Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990 TAG: 9004250054
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK TV/RADIO SPORTS COLUMNIST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Kernan, sports director at WDBJ (Channel 7), will work live telecasts of NASCAR Winston Cup races the next two weekends at Martinsville Speedway and in Talladega, Ala.
He made his debut in the ESPN pits at Sunday's First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro, N.C. That race was televised on tape Monday night.
"Right now, I'm sure I'll be working through Talladega," Kernan said. "They seemed pretty pleased with what I did. I guess I did a good job considering it was my first time.
"I didn't set the world on fire, but I guess I didn't make any major mistakes, either."
Kernan will be in the pits for both ESPN and WDBJ at the Hanes 500 on Sunday at Martinsville. After he works the race live for the cable network, he will file a report for the 6 o'clock news for Channel 7.
The 31-year-old Missouri native got his chance with ESPN when pit reporter Dick Berggren left the crew to devote more time to his editor's job at Stock Car Racing magazine.
Kernan is working ESPN Winston Cup shows with Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons and fellow pit reporter Jerry Punch.
"John performed very well, considering the last-second circumstances in which he came in, and the fact he had a commitment to his job in Roanoke and couldn't get to North Wilkesboro to do his homework until Saturday," said Neil Goldberg, ESPN's producer of NASCAR telecasts. "I didn't want to put a lot of pressure on him, and I wanted him just to try and do things that came natural for him.
"He's not a rookie, but it's easy to make rookie mistakes in that situation. We wanted it to be more of a learning experience for him than anything. The most important thing is he's a professional broadcaster, and he really knows stock car racing."
Goldberg said Kernan has the opportunity to stick with ESPN's Winston Cup shows for the rest of the year. After Talladega on May 6, the next ESPN telecast race is at Dover, Del., on June 3.
"The thing we want to do in our coverage is build a consistency," Goldberg said. "We have to work as a team. If we didn't think John had a shot at staying with us all year, he wouldn't be working with us."
Goldberg said he was familiar with Kernan from the Roanoke sportscaster's work on feature pieces for ESPN's "SpeedWeek" show.
In becoming part of the Winston Cup crew that is the major ingredient in the network's "SpeedWorld" coverage, Kernan joins a show that won two Sports Emmy Awards on Monday night - for outstanding live sports series (tied with ABC's "Monday Night Football") and for technical team remote.
Kernan said his biggest adjustment this week will be having better anticipation when he has a subject to discuss in the pits.
"I'd listen to the program, then you tell the pit producer what you have, then he tells the main producer [Goldberg], then he tells Bob [the on-air anchor], and by the time Bob throws it to me, what I have to say may not matter anymore," Kernan said.
Kernan's other learning experience was life in his custom-made fire suit. He sweated off more than a few pounds Sunday.
"Yeah, but I probably gained most of them back," he said. "On the ride home to Roanoke, I was so thirsty I drank two quarts of Gatorade."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB