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NASCAR Fight Hearkens Back to Good Old Days; Interview With Tom Fox
Aired September 08, 2003 - 14:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: NASCAR drivers Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick could face punishment today for some unsportsmanlike conduct over the weekend.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The drivers and their crews squared off in a pit row row -- pit row row, I like that -- after a crash Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia. Matt Morrison joins us with more. This seems to be a trend in NASCAR these days.
MATT MORRISON, CNN SPORTS: A lot of scraping. And a couple of weeks ago it was Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch involved in some fisticuffs. And Saturday night at Richmond it was the entire teams of both Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick that were involved in a pit row row -- nice words, whoever wrote them.
It happened because late in the race, Rudd tipped the back of Harvick's car. Both were fighting for top five finishes in this one. Harvick basically went from 2nd to 16th with that little crush. And afterwards, Harvick and his entire crew met up with Rudd in pit row. Guys were stomping on Rudd's car. His team had to be restrained from getting into a flat-out fistfight with these guys.
There were no fisticuffs in this one. But both teams, and we're talking 12 members of both teams, were called to the trailers for NASCAR to be basically tongue-lashed after the race in a situation that is very ironic, because while it was both inappropriate behavior in pit row as Kevin Harvick came in crashed into Ricky Rudd's car, it was, at the same time, something that NASCAR people can't deny is probably good the for the sport.
In a situation where good guys versus bad guys has always sold the sport for 50 years, we're seeing a little bit more of that in what had become a very corporate kind of existence here over the last several years.
PHILLIPS: So how do you define inappropriate behavior? Because...
MORRISON: Any time you wreck metal.
PHILLIPS: Well, Dale Earnhardt, OK, known as "The Intimidator." He always messed with people, OK? And he didn't get in fistfights.
MORRISON: No, he didn't. And it was part of a good-old boy network that flourished for the '60s, '70s and '80s. But in the '90s when the extremely big money started to come in for NASCAR -- and we're talking about tens of millions of dollars to field a team for any given season, sponsors jumped on the bandwagon. They were going for a more corporate approach to the race. That means photogenic drivers.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: All-American boys.
O'BRIEN: Ruining the fun.
MORRISON: And there was less of a Southern, good-old boy mentality that started to pervade racing. However, the fans have never forgotten what has made this sport great. And it is conflict among the competitors and we're seeing a little bit more of that.
Now, it's an interesting dynamic this time around because we're seeing a lot of young drivers who are having a lot more success than older, established stars. We're seeing sort of a changing of the guard. Guys like Rusty Wallace and Terry Labonte and Ricky Rudd haven't had much success on the track. Guys like Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman are the guys in victory lane these days. The older guys can't be liking it too much and obviously their pit crews don't either.
O'BRIEN: It'll be interesting to see what the sport does to crack down on it. It'll be like hockey where they kind of wink and nod...
(CROSSTALK)
MORRISON: And you ask what is inappropriate behavior? Kevin Harvick smashed into Ricky Rudd's car in pit row. Any time there's a potential for danger there, you're going to get (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and fined.
O'BRIEN: All right, Matt. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
All right, gearheads, let's move to another sport, shall we? To the gridiron we go. Friday we introduced to you a college quarterback who is living his dream at 34-years-young, we will say. Tom Fox returned to school to become a starting quarterback at that powerhouse of football Blackburn College in Illinois.
Fox played his first game this weekend and he's on the phone now to tell us how it went. How did it go?
TOM FOX, 34-YEAR-OLD QUARTERBACK: Well I could safely say you are not fairweather sports casters, because you still have me back on today.
(LAUGHTER)
FOX: And it was not good for the home team on Saturday. We lost 26-0.
O'BRIEN: Ooooh. Oh, I'm so sorry.
PHILLIPS: All right, now be honest with us, OK? Do you think it's the fact, that you know, you're 34, and maybe you don't have the juice of a 19-year-old, Tom?
O'BRIEN: You go right to it?
PHILLIPS: I'm going to get right to it.
O'BRIEN: You go right for the jugular, don't you?
PHILLIPS: Or was this team a tough team?
FOX: They were a tough team. And they beat us last year. We opened with them and they beat us 40-0 last year so...
O'BRIEN: And you weren't there.
FOX: I was here. I played here two years. I never started before, though. So I've gotten in games before and actually I've played considerably better than I played this past Saturday. But Saturday was the starting quarterback, it was a little disheartening, to say the least, that we couldn't pull it out.
O'BRIEN: Well let me ask you this, what was your completion rate?
FOX: You don't have tape, do you?
No, we don't unfortunately.
(CROSSTALK)
FOX: OK, safe to say we're a running team. We try and establish the run. And if we can just leave it at that, I'd be very happy.
