I’m in Orlando at the inaugural North American Motor Sport Business Forum. Lots to talk about in NASCAR that isn’t Danica Patrick related.

 

            First the headlines:

 

            # That change in engineering on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team that Earnhardt talked about a little last week but wouldn’t go into details? He got Mark Martin’s engineer.

 

            # Michael Waltrip still looking for sponsors to race more than a few Cup races for next year.

 

            # Could more races be shown online on NASCAR.com’s Race Buddy?

 

            # Who will be announcing where next year on TV?

 

            # Oh yes, more Danica.

 

 

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            DALE EARNHARDT JR.’S NEW GUY

 

            Talked with Marshall Carlson, president of Hendrick Motorsports about a variety of topics. He told me more about some of the changes taking place with Dale Jr.’s team. Carlson said that Martin’s engineer, Chris Heroy, moves to join Dale Jr.’s team to be the race engineer there. He replaces Tom Stewart, who moves into a position where he’ll work with both the 88 and the 5 team.

 

 

Heroy is replaced by Lee Deese, who moves up to take Heroy’s position as chief engineer with Martin’s team. Deese has worked with crew chief Alan Gustafson ever since Gustafson has been a crew chief, so the move shouldn’t be that big of a deal for Martin fans.

 

 

            Here is what Carlson said of Heroy on moving to the 88 team:

 

 

“I know this guy and he’s not just going to be resource. He’s going to bring things up and ask questions and offer ideas. Lance is great with that. Lance is one of those guys, and so is Alan, they love that collaborative approach, they like people saying, “Hey, have you thought of? Or What do you think about? Lance is one of the best we’ve got at that. And so I think that pairing is going to work great there. Dale had actually tested at some point with this engineer … and he really enjoyed working with this engineer. Again, the guy that was in that role is going to be coming back to the shop, leading an effort to support both those teams.’’

 

 

            Carlson said this move with help the two teams work better together. He says that was a problem at times this year. It was almost as if there were two single-car teams in the shop instead of a two-car operation under the same roof by the way they were doing things different from one another.

 

 

“They had diverged pretty significantly with regards to the technology they were running,’’ Carlson told me. “Sure, they were working in the same building, but it was hard to apply all the resources to the problem because they were kind of attacking it from very different directions.’’

 

 

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So, what will Michael Waltrip be doing in 2010?

 

 

Waltrip told me that as of he thinks he’ll only run four Cup races next year _ all four restrictor-plate races (unless more sponsorship is found).

 

 

As for Nationwide? “I’d like to run some Nationwide races, I’d like to run some Truck races, so I’m still just seeing what’s out there,’’ he said. “I’ll do anything, I just want to race every now and then’’ and then he laughed.

 

 

Good news for Mikey fans, he says he’ll be back on Speed’s broadcast of the Truck races next year.

 

 

Also, Waltrip talked about how Pat Tryson has fit in at Michael Waltrip Racing. Tryson will be Martin Truex Jr.’s crew chief this upcoming season after helping Kurt Busch finish fourth in the Chase.

 

 

“He’s awesome,’’ Waltrip said of Tryson. “He’s just perfect personality to fit in to what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it, which is one team, three cars and that’s been my desire since I started that it didn’t matter which car you worked on, you worked for MWR and that was your main goal to see those cars run up front. Pat is perfect with that.’’

 

Waltrip said that Truex has yet to test with the team but said he thought Truex would be doing a Goodyear tire test in January.

 

 

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There’s a chance you could be watching more races online this season. Right now, the only races you can watch online are the six TNT races since Turner owns all the online rights for the broadcasts. Thus, ESPN, Fox and ABC can’t show any race live online.

 

You can watch the TNT races on NASCAR.com’s Race Buddy program, which last year featured live shots from four different vantage points.

 

 

This year, you might get to see more NASCAR races online, so when the race goes to commercial on TV, you wouldn’t have to miss anything.

