Been a while since I've posted. I've been really busy starting up another business and maintaining the one I have. Sometimes I really have to concentrate to make coherent thoughts to blog about, and lately I've needed all my concentration to be directed toward these other projects. As Bart says, Ay Carumba. (Yes, I lifted that from Lileks, but it's a good phrase)

Well, looks like Stewart has been able to focus enough to potentially pull off the Winston Cup Championship. Good for him. The only problem is, if he wins, he'll never be able to get the press off his ass.

In an interview in this month's Speedway Illustrated Magazine, Brian France comments that the national coverage of the sport does not mirror the popularity that it has with the public. Bill France also complains that if the sport were covered by popularity, it would be the lead story every Sunday night and on the front page on Monday. Instead, he claims that they are in the back of the newspaper and absent from many if not most TV reports. While I am a large racing fan and have worked in the industry for a few years, I think tht NASCAR get's all of the coverage it deserves. I don't think coverage commensurate with popularity has anything to do with it. Let's break it down and look at the reasoning. What can a broadcaster/news organization use from Sunday's race?

1) You have the same 43 drivers/teams all at the same venue for a three hour race. Week after week it's the same group. Minor changes occasionally, but generally there are no changes.

2) When interviewed, the drivers all have the exact same thing to say: "We got a great car, hope to win the race and Goodyear sure brought a great tire, sponsor plug, sponsor plug"

3) The noteworthy highlights: Between 0 and 5 crashes per race and one victory lane interview.

OK, now compare that with other team based sports around the country that can be covered.

1) On any one day you have 15 to 20 baseball games played throughout the country, each team having 9-15 different players who can all make their own contribution, and therefore create their own highlight footage with each swing of the bat.

2) The players are on a rotation. Different guys every day.

3) While the baseball guys really don't say anything much more interesting than the race guys, there are more of them to go around and say nothing and get a news blip.( Just remember the scene from Bull Durahm where Costner teaches the rookie how to handle the reporters). A race can be summed up in several short clips and until there is a wholesale change in the structure of the sport, they will never rate the coverage that the ball sports rate. Want more coverage? Then split the series up and create 2 or 3 races per weekend in venues all around the country. Sure there are local NASCAR sanctioned races all over the country, but NASCAR does a piss poor job of promotion and coverage. Only in the past year or so have they devoted consistant coverage on NASCAR.com to the lower series. No, NASCAR will stay where it's at, in terms of coverage, until someone up high realizes that while they have a good core product, it can be summed up in too few words.

Actual quote from a real crew chief when a crew member wanted to spend a few days with his newborn after the birth, "God damnit, You can either stay at home and make babies or you can go racing, which is it going to be?"

It is an interesting dicotomy between marketing visions and reality. How bad have you got it?

You’ve heard of NASCAR fans naming their first-born after their favorite driver. Now an Ohio couple has named their child after the whole sport. Malinda Yerian of Logan, Ohio, has been a NASCAR fan as long as she can remember. She had no choice, growing up the daughter of a “race car nut.” Now Malinda has gone a bit bonkers herself, naming her son after her family’s favorite sport. On April 16, Malinda and William II Yerian became the proud parents of a new son that they named, Winston Iroc Nascar Yerian. “My dad (Dirk) is a race car nut,” Malinda told the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette. “He has recorded every race on VHS since he was 18 years old. I’ve been going to races with him ever since I can remember. Hopefully, he (Winston Iroc Nascar) will be a big NASCAR fan.” Winston will likely grow up a NASCAR fan and maybe even a championship competitor. He certainly has the initials for it: WIN

Well, it looks like Jeff Gordon has received an honor that only the most sought after and top celebrities receive. He made the cover of one of those scumbag grocery store checkout isle rags because of his divorce proceedings.

On one hand it's a good thing that racing is getting that much exposure, on the other hand, no one should have to go through the crap that those rags put people through, no matter who they are.

Every once in a while you run across a unique person that makes you step back and say, 'that's just plain cool.' I met one such person this weekend at Coleridge Speedway where I take photographs of racing go-karts. His name is Cale Watkins, he's a quadriplegic, and he's a race car driver.

Cale was involved in a skiing accident a few years ago and was paralyzed from the neck down. Clinically he's diagnosed as quadriplegic, he doesn't have control of his hands, but he does have control of his arms. This little bit of movement and some inventive engineering has allowed him to drive a racing go-kart, compete with the fully capable regulars and run up front.

I had been taking pictures most of the day and was taking a break. I heard one of the other driver talking about 'that paralyzed guy'. I said "Paralyzed? you mean like 'can't move'?" My thoughts were running wild as the engineer inside me kicked into gear. I immediatley wondered how they had the kart set up to allow him to control it.

Kudos to Turner Sports Interactive for turning around NASCAR.com. Under its previous control it was just a sales tool for the corporate giant, Time Warner. It was *very* obvious that their only goal was to advertise their various subsidiaries. It appeared, that they had no intention of providing comprehensive coverage to any series other than Winston Cup.

Turner is now providing coverage for all of the NASCAR touring series. Now we can follow our local favorites in their journeys to the top, or watch them flame-out somewhere in the middle like so many others have.

It's a refreshing change from the 'Gordon/Earnhardt/Stewart/Labonte' roundy round that we had to scratch through to get to information about anyone else.