My point is not that they knew he was on the line. As you say, no show of any substance (no pun intended) works without a screener. But the key word there is screener. The producer, host and guest choose who actually makes it to the airwaves. They could easily have hit the dump button on Jeremy but chose to let him roll.
It was a bush league, selfish move on JM's part IMO. No admiration on my part. And any parallels between his situation and Tim's sad case end for me with just the ambiguity of NASCAR's drug policy.
But... that's just my 2 cents worth. You probably only offered me a penny for my thoughts. So feel free to keep the change. 
I'm no fan of BZF. But this was clearly an ambush attempt by JM - and it failed. No question Z-man stumbled across his words a bit. In the end, however, I think he handled it about as well as could be expected. If Jeff Gluck is to be believed - and I think he is - BZF and Eli knew from the call screener that he was on the line. They just as easily could have ignored him but chose to let it go on the air.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2013/01/08/jeremy-mayfield-brian-france-nascar-live-motor-racing-network/1819323/
Interesting thing for me is that little exchange may have been the first time NASCAR Live has been relevant on the radio in 25 years or more! LOL. I try to listen to it periodically and rarely is the show executed well with callers. Guests are arranged, and calls are screened. Yet each week the hour goes something like this:
Eli: Ottumwa Iowa, go right ahead. You're on the air.
Caller: Hey Eli. Hey [guest]. How ya doin?
Eli: Fine, go ahead. What's your question?
Caller: Um, uh. I just wanted to say congratulations to [guest] on his win.
Guest: Thanks. (never mind that was all covered in the guest intro and show set-up)
Caller: My question is what was it like to win last week?
Guest (as bored as possible): Oh it was cool. our Acme Brands team ran well. We had a lot of fun up there. It was good to get to victory lane.
Eli: Thanks for the call. Our next caller gets this week's prize pack...
Wash, rinse, repeat. Caller after caller. Show after show. Week after week. Year after year.
As I told a few folks moments ago, Ron White said it best...
How fantastic that SOTB was started by a man named Schafer. Perfect! Ha ha
As winter testing gets ready to fire up, I've got a few ideas for possible RPM sponsors for the 43 to supplement Smithfield and the USAF. Any other logical companies or brands I'm missing?
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/01/possible-petty-sponsors.html
Hard to believe its been 6 years since Bobby's passing. He was the best driver behind the wheel of the 43 after The King turned it over to others.
From J. C. Hayes collection.
From Craig Bontrager's collection.
Thanks Perry. My pulse quickened for a moment. Yep, Cale took the checkers. DW and the King were both in top 5 as their championship battle intensified. Alas, the Natty Light Special still eludes me...
The pic is out there though. I just KNOW it is. Like Ahab and his great white whale, I continue my pursuit.
I've put feelers out in various places and at various times on RR for a pic I'm trying to find.
In the 1979 NAPA National 500 at Charlotte, Henley Gray fielded a #19 Chevy sponsored by Natural Light beer. From what I've been able to research, the race was the second of only two times Natty Light has sponsored a Cup car. (The other time was the 79 World 600 with Glenn Jarrett. After months of searching, I FINALLY found a pic of Jarrett's car yesterday on ebay of all places.)
Cecil Gordon raced Gray's car to a 32nd place finish at Charlotte. The car only lasted about half the race before Cecil retired it with a bum clutch. That much I knew before last night. But in crawling through old newspapers, I learned Lennie Pond may actually have qualified the car 22nd. Pond ran a few races for Henley down the stretch of the 79 season so that makes a bit of sense to me. But I don't yet know why Cecil took over the wheel in the race vs. Lennie.
Bottom line, anyone have pics of this car from qualifying, testing, or the race?
See here for a bit more explanation:
http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/forum/topics/ever-wonder-how-does-this-happen
And read more here:
http://jalopnik.com/5972880/how-the-media-got-the-nascar-tax-credit-story-wrong
