David Newton is a writer for ESPN.com and a regular contributor on the show’s “NASCAR Now.” Newton was born in Florence and lived in Darlington before moving.
MN: How did you get involved covering NASCAR?
DN: I covered the Carolina Panthers for the first 11 seasons for The State. During that time, they started implementing more NASCAR coverage and Dale Earnhardt died. I started covering it more and, in 2005, I left to go to NASCAR.com and have been at ESPN.com ever since.
MN: How has covering the sport changed?
DN: The main thing you’ve lost is smaller newspapers that were covering it aren’t anymore. Outside of USA Today, most of the papers just take Associated Press. Now more Web sites are covering it and have taken the place of newspapers. The old faces you saw before year after year, you don’t see anymore. People that didn’t grow up around it now are covering it.
MN: Being a former newspaper writer, is it a bad thing to see not as many of them cover the sport?
DN: I think it’s a bad thing. Having grown up in the newspaper business all my life, the competition is what I thrived on. You wanted to get the news before the other paper. Now you don’t have the competition, and that creates a lackadaisical feeling among the press corps. There’s not a sense of urgency to go hunt down the story. It’s really killing the business, not only in NASCAR, but other sports.
MN: Because you write for the Internet, is there more pressure to get the news more quickly?
DN: It’s like instant news. You can’t wait. Like today, I ran into Richard Childress in the garage and he said he was going to have Kevin (Harvick) signed before the Coca-Cola 600. I rush in here to get it written because if you wait five minutes, someone else is going to talk to him and be out there. I kind of like it because I like to chase news.
MN: What are some of your favorite memories coming to Darlington?
DN: Darlington is always my favorite track. My dad was a retired Methodist minister and hated it because the track was a couple blocks from the church.
The first race I came to here, I was between 8 and 10. I was a big Bobby Allison fan and really had to hate Richard Petty because I liked Allison. I was sitting in the chicken bone section and had my fingers in the fence. Petty blew up right in front of me and singed the hair in my eyebrows. I was so stunned and thrilled by the moment. Then, Allison went on to win the race, so it was great day.
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