She Found Vroom in Her Heart

When Ed Goren, the president of Fox Sports, first talked to Jeanne Zelasko about working the Daytona 500 as a reporter, her initial thought was, “Why me?”

She grew up a baseball fan and her knowledge of NASCAR was limited. But you don’t say no to the boss.

She was at the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., working as a reporter when she got the word that she was headed for Daytona. The Daytona 500 was only two weeks away and she would be working on some of the programming leading up to the race as well as the race itself.

“The first thing I did after arriving in Daytona was go to a bookstore,” Zelasko said. “I read every book I could find on NASCAR, including ‘NASCAR for Dummies.’ ”

The sport soon won her over.

“I just couldn’t believe how nice everybody was and how everybody answered every question, no matter how elementary it was,” Zelasko said.

Said Goren: “We wanted a woman reporter on our NASCAR coverage, and we wanted that person to be on equal footing with a male reporter. We didn’t want someone just to do personality pieces and interview the wives. The person we wanted was Jeanne.”

Goren had been a Zelasko fan since listening to her on XTRA (690) giving sports updates and holding her own against “Loose Cannons” Steve Hartman and the late Chet Forte.

“She wasn’t just reading a script, she knew what she was talking about,” Goren said. “And she had a good sense of humor.”

Zelasko came to what is now Fox Sports Net in Los Angeles from San Diego in 1996 as a reporter and anchor and has steadily moved up the ladder to where she is one of the most recognizable women working in sports television.

In mid-May, she’ll switch from NASCAR to baseball, serving as co-host on Fox’s pregame shows with Kevin Kennedy.

She has had the baseball assignment since May 2001, when she was taken off NASCAR to replace Keith Olbermann after his departure from Fox.

“Back then, she had only been working NASCAR for a few months,” Goren said, “but the people in the sport were so fond of her that when we assigned her to baseball they were telling me, ‘How can you take Jeanne away from us?’ ”

The feeling was mutual.

“I love NASCAR,” she said. “The drivers and the people in the sport are just great, so accessible and so helpful. And it’s an exciting sport to work.”

She’ll be one of four pit reporters Fox will have at California Speedway in Fontana this weekend for Saturday’s Busch race and Sunday’s Auto Club 500.

“Working the pits is like working the postgame of a major event,” she said. “It’s a real adrenaline rush. Only you get that rush four or five times rather than just once because you have four or five pit stops to cover.”

Zelasko missed part of the NASCAR season last year for the birth of son Trevor, whose first birthday was Saturday. Zelasko is married to Channel 7’s Curt Sandoval.

NASCAR’s PR Machine

As Zelasko found out, the stars of NASCAR might be the most fan-friendly and media-accessible in all of sports. It’s Page 1 news when Shaquille O’Neal talks to the media. NASCAR drivers will talk anytime, anywhere -- even after accidents. If they can walk, they’ll talk.

Part of it is that the drivers all have sponsors to plug. And part of it is simply the NASCAR culture. It’s what you do.

The PR machine, working alongside Sarah Nettinga, NASCAR’s director of film, television and music entertainment, has been in high gear this week.

On Wednesday night, Jeff Gordon attended the premiere for the movie “Identity,” and Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson made guest appearances on Fox Sports Net’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period.”

Thursday night, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was on Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC show and Rusty Wallace was on “BDSSP.”

This afternoon, Tony Stewart will tape a segment for tonight’s “BDSSP” show from the track via satellite, then participate in qualifying before traveling by helicopter to Edison Field to throw out the first pitch at tonight’s Angel game.

Laker Radio Update

Laker executive vice president Frank Mariani said last week he hoped to have the Lakers’ new radio team in place this week, but that was wishful thinking.

Laker spokesman John Black said Thursday a new radio team probably won’t be named for a couple of weeks.

“We’re not going to hurry this process,” he said. “We want to take a close look at all the candidates.”

The leading candidates for the play-by-play job are Joel Meyers, Larry Burnett and Bill Macdonald. The commentating slot is wide open, and that’s apparently why it is going to take a while.

Radio Wars

The Arbitron winter ratings book for local radio stations came out this week, showing new Dodger flagship station KFWB (980) ranked 21st among persons 12-plus in the market with a 2.1 share. Laker station KLAC (570) ranked 33rd with a 0.8, and all-sports KSPN (710) was 44th of the 45 stations listed with a 0.4.

XTRA (690, 1150) did not make the list because Arbitron perceived XTRA as two stations because not all the programming on the two signals is the same. XTRA (690) does not carry the Clippers or UCLA, and carries San Diego State sports.

The list prompted KSPN to declare it was the No. 1 all-sports station in the L.A. market.

But Greg Ashlock, XTRA station manager, pointed out the Arbitron “maximizer,” which he obtained the next day, showed the combined share for 690 and 1150 was an 0.8, which is better than KSPN’s 0.4. XTRA had 255,100 listeners per week, and KSPN 183,100.

“They were No. 1 for 24 hours,” Ashlock said.

KSPN talk-show host Joe McDonnell, who also is the assistant program director, disagreed. “They did not meet the minimum reporting criteria to make the official rating book, plain and simple,” he said.

Whatever, neither an 0.8 share or an 0.4 share is something to brag about. KPRW-FM (Power 106) was ranked No. 1 overall with a 5.0 share.

Short Waves

ABC’s Melissa Stark is expecting her first child in September and will miss part of the “Monday Night Football” season. A decision on a fill-in has not been made.... Bret Lewis, who has been working for Channel 2, mostly on the weekends and on a per-diem basis, has been let go. With Channel 2 and Channel 9 having combined sports staffs, Lewis was the odd man out. He’ll be replaced on “Sports Central” by Channel 9’s Derrin Horton. Lewis, who also works for KFWB, said he is leaving on good terms and remains close friends with Channel 2’s Jim Hill.

Marge Hearn will be honored at the Achievable Foundation’s “Reach for the Stars” 5K Sunday at the Century City Westfield Shopping Town on Little Santa Monica Boulevard. A silent auction and kiddie fair will be held at 7 a.m., the opening ceremony will be at 8 and the race at 8:30. Details: (310) 258-4191.... The Sports Emmy awards ceremony, held in New York on Monday, will be televised by Fox Sports Net on Sunday at 6 p.m. Top individual awards went to Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth.... The Kings’ Bob Miller will be honored as the California sportscaster of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Assn. in Salisbury, N.C., on Monday. The Times’ Ross Newhan is the state sportswriter of the year. Buck and Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly are the national winners.

The 2.6 rating ABC averaged for its 14 NBA telecasts during the regular season is an all-time low for broadcast television. NBC averaged a 2.9 for its 31 telecasts last season. But ABC is not complaining. “We’re pleased with the NBA,” spokesman Mark Mandel said, adding that the Laker-Minnesota playoff game Sunday got a 4.1 national rating, while a motorcycle event in the same time slot last year got a 0.9.