It's history now...and who, if anyone, will fill the void

By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net

   DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
   Great Caesar's ghost, the Daly Planet has shut down: John Daly, the veteran television production man who for the past two years has fired hardballs at NASCAR'S TV coverage, Wednesday pulled the plug on his powerful website http://dalyplanet.blogspot.com/ and is now off the beat.
    "Priorities are rapidly changing in the world right now. This includes professional sports from top-to-bottom. NASCAR is deeply affected and talking about the pros and cons of TV broadcasts suddenly has much less meaning," Daly says.
   "The NASCAR TV topics that we hotly debated last season now seem to pale in comparison to the reality around us. The time that I used to work on this Internet project now must be allocated for other activities. Such is life."
   With newspapers across the country abandoning NASCAR viewers and fans – the Dallas market is apparently losing yet another NASCAR writer now – critical voices and analysis will be harder and harder to come by.
   And who, if anyone, will be stepping in to fill the void left by Daly's departure, is uncertain.
   In fact, the grandstands at Daytona International Speedway and California's Auto Club Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway aren't the only place to be worried about empty seats – NASCAR media centers around the Sprint Cup tour may also be less than standing-room-only this season.
   The first real indication of what might lie ahead this season should come Thursday, here at NASCAR's annual Daytona 500 Media Fest.