Kudos to JENNA FRYER at NHIS

I had the honor of sitting next to Jenna Fryer up at New Hampshire International Speedway on Sunday. All I can say is what a class act.

During the race she could hear Clint Bowyer complaining over the in car radio to his spotter and crew chief about everything from the sun to the lapped cars not moving to his car tightening up on him.

So at Clint Bowyer's press conference she jokingly asked a question of Bowyer's crew chief, "So is Clint always so whiney on the radio?" Everyone laughed, including Bowyer and his chief. Bowyer even responded with "Who let her in here?" To which more laughter broke out.

Not to long after, as we were pounding out our stories, this PR guy comes and kneels between us and says "That was one of the most disrespectful and unprofessional things I've every seen. How dare you call him a whining baby in front of a room full of reporters and his crew members! That's just unprofessional and disgraceful."
The rest was something about not ever trying to cover a race or Bowyer or something ever again and that if the AP wants access they better send Mike Harris - another class act by the way - to do the story.

Jenna told the guy he was being pretty professional about it and he started screaming he is only doing what she just did in the press conference room.

To Jenna's credit I say she handled it beautifuly and even went so far as to tell anyone who asked if she was OK that the guy has a right to his opinion she just didn't appreciate the way he went about offering it.

All I can say is that NASCAR guy is one hell of a tool!

 

Oh yeah. NASCAR is going to cut off AP. Sure. : : :

 

This incident may reinvigorate that NASCAR/Sporting News exclusive contract discussion again!

 

If NASCAR cut off the AP, it'd amazingly get cut out of 98 percent of the nation's newspapers, too.

I can't imagine my SE saying, "Well, shit...guess we're going to have to cover all those 20-sponsor races that 5 percent of our readers care about"

 

I don't think it was a real threat to stop AP from covering events. I thinkit was just one person, probably a PR rep for Bowyer crying foul and being a dickhead about it.

 

I dream of the day AP drops racing coverage.

But yeah, the NASCAR guy sounds like he was a serious tool...

 

Sounds like it to me. If Bowyer was in good spirits about it, I don't see a problem with her comments. Actually, if they were said in jest, there's nothing wrong with it. I'm sure Jenna has dealt with all of them before, so she probably has a decent rapport established. Which one of us wouldn't think about a side-comment like that?

 

Damn PR people. Kudos to Jenna, she's great (and has my dream job).

 

Piss on the People's Republic of NASCAR... for other reasons. But as far as the question, this guy was probably just some overzealous lieutenant within the regime. For all its byzantine machinations, NASCAR has alwys been very media- friendly.

 

If NASCAR didn't want people to hear the drivers being whiny, punk-ass bitches themselves, maybe it shouldn't allow headsets to listen to in-car conversations to be sold at all the tracks.

 

No disrespect to Jenna, who does a fine job, but dealing with PR people who try to bully you and push you around comes with the territory.

As does dealing with the drivers, team owners and officials who lie their asses off.

This is not a beat for the timid.

 

Where was it said that she couldn't take what the idiot said?

She was laughing as the guy walked away.