Earnhardt, Jr. helping raise concussion awareness: #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. knew immediately something was wrong during a 2012 crash at Talladega, where his car was hit hard from behind. He was asked on his radio if he was OK, and it was clear Earnhardt was not. "I don't know. I mean, I don't know how many of them hits like that I can take," NASCAR's most popular driver told his crew. He recounts the crash in his personal story of his own battle with a concussion in a video made for the Sports Medicine Concussion Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. UPMC on Wednesday launched the website ReThinkConcussions.com to detail treatments. Featured on the site are Earnhardt and baseball catcher David Ross, who were both treated at UPMC by Dr. Micky Collins, the clinical and executive director of the Concussion Program. Collins is considered one of the leading experts in athlete concussions. A 30-second version of Earnhardt's video will air nationally during the upcoming NASCAR races at Martinsville and Homestead. It will also be shown regionally during the World Series and evening news broadcasts. Other pro athletes who will be featured in the ReThinkConcussions.com initiative include quarterback Brady Quinn, second baseman Brian Roberts and Tyler Hansbrough of the NBA.(Associated Press)(10-23-2014)
Marty Smith to remain with ESPN: Marty Smith, who has been lead NASCAR reporter for SportsCenter and other ESPN platforms since 2007, has agreed to a new contract and will remain with ESPN as a bureau reporter. From his base in Charlotte, N.C., Smith will travel to cover a variety of sports for the network, including NASCAR, pro and college football and basketball, and other sports. He also will still write for ESPN.com on NASCAR and other topics and will continue the popular Marty & McGee podcast on ESPN.com, which he co-hosts with ESPN the Magazine senior writer Ryan McGee. Smith's new role officially begins January 1 but as he focuses on covering the final four weeks of the NASCAR season, he will be expanding his duties, including reporting on the Oct. 28 home opener for the NBA's Charlotte Hornets. ESPN is in its final year of televising live NASCAR racing. Prior to joining ESPN, Smith was a senior writer for NASCAR.com, an analyst and host on the former SPEED Channel and a NASCAR analyst on Fox Sports Net. A Radford University graduate, Smith covered sports for daily newspapers in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., before joining NASCAR.com. Over the past eight years, Smith has broken multiple big news stories from the NASCAR world on various ESPN platforms. In addition to reporting for SportsCenter and writing news and features for ESPN.com, Smith also has contributed to ESPN's NASCAR event television coverage with numerous unique features and extensive, in-depth and revealing interviews with nearly every top driver in the sport.(ESPN PR)(10-23-2014)