Welcome to The Racing Beat
After seven months of being sidelined, it's time to get back on track.
I’M BACK.
Yes, by saying that I’m paying homage to Michael Jordan and how he announced his return to the NBA after a year off to play Class AA baseball (still one of the most unusual sports stories I’ve ever covered) in 1994.
I didn’t take a year off to play baseball, but the analogy is similar. I’m very excited and happy to say I truly am back to writing and broadcasting about motorsports, the thing I love to do the most … albeit on a part-time basis for now (hopefully full-time by May or June).
As I slowly but surely return (the reason is in the next few paragraphs), I promise you will once again get the fair and detailed reporting I’ve become known for during my three-plus decades covering motorsports full-time for entities such as USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (3 ½ years), Yahoo Sports (4 ½ years), NBCSports.com’s NASCAR Talk and MotorSportsTalk (over 7 ½ years), as well as other media outlets I’ve freelanced for over the years.
To say the least, It has been a crazy last seven months, without question the worst of my life. I endured two major spinal surgeries and an additional supplementary procedure. The first surgery failed, necessitating a second surgery four months later.
In-between the surgeries, and which only exacerbated the overall pain I was in, I was one of over 4,000 NBC Universal employees that was laid-off due to COVID-19 and the resulting downturn in ad revenue.
I connected with and bonded with countless readers over that time – I proudly can say I had well over 50 million pageviews of my stories during that period – but it’s now on to the next chapter.
The first part of that new chapter began by starting The Racing Beat podcast, which debuted this past Monday, with NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham as the featured guest.
LISTEN TO: The Racing Beat -- Episode 1 -- Ray Evernham and Michael Eubanks
Next Tuesday, February 16, we’ll have legendary NHRA drag racer Don “The Snake” Prudhomme as our guest.
We are going to have many more of the biggest names in motorsports coming up every week, as well as additional bonus interviews in some weeks.
The Racing Beat was Part 1 of a bigger picture I have in mind, knowing that the overall success of my multimedia platform will be based upon my hard work, promotion and giving you, the reader, more of what you want.
And speaking of which, if you have any suggestions or ideas, please send me an email at JerryBonkowski3@Gmail.com. While I can’t always respond to everyone, I always open every email I receive, a practice that dates back to the nearly five years I served as National NASCAR Columnist for Yahoo! Sports (2004-2009), when I’d get as many as 1,500 pieces of email in a week.
As NASCAR kicks off its 2021 season, this is also the perfect time to kick off the start of Part 2 of the multi-tier, multimedia platform: The Racing Beat on the SubStack online platform. My plan is to write at least five or six days per week, focusing primarily on NASCAR, NHRA and IndyCar, while my colleague Michael Eubanks and eventually others will also be significant contributors.
In addition to race coverage of those series (as well as occasional additional coverage of the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck series), we will be providing regular columns and analysis you can’t get anywhere else, features (often off-beat pieces that other sites miss or overlook), as well as unique ways to engage with you, the fan.
We want this to be YOUR multimedia platform. You have as much of a vested interest in making all forms of The Racing Beat platform a success as we do.
That engagement will include YOU contributing to the weekly mailbag. I plan on posting the top 15 or 20 emails I receive each week and compile them into my “Trading Paint” mailbag (yes, I’m bringing back the old name from the Yahoo days).
I hope to kick off the weekly mailbag by early March.
I also have plans for a separate video channel (in addition to The Racing Beat channel on YouTube, which is up and running) that will hopefully give you content that you will enjoy, as well as engaging with you directly in weekly Zoom conference calls that will feature myself, Michael Eubanks and we already have commitments from several drivers and other motorsports figures that you can talk directly to.
Think of it as a Tweet-up on Zoom and you get the idea of what’s to come. Again, we hope to have that up and operational by early March.
Now, obviously, a lot of time and work will go into all facets of The Racing Beat, particularly here on SubStack. I’m still significantly limited in what I can do as I recover from my second back surgery, and likely will remain limited for at least a few more months.
At the same time, I have to make a living, which I’m sure you can understand. As a result, we’ll implement a subscription email model likely in early March.
When that happens, we will morph into two email newsletters. One will be a paid version that will send you several emails per day once we’re fully operational. Those emails will include breaking news, columns/analysis, features, race stories, videos/Zoom calls and so much more.
We are still working on making the monthly subscription price VERY affordable. Ideally, the monthly cost will likely fall somewhere between the cost of a McDonald’s Happy Meal and a decent latte or frappe at Starbucks.
The video/Zoom channel will be a slight additional cost, only because there are inherent costs associated with using Zoom with so many folks signing on (we won’t be surprised if we get 100 or more viewers for any individual Zoom call).
The second newsletter – which will be free – will be a once- or twice-weekly edition that will primarily feature select partial content from our paid subscription model, essentially a “best of” model.
I only ask one favor of you: I’m still recovering from my second surgery and likely won’t be back to full strength until May. In the meantime, I’ll do as much as I physically can, but there will be times when some of our content may not be as expedient as if I’m 100 percent physically.
But I also know this: forget the regular doctor visits, the physical therapy and all the medications I have to take. The best therapy for me will be to get back to work as soon as I can. With The Racing Beat, I will have taken yet another step in that direction.
And remember, if there’s anything we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask. Likewise, if you have any suggestions, thoughts or concerns, please let us know at JerryBonkowski3@Gmail.com.
Thank you.
Jerry