jeff made his move on the apron ---- scared the living daylights out of me.
 
The argument as to who is to blame between ESPN and your local cable company is an interesting one. Not knowing Andy's exact situation but I can guess that ESPN is wanting their channels on basic or standard cable where the cable company wants to put them on their sports tier.
ESPN realizes that putting their product on a lower tier nets them more money even if they don't get more viewers for the fringe channels. They are paid by the number of households they are available in not by eyeballs. Cable wants to put them in the sports tier so those viewers who want to watch that product will purchase the higher tiers.
It's all about the money. Always is. Each side has compelling arguments but I tend to blame ESPN more (that should make Andy happy :) ) as they appear to be the more greedy. I can assure you that my MIL does not care to have ESPN classic no more than I want Lifetime or Oxygen. But, ESPN generally has their 2 main channels on the lower tier so I see nothing wrong with all their other channels, U, Classic and News, being on an upper tier.
 
As far as pure excitement and fantastic finishes, nothing can touch the '79 race. Maybe I am a little biased being a long time Richard Petty fan. But that race put NASCAR on the national sports map. The '76 race could be considered a close second. While the ultimate outcome was a story itself, the '98 race did not have a close finish and was fairly boring race.
 
The argument as to who is to blame between ESPN and your local cable company is an interesting one. Not knowing Andy's exact situation but I can guess that ESPN is wanting their channels on basic or standard cable where the cable company wants to put them on their sports tier.
ESPN realizes that putting their product on a lower tier nets them more money even if they don't get more viewers for the fringe channels. They are paid by the number of households they are available in not by eyeballs. Cable wants to put them in the sports tier so those viewers who want to watch that product will purchase the higher tiers.
It's all about the money. Always is. Each side has compelling arguments but I tend to blame ESPN more (that should make Andy happy :) ) as they appear to be the more greedy. I can assure you that my MIL does not care to have ESPN classic no more than I want Lifetime or Oxygen. But, ESPN generally has their 2 main channels on the lower tier so I see nothing wrong with all their other channels, U, Classic and News, being on an upper tier.
I blame both.

I blame Comcast more. I mean, we have the PREMIUM SPORTS PACKAGE. We got it so we could get NFL Network. It's the most expensive package and it gets every channel they have.

But why do I have to have 6 stations just for women? Why do I have a cagefighting channel? Five networks made for black people. Now I have a network made for Jews, 37 spanish channels and four television stations "made for the gay man."

All those channels made to please everyone, not to mention 9 new non-English channels they just added to the basic teir lineup. But I can't get ESPN Classic? WTF? :mad:

We don't even get FOX Sports Net. It's Comcast Sports Net now, and they air local sports during FOX Sports Net programming hours and they removed that from the sports teir.

That's the joys of living near D.C., where the White man makes up about 1/30 of the population. :rolleyes:

It took 4 months of pissed off rednecks to get FX in 2001. The difference now is that Comcast won't budge on adding channels. Their loyalties lie elsewhere.
 
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