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NASCAR spoofs itself with new 'toon

© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 9, 2001

As the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright helped cartoons find a place again in prime-time television 12 years ago. Now the Emmy-winning voice-actor is hoping to shepherd animation into another medium: the Internet.

Cartwright is the creative force behind The Kellys, a weekly animated series that can be downloaded at NASCAR.com, following the adventures of a family trying to make it in the world of stock car racing. The show's eighth episode -- each is about three minutes -- debuts today at NASCAR's official site, where traffic has increased steadily since the show's September launch.

"In the first month, we already had about 250,000 downloads, and we're ecstatic about that," said William Widmaier, CEO of SportsBlast, an animation production company founded by Cartwright. "One thing we'd noticed about the Internet is that you'd get a big spike when you launch the show but then it drops off. This is what you hope for: a steady, rising fan base."

The show features recently-retired fictional driver Joe Kelly presiding over the Kelly Racing Team, which has his son, Denny, and Formula One emigre Armani Riggo as his drivers. His daughter, Trish, drawn along the lines of Jessica Rabbit, aspires to drive, but the show's best lines are saved for crew chief Tex Riggs, a thick-mustached Richard Petty clone who fires off country exclamations such as "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit."

Cartwright's staff knows its racing nuances -- everything from fears of losing sponsors to out-of-control driver egos to subtle digs at those cursed restrictor plates. When compared with its TV counterparts, the animation is perhaps a car length ahead of Jonny Quest, but for the Web, where the resolution of pictures must stay low to reduce download time, the images are outstanding.

Fans with high-speed connections can catch up on the season in less than an hour, and dial-up users can enjoy the same with a little patience. When it comes to family sparring it's not quite the Sopranos, but there's a clever self-deprecation that Simpsons fans will appreciate -- think Larry Sanders meets Jeff Gordon.

Cartwright isn't the only parallel between the cartoons: just as Bart's "I will not. . ." chalkboard statements highlight the Simpsons opening credits (best ever: "I will not use abbrev."), The Kellys' credits end with a car speeding away from a pit crew member who finds an object left in his hand: a gearshift knob or spare lug nut one week, an air freshener the next.

If the site's message board is any indication, the cartoon has been well-received. Critics complain about an occasional mild expletive, though the site warns the cartoon holds itself to the standards of a PG-rated movie. Others have worried about the presence of fictional Bronco Beer as a car sponsor on a show kids might watch, but then again, this is spoofing Winston Cup racing, isn't it?

The show, which runs 10 episodes this season and is working on 40 for next year, deserves points for sensitivity, too -- its launch was pushed back by the Sept. 11 tragedies, and the fourth episode was dedicated to promising Busch series driver Blaise Alexander, who was killed at age 25 in an accident during an ARCA race last month.

If nothing else, the show is a healthy sign that NASCAR fans, while still mourning the loss of Dale Earnhardt, can step back and laugh at themselves a bit.

TID-BYTES: Former Cowboys tight end Jay Novacek, writing his picks column for NBCsports.com, takes the Lions to upset the Bucs this weekend, theorizing that Tampa is "due for a letdown." ... Rays outfielder Jason Tyner has an auction of 148 sports memorabilia items at setexasbaseballacademy.com to raise money for the Juliet Tyner Memorial Scholarship Foundation, established as a tribute to his mother, who died after a five-year battle with breast cancer in 1998. The items available include baseballs autographed by Mickey Mantle and Bucs coach Tony Dungy and bats signed by Barry Bonds and Rays teammates Ben Grieve and Greg Vaughn.

- Question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest? E-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com.

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