The Incredible Recovery Of NASCAR's Robbie Weiss

Earlier this month there was a gathering in Miami, FL. A group of professionals was being honored by The Sports Business Journal as being in the "40 under 40" group of top sports executives in the nation. Click here to see the full list.

Pictured above on the left is Paul Brooks, a Sr. VP of NASCAR and the President of the NASCAR Media Group. Brooks was in Miami to introduce a fellow NASCAR employee who was being inducted into the "40 under 40" club for 2009.

His name is Robbie Weiss and he is the smiling man on the right side of the picture. Weiss is in charge of NASCAR's TV contracts both in the US and around the world. Weiss is NASCAR's "TV guy."

Veteran fans may remember the pale faces and shaken expressions of the NASCAR executives as they took the stage on January 22nd during the Charlotte Media Tour. Jim Hunter, Mike Helton and Brian France all appeared to have their minds on other things. As it turns out, the issue on their minds was Robbie Weiss.

Earlier that morning, Weiss had suffered a brain aneurysm while at home packing for a NASCAR trip. From out of the blue, a vibrant and powerful media executive had been turned into a 38 year-old man slowly dying alone on his bedroom floor.

Luckily, Weiss was having some work done on his home and was eventually discovered unconscious by his contractor. The good news was that he was still alive. The grim news was that full recovery from a brain aneurysm is rare. Click here to visit the Brain Aneurysm Foundation homepage.

After emergency brain surgery, Weiss wound-up in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte. He remained unconscious and on a ventilator while his family assembled to deal with this new and unexpected challenge. If there was any question that Weiss was going to fight for his life, it was about to be answered.

Only four days after the aneurysm, Weiss opened his eyes and mumbled "hi." The ventilator was removed the same day. Weiss had movement on the right side, but the left side of his body was not responding.

Struggling to provide some good news, his family told him that he had been nominated for the "40 under 40" award. They had no idea if he understood.

Once the fast pace of modern life gives way to the slow and plodding recovery path from an aneurysm, small things take on new meaning. February 2nd brought the gift of eating solid food. Two days later the hospital's physical therapists got Weiss out of bed and stood him up. He also completed saying his ABC's correctly.

On February 13th, Weiss left the Presbyterian Hospital and was transferred to a local rehabilitation facility. He was not sent in an ambulance. He wanted to walk to the transport van and get in himself. Hospital staff may still be talking about his determination.

Only twelve days later, Weiss was cleared to go to Florida for therapy at a rehab center in Delray Beach. This would allow him to be near his family. Slowly but surely the mental, physical and emotional recovery continued. Although life will never be the same, Weiss continued to progress.

The next chapter of the saga was Weiss returning to Charlotte for a major check-up at Presbyterian Hospital. On March 30th, Weiss amazed doctors with his progress and was cleared to resume what most of us would call a normal life.

Five days later, Brooks introduced Weiss in Miami at the "40 under 40" dinner. Weiss made a simple and thoughtful speech about his life, his family and his friends. He thanked the contractor that found him unconscious, the doctors that operated on his brain to save his life and his colleagues at NASCAR for all their support.

It had been 71 days since the aneurysm. Weiss was the only honoree selected to give a speech. He received a standing ovation.

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Phoenix Nationwide Series TV Coverage Tough To Watch

It was lap 119 of 200 scheduled for the Nationwide Series in Phoenix when ESPN's Dale Jarrett finally remarked that the race had the potential to let "some other guys" possibly win. That would be anyone in the field other than Kyle Busch or Carl Edwards.

ESPN's fascination with the Cup drivers who participate in the Nationwide Series races has never been more clearly on display than Friday night in Phoenix. Other than two brief recaps of drivers running in the top twenty, the TV coverage was squarely aimed at Edwards and Busch. The ESPN scripted style of race coverage had returned.

How and why this dynamic is unfolding this season is a mystery. In the field are great stories from veterans trying to work their way back to the Cup level to young drivers leaving everything on the track while trying to keep their NASCAR dreams alive. The decision not to tell these stories is ruining the series on TV.

Announcer Jerry Punch was giddy when Busch got a lap back to remain in contention. He was heartbroken when Edwards was forced to pull off the track with engine problems. The ESPN coverage continually showed Edwards in the garage with the hood up and the car silent.

Once again the dreaded "points now" graphic was used endlessly as if fans did not know the calendar said April. Jarrett summed up the issue at the end of the race after Punch again tried to build the fake drama as the series heads to Talladega. Jarrett remarked that Edwards can make up the points deficit in just one race.

Two cars pulled off the track before lap twenty and headed straight to the garage. Once again, ESPN did not follow-up the growing "start and park" controversy by determining what mechanical issues "forced" these cars out of the race.

