Passing Lane

A NASCAR BLOG BY Mike Hembree

TEXT SIZE: Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Reset Text Size
No Comments. Leave a Comment

Digg This
Add to Del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
Email
Print

Tour de Humpy

Jan 25

The preseason media tour organized by Lowe’s Motor Speedway (which does a masterful job with it, by the way) is over. What have we learned?

1. That media people can eat. A lot. And often. This is not news. It is comforting to note, however, that in the rapidly changing world of news-gathering, some things remain the same.

2. That not much has changed in the public persona at Dale Earnhardt Inc. Although team owner Teresa Earnhardt roamed among dining members of the media and shared a few smiles with them, she still has no clue how the fourth estate works or what she should do to exist peacefully with it. Hint: Not allowing media members to interview her drivers, crew chiefs and other
team personnel after the visit’s formal session (as every other team has done in the quarter-century history of the tour) was a very unfortunate mistake.

3. That Dale Earnhardt Jr., who seems to be a distant memory at DEI, is fitting into Hendrick Motorsports seamlessly. During a two-hour visit by media members, Junior was both professional and folksy, and he and Hendrick’s other superstar drivers seem more than compatible.

4. That bus transportation beats the airlines hands-down.

5. That, despite the grind of the season, virtually everybody is ready to get back at it. The holidays were fun. Racing is more fun.