O'BRIEN: Were you able to hand it off to the running back OK?
FOX: Oh absolutely. Yes, no problem getting to back field at all.
PHILLIPS: Was your 13-year-old daughter there in the stands rooting you on?
FOX: No actually. I'm in Illinois, and she lives back in Montana. So she had a couple athletic games herself so she wasn't able to make it. She's going to come next month. She's going to come back with her grandmother and see a game.
O'BRIEN: All right, so we got to ask you. As long as Kyra's going for the jugular, let's go for it.
PHILLIPS: Go for a softer question?
O'BRIEN: Are you going to start the next one, do you think?
FOX: I don't know. I split time. I alternated series with a freshman that we have in here now.
And you have to be realistic, and he's a kid that's half my age, and he's a pretty good athlete and got a pretty good head on his shoulders, so I don't know. Coach, he said after the game that we were both going to see a lot of action the rest of the year. But as far as -- I hope I'm a start next week, but if not, I'll do whatever the coach needs me to.
O'BRIEN: What are you going to do this week in practice different?
FOX: Myself individually?
O'BRIEN: Yes, just to make up for it. What are you going to do? What do you need to work on?
FOX: God, I don't know. I don't know. We played a team that is pretty good and they were really quick. The team, we're going up to Minnesota this week. And the team that we're playing this weekend beat us 10-7 last year. So we're feeling like it's a pretty winnable ball game.
PHILLIPS: Tom, you have a big fan base here at CNN. So we're going to continue to follow you and check in with you, all right?
FOX: I appreciate that.
O'BRIEN: At very least we'll talk a week from today, maybe we'll check in with you on Friday if we have time. You're just going to be our personal quarterback for the season.
(LAUGHTER)
FOX: I can handle that.
O'BRIEN: The LIVE FROM... quarterback.
PHILLIPS: The Fox Update. Oooh, we got to change that name.
O'BRIEN: No, we can't call him the "Fox Update."
PHILLIPS: Yeah, that doesn't work.
O'BRIEN: We've got some problems with that.
All right, Tom Fox, 34-year-old quarterback. A little bit bruised, a little bit battered, but he's in the game there. We appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: Tough. Keeping a positive attitude. It's all about the attitude.
O'BRIEN: It's mentally fit.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
With Tom Fox>
Aired September 8, 2003 - 14:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: NASCAR drivers Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick could face punishment today for some unsportsmanlike conduct over the weekend.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The drivers and their crews squared off in a pit row row -- pit row row, I like that -- after a crash Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia. Matt Morrison joins us with more. This seems to be a trend in NASCAR these days.
MATT MORRISON, CNN SPORTS: A lot of scraping. And a couple of weeks ago it was Jimmy Spencer and Kurt Busch involved in some fisticuffs. And Saturday night at Richmond it was the entire teams of both Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick that were involved in a pit row row -- nice words, whoever wrote them.
It happened because late in the race, Rudd tipped the back of Harvick's car. Both were fighting for top five finishes in this one. Harvick basically went from 2nd to 16th with that little crush. And afterwards, Harvick and his entire crew met up with Rudd in pit row. Guys were stomping on Rudd's car. His team had to be restrained from getting into a flat-out fistfight with these guys.
There were no fisticuffs in this one. But both teams, and we're talking 12 members of both teams, were called to the trailers for NASCAR to be basically tongue-lashed after the race in a situation that is very ironic, because while it was both inappropriate behavior in pit row as Kevin Harvick came in crashed into Ricky Rudd's car, it was, at the same time, something that NASCAR people can't deny is probably good the for the sport.
In a situation where good guys versus bad guys has always sold the sport for 50 years, we're seeing a little bit more of that in what had become a very corporate kind of existence here over the last several years.
PHILLIPS: So how do you define inappropriate behavior? Because...
MORRISON: Any time you wreck metal.
PHILLIPS: Well, Dale Earnhardt, OK, known as "The Intimidator." He always messed with people, OK? And he didn't get in fistfights.
MORRISON: No, he didn't. And it was part of a good-old boy network that flourished for the '60s, '70s and '80s. But in the '90s when the extremely big money started to come in for NASCAR -- and we're talking about tens of millions of dollars to field a team for any given season, sponsors jumped on the bandwagon. They were going for a more corporate approach to the race. That means photogenic drivers.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: All-American boys.
O'BRIEN: Ruining the fun.
MORRISON: And there was less of a Southern, good-old boy mentality that started to pervade racing. However, the fans have never forgotten what has made this sport great. And it is conflict among the competitors and we're seeing a little bit more of that.
