NASCAR AND STREISAND

Bet THAT got your attention.

Seems as if NASCAR is getting more mainstream everyday. First, it’s the special edition Sports Illustrated with champ Tony Stewart on the cover and the Home Depot “orange” theme, and now this.

Hey, you don’t have to hit the media over the head with a shovel just to get their attention. Why, next thing you know they’ll discover soccer and Formula One.

According to Friday’s Los Angeles Times (LAT), the 56-year-old National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) announced an eight-year, $4.48-billion television deal Wednesday that will pay the racing organization 40 percent more per year beginning in 2007, than it receives under its current agreement.

At $555 million, NASCAR would rank fourth in annual revenue for televised professional sports, behind the NFL at $3.735 billion, the NBA's $767 million and Major League Baseball's $713 million.

NASCAR's 36-race season will be shared by Fox, ABC, ESPN and TNT. ABC will televise at least 11 of the season's last 17 races, including the entire 10-race Chase for the Championship.

As for the very odd, very liberal and very annoying recluse with the great pipes.

In other LAT news, Barbara Streisand, enraged by the paper’s canning of a liberal columnist, cancelled her subscription to the paper.

Apparently it’s either a slow day out West, or Los Angeles really is La-La Land