NEWS AND NOTES

NASCAR Calls mandatory meeting for all Cup drivers Friday: NASCAR called a mandatory meeting for Sprint Cup drivers and owners before Friday's practice at Michigan International Speedway in which president Mike Helton encouraged everyone to keep the fans first. NASCAR officials and drivers both agreed this simply was a reminder that during these tough economic times when fans are paying $4 a gallon for gas to travel to tracks that drivers should be more positive about the sport. In other words stop complaining about the new car that has become a target for everything that is wrong in NASCAR's premier series, from creating boring races to being so hot that the drivers are at risk. "My interpretation was that the drivers should be thankful for the position they're in and should be more positive in where this car is going to be in a year or two," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. Jeff Burton agreed. "In today's conversation you could have heard whatever you wanted to hear," he said. "I bet if you asked every driver what they heard they would have said something different. What I heard was things aren't bad. Let's don't forget we can make things better."
NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said this so-called "Come to Jesus" was a reminder of chairman Brian France's preseason back-to-basics message. That the timing was a few days after the lawsuit, he added, was merely coincidental and that the lawsuit wasn't discussed. "We remind them if it weren't for the fans we wouldn't be here," he said. "The fans are paying over $4 a gallon for gasoline. [We told them] to keep the fans in mind when you're talking, to show your appreciation to the fans. Without them this wouldn't be like it is." The criticism reached an all-time high last weekend at Pocono. Denny Hamlin and several others implied the car was much hotter than the older car and possibly put drivers at risk. Series director John Darby understands. He said there are a lot of things available to keep the cars cooler "that's not being used." He reiterated that NASCAR has no plan to change the car until it's been through an entire season.(in part from ESPN.com)

Two officials named in a $225 million racial discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit against NASCAR have been placed on administrative leave for violating company policy, The Associated Press has learned. The officials, who were not immediately identified, were sent home from Kentucky Speedway on Friday evening, a person familiar with the NASCAR investigation told the AP. The person requested anonymity because NASCAR's investigation is ongoing. NASCAR sent a team of investigators from its human resources and legal offices to Kentucky this weekend to interview those named in the suit. Of 27 interviews conducted away from the track Thursday and Friday, two officials were found to have engaged in behavior that violated NASCAR policy. Their leave is indefinite. In addition, investigators failed to uncover a single instance where Grant complained to her supervisors or other NASCAR employees about the way she was treated, the person familiar with the investigation told AP. Grant has said she followed the chain of command all the way to Nationwide Series director Joe Balash, but stopped short of telling human resources because she was reprimanded by that department for a separate incident two weeks after lodging her complaint. She said she viewed the reprimand, which included a threat of termination, as retaliation for complaining to Balash. Balash was not one of the officials placed on leave Friday. Grant's lawyer, Benedict P. Morelli of Morelli Ratner PC, was not immediately available for comment.