Everybody else is doing it, so I figured I would get in the game. How many of you watched the Cup Series banquet this weekend? It was over three hours long and well, not exactly riveting television. So I figured I would add my two cents on the event.
As usual NASCAR Media Group did a great job putting together the montages for the show. The slow-mo videos with the great music in the back always reaffirms why I love this sport. It is sort of like the beginning of Days of Thunder. But anyway, the videos were all very well done, and honestly they were the highlight of the night.
Dr. Jerry Punch, who oversaw the festivities was glued a little too much to the teleprompter. Now, you won’t find a bigger Punch fan than me, but Friday night was not his finest work. Actor Kevin Costner helped with the opening 60 years montage, and well, he too was not that great. He rambled and his slightly monotone voice did not exactly add any excitement. To top off that portion of the show Richard Petty got up and talked for what seemed like 20 minutes. I am going to be honest, I was in and out during his remarks.
The classiest moment of the night came when Chevrolet’s representative got up to accept their award for the Manufacturer’s Championship and preceded to use the moment to push the automakers political agenda. Not the right time or the right place for something like that. I can understand the drivers doing it, because that is what they are programmed to do, but they should have thanked the teams for getting them there and then gotten off stage.
Don’t get me wrong, I do like Matchbox 20, but their song “How far we’ve come” should not have been used all season to promote NASCAR’s 60 years. The only part of the overtly political song that can even be used for the advertisements is the chorus, otherwise it makes no sense. “I believe the world is burning to the ground.” What? Bad choice NASCAR.
Something that never fails to surprise me is how terrible the drivers are at reading a teleprompter. While I am by no means an advocate of the teleprompter, these guys were awful. Not only that, but most of them looked scared out of their minds. I felt bad for Kyle Busch most of all. He was so nervous his voice was shaking. Oh and was Jeff Gordon drunk? There were moments that appeared to be sober and then others that did not. Whenever he stopped reading the teleprompter he was all over the place. I guess whatever works.
Rick Hendrick gets the award for zinger of the night. While talking about all the great young talent in the sport, he turned and looked at Kyle Busch and said something like, “how old are you, 18, 20?” When Kyle responded saying he was 23, Hendrick said “oh you just act like you’re 18 sometimes.” Kyle did not look pleased, and it was especially bad coming from the car owner who canned him because he was tired of his outbursts.
Thats about all I’ve got to say on that. I like the banquet most years, but this year’s was not spectacular. I like that the banquet is in New York, it gives the event that touch of class that you would not get in say Las Vegas, but they need to get back to the basics on this thing. Get rid of the teleprompter for the drivers, and find comedic and musical acts that actually mesh well with the sport and the audience.
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on Dec 7th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
The most memorable screw-up of the night is Kevin Costner. When referring to Dale Sr., he called him the “Terminator”, instead of Intimidator.
on Dec 7th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Tony and Kyle were by far the best giving their speeches. They should have had Tom Cruise talk about NASCAR rather than Kevin Costner. At least he has a connection with NASCAR.
on Dec 7th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I missed it. I figured I would get to read enough about it.
Form the sounds of it I did not miss much.
Actually hearing about the drivers makes me wish that I would have seen it. But we should cut them a little slack for there “performances”. It’s the performance on the track that we should be really critical of.
Jeff Gordon drunk? I think I may have to be if I had to stand in front of a bunch of people and speak.
That being said, if I would have been watching it my wife and I probably would have been laughing at them.
How great to see Kyle in a shaky voice, after all the bs he has no problem speaking!
on Dec 7th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I thought Denny sounded drunk to me…but my friend told me she thought he was just nervous…
I agree with Karah…Tom Cruise should have spoke instead of Costner…
I liked the comedian though…I thought he was funny.
on Dec 8th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I had no idea Jeff Gordon consumed alcohol.
on Dec 8th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Good review. You’d make a decent sub for the Daly Planet when he goes on vacation.
What about them finally getting a decent comedian? Actually Jay Mohr was pretty good, but he probably offended too many people.
Advice to Rick Hendrick: Joke is on you. Kyle won what, 8 races this year? How many wins did his replacement get? Worse, how many did he get not on fuel mileage? 0.
