PREFERS TEMPLE'S OFFENSE TO PRINCETON'S
NASCAR was an eye-opener.
"There's more of everything in NASCAR," Little said yesterday as she prepared to cover the racing weekend at Dover International Speedway in Delaware, the second race in the Chase for the Championship. "People are so passionate about every driver. In IndyCar, there's maybe the top 10 drivers you have to know about. What's different about NASCAR is, all 43 drivers [racing each week] have fans."
Often with 5 hours to fill during Sprint Cup telecasts, Little must know racing and its people.
"There's so much work required. You've got to live this sport," she said.
During the 10-race Chase, stress is ratcheted up on both drivers and crews, which can also tax the media that cover the sport.
"They are pulled in more directions," Little said. "For TV purposes, we try to get the top three drivers and the winning crew chief [on the air]."
Kyle Busch led the standings entering the Chase. But after a disappointing 34th-place finish at New Hampshire Sunday, he avoided the media.
"It would be helpful for us and the fans if [NASCAR] regulated all 12 Chasers have to stay after races," Little said. "Fine them otherwise. Everyone wants to hear from those guys."
That Little, 30, wound up covering motorsports isn't surprising when you know her background. When her father worked on his motorcycles, Little would take her bicycle apart and reassemble it.
She grew up in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Her mother, Laura Thomas, was a showgirl at Harrah's Lake Tahoe. After her parents divorced, she and her mother moved to Las Vegas. Little earned a journalism degree from San Diego State before launching her TV career.
Little has focused on being a TV reporter, not a female reporter.
"You have to put being a girl aside," she said. "You've got to be tough. You have to deal with scrutiny and criticism. We're all trying to better the sport and do the best job to serve the fans."
Little thinks her previous TV experience gave her credibility with people in NASCAR.
"I think it helped me get in the door [in NASCAR]," she said. "At the beginning, when you come in as a woman, you're going to get scrutinized more than a man. Motorsports is male-dominated. [Women] have to work harder. I'm a woman who watches sports, and I do the same thing to women," judging them differently from male reporters.
Having Shannon Spake as an ESPN/ABC colleague has been helpful for Little.
"We're best friends," Little said. "She's the first woman that I've ever worked with as a pit reporter. I didn't want to have another woman; I liked my spot. But she's the best thing that's happened to me for my career, because we go through so many of the same things. It's made my job and my life easier."
Someday, Little might want to host a studio show or do other TV work, but she has no immediate plans to move on from NASCAR.
"People ask if I want to be on 'Monday Night Football,' " she said. "For me, that's not something I've aspired to do. This is my 'Monday Night Football.' "
Little and Spake will participate in the Budweiser Celebrity Billiards Shootout tonight at 7 in the Dover Downs Hotel and Casino. Chase contenders Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer and other drivers will display their billiards skills. Call 1-800-711-5882 for information. *
Send e-mail to fleiscb@phillynews.com.
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