FanHouse Nascar Media Watch

After what the Charlotte Observer is calling a "loud confrontation" at a Manchester, N.H., hotel prior to last Sunday's Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, TNT play-by-play announcer Bill Weber won't be returning to the booth in 2009.

The network announced the move Wednesday, and also confirmed that Ralph Sheheen will continue in the replacement role for the final two TNT races this weekend in Daytona Beach and next at Chicagoland.

Sheheen did a bang-up job in his first coverage of a Sprint Cup race on Sunday, but the bigger question surrounds what exactly Weber did to force himself out of the booth for what will ultimately be half of TNT's NASCAR coverage.

I received the news that Charlotte Observer NASCAR writer David Poole had passed away of a heart attack Tuesday while I was on-hold waiting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to call into a teleconference.

It didn't seem possible. I had just sat with David, 50, in the press box in Talladega, Ala. two days ago. I'd shared press boxes and media centers with him since he joined the NASCAR beat in 1997.

With all due respect to Earnhardt as the interview went on, all the talk of drafting, restrictor plates and metal fencing became not nearly as important as the day before, the hour before.

NASCAR fans, the point has been taken: April Fool's Day jokes just don't fly.

A day after many fans thought the NASCAR world as a whole was crumbling to the ground, we've learned that NASCAR fans just don't take kindly to false news reports in an attempt to be irreverent and humorous. The violator of the NASCAR people's trust was automobile magazine Car and Driver, and everywhere you looked on April 1, there was a reminder of their egregious error.

Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR's first Sprint Cup driver to win three consecutive championships in 30 years, made an appearance on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien Monday. On the show, Johnson talked about his recently injured middle finger and made some interesting comments a tremendous 2001 crash he was involved in.



Without a doubt, Johnson's visit to the show took on some extra meaning after his finger injury required minor surgery just weeks before the 51st Daytona 500.

Never will a season go by in the NASCAR world without Speedway Motorsports, Inc., chairman Bruton Smith stirring things up.

Fans got a glimpse of that earlier this week during the annual Sprint Cup Media Tour hosted by one of his tracks, Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Smith, answering a question from a reporter on attendance issues, brought up an interesting point for the sport as a whole to consider.

Should NASCAR be putting local blackouts on races that aren't sold out?

Thanks to a new deal that the IRL IndyCar Series inked with the cable television network Versus in 2008, ESPN ended up with just five of the series' 17 2009 events after being the permanent home of the open wheelers for many years.

And, as a result, the Worldwide Leader ended up with a glut of talent for its broadcasting efforts -- forcing a few benefits into the hand of NASCAR television watchers.

Those benefits, as the broadcaster announced today with a press release, include expanded NASCAR roles for standard IndyCar lap-by-lap point man Marty Reid and longtime IndyCar pit reporter Vince Welch.

Reid, who I think is a much more exciting lap-by-lap guy than ESPN's Sprint Cup guy Jerry Punch (he reminds of the nearly always monotonous Joe Buck on FOX), will be taking on a more pronounced lap-by-lap role in the second half of the Nationwide Series season. In the past, Punch has been responsible for the majority of Nationwide and Sprint Cup broadcasts in the second half of the season.

And, as many of you know, 2009 won't be Reid's first Nationwide Series rodeo as the broadcaster has done a handful of races in the past two years in an effort to give Punch a break here and there.

Hopefully the old motto of "any publicity is good publicity" is ringing true this week for NASCAR fans after nearly every news outlet reported the same thing Thursday: NASCAR has settled a $225 million lawsuit over discrimination.

The case, filed with just as much if not more fanfare back in June, involved a former female official -- Mauricia Grant -- claiming sexual harassment, racial discrimination and other not-so-rosy things that happened during her tenure with NASCAR.

Grant was the first black female to serve as an official within the sport.

News of the settlement came via NASCAR and both sides are refusing to divulge exact figures financially, but a terms of the deal included neither side taking fault for the actions cited in the original lawsuit. And knowing that NASCAR suspended and then fired two officials named in the suit after an internal investigation earlier this summer, I'd imagine the sanctioning body realized it was in a case it couldn't win outright.

I'm sure there were a few faults in Grant's case -- they are almost necessary when you file such a large suit -- that harmed some of claims, but in the long run, this settlement indicates two things to me.

"We love ya, NASCAR, but not that much."

Dr. Jerry Punch made that sound so simple and so easy Sunday afternoon at Phoenix International Raceway when ABC, the network he was doing NASCAR play-by-play for, had some 'other network obligations' to get to.

The NASCAR race -- one that still had an high possibility for drastic changes to the season championship standings -- was to be trumped by ABC Sunday night prime-time programming. Maybe ABC was wanting to urgently get 'World News' on the air? Or maybe Charles Gibson couldn't wait any longer for his post-show dinner?

Nah, ABC thought, Tom Bergeron and a monkey scratching his butt on "America's Funniest Home Videos" were far more important than seeing Jimmie Johnson -- who has now staked a claim with his soon-to-be third-straight NASCAR championship as one of the sport's all-time greats -- potentially win the championship (or lose it in dramatic fashion).

And so, NASCAR racing turned to monkey butt itching on ABC, forcing fans to catch the final segment of the race on ESPN2.

It was a horrible call on ABC's part and down right slap in the face to NASCAR fans.

Recently, Wrangler Jeans was kind enough to invite FanHouse down to Charlotte to interview Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and -- I kid you not -- ride a couple laps in the 88 car. (Watch the full video of Will Brinson's ride with Dale Jr.) What follows is the conversation between Junior and myself about Hendrick Motorsports, Jimmie Johnson's dominance and how Amp is secretly a better post race drink than Budweiser.

Will Brinson: Thanks for having us down here to hang out, ride around in cars, and get our NASCAR feet wet.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Yeah, man, good to have you.

WB: I want to talk about the Sprint Cup for just a second. Jimmie [Johnson] is locked up, right? He's got his third straight title? What are your thoughts on that?

DE: Yeah, I think Jimmie's on record to set a new record, even to write history. I said to him the other day, "Man you're writing history". And I'm happy for him, he's a great guy ... I say to him all the time: "If people only knew who you are ...". But I think people do know Jimmie is and know he's a good guy. But man, he really deserves it; he works the hardest of any driver I know to stay in shape, to understand what's going on out there and to be ready do his job every Sunday. They're hard to beat man, and they earned it.

When the guy at the Richard Petty School of Racing said that "this will change your life" while referring to hopping in a stock car and making a bunch of left turns, I snickered. I'm sorry, I did. How on Earth can you possibly justify moving at a rapid speed in an automobile as something that would alter the course of your existence? Exactly. You can't.

Or can you? Check the vid below to see what happens when Dale Earnhardt, Jr., allows a blogger (yours truly) in his 88 car for a few turns around Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Oh, and make sure to read the interview with Dale too, where he talks about Amp, the Chase, Jimmie Johnson and his new bar in Charlotte.)



Okay, so "life changing" is kind of a stretch ... but, as you can tell from my Brah-ed out reaction to the whole thing -- "IN-TENSE", etc. -- it was a pretty ridiculous experience.

Should you ever have the opportunity, I would highly recommend it.