 

 

Here’s what Lenny Daniels, Chief Operating Officer for Turner Sports told me about the future of having more races shown online:

 

“We are going to attempt to work out a deal with Fox and ESPN. It’s an intersectional rights, is what it is. When Turner has all the rights (TV and Internet), we can show it any way we want. If you’re ESPN, you don’t want us doing anything during that live race window. That’s what they bought. That’s what they own. So we have to figure out a business plan to work with them and try to get a deal done. Believe me, we would love to have Race Buddy year-round and I think NASCAR would too but it all comes down to the business model.

 

 

When I asked him if it was unlikely that more races would be shown online in 2010, Daniels said:

 

“I wouldn’t say that. We’re trying. I don’t think you’re going to see it across the board for every race. We’ll definitely do it for our races. We’ll work with Fox. We came close to Fox last year on a few things (doing versions of Race Buddy).’’

 

 

“I don’t think (the other networks) are concerned about losing the audience (from TV to online.). I think they’re concerned about the economics of it. If we take a live video feed and Turner/NASCAR sells it and keeps the money, you’ve got to work out that deal. … If we work out a deal with them, we could put the live race (online). We can get around many of the other issues of branding and what it looks like, it really comes down to finances.’’

 

 

When I asked him if he was hopeful this could be in place for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, Daniels told me:

 

 

“We’re trying. Daytona maybe too close. We’re trying.’’

 

 

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            So, who is going to be announcing where?

 

 

            Remember that Bill Weber lost his job at Turner after a public incident last summer. Ralph Sheheen filled in for Weber. Lenny Daniels of Turner told me no decision has been made yet but Sheheen remains a candidate for the job.

 

 

            John Wildhack, executive vice president program acquisition and strategy for ABC/ESPN said that no decision has been made on the ESPN/ABC announcing crew as of yet.

 

 

           

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            OK, here’s a bit more of what Danica Patrick had to say about her plans to run about 10 or so Nationwide races for JR Motorsports this year. Her deal with the team goes through 2011. She makes her stock-car debut Feb. 6 at Daytona in the ARCA race. She’s set to take part in the ARCA test at Daytona on Dec. 18-20.

 

 

            On what kind of signs she’ll look for in determining if to make the jump fulltime to Cup by the end of her two-year trial:

 

 

            “There’s no real easy answer. The first step in this whole process is to get out there and get going. See how it goes, see if I like the car. There really are no extended plans at this point. It’s to give it a try and hopefully be competitive and have fun. And beyond that, we’ll explore from there. But obviously being competitive is an important element.’’

 

 

            On the challenge of what she’s about to do and why do it:

 

 

            “As a naturally competitive competitive person, you can pretty much ask anyone, no matter what I do, you’re always looking for the next challenge and there are still plenty of challenges in IndyCar. I want to win a lot more races and I want to win the Indy 500. I have the ability to go beyond that right now, and that’s really exciting.’’

 

 

            On why Danica thinks she can even do this?

 

 

            “I first and foremost am going to be able to drive for a great team. There’s the adequate and proper support, and as I do get nervous before anything that I do, I do believe in myself. That’s important. You have to be there. It’s easy to get down sometimes if things aren’t going well, but I try to stay positive and know that I can do the job. My fans remind me every now and again if I get down that anytime I jump in a car, I always do a great job and don’t get nervous and it’s about bringing everything together and I think that is what we’re really able to do on the front end of this is bring it all together, to drive for a good team and have the right support, which is what every driver can hope for.

 

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          In case you missed it:

 

         # TRG Motorsports announced that it has signed Doug Randolph to be Bobby Labonte's crew chief for next season. Randolph had been at Richard Childress Racing. Randolph and Labonte worked togehter in 2007 at Petty Enterprises.

 

         # Roush Fenway Racing announced its crew chief lineup for its Nationwide teams. Mike Kelley will remain with Carl Edwards on the No. 60 team. Kelley moved over to that team for the final three races of last season. ... Ben Leslie will work with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who will compete for rookie of the year honors. ... Eddie Pardue will be the crew chief for Colin Braun on the No. 16 team. Braun also is going for rookie of the year honors. ... Braun's former crew chief, Mike Beam, becomes competition director for Roush Fenway Racing's Nationwide operations.

 

         OK, that's a lot there. That will do for now.