Wrapping things up

By Tim Cottrell
Sports Writer/Designer
Published: April 26, 2009

Well, we’re through with everything here. I’ve filed both my stories, and I only hate them a little, which is almost unheard of for me.

The postrace press conferences were interesting. Ryan Newman was really insightful and interesting and intelligent-sounding, something you don’t see a whole lot in the world of sports. And Dale Earnhardt Jr. was slightly less polished than I expected, although he may have just still been upset he didn’t win the race.

While Brad Keselowski was very personable with us scribes, I really didn’t like his answers at all, which is why you may notice his conspicuous absence from either my notebook or what we in the business refer to as a sidebar (basically secondary story). I’ll provide links either tonight or in the morning, depending on what happens.

Take, for instance, his one and only quote about the safety issue, which really took the forefront once we were informed that seven fans were injured as a result of the Carl Edwards wreck:

Q: You said there’s always an element of danger for a driver and we know that, but with injuries in the stands I don’t know if you want to take a stab at this or not, but this track, as it is, is it safe for fans to watch a race?
A: I don’t know. Define what safe is.
I don’t know, this track is always kind of weird. A couple of years ago, I guess it’s been a long time ago, a guy running ARCA Series got killed driving a street car around here through the parking lot. You can get hurt doing anything. I can get hurt stepping off this - stepping off this platform here.
What is safe? I don’t know. I’m not the guy to define that.

Now before you say it, I am well aware that this was his first win, and probably first time speaking to a lot of reporters. And anyone who knows me knows I say worse things every day. But something about it rubbed me the wrong way. And again, I’m not saying he’s a bad guy. He seems like a fine guy. I just wan’t crazy about his answers, but I imagine he’ll get better with time.

So how was my first in-person NASCAR experience?

Well, I’ve gotta say for reporters it’s not much different than just sitting at home. You can mill about in the pits if you want, but people are always running around and you just feel really nervous the whole time. The vantage point isn’t very good to see much of anything - you see tiny slivers of track and, because of all the stuff around, you can’t even see the other grandstands.

But it was good to finally see at least a portion of what the fuss was about. The traffic might be a dealbreaker for me to ever return though. But we’ll see.

Until then, I bid you adieu.