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It’s pretty obvious that Fox is trying to wheel the TV ratings for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races. We’ve noticed “puffs” on Fox Cable News and Fox Entertainment’s alphabet network, some of them even in prime time. But, still the Texas TV ratings were down. NASCAR on Fox earned a 5.4/12 (8.6 million viewers) that weekend for racing from Texas, down -4 percent from last year’s 5.6/12.

This marks the first time this season that a regularly scheduled Fox NASCAR event has declined from last year’s rating. The primary factor in this weekend’s NASCAR decline was competition from the season’s first full Sunday afternoon MLB schedule. There are 25 MLB home markets in the U.S., and Sunday’s NASCAR race was down in 19 of them. Despite being down year-to-year, Sunday’s Texas race was still easily the highest-rated event for the day on any broadcast network. Season-to-date, NASCAR on FOX is averaging a 6.6/14 (11.1 million viewers), up +3 percent over last year’s 6.4/14. This report came from Fox PR, Jayski.com web page and StockcarGazette.com.

Eddie Cheever, the 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner and a former Formula One driver, has been named as an analyst for ESPN on ABC’s coverage of the 92nd Indianapolis 500 airing Sunday, May 25, at noon ET. Cheever, who last raced in 2006, also will serve as analyst for ESPN’s coverage of Indianapolis 500 time trials May 10-11 and 17-18 as well as Indy 500 Carb Day May 23. All telecasts will be presented in high definition.

According to the Boston Globe, the IRL 300 race at Homestead, FL pulled a .8 rating up a tenth from last year’s rating and reached 815,000 households airing on ESPN2. It was the most highly rated race on The Duce and ESPN in the last three years. It did not include the Indy 500 but the rest of the IRL events. The merging of the Champ Car and IRL Series has to be a key factor.

We are very pleased to have someone with the knowledge and experience of Eddie Cheever join our Indianapolis 500 coverage, said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. He will bring the perspective of his long and diverse career to our team and help us to better serve the fans of this great event.

Cheever will work in the ESPN booth with lead announcer Marty Reid and analyst Scott Goodyear. ESPN’s Indy Car Series pit reporter team of Jack Arute, Brienne Pedigo and Vince Welch will expand to four at Indianapolis with the addition of Jamie Little, and Brent Musburger will host the Indianapolis 500 telecast.

One of the most recognized names and faces in motorsports, Cheever won races all over the world in many different forms of racecars during his 30-year driving career. The Arizona native made 132 starts in Formula One from 1978-89, the most ever by an American driver in the history of the sport. He returned to the United States in 1990 to pursue his dream of winning the Indy 500, racing in the former CART series and then in the Indy Car Series when it launched in 1996. That same year, he set the record for the fastest race lap at Indianapolis Motor Speedway of 236.103 mph. He won the first race with the Indy Car Series new engine and chassis formula in 1997 and in 1998 won the Indianapolis 500 as a driver-owner. Cheever had five wins in 77 starts in the Indy Car Series, winning races in five consecutive seasons between 1997 and 2001. He stepped out of the cockpit following the 2002 season, then returned for a limited schedule in 2006.

“It is truly an honor and a privilege to join ABC and ESPN in providing coverage of the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500,� said Cheever. I look forward to bringing the fans the sights and sounds of all the great events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month of May. Although I will miss sitting on the grid, I hear the view from the announcer’s booth is pretty good.”

ABC is televising the Indianapolis 500 for the 44th year and ESPN is in its 13th year of Indy Car Series coverage in 2008. For 2008, all Indy Car Series races are being televised in high definition for the first time. The ESPN alliance dates back to the series inaugural 1996 event and with ABC’s first telecast of the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, a relationship that is the second-longest in sports between a network and sports property. Only CBS and the Masters have been together longer. This report came from ABC/ESPN.

MRN and PRN are at odds according to the StockCarGazette.com newsletter. Speedway Motorsports Inc. and International Speedway Corp. are suing each other over the radio broadcast rights at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. ISC has had a long-standing contract with the track to broadcast the races on its Motor Racing Network. SMI, which bought the track in January, wants the races on its own Performance Racing Network. The current contract awarding MRN the option to broadcast races at the track was signed in 2000 and required a three-year notice of termination. MRN agreed to give the track 25 percent of its advertising revenues from the events it broadcasts, and in the last seven years, MRN has paid the track more than $750,000, according to court documents. According to court records, SMI claims the contract is not enforceable and that MRN didn’t exercise its option in time to broadcast the Nationwide-Cup weekend June 28-29 and the Cup race Sept. 14.

From the Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter comes this one: Bruno Junqueira, on the difference between a Champ Car and an Indy Car. “You know, it’s a new car to all of us but really, it’s just a car with four wheels like every other race car.”

