Standing too close to the exhaust pipe
I think some folks in the racing community are a little light-heade today:
* Champ Car driver Paul Tracy, of Toronto, wants to take a crack at NASCAR. He'll test an ARCA car today in Concord, then he'll get behind the wheel of a Childress car Monday at Michigan. His goal is to race Aug. 21 at Michigan.
Tracy's not signed for 2006, so maybe he's doing this to put some heat on his current team. Or maybe Champ Car's top driver -- he's the 2003 champ and he has more career wins than any other active driver -- thinks he'll do better than the No. 33 made famous by Kerry (not Dale Jr.) Earnhardt.
* Here's the headline on Detroit Free Press columnist Mike Brudenell's column that ran Monday: Give me IRL's smaller crowds over NASCAR. According to Brudenell, about 35K fans showed up for Sunday's IRL race at MIS compared to the 160K who came to June's NASCAR race. Sure, it would be a lot of fun to eavesdrop on Chip Ganassi or ride a bike with Buddy Rice. But I'd rather brave the NASCAR crowds to watch some racing that means something.
* This final piece came from scenedaily.com:
NASCAR eyes own news service
NASCAR Chairman Brian France believes racing is not being adequately covered by the nation's newspapers and wants to create the sport's own news service for newspapers, television and radio stations, Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily reports."You're going to see us get into the content business, very similar in one respect to the NFL channel," France told a cable television industry summit, writer Andy Bernstein reports. "We're going to have to create content that is customized for media outlets."
No time table for a launch or other details were reported.
(emphasis mine)
Just because the N.Y. and L.A. Times virtually ignore the sport doesn't mean it's not getting covered. NASCAR.com and Speed Channel, although not controlled by NASCAR, already act and feels like NASCAR's propaganda arm.
This last posting has ensured me an early-morning call from our racing writer, who is on track to file 300+ (with the emphasis on the "+") stories this year. Heck, Mike Mulhern probably has filed 1,000 stories this year, some of them with properly sourced true and actual facts.
Comments (5)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
You want meaningless? Try the 26 races before the Chase for the Cup.
Posted on August 2, 2005 12:03 PM
I hope Tracy can do it, but I'm afraid that he might be Robby Gordon with bleached hair.
The IRL with 35,000 people there? More people show up for Cup practice or Pole Night at Lowe's.
NASCAR already does a good job of regulating what is said in the media. Since you mentioned Mike Mulhern, remember that show on SpeedChannel last year, "Pitbull" (I think that was name). It probably pushed the envelope a litte too much and was sent to the storage area along with Jeff Gordon's car that won the Winston 6 or 7 years ago. I'm talking about the car that Everham said had experimental parts on it and NASCAR don't conduct that experiment anymore.
Posted on August 2, 2005 12:05 PM
John, it's a shame the IRL gets such a bad rap. They have some great races, especially at the big tracks where they're bunched together.
PT would be awesome if he came to NASCAR. I hope he does, just for the attitude factor.
Posted on August 3, 2005 9:57 AM
Mike Mulhern... three thousand stories and three facts. If that many.
Posted on August 5, 2005 4:26 PM
Yes, I'm a Dale Jr fan and I hope Vickers enjoys his win that he stole at Talladega. Rookie or not he should have known better. He took out two veteran drivers including his own team mate by his greedy ambition. His apologies were not sufficient for his actions. He deserves all the "Boos" he will surely get at future races.
Sue Decker
Arlington,TX.
Posted on October 8, 2006 9:25 PM