Last week I spent four days in Charlotte, NC for the NASCAR Media Tour. For those who have never heard of this thing... here are the basics. For four days, around 250 TV, radio, newspaper and internet folks get taken around to most of the different NASCAR teams shops, have the opportunity to interview drivers, crew chiefs, and even the gas can guys, while at the same time, collecting gifts, eating free meals and drinking free booze. That's right, freebees. They have to fight media members off this thing with a stick.

To be quite honest, with the allure of free stuff you could probably get a NASCAR Media Tour to be covered in Beirut. This is what the sports media is known for. Showing up anywhere at any time freebees are in play.

This is my third year covering this event, and it is one of the highlights of the winter. The following is a summary of this trip, with a look at the gifts given by certain teams, and some of the more interesting moments.

Upon arrival at the hotel, the NASCAR folks and Lowe's Motor Speedway hand out welcome gifts. A small luggage bag with wheels, and a DVD of NASCAR with highlights from 1936-1971. A solid start.

The major shop we visited Monday is Roush Racing (Mark Martin and Carl Edwards among the big name drivers). Team owner Jack Roush enters roughly 165 cars on the Nextel Cup Circuit. He has a few dollars and a few sponsors.... So these gifts should be good.

Everyone gets a 17 piece drill bit set from Dewalt and more office supplies than you can shake a stick at. There are also about 100 little things, including a business card holder, a mini-sharpie, a coupon for a free 12 pack of coke, and an Army National Guard basketball. Also notepads. Tons of notepads. Everyone hands out notepads. Somewhere a forest is crying.

Presumably Nascar's notepads were not as pink-centric as this collection.

We were feeding a story back to the station, so we missed the dinner at Evernham Motorsports. According to media members on hand, gifts included a mini-flashlight and a jar of mayonnaise.

Evernham Motorsports. Never hold the mayo.

Later that night Speedchannel hands out a fancy poker set. Is the 15 minutes of fame about done for poker?

The second day of activity started at 7:30am and ends at the media hospitality room at 12 midnight. That's a lot of NASCAR.

Quick tangent: To give you an idea about NASCAR media folks. Most of them like NASCAR. Really, really really like NASCAR. To follow this sport for the entire 36 race season, you have to. Due to scheduling conflicts Dale Earnhardt Junior would not be available on this tour for interviews. This is the equivalent of going to a U2 concert and Bono not being in the building. Grown men are openly weeping. Well, at least they are weeping inside.

At Yates Racing (Dale Jarrett, Elliott Sadler) the best gift appears to be a shoulder bag from CitiFinancial. On the bus ride to the next shop, a buzz starts moving around the bus..... I haven't experienced quick moving word of mouth like this since the Bruce Springsteen scene in "Back To School."
It was the gift of the tour. An MP3 player inside each shoulder bag. I call my wife to let her know. She informs me that with an MP3 player you can apparently download songs from the internet, and play them. Immediately I considered throwing away the walkman I bought in 1987, but categorically refuse to throw away the Bon Jovi "Slippery When Wet" tape I have inside. Of course, I have no idea how to download anything. Our first child is going to make her debut in a few weeks, and she should be more computer savvy than me right out of the womb.

Don't worry Jon, your cassette is safe.

At Joe Gibbs Racing media members interviewed drivers, which did not include Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart. The # 20 team was at the White House meeting the President. I know Tony has mellowed, but we are assuming the secret service had him sedated anyway before meeting W.

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, I left my Nextel Cup jacket at Gibbs Racing. After tracking it down, the good folks at Gibbs tell me they will ship it to me. I love Gibbs Racing. If this happened at any other major pro sporting event the team would immediately set the jacket aflame. NASCAR = nice people.

Gibbs racing also handed out samples of plant food. Random.

Joe Gibbs also did not address whether he was contemplating having Clinton Portis attempt a half-back pass in every regular season game either.

That night Toyota hosted a dinner, announcing their team owners for their entry into Nextel Cup and Busch events in 2007. This is the big story of the week. Is this right? Is this fair? For the most part, hardliners aren't happy about this development. Personally I'd rather see Toyota in the cup series than that Herbie car. Multiple track owner Bruton Smith wondered about the fairness with regards to Chevy, Dodge and Ford, because Smith says "Toyota has more money than the Bank of Japan." Apparently this means the cars they will be racing at Daytona in 2007 won't look like the ones built in "Gung Ho." Toyota will do very well in the NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series. Toyota racing sponsor Red Bull hands out cigars with a mini "birth certificate." Celebrating their new team (with Toyota) in the cup series.

