NASCAR ON FOX STAYS GREEN.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

It's sports television's version of getting caught in a speed trap.

Of the overall-best 11 shiny statues that Fox was asked to take home from the Sports Emmy Awards ceremony this week in New York, three were for its coverage of NASCAR during 2001. That included one of the top honors - live sports series.

Say what you will about self-congratulatory awards shows. But being recognized ain't too shabby considering it was Fox's first year of pointing its cameras and microphones at the painted cars that go around the giant paved circles.

So, with this so-called standard of excellence now established so quickly, how does the network do better with NASCAR on lap 2?

``After our final race in Sonoma last season, we kept all the production people in town the next day and did a debriefing on what was the good, the bad and the ugly of our coverage, and we decided let's start right now on making it better,'' Fox Sports executive producer Ed Goren said.

``No matter how good we thought we were, we needed to want to be better.''

Fox made some subtle modifications over last year, which viewers of this weekend's Southern California event, the Winston Cup's NAPA Auto Parts 500 (Sunday, 11:30 a.m.) and the Busch Series' Auto Club 300 (Saturday, 1 p.m.) from California Speedway in Fontana might or might not immediately notice.

Regardless, the network, which also won Emmys for its NASCAR remote technical team and graphics, expects to crank up the viewership to make the Fox hierarchy feel somewhat content in these times of dwindling advertising dollars available for sports on TV.

A few months ago, Forbes magazine reported that Fox's parent company, News Corp., had to take a $909 million write down for the second quarter, a direct reflection attributed to poor returns on the long-term investments in the NFL ($4.4 billion in rights fees for eight years), Major League Baseball ($2.5 billion for six years) and NASCAR ($1.9 billion for eight years).

We've read about the flat-line ratings for the NFL and MLB, but NASCAR was supposed to be bucking the trend.

In its first year of televising Winston Cup, Fox saw a 6.4 rating for 19 races, a jump over the 5.3 that ABC and CBS did over the same time period in 2000. Likewise, NBC and TNT, which had the final 20 races of the season, was up 34 percent.

Even Busch Series ratings on fX do a full ratings point better than an NHL Stanley Cup playoff game on ABC. And the one Sunday Winston Cup race on fX from Virginia a few weeks back became the most-watched show ever for the cable channel.

So far this season, though, Fox's overall ratings are about the same as a year ago - even though last week's race at Talledaga had an impressive 7.0, which squashed the NBA playoffs opposite it on NBC, including Lakers-Portland (5.9). But even consistently decent ratings aren't automatically going to bring new ad juice. Not right away at least.

``No matter how good the product or ratings are, the marketplace can be too squirrelly to feel comfortable,'' said Goren, noting that Fox's ad sales on NASCAR are sold out this year.

``After a struggle last year, the advertisers have finally bought in to our success. We brought in 10 new advertisers and it'll get better next year, hopefully, as the NBA contract concludes and sponsors who have had long-term deals will take a serious look at NASCAR instead of the NBA on cable. That's a positive.''

The grandstands in Fontana this weekend might be overflowing, but L.A.'s ratings for NASCAR are about half the national trend. Still, when Fox hitched onto the NASCAR bumper in 1999, it knew it had a popular product, and it'll stay with it through at least 2008.

``This has been a special gem for us,'' added Goren, who had done many big NASCAR events for CBS in his career. ``I marvel how the sport has become so consumer friendly and television friendly. They were successful before Fox, and as far as live audiences and marketing, they've become a bigger success. It's been win-win for everyone.''

--Baby on board: Fox's Jeanne Zelasko, who would have been part of the NASCAR broadcast Sunday as a pit reporter, has her own pit-crew duties at home in Saugus after delivering a baby boy via Caesarian section last Friday.

Zelasko and husband Curt Sandoval, the KABC Channel 7 sportscaster, got to drive home with Trevor Jayden Sandoval (8 pounds, 14 ounces, 21 inches) on Tuesday. Zelasko said she'll be ready to be host for Fox's baseball coverage when it begins in early June.

--Where's Walton? A mission to report from 30 NBA playoff games in 30 days on what he calls his ``Love It Live Tour'' has already hit a warped bump for Bill Walton.

He taped an appearance on ``Late Night With David Letterman'' in New York late Wednesday afternoon, then jetted off to Detroit for the Pistons-Raptors game that night. After the contest, he was able to watch himself back in New York about midnight.

