Another NASCAR writer off the tour

I only covered one NASCAR stop, but shared a meal with Monte a time or two and he treated people he'd just met very graciously and welcome you in (and tell a ton of stories in the process). He's hilarious, but he's also very good at what he does. This is unfortunate, and someone would be very wise to hire him immediately. Monte has a national name with his weekly NASCAR page.

 

We can't forget about the passing of Chris Eckonomacki, either. Who is left that has been with NASCAR since the early days?

 

1. Economaki.
2. Who is left WHO has been...

Other than that, good post.

 

awesome

 

Welcome, Chris Eckonomacki!

 

> With Thomas Pope moving into the SE chair last year and now this, there aren't going to be any NASCAR writers with any history left. <

I'm not gone, I'm kinda on self-imposed house arrest. (And at least guys such as Kenny Bruce and Mike Hembree around still around and on the beat, they're just not doing the print thing anymore.)

When I was promoted, the ASE position went away. I can't justify being gone to Martinsville and Bristol in the spring now for three or four days during ACC/NCAA tournament time. I had another staffer cover the 600 at Charlotte - first time I'd missed that since I started at The Fayetteville Observer in '78 - because he likes racing and it kept me from having four straight weeks of the stuff (though one was a "home game" at the dirt track). And for the past two years, after a Friday night in the office of prep football insanity, I decided against pulling that shift, driving to Charlotte on Saturday morning, covering a night race on deadline, then driving home Sunday morning - and starting all over again Monday.

I was never an Al Pearce/Tom Higgins/Mulhern/Monte/Poole "road warrior" covering them all, but I did get to about a dozen a year back in the day. The loss of North Wilkesboro, Rockingham and one at Darlington killed off five of those.

(Thanks for remembering, BTW ...)

TP

 

When I was in Richmond, we were covering probably 28-30 at the peak. We might have done more when Nate Ryan was there, no clue. Then we started to scale back, then we hired a second writer to split it into two parts with each of us also working desk, then we both left and Richmond had no racing writer.

Sad, really.

 

Ben Blake did pretty much the whole tour when he had the beat back in the 1990s, and so did Skip Wood and Rea White (can't remember what her last name was before she got married) ...

 

Lord, covering the tour all out must have been amazing.

 

> With Thomas Pope moving into the SE chair last year and now this, there aren't going to be any NASCAR writers with any history left. <

Institutional knowledge in the print business died a flaming death at least four years ago.

 

Thank God for Bill Kiser and his knowledge of Busch/Nationwide and of course, Stupid Trucks.... (Something that's stayed with me for 15 years....)

 

I miss Mike Mulhern and his seven-paragraph quotes.