Here's the deal. For decades NASCAR and tobacco went hand in hand. Heck, the title was still called the Winston Cup until a few years ago. Apparently they used to hand out cartons and cartons of smokes on this tour, a plus for when visiting friends in prison. This tour has been going on since 1985. Lately they've gotten on the same page as most of the rest of America (sorry Kentucky), and even have Nicorette as a sponsor.

Five years ago...South Park satire. Today, Nascar advertiser.

After NASCAR helped get people hooked on smoking, now they are trying to get people to quit. Red Bull didn't get this memo.

There is about two hours each afternoon designated for "writing time." This gives the media a chance to file stories before going to the night events. Each day I had finished my stories, so I would go down to the gym in the hotel to run on the treadmill. Kasey Marler of WJHL-TV is the only person there. Granted some folks are actually working during that time, but for the most part, the media talk and write about sports, they rarely take part in actual physical activity.

That night at the hospitality room a media member broke out his guitar, playing songs I have never in my life heard. We were close to an "I gave my love a chicken that had no bone" moment.

On the third day we start at Chip Ganassi racing. This trip was fun. They handed out gift cards to Texaco and Lone Star Steakhouse. They also handed out 18 packs of Coors Light. Seriously. It was 10:45am, but I know full well more than a few media members gave serious consideration to breaking them open.

The Silver Bullet, never slows you down.

At Wood Brothers racing the lunch being served is Bubba Burgers and other assorted grill type items. There was one incident. "My buffet line had no corndogs. I don't think I can get over that," said one media member. I think she was serious.

Wood Brothers huge culinary faux pas.

At Hendrick Motorsports (Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon among others), it was announced that, in addition to some gifts, a donation was made in the name of NASCAR media to charity. Two things immediately crossed my mind.

1.) Can I write that $2500 off on my taxes?
2.) Did they really make the donation? Or is this a George Costanza "Human Fund" kind of thing.

Evernham Motorsports also made a donation for the media. Some media members were upset, they wanted extra Mayo instead.

But back to Hendrick. There was a near brawl at the Jimmie Johnson interview station. One photog actually dropped a few very loud f-bomb's at another photog and a reporter for their aggressive tactics during a group interview. Like the great Ron Burgundy says: "You kept your heads out there... That's what you have to do in an angry cockfight."

Hendrick gifts were solid. Calendars, Lowe's gift cards, even a racing visor autographed by Johnson and his crew chief. They also throw in shampoo, Special K cereal, koozies, and paper towels. I'm thinking of saving this bag, and sending it to my daughter for her first college care package in 2024.

That night at the Penske Racing dinner, the Miller Lite was flowing. New # 2 driver Kurt Busch dodged a question about his run in with the law last year in Arizona with the poise of a FEMA spokesperson talking about Katrina. Penske gifts included a couple of nice bags, but the oddest choice of gifts. A Men In Black II DVD. There was an offer for a DVD that expired 3 years ago stuck to the front of it. I really think this DVD was stuck to the floor of Rusty Wallace's old car, they found it, and put it in my bag.

Now all those DVD's that Sony claimed they sold are starting to turn up.

On the final day, we left early, but still stopped into the Haas CNC racing breakfast.... where they handed out concert DVD's of the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Usher. This has to be the first time all three were written in the same sentence, much less put in the same gift bag.

Summing up, the NASCAR Media Tour is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern civilization. They started this when they were still fighting for any kind of TV and newspaper coverage. Now that NASCAR is right there with the Big 3 (NFL, MLB, NBA), they still do it. Could you imagine Major League baseball doing this, like in Florida in February?

Granted, I know a lot more about the Big 3, and wouldn't be able to hold any actual conversation for more than 30 seconds about a chassis set up, downforce, windtunnel testing or a crank shaft. But I'm learning.

NASCAR gets it right. Driver accessibility=Media coverage.

Freebees don't hurt either.