``We're moving at hyper speed,'' said Walton, who shows up in his tie-dyed T-shirts at each stop and gives them away to fans. He said as he was at the NBA Store in New York stocking up on more shirts Wednesday (you can order them online for $19.95 at http://store.nba.com) he ran into actor and fellow UCLA basketball alumnus Mike Warren and gave him one.

Walton's journey started with NBC assignments Saturday in Sacramento, and Sunday for the Lakers-Portland Game 1 at Staples Center. Monday, he was in New Jersey. Tuesday it was Charlotte. Thursday it was Boston.

Today? Our guess is Indiana. It's the only NBA playoff game.

``The beautiful thing is we'll get up and say, 'OK, where are we going?' '' said Walton, who will be on NBC again Saturday in Seattle and Sunday in Portland (Lakers-Blazer Game 3). ``I don't plan too far in advance. I want to get the best game possible.''

Walton, whose midweek reports can be found on NBA.com and on NBA TV, said he got the idea for this long, strange journey last June as he lay in bed after his latest ankle-fusion surgery, the 31st operation as a result of his playing days.

He can't run through airports any more, but he said added security hasn't slowed him down.

``I travel light,'' he said. ``I just have a laptop, a cell phone and some reading material. And I buy fresh clothes as I go.''

Good luck finding anything in size XXXL at some duty-free boutique.

--Injury update: Walton and Steve Jones will continue to work with play-by-play man Tom Hammond this weekend as Marv Albert takes more time off to recuperate from an auto accident eight days ago.

Albert, who was knocked unconscious, suffered a broken ankle, concussion, gashed tongue and bruises when the limo he was in slammed into a stalled delivery truck on the New Jersey interstate at 3 a.m.

Mike Fratello, the NBC studio analyst who was with Albert during the accident and was able to call for help, was back doing games for TNT this week and returns to do reports for NBC this weekend.

``We were both very lucky,'' Albert told the New York Times on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Paul Sunderland will be doing some pinch-hitting again but not for Chick Hearn. With Albert out and the broadcast teams changing, Sunderland goes to Utah to work with P.J. Carlisimo for Jazz-Kings Game 3.

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--Beyond the Kobe: In Fox Sports Net's latest episode of ``Beyond the Glory'' (FSN, Sunday at 8 p.m. and FSN2, Monday at 6 p.m.), the Lakers' Kobe Bryant gets the opportunity to tell his side of things. Also interviewed are coach Phil Jackson, former GM Jerry West, Bryant's former high school coach Gred Downer. Not interviewed: Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe's dad, Jelly Bean. That would have given much more insight.

--Wednesday-afternoon baseball. Not to sound corny, but it's one of the simple pleasures ESPN has provided this year in its Major League Baseball coverage. Where else can a Detroit-Kansas City matchup in a sparsely filled Kauffman Stadium make the day seem that much better, even as background noise? It beats a rerun of ``Gomer Pyle, USMC.'' Next week: Phillies at Giants.

--At least they're honest. On SoccerTV.com, it is noted that the WUSA season-opening game April 13 between San Jose and Boston on the PAX Network registered a 0.095 Neilsen rating, making it ``the dubious distinction of being the least-watched nationally televised sports event on broadcast television'' for the week of April 8-14. It even attracted fewer viewers than the Wal-Mart FLW Fishing Tour show (0.12), which aired on the same network on the same weekend.

WHAT CHOKES

--ESPN claims more than 25.4 million people watched some portion of its 17-hour NFL draft coverage last weekend. ``It's a little bit like watching paint dry, I'll give you that,'' NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said on Tuesday's edition of ``Pardon the Interruption'' on ESPN, ``but on a Saturday in April when nothing else is going on, what's wrong with it?'' Nothing, really. Except that going head to head with the draft last weekend on TV were just eight NBA playoff games, five NHL playoff games, six Major League Baseball games, two tennis tournaments, a key Kentucky Derby prep race, the last two rounds of a PGA event, NASCAR, boxing, soccer and a special presentation of ``Air Bud: Golden Receiver'' on the ABC Family Channel. Not to mention, there was probably a fishing show sponsored by a discount department store chain that could've been located somewhere.

--We know Fox Sports Net 2 didn't do the Dodgers-Pirates series from Pittsburgh this week. But if the series was covered by the Fox Sports Net affiliate in Pittsburgh, why not save a few bucks and just send us that feed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday? There has to be some contractual red tape to deal with, but the programming would have been appreciated.

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