NASCAR needs a refund on Costner.
on Dec 8th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Did I miss the awards show? Well damn…. The only awards show moment I have ever found at all memorable was when Tony Stewart took off his jacket in 2001 to reveal a Hutchins device and proclaimed that since it was a Nascar sanctioned event he felt he needed to wear it. Mike Helton did not look pleased.
Other than that moment they are always very boring. I stopped watching them years ago. I also missed the last few races of this season and was not bothered by it, not really looking forward to next year either. I guess Brian France has finally dragged the sport down so far my passion for Nascar has died….. On the bright side, it will save me alot of money.
on Dec 8th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Here’s a little note for Rick Hendrick. You may have gotten the most popular driver with lifetime sponsors, but you will regret the move if you like the 88 team to win races. Kyle will make you pay for that move for a long time!!! I am a big fan of Hendrick Motorsports, but you should have given Kyle a chance to grow up. Now it’s time to pay the piper. And that little remark at the Banquet will only entice Kyle to be “The Man”
on Dec 8th, 2008 at 11:10 am
At least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t enjoy the Banquet on Friday night. Not only I didn’t like it because Kenseth wasn’t there but as well as the other thing that was mentioned in the article like the musical part to Kevin Costner to Dr. Jerry Punch, seriously during most of the talking parts, I thought that I was going to go to sleep. Also the comedian that was there, whatever his name is, I was not impressed about the things he was talking about, the only main thing that was on his mind is food and weight, I’m tired of hearing about those two things because in the past I was the one who was really overweight due to consuming too much food and now I’m over it and I’m at a reasonable size, the man was just not funny and I never cracked up not even one time. But as to the drivers speeches, I can tell that almost all of them was reading at some monitor, I think it was Clint who looked straight on the entire time which was kind of weird. As for Jeff, I guess he was drinking a little bit too much wine on Friday night so that might be the reason why he was kind of acting like that. But the most nervous one had to be Denny, he had a lot of uhh’s and umm’s during his speech, if you take those out it could have been a good speech. But the best speech had to been Tony’s I couldn’t stop crying when he was talking, but hey it sucks that he’s moving on to another team. But anyways overall the Banquet was one of the worst ones that I have ever watched!
on Dec 8th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Watched it, even started a blog post about it, but ended up deleting the text because you can sum all the problems I had in one sentence: Nobody seemed in their element.
A few drivers predictably were good and personable in their speeches (Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson come to mind). But all in all, nobody looked like they were comfortable. Just watch the facial expressions when the 48 crew walks in to sit at the head table. They speak volumes.
Jerry Punch was okay but lacking, the comedian was actually good but didn’t have much to do with NASCAR, the presentations were stiff. And I really, really don’t like the female ESPN announcer girl, whose sultry overpronounciation of Every. Single. Word. sounds like a bad porno, not a banquet.
All things considered, it was kind of fun to watch again this year, but not always for the right reasons. It feels like NASCAR is trying to be something that it is not. Everybody is on guard, and most people are glued to the teleprompter. The Oscars work because everybody in the room is keen on celebrating themselves. The entire evening is a total love fest. It might seem decadent at times, it might be too much for some people – but it’s a lesson that NASCAR needs to learn. Well produced video segments don’t sell the banquet. NASCAR drivers, hosts and presenters who are genuinely having fun with the evening are what will (or won’t) make the evening work. No move to Las Vegas will fix that fundamental problem.
on Dec 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I have to say, the thing I was most thankful for was the comedian. He may not have been some people’s cup of tea, but compared to last year when Kyle Busch was funnier than David Spade? I’ll take a comedian that works for some people over a complete waste of space like Spade any day. And at least his jokes connected with NASCAR fans (if not Carl Edwards).
The unscripted moments tend to be the best (Stewart calling Zippy his wife last year, Biffle thanking Nicole for “doing it with him” two years ago), but sadly, these guys are too scared for anything unscripted. It’s just out of their comfort zone.
And quite honestly, if they’re going to have someone speaking in a monotone all night, at least let it be Kenseth. Kenseth may have a monotone, but he talks as fast as he drives. We’d have breezed through a lot of that filler.