Code name pulled out of thin air

During its coverage of today’s NASCAR Nextel Cup Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, ESPN will introduce what it calls “draft track.”

This technical innovation, a joint project between ESPN and Sportvision, is supposed to help viewers see the effect of drafting, which is the wind that flows above and behind race cars as they speed around the track. The project has been in the works for years.

To keep it a secret from competing networks, ESPN executive producer Jed Drake asked subordinates to come up with a code name. Senior coordinating producer Larry Kristiansen suggested “Bob Dylan.”

Said Drake: “I asked him, why Bob Dylan? He said, you know, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’ ”

Trivia time

Who was baseball’s career home run leader before Babe Ruth?

Going to the mat

Generally, when a parent is seeking more attention for his or her child’s high school team, that parent might call or write a newspaper. But in Beverly Hills, at least one mother, Christina Fulton, took a different approach.

She made a movie.

Fulton’s movie, “When Giants Collide,” which had its premiere in Hollywood on Friday night, is about the Beverly Hills High wrestling team, of which her son, Weston Cage, is a member.

Weston’s dad is Nicolas Cage.

Not now, dear

Caroline Harrington was only two hours into a belated sleep when her husband woke her at 6 a.m. the day after he won the British Open.

Padraig Harrington told the London Independent he just couldn’t believe he was the Open champion and he wanted to talk about it.

Of his wife’s reaction, Harrington said, “She was a bit like, ‘I can’t believe there’s the trophy, but can we go back to sleep now?’ ”

Chuck and duck

San Diego Padres Manager Bud Black, a former pitcher, sometimes throws batting practice.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jay Posner, when Black was asked if he’d ever thrown batting practice without a screen, he said: “Some people thought I was when I was pitching.”

Enhanced performance

Chris Rock might not agree with athletes taking steroids, but he understands.

As a guest on HBO’s “Costas Now,” Rock told host Bob Costas: “If you found out that Dan Patrick was making 20 times more than you and all you had to do was take a pill, you’d take the pill.”

Billy ball

It’s months from the start of basketball practice, but Billy Gillispie, Kentucky’s new coach, is already causing a buzz in that part of the country.

Gillispie, who last season led Texas A&M; to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16 for the first time since 1980, was hired to succeed Tubby Smith as coach of the Wildcats in April.

Wrote Wendell Barnhouse of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “You’d think Gillispie had written the seventh Harry Potter book while chasing Hank Aaron’s home-run record while dating Paris Hilton in his spare time.”

Trivia answer

Roger Connor, whose record was 138 home runs when Ruth passed it in 1921. The question comes courtesy of TBS.

And finally

Kyle Petty, 47, asked what it meant to be making his 800th NASCAR start today at Indianapolis: “I think it says that I’m old and I’ve been here a long time.”

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