Edwards and Busch are certainly the fastest drivers in many Nationwide races, but the story of the season revolves around the other teams in the field and the sponsors who continue to support the series. Has there ever been a year where this issue has been more crucial?

There was often good racing on the track, but the TV scenario was limited to Busch, Edwards or the current leader of the race. This really makes it tough to watch when a scripted TV theme dominates the telecast regardless of what is actually happening on the track.

By the end of the race it was clear that the ESPN script was not going to play-out and Punch would have to settle for trying to hype Greg Biffle and Jason Leffler battling it out during a green/white/checker finish. Biffle's win at least allowed ESPN to exit the air by interviewing a Sprint Cup Series owner.

Several times during the telecast the network flashed the TV motorsports calendar for racing fans. The glaring absence of the Saturday night Phoenix Sprint Cup Series race on Fox showed the animosity between the two TV networks and the willingness of ESPN to put NASCAR on the back burner anytime it pleases. It was almost painful to hear Allen Bestwick read the promos without the Cup race being mentioned.

As usual, the pictures and sound were outstanding and that is the shame of this telecast. Used correctly and without the bias toward Busch and Edwards, these TV tools could have brought the mix of drivers, good racing and constantly changing storylines right into homes of NASCAR fans across the country and around the world.

SPEED handled the live Nationwide Series practice and qualifying by introducing the teams and setting-up the stories of the day. Hermie Sadler and Jeff Hammond conveyed the issues confronting the teams in Phoenix and built-up the excitement of the race. Kudos to SPEED for treating all the Nationwide teams as equal.

ESPN had the goods for an outstanding telecast delivered to them on a silver platter. Instead, the network followed the script and wound-up with egg on its face once again. Talladega looms as a test of continuing this scripted approach or simply covering the events on the track as they unfold.

Did you watch the race? TDP welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the comments button below to add your opinion. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

Click here for a link from our friends at Frontstretch. Brian Davis Keith has a good commentary on the TV coverage of the Nationwide Series.

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Live Blogging NASCAR on Fox In Phoenix - 8PM ET

Digger should be right at home in the Phoenix desert. At one end of the odd-shaped speedway is Rattlesnake Hill and at the other is one of the meanest sunsets on the Sprint Cup Series tour.

It will be 8PM when Chris Myers leads the NASCAR on Fox team on the air with Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip alongside from the Hollywood Hotel. Look for more of the same in this show, including lots of team Hendrick and a smattering of Kyle Busch.

Mike Joy will call the action in the race that takes the green flag at 8:46PM. Put on a pot of coffee, it is going to be a long night. Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be alongside Joy. Down on pit road will be Krista Voda, Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Dick Berggren.

Phoenix makes great pictures and sound at night. The roar of the cars and the sparks should make some great TV once the sun sets. The track has a nasty D-shaped backstretch and lots of the passes and crashes take place in this area.

Click here for a link to the TDP column of this race last season. Remember the big Fox baseball vs. NASCAR disaster? Yep, this was the weekend that Waltrip did the pre-race show during MLB rain delay and then the game ran right up against the green flag. Talk about a no win situation.

This season there is ninety minutes scheduled between the end of the live baseball game and the start of the Phoenix race coverage. With the MLB game in progress and no sign of rain on the horizon, perhaps things will be a bit smoother this season.

Fans also may remember that this race ended last year with Fox showing the winner and no other car cross the finish line live. TV viewers got camera shots of the pit crew and the winning car slowing down as the rest of the field furiously battled to the finish line.

This season the NASCAR on Fox team has consistently used a wideshot to show all the lead lap cars crossing the finish line. This has been a wonderfully positive change and one that has allowed Joy, Waltrip and McReynolds to keep the excitement level high while the storylines throughout the field play-out.

The action is fast in the pits at Phoenix and the reporters are going to have to keep fans updated all night long. This was a big failure of the ESPN Nationwide Series coverage on Friday as the stories of the teams not in the top ten were never told. Well, unless those stories involved Carl Edwards or Kyle Busch.

The diverse Cup Series starting field includes spoilers with nothing to lose like Regan Smith and Scott Speed. There are also potential start and park teams like Joe Nemechek and Dave Blaney. It should be interesting to keep an eye on that issue. Scott Riggs also finally made a race and has something to prove about his effort this season.

Keep an eye on whether Fox uses the triple or quad video split on the caution flag pit stops. The network has flip-flopped on this issue in 2009 and the tight pit road in Phoenix might make the triple split much better for the fans.

Digger has been low key in the races recently but has returned in the pre-race show with his cartoon series. Phoenix has great track level camera shots, so this may cause the Digger animation to once again become a bigger part of the telecast.

This post will serve to host your comments about the NASCAR on Fox coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race in Phoenix. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

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