Speedway Vs Network UPDATE: oh boy…..Officials of Lowe’s (Charlotte) Motor Speedway learned Saturday morning that NBC/TNT, televising networks for this weekend’s NASCAR events, would not refer to the track as “Lowe’s” during its broadcasts, including the Winston Cup qualifying show Thursday night. The announcers Thursday simply said words to the effect, “We’re here in Charlotte.” Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse has a 10-year deal for naming rights to the speedway under an arrangement which began in 1999. The Charlotte track is the only one on the NASCAR circuit with a naming rights agreement. As the conflict escalated, speedway officials pulled tow trucks up to the compound enclosing NBC’s satellite trucks, threatening to pull them off the lot. Officials from the networks and the speedway reportedly met on the seventh floor of Smith Tower, the Speedway’s on-site office complex, in efforts to resolve the situation before the Busch race started. A Speedway spokesman told speedvision.com, “Essentially, what we’ve told them is that we will not permit them to continue the broadcast until they give us assurance the facility will be called by its legal name.” The Busch race started after a 2hr10min and is being aired live by TNT with the tow trucks still hooked up to the networks’ two satellite trucks. The announcers continue not to call Lowe’s Motor Speedway by name. See full story at SpeedVision(10-6-2001) UPDATE: Cooler heads ultimately prevailed in a dispute between Lowe’s Motor Speedway and NBC/TNT that for much of Saturday had tow trucks parked behind the network’s satellite trucks and threatened to cut off broadcasts of this weekend’s races. Since Lowe’s did not buy advertising, TNT announcers referred to Saturday’s Grand National event as “NASCAR Busch Series racing from Charlotte” with no further identification of the track. The announcers are expected to follow the same policy during NBC’s telecast of the UAW-GM 500 this afternoon. Things finally were settled around 7:00pm/et, after track security arrived at the TV compound outside the track’s frontstretch grandstands and threatened to cut cables to two satellite transmission trucks. Track president Humpy Wheeler then met with NBC Sports president Ken Schanzer, who had flown to Charlotte after the dispute broke out. “After meeting with NBC officials, we feel somewhat better about the issue being resolved,” Wheeler said. “Whether it is or not, Sunday’s telecast will run as scheduled.” Wheeler had said earlier that he considered cutting the power to TNT’s telecast of Saturday’s Little Trees 300 and might have done it Sunday if NBC insisted on not referring to the track by its proper name. NASCAR senior vice president George Pyne said the television contract allows networks to elect not to identify a facility by name, but that if a name is used it must be the proper name. That means NBC could not call the track Charlotte Motor Speedway or any other name other than Lowe’s Motor Speedway, but that the contract allows the network not to use any name at all. NBC spokesman Mike McCarley said the network plans to identify Sunday’s race as the UAW-GM Quality 500 from Charlotte. McCarley said the broadcast rights agreement signed by NBC and TNT with NASCAR is specific on such issues and that Lowe’s Motor Speedway knew the policy. Wheeler contends he first learned the track would not be called Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Friday. Upon finding out that was the case Saturday he went to NBC/TNT producer Sam Flood to discuss it. “He said that was it and gave me no reason at all,” Wheeler said. (That’s Racin’) AND NBC/TNT Sports and Lowe’s Motor Speedway came to an agreement just prior to the UAW-GM 500 on Sunday that will have the network referring to the track by its proper name.[Lowe’s Motor Speedway](NASCAR.com)(10-7-2001)
