NASCAR Exec VP & Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O'Donnell said that the sanctioning body will "go back to the drawing board" regarding its Sprint Cup package after watching the racing in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. MOTORSPORT.com's Lee Spencer wrote the action in last month's Sprint All-Star Race "was scintillating" However, Martin Truex Jr.’s "dominating performance" in the 600, where he led 392 of 400 laps, along with the "inability of competitors to pass at the front of the field, left a lot of observers feeling flat" (MOTORSPORT.com, 5/31).
VOTER FRAUD? NBCSPORTS.com’s Craig Calcaterra noted there appears to be "obvious fraud going on with the votes" around the first set of results for MLB All-Star Game voting unveiled yesterday. Calcaterra noted he has gotten emails over the last few weeks "from MLB.com and Royals.com thanking me for my maximum five votes that day." However, he has not "voted once" and he has not "listed the Royals as my favorite team." He speculated that someone is using his "email address or ID or whatever." Calcaterra: "Major League Baseball does not really care about the integrity of voting. ... It's all very clearly aimed at getting people to visit lucratively-sponsored web pages in order to do it" (NBCSPORTS.com, 5/31).
LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS: In Ft. Worth, Mac Engel writes the PGA Tour "needs to re-address what is kosher behavior from its customers at a tournament." Every sport is "desperate to attract the younger crowd as their buying habits are forming," and this would be a good time for the PGA Tour "to let down the ropes and allow its ticket-paying fans to cheer." The amount of “shushing” from volunteers at last weekend's Dean & DeLuca Invitational to "ensure the golfers silence was disconcerting." Engel: "Obnoxious is one thing, but cheering should always be welcome" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 6/1).
