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NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup is a show that airs on Monday nights on SPEED Channel during the NASCAR season. Hosted by Allen Bestwick, the show is taped every Monday morning at about 11 AM, unless a race postponed to Monday is run, then the show takes place live, all of it taking place at SPEED's studios in Charlotte, North Carolina. The "expert panel" usually consists of 3 drivers, the primary three being Ken Schrader , Johnny Benson , and Michael Waltrip , although when one driver is absent for a show, he is replaced by another driver. The primary substitutes are Jimmy Spencer (who's had some funny moments on the show invovling his cell phone), and Kenny Wallace.During the course of each show, Bestwick reads notes about the previous day's Nextel Cup race while highlights are shown. The panel then analyzes the action taking place in the on-screen video, whether it's a pass for position or a crash. Sometimes, a member of the panel has to analyze a mishap he himself had, which leads Bestwick and the other two panelists to tease him about it. Other times, though, the panelist will be shown in a moment of success on the track. Also, there are times when two of the panelists will watch themselves in a battle for position, or being caught up in the same crash. After the Nextel Cup highlights, an interview segment called "The Hot Seat" will take place, in which Bestwick and the panel ask the guest questions (and sometimes rib him in a friendly way). Guests have ranged from drivers to NASCAR officials to even singer-songwriter Edwin McCain, who performed on the segment in July 2004. The guest then sticks around as the latest news and action in the NASCAR Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series is recapped. The next Nextel Cup race is previewed, and, in the last few seconds of the show, the panelists plug an appearance they are making later in the week.
The show is very popular with viewers because of its humorous atmosphere. It has been on SPEED since the network was called SpeedVision, meaning it was around before the flood of NASCAR programming came along to SPEED. It was titled NASCAR Inside Winston Cup until 2003.
It also had a spinoff, as Inside NBSInside NBS was a spinoff to NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup and aired on SPEED Channel. Like its Inside Cup counterpart, which focused on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, the show focused primarily the NASCAR Busch Series, and, like Inside Cup was hosted by Allen B debuted in 2003. The show was mostly devoted to the Busch Series, NASCAR version of Triple-A baseballBusch Stadium in Saint Louis, Missouri. Baseball is a team sport in which a small hand-sized ball is thrown and hit with a bat. Scoring involves running and touching markers on the ground called bases, hence the name. The ball itself is also called a base. It only lasted one season.
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