In his more than 20 years with ESPN, reporter Jack Arute has covered two college football games, and even two different sports, on the same day, on multiple occasions. However, he has never done anything approaching what he will do this weekend April 19-20. With help from the 13-hour time difference between the two locations, Arute will cover two hemispheres and more than 5,000 miles in two days as he works as a pit reporter on live telecasts of two auto races on ESPN2.

Arute will cover the Firestone Indy Car 300 for the Indy Car Series at Motegi, Japan, with the telecast starting at midnight ET Saturday, April 19 (late Friday night). He will then fly from Japan to California and work the telecast of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the final race for the Champ Car World Series, at 5 p.m. ET. Both telecasts will be presented in high definition. “Jack Arute has always brought a tremendous amount of passion to his work, and this is another example, said Rich Feinberg, ESPN vice president, motorsports. �He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to go the extra mile, or in this case, the extra 5,000 miles.”

Arute looks forward to the challenge. This actually started as a lark. “Like wouldn’t it be funny to do both Motegi and Long Beach,” said Arute, a regular member of ESPN’s Indy Car Series coverage team as well as a sideline reporter for ESPN and ABC’s college football coverage. “But then we started looking into it and saw that it could be done.”

Arute’s amazing journey begins Tuesday when he departs for Japan from Hartford, Conn., with a 13-hour flight from Chicago to Tokyo. The Indy Car Series race at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit will be run Saturday afternoon Japan time, after which he will travel two hours by bus to his hotel and spend the night. While at the hotel, he will use his laptop to study and prepare for the Long Beach telecast.

On Sunday, he will travel two more hours by bus to Tokyo’s Narita Airport, then board a 3:45 p.m. flight to Los Angeles. His flight is scheduled to arrive 9.5 hours later at 9:15 a.m., still Sunday because of the time difference, in Los Angeles. After clearing customs, he will be driven to Long Beach, arriving at approximately 11 a.m. for the 2 p.m. local time telecast. Arute will catch a red-eye flight home to Connecticut after the race.

“This became something that I personally wanted to do, despite the sacrifice, ” said Arute. “I covered the first CART race at Long Beach, and this one is going to be very special as the last Champ Car race. Fortunately, I can sleep on airplanes with no problem,” said Arute. “But I’ve asked one of the teams to have a cot in their pit at Long Beach, just in case I need it. And lots of coffee.” This item came from ABC/ESPN.

International Speedway Corp. (ISC), a promoter of motor sports entertainment activities reported a slight rise in its first quarter, reflecting income from joint venture and higher revenues, partly offset by higher one-time charges. On an adjusted basis, profit per share increased 14.3 percent and topped the Street consensus by seven cents. Further, the Daytona Beach, Florida-based company reiterated its fiscal 2008 earnings and revenue forecast, and said it remains more comfortable at the lower end of the earnings range. International Speedway posted first-quarter net income of $36.21 million, 1.1 percent higher than net income of $35.82 million in the prior year. However, earnings per share rose 6 percent to $0.71 from prior year’s $0.67, on lower share count. This report came from StockCarGazette.com.

AB-1 Motorsports rider James “the Rocket” Rispoli put his factory backed Aprilia SXV 5.5 on the box at the WERA National at Talladega last weekend. “The new 08 bike and motor ran awesome,” said Rispoli. “Power in the new engine was stout and it came off the corners harder than ever before. We need to work on some additional suspension set up stuff since I was chattering when running deep into the corners and railing the bike hard. The SV650 guys were a bit quicker this weekend but I think with a little suspension work we can get closer next time. I’m still just racing a straight up dirt bike right off the dealer floor against true road race bikes with custom suspension and hanging with them. That alone is pretty cool and says a lot about the new Aprilia motorcycles.” AB-1 Motorsports runs the factory Aprilia’s with support from Interstate Cycle located in Lake Norman, NC.

On TV this weekend there’s something for gear heads of every persuasion. On Friday ESPN2 airs Final Practice for the Nationwide Series from Mexico City at 4 p.m. Saturday get things going at midnight with the IRL Indy Car event at Motegi, Japan on ESPN2. At 11:30 a.m. The Duce returns with Nationwide Series Qualifying from Mexico. Speed kicks in with the ARCA RE/MAX Series from Iowa at 1:30 p.m. Speed continues on with the Grand Am Rolex event from Mexico City at 4 p.m. Sunday gets things going at noon with CBS offering the AMA SuperX from St. Louis. ABC comes in with the ALMS GP of Long Beach at 12:30 p.m. ESPN has the Nationwide Series go from Mexico City at 1:30 p.m. There’s more for the bike crowd with the AMA Superbikes from Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama at 3 and 5 p.m. on Speed. Topping off the long day is the Champ Car World Series go from Long Beach CA, SDD, on ESPN2. (END)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.