Former NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon begins his first season in the booth for Fox this weekend, and the net hopes he brings a "level of competitive fire to his new role," according to Don Coble of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. Gordon got a "running start by working in the booth for a couple of Xfinity Series races a year ago, and the tryout seemed to bring the sport a little closer to the fans." Fox Sports President & COO Eric Shanks: "When Jeff said this was something he was (interested) in, you do take a step back and say, ‘OK, can Jeff carry on the tradition and to be part of the group of what you guys have done?’ Which is fun and interesting and self-deprecating." Coble notes in addition to his job with Fox, which "comes with a lot of behind-the-scenes production meetings and other network commitments, Gordon will continue to meet with sponsors while keeping an ownership stake at Hendrick Motorsports." The new on-air Fox team will be Gordon, play-by-play announcer Mike Joy and NASCAR HOFer Darrell Waltrip. Gordon said, "I'm still going to, I think, apply that same kind of competitiveness to doing my job up in the booth and some of the other things that I'm going to be doing" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 2/11).
ANOTHER KIND OF CHASE: Fox Sports today released the next ad coming out as part of its '16 Daytona Day marketing push around the Daytona 500 -- a spoof spot where Gordon goes on yet another high speed ride. The spot -- entitled “Car Chase," produced in-house and mildly reminiscent of Gordon’s famous Pepsi “Test Drive" ads, starts off with a local TV channel in L.A. cutting in for a breaking news alert. The spot cuts to a sky-cam from a helicopter following Gordon’s former No. 24 Axalta Chevy as it barrels down the highway past traffic. Cops follow Gordon who eventually leads them to a Fox Sports studio, where he gets out and asks cops what the problem is. The cops then note there is no problem; rather, they want a selfie. This spot follows up on Fox Sports' "Daytona Day" spot that came out two weeks ago, which was based around the notion of people countrywide celebrating the 500 in their own way and garnered a significant amount of buzz on social media for multiple days in a row. Gordon moves into the booth this season after retiring from NASCAR in ’15. NASCAR’s season kicks off this Saturday with the non-points race Sprint Unlimited, while the first points race, the 500, is a week from Sunday (Adam Stern, Staff Writer).
