WindTunnel with Dave Despain

Last updated
WindTunnel with Dave Despain
Also known asWindTunnel
Genre Auto racing
Presented by Dave Despain
Country of originUnited States
Release
Original network Speed
Original releaseFebruary 22, 2003 (2003-02-22) 
August 11, 2013 (2013-08-11)

WindTunnel with Dave Despain was a live viewer call-in show exclusively for auto racing fans that debuted on Speed Channel on February 22, 2003, and ended on August 11, 2013. During the course of the show, host Dave Despain fielded telephone calls and read e-mail from viewers, some of them directed at the guest Despain is interviewing, which was done just after the first segment, titled "Hot Topics", which Despain reads the big stories from the racing world. After the interview segment, Despain did a segment just for him, titled "My Take", in which he gave his opinion on news from the racing world. There was also an award for the best e-mail or phone call from each show, as the winning viewer received a Despain bobblehead. It was a coveted prize among viewers.

When WindTunnel debuted, the show aired Friday nights at 11 pm. The pilot episode was only a half-hour long. The time length was changed to an hour the very next week. In August 2003, WindTunnel expanded to four nights a week (Monday-Thursday) and moved to a 9 pm timeslot. In 2005, to the chagrin of some of the series' fans, WindTunnel was scaled back to one night a week, airing for two hours beginning at 9 pm on Sunday nights. In 2006, WindTunnel was scaled back to one hour. There have been special episodes of WindTunnel shown as part of the lead-up to the Daytona 500 and the Sprint All-Star Race.

The 2006 season brought about guest co-hosts in the form of racing personalities like drivers (such as Tony Stewart, Mario Andretti) and journalists (such as David Hobbs, Robin Miller, Ed Hinton, and Bob Varsha). In 2009, Despain began to take breaks during the season; guest hosts such as Krista Voda, Tommy Kendall, and Robin Miller have presented the show while Despain was off. Before this, only Ralph Sheheen in 2004 had replaced Despain for an episode due to illness.

The show would take a hiatus following the last NASCAR Sprint Cup race to late January during the racing off-season. During this time, best-of episodes titled WindTunnel: The Interviews were shown. Only the most popular interviews from the previous season were shown, which included interviews with NASCAR great Richard Petty, NASCAR star Jeff Gordon, and drag racing legend John Force. Starting in 2009 Golden Corral, an American restaurant chain, became the show's sponsor. Previous sponsors have been Carquest, an automobile parts store chain in 2007, and Alltel, a cell phone company in 2008.

Programming segments

Related Research Articles

<i>Pardon the Interruption</i> American sports television show

Pardon the Interruption is an American sports talk television show that airs weekdays on various ESPN TV channels. It is hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, who discuss, and frequently argue over, the top stories of the day in "sports... and other stuff". For thirteen years Tony Reali also appeared as the statistician and correcting errors that Mike and Tony made.

Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as automotive-focused programs.

<i>NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup</i> American TV series or program

NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup was a show that aired Monday nights on Speed Channel during the NASCAR season. Inside Nextel Cup was hosted by Dave Despain. The show was taped every Monday morning at Speed's studios in Charlotte, North Carolina about 11 am, unless a race is postponed to Monday, in which case the show takes place live. The show usually ran for 60 minutes, except for a brief period during the first few weeks of the 2005 season, when it ran for 90 minutes. Speed Channel chose to discontinue this show at the end of the 2007 NASCAR season, replacing it in 2008 with the similar program This Week in NASCAR.

<i>Rove</i> (TV series) Australian TV series or program

Rove, also titled Rove Live, was an Australian television variety show that featured live music performances and interviews with local and international celebrity guests. The program premiered on the Nine Network on 22 September 1999, before moving to Network Ten which aired the program from 2000 until November 2009. The show was hosted by comedian Rove McManus through his production company Roving Enterprises, and featured an ensemble cast who presented various segments throughout the course of the show. The show won the Logie Award for "Most Popular Light Entertainment Program" five times.

<i>Mad Money</i> American syndicated investing TV show

Mad Money is an American finance television program hosted by Jim Cramer that began airing on CNBC on March 14, 2005. Its main focus is investment and speculation, particularly in public company stocks.

<i>Cold Pizza</i> American TV series or program

Cold Pizza is an American television sports morning talk show that aired weekdays on ESPN2 from 2003 to 2007. The show's style was more akin to Good Morning America than SportsCenter's straight news and highlights format. It included daily sports news, interviews with sports journalists, athletes, and personalities, and an assortment of other sports and non-sports topics.