Now, it's an interesting dynamic this time around because we're seeing a lot of young drivers who are having a lot more success than older, established stars. We're seeing sort of a changing of the guard. Guys like Rusty Wallace and Terry Labonte and Ricky Rudd haven't had much success on the track. Guys like Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman are the guys in victory lane these days. The older guys can't be liking it too much and obviously their pit crews don't either.
O'BRIEN: It'll be interesting to see what the sport does to crack down on it. It'll be like hockey where they kind of wink and nod...
(CROSSTALK)
MORRISON: And you ask what is inappropriate behavior? Kevin Harvick smashed into Ricky Rudd's car in pit row. Any time there's a potential for danger there, you're going to get (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and fined.
O'BRIEN: All right, Matt. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
All right, gearheads, let's move to another sport, shall we? To the gridiron we go. Friday we introduced to you a college quarterback who is living his dream at 34-years-young, we will say. Tom Fox returned to school to become a starting quarterback at that powerhouse of football Blackburn College in Illinois.
Fox played his first game this weekend and he's on the phone now to tell us how it went. How did it go?
TOM FOX, 34-YEAR-OLD QUARTERBACK: Well I could safely say you are not fairweather sports casters, because you still have me back on today.
(LAUGHTER)
FOX: And it was not good for the home team on Saturday. We lost 26-0.
O'BRIEN: Ooooh. Oh, I'm so sorry.
PHILLIPS: All right, now be honest with us, OK? Do you think it's the fact, that you know, you're 34, and maybe you don't have the juice of a 19-year-old, Tom?
O'BRIEN: You go right to it?
PHILLIPS: I'm going to get right to it.
O'BRIEN: You go right for the jugular, don't you?
PHILLIPS: Or was this team a tough team?
FOX: They were a tough team. And they beat us last year. We opened with them and they beat us 40-0 last year so...
O'BRIEN: And you weren't there.
FOX: I was here. I played here two years. I never started before, though. So I've gotten in games before and actually I've played considerably better than I played this past Saturday. But Saturday was the starting quarterback, it was a little disheartening, to say the least, that we couldn't pull it out.
O'BRIEN: Well let me ask you this, what was your completion rate?
FOX: You don't have tape, do you?
No, we don't unfortunately.
(CROSSTALK)
FOX: OK, safe to say we're a running team. We try and establish the run. And if we can just leave it at that, I'd be very happy.
O'BRIEN: Were you able to hand it off to the running back OK?
FOX: Oh absolutely. Yes, no problem getting to back field at all.
PHILLIPS: Was your 13-year-old daughter there in the stands rooting you on?
FOX: No actually. I'm in Illinois, and she lives back in Montana. So she had a couple athletic games herself so she wasn't able to make it. She's going to come next month. She's going to come back with her grandmother and see a game.
O'BRIEN: All right, so we got to ask you. As long as Kyra's going for the jugular, let's go for it.
PHILLIPS: Go for a softer question?
O'BRIEN: Are you going to start the next one, do you think?
FOX: I don't know. I split time. I alternated series with a freshman that we have in here now.
And you have to be realistic, and he's a kid that's half my age, and he's a pretty good athlete and got a pretty good head on his shoulders, so I don't know. Coach, he said after the game that we were both going to see a lot of action the rest of the year. But as far as -- I hope I'm a start next week, but if not, I'll do whatever the coach needs me to.
O'BRIEN: What are you going to do this week in practice different?
FOX: Myself individually?
O'BRIEN: Yes, just to make up for it. What are you going to do? What do you need to work on?
FOX: God, I don't know. I don't know. We played a team that is pretty good and they were really quick. The team, we're going up to Minnesota this week. And the team that we're playing this weekend beat us 10-7 last year. So we're feeling like it's a pretty winnable ball game.
PHILLIPS: Tom, you have a big fan base here at CNN. So we're going to continue to follow you and check in with you, all right?
FOX: I appreciate that.
O'BRIEN: At very least we'll talk a week from today, maybe we'll check in with you on Friday if we have time. You're just going to be our personal quarterback for the season.
(LAUGHTER)
FOX: I can handle that.
O'BRIEN: The LIVE FROM... quarterback.
PHILLIPS: The Fox Update. Oooh, we got to change that name.
O'BRIEN: No, we can't call him the "Fox Update."
PHILLIPS: Yeah, that doesn't work.
O'BRIEN: We've got some problems with that.
All right, Tom Fox, 34-year-old quarterback. A little bit bruised, a little bit battered, but he's in the game there. We appreciate it.
PHILLIPS: Tough. Keeping a positive attitude. It's all about the attitude.
O'BRIEN: It's mentally fit.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
With Tom Fox>
