NASCAR Media Tour: Plenty More To Tell

Look, there’s a reason I’m a writer and not a camera guy – being a videographer is way harder than it looks.

The same can be said for editing the video once you have it.

In front of the cameras or addressing a throng of reporters, Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t smile as much these days.

He speaks in a quiet, flat tone, often sounding tired. Even when the subject turns away from racing to something lighter – like his favorite hobbies – his demeanor is sometimes unchanged. Earnhardt Jr. doesn’t look like he’s having fun despite talking about having fun.

During last season’s Chase, crew chief Mike Ford became NASCAR’s version of Rex Ryan (albeit without the booming voice and the foot fetish videos).

Like the New York Jets coach, Ford raised eyebrows with the comments he directed toward a team that others perceived to be better.

Never one to shy away from an opportunity to learn or experience something different, Carl Edwards planned his big offseason trip to a place where many Americans would never think to vacation: Vietnam.

Edwards and a few friends spent 10 days in Vietnam exploring the country and riding bikes, learning about another culture all along the way.

When Tony Stewart agreed to show up for Joe Gibbs Racing’s 20th anniversary media event on Thursday, he probably figured his former boss would throw around a few funny stories from their 12-year partnership.

But when Gibbs began to recall how he recruited Stewart to join JGR, Stewart quickly realized he was getting more than he bargained for.

In some ways, the NASCAR media tour is like summer camp: You get together with a bunch of people, take field trips all over the place and eat all your meals together.

And then, just like camp, it suddenly ends.

At least it started off well.

Brian France, proudly standing before the assembled media and a live TV audience for his annual “State of the Sport” address, listed off NASCAR’s accomplishments from the past year and let the anticipation build for the big announcement.

The great thing about visiting Hendrick Motorsports on the media tour is reporters can get about a dozen stories worth of material in about an hour.

But with only a short time to tell you about those stories before the next stop (NASCAR’s announcement about the 2011 rule changes), I only have a chance to share one of them for now.

I really like my job most of the time, but some days kick way more ass than others.

This has been one of them.

Richard Petty is one happy dude. So is AJ Allmendinger. And Marcos Ambrose. And, frankly, everyone who survived at Richard Petty Motorsports.

Against tall odds, the organization somehow made it through a tremendous financial crisis when the previous owners ran into problems and planned to shutter the race team last fall.

It was an early start to Day 3 of the Media Tour, with reporters still rubbing the sleep from their eyes and many likely wondering if they were still dreaming.

After all, the first stop of the morning seemed somewhat surreal: Breakfast in a furniture store.

After a pre-dinner reception hosted by TRG Motorsports (that was Stop No. 9, at which nothing was announced and therefore not blog-worthy), the media was treated to a nice meal provided by ESPN and Red Bull Racing.

ESPN had one brief announcement: Rusty Wallace’s contract has been extended through the end of ESPN’s current NASCAR TV deal, which means he’ll be on your TV sets until at least the end of 2014.

When Miller Lite announced last April it was moving its NASCAR sponsorship from Kurt Busch to Brad Keselowski beginning in 2011, some garage insiders seemed surprised.

Keselowski didn’t have a reputation as being much of a party guy – or even much of a drinker. So his alliance with Miller – a company whose presence in NASCAR exists in order to sell truckloads of beer – initially seemed like an odd fit.

First of all, you’re probably wondering how this blog jumped from Stop No. 4 to Stop No. 8. Let me explain.

The fifth stop was a breakfast where Michael Waltrip spoke about his new book and his recollections of Dale Earnhardt (if you hadn’t heard, the 10th anniversary of Earnhardt’s fatal accident is rapidly approaching). Stop No. 6 was a visit from Nationwide Series drivers, and Stop No. 7 was a trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway to see the site of the “World’s Largest HD Screen” currently being installed there.

Fox Sports chairman David Hill called for shorter NASCAR races and pledged to put the focus back on the drivers during an interview session with reporters late Monday night.

Hill, an outgoing Australian with a booming voice, immediately answered “Oh yeah, definitely...absolutely” when asked if the length of NASCAR races should be reduced.

Crisp white shirts, a pristine race shop and a billionaire team owner. Yep, Penske Racing was the third stop on the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour.

Dinner was Ruby Tuesday’s (of course) and the beverage choices included Miller Lite (naturally). Dessert was a lengthy sponsor plugfest that recalled the Ganassi stop earlier in the day.

The groans began almost immediately.

Speed NASCAR analyst Larry McReynolds, working as the M.C. for the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing media tour stop, was wrapping up the program when he decided to offer some “off-script” remarks to the 200-plus journalists in attendance.

After lunch, the media piled into a trio of buses for the first field trip of the week, a short excursion to the Stewart-Haas Racing shop.

No real news came out of the SHR stop, except a slimmer-looking Tony Stewart mentioned he now eats five small meals per day instead of two big meals.

The media tour kicked off with a lunch and a visit from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing (although there was no one named “Earnhardt” at the function).

No one really expected Teresa Earnhardt to show up (I mean, that’s asking a lot, right?), but the media was visited by the Energizer Bunny, shown a demonstration of Energizer headlamps and was informed of a LiftMaster sponsorship via an opening garage door.

Every major NASCAR team and driver will speak with reporters this week as part of the annual preseason media tour, four days of interviews, interviews, a few meals and more interviews.

It’s a media extravaganza: More than 200 reporters from around the world (well, more like 199 Americans plus one guy from Germany) will descend upon Charlotte to get the thoughts of NASCAR competitors on how the 2011 season will unfold.