Mystery Hunters is a Canadian documentary television series aimed at a young audience. It aired on YTV in Canada and on Discovery Kids and MeTV in the United States. It was also dubbed in Japanese and aired in Japan on NHK.

David Despain is an American motorsports journalist. He was the host of WindTunnel with Dave Despain on Speed Channel, and NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup, until the former was cancelled during the demise of Speed and the latter underwent a format change at the beginning of the 2008 NASCAR Season. On 14 December 2013 Despain announced on Twitter that he would be moving to MAVTV in 2014 to provide color commentary during races held on the channel and host a show called The Dave Despain Show.

<i>Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby</i> 2006 film by Adam McKay

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is a 2006 American sports comedy film directed by Adam McKay who co-wrote the film with Will Ferrell. It features Ferrell as the titular Ricky Bobby, an immature yet successful NASCAR driver. The film also features John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, and Amy Adams in supporting roles. NASCAR drivers Jamie McMurray and Dale Earnhardt Jr. appear in cameos, as do broadcasting teams from NASCAR on Fox and NASCAR on NBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Davidson (historian)</span> American sports historian

Donald C. Davidson was the historian of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the only person to hold such a position on a full-time basis for any motorsports facility in the world. Davidson started his career as a statistician, publicist, and historian at USAC. His radio program, The Talk of Gasoline Alley, is broadcast annually throughout the "Month of May" on WFNI in Indianapolis, and he is part of the IMS Radio Network.

Motor Racing Network (MRN) is a U.S. radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of NASCAR. Its first broadcast was the 1970 Daytona 500.

<i>The Graham Norton Show</i> British comedy chat show, broadcast on BBC One

The Graham Norton Show is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton succeeding Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in BBC One's prestigious late-Friday-evening slot in 2010.

NASCAR Trackside was a NASCAR race themed show hosted by Krista Voda on Speed Channel. The show also featured former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and SPEED personalities Rutledge Wood and Kaitlyn Vincie. Elliott Sadler and former NASCAR crew chief Jeff Hammond occasionally occupied the seat in Petty's absence. During the Michigan broadcast on August 13, 2010 Steve Byrnes announced he was leaving the show to be the host for NASCAR Race Hub also broadcast on Speed. In 2011, he hosted the show during the NASCAR on FOX Sprint Cup coverage.

<i>Intentional Talk</i>  TV series or program

Intentional Talk is an hour long and a 30-minute-long talk show shown live Monday-Friday at 5:00 ET or at 3:30 ET on MLB Network. Hosts Siera Santos, Kevin Millar, and Ryan Dempster talk about the major events in baseball. Viewers are also allowed to tweet to the hosts during the show to voice their opinions and some of the tweets are shown on a marquee at the bottom of the screen, seen in "Ask Kevin" and/or read by Stephen. Nelson was named the new co-host of IT in 2021 after former co-host Chris Rose left the show at the end of 2020 because MLB Network was unable to renew his contract. Nelson left the show at the end of January 2023 to join the Dodgers broadcast team. In March 2023 Siera Santos and Ryan Dempster where named Millar's new co-hosts.

<i>Late Night with Seth Meyers</i> American late-night talk show

Late Night with Seth Meyers is an American late-night talk show hosted by Seth Meyers on NBC. The show premiered on February 24, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. Airing weeknights at 12:37 a.m. ET/PT, it is the fourth iteration of NBC's Late Night franchise.

Former American stock car racing driver Jeff Gordon has become an iconic figure in popular culture. While Gordon became a household name among NASCAR fans for his driving career in the Cup Series, he has introduced the sport to a wider audience, largely through the media of the United States.

Pete Pistone is an American motorsports journalist and commentator who works for the Motor Racing Network. He is the lead writer for MRN.com and has worked for the radio network since 2009 after they purchased RacingOne.com. Since 2009, Pistone has been a co-host of the nationally syndicated Sirius XM show The Morning Drive on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaitlyn Vincie</span> American sports presenter and journalist (born 1987)

Kaitlyn Anne Vincie is an American sports presenter and journalist. She works for the Fox NASCAR team as a reporter and presents in their daily news and update show NASCAR Race Hub. Vincie's interest in stock car racing began when she was issued with a pit lane pass, and after graduation from Christopher Newport University, she worked as a reporter at Langley Speedway. She garnered attention after self-made video blogs on NASCAR were published on stock car racing website SceneDaily.

Pizza Guy may refer to:

References