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NASCAR Media Tour Hits Charlotte

This year, our correspondent was one of the hundred or so journalists picked for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Media Tour presented by Lowe’s Motor Speedway. here’s a brief report on the day’s activities.

The 2005 edition of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Media Tour Presented by Lowe’s Motor Speedway brought over a hundred of the world’s journalists together for a preview of the coming NASCAR season. “The Tour” is not a hard news happening but rather a way for the media to get acquainted with each other and with the drivers they’ll be writing about in the coming season.

Only rarely will a surprise announcement make the Tour, usually most stories are the sort of background information that makes writing race reports, features and commentary later in the season easier.

Not content to present everything in a standard press conference format, the Speedway, NASCAR and some teams use luncheons, chat sessions and even an hilarious dinner punctuated by selected questions for the drivers present. This last item led to some humorous moments as drivers slammed each other, the media and themselves.

The day’s first gathering was at lunch as MB/Sutton announced the team’s plans for Boris Said to drive in at least ten NEXTEL Cup races for the season. Said expressed his hope to be a contender to win a couple of those races. As his history is primarily road racing, he meant of course the road races at Watkins Glen and Sears Point.

Following that gathering, the horde took a bus rid up to the nearby NASCAR R&D Center across from the Concord Regional Airport. There, NASCAR officials, past champions and current drivers discussed the history, state and future of the sport. Nothing surprising here.

A break to allow hard-working journalists to write up the day’s stories so far led to a cocktail hour and then the Craftsman Truck Series dinner. Here, numerous drivers sat at tables with writers to allow the media a chance to become better acquainted with some of the sport’s stars. Another cocktail party saw the awarding of Greg Anderson’s Driver of the Year trophy by SPEEDTV.

Future plans for SPEED’s NASCAR broadcasts include an expansion of the popular Inside NEXTEL Cup Racing program from an hour to an hour and a half each Monday evening.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more reports and some of today’s photos.

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