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| [Sunday] [Monday] [Tuesday] [Wednesday] [Thursday] [Friday] [Saturday] Wednesday, November 17, 1999 It's taken me a while to get back on track. My travel schedule has been very hectic lately. I was in Ft. Lauderdale a couple of weeks ago for the Thunder Road Festival, celebrating the NASCAR Winston Cup Series heading to South Florida and then returned to Miami last week for the Inaugural Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Winston Cup event at the Homestead Miami Motorsports Complex. I'm off to Atlanta tomorrow for the final Winston Cup event of the century. I usually also make it tot he final Winston Drag event in Pomona, CA, but the Homestead conflict kept me on the East Coast this year. While I was in Homestead I spent quite a while talking with Ned Jarrett, who, other than being a two-time champion himself and expert television commentator, is the father of new Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett. I discussed with Ned about how proud they must be of Dale, not only for his most recent accomplishment, but more for the way he has matured into one of America's great race car drivers. Ned was beaming as the proud papa should have been. The Jarretts, as they say, come from good stock. Dale will make a great Winston Cup champ and the Jarrett family will have a great time whooping it up in the big apple. I am sure Dale and his crew are glad to have the anxiety of the Winston Cup championship behind them and can enjoy the final race. Actually, the same things I just mentioned about Dale also are true for his car owner Robert Yates and his crew chief, Todd Parrott. I remember when Robert was regarded as the top engine builder on the circuit and it's obvious he has passed his knowledge on to his son. And I remember when Todd first went to work for a race team. His father, Buddy, was Richard Petty's crew chief, I was working for STP and Todd was a green horn in the sport. He was starting his racing experience by welding jack stands and sweeping the floor in Petty's Level Cross shop. I am proud of Todd. He's regarded as one of the most talented pit road coaches in the sport today. One of the big topics in South Florida was the new NASCAR television package. Some at NASCAR tried to say it wasn't about the money. Most of the conversation considered why ESPN was left out of the TV deal. ESPN has, afterall, invested considerably in the sport and is regarded as the network to turn to for Winston Cup television coverage. I would personally credit both Winston and ESPN for bringing the sport to where it is today. Winston is still hanging in there, but it looks like ESPN is being booted out at the end of 2000. I was saddened to learn of the death of Clay Earles, President and founder of Martinsville Speedway. The very first Winston Cup I ever attended at Martinsville Speedway and while I didn't know it at the time, probably influenced my decision to enter the sport and sports marketing. The Earles family was always very cordial and helpful and I send them my condolences. They are just good people. TIME WARNER DROPPED THE BALL ON ME. When I returned from Miami I has received a call from Time Warner because I had signed up for the earlybird package for the RoadRunner cable modem service. The cable company had said earlier they would be rolling out cable modem service in Winston-Salem in 1999, so I thought they were calling to say it was ready to go. I checked their web site and they were offering a discount if you installed the service prior to the end of the year. However, when I finally got the representative on the phone, she sheepishly said she had made a mistake. Yes it's true that Time Warner is rolling out cable modem service in Winston-Salem in December, but unfortunately I live in the wrong part of town. She said that she had learned after placing the first call to me that we were not in the area to be serviced at this time. Probably will be second or third quarter of 2000 before broadband reaches my house. In the meantime I had talked with a service technician I casually know who works for Time Warner. He was surprised that I had received the call because, knowing the computer geek that I am, he knew I would want the service immediately. It was close, but no cigar or me. He said my house happens to be on what Time Warner calls the Rural Hall node and they only have the Winston-Salem node ready to go at this point. Unfortunately, I am less than a half-mile from the end of the Winston-Salem node. However, there may be a silver lining to this cloud. 1. BellSouth may offer ADSL service before Time Warner brings my neighborhood into the digital era; 2. The Rural Hall node may be better because, as its name indicates, it serves a more rural area and I may not have as much contention for bandwidth. We'll see. For now, I'll just keep paying those pricey ISDN charges. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN WHAT BEEN HAPPENING at the nation's largest computer show COMDEX, check out C|Net's review of the new items being hailed at geekdom. COMDEX is usually where the players in the computer industry show off their new ideas and products, which eventually filter down to us.
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