In preparation for their movie release this week (which opens in Springfield, Vt., pictured at right), the San Jose Mercury News also did a feature on the sports personalities that have appeared in the Simpsons TV show. (Tip of the hat to our pals at sportsjournalists.com for link.)

I can’t imagine running a cooler paint scheme. With all the hype that’s surrounded this movie, it’s a little surprising it hasn’t run before now; I can’t watch the show in syndication without being bombarded by ads. (Which makes sense, but they repeat the same commercial several times each half-hour.)

This may make me re-visit that coolest sponsor list I did earlier in the year…

• ONCE THE SIMPSONS REPEATS ENDED, there was little else to watch on TV. I caught some of ESPN’s Ultimate NASCAR documentary, and it was a little better than I expected.

We’re leary of ESPN’s motives in many instances. With the network picking up their portion of the season this weekend in Indianapolis, they’ve ramped up their coverage of the sport. But it’s also easy to imagine them doing a fluff piece all the same.

This particular episode was called “Explosion” and detailed NASCAR’s rise from regional sport to national entity.

It can’t be called fluff, because the show did touch on some of the more troubling situations that face NASCAR, like leaving behind its original fan base in the South to enter bigger markets and grow the sport. The site of a locked gate outside and antiquated signs of North Wilkesboro was one of the show’s more telling visual moments.

There was also some consideration given to NASCAR’s lack of diversity, including a good interview with truck series driver Bill Lester, the only African-American in NASCAR’s top three series. (Then, rather coincidentally, the Washington Post’s sports centerpiece was on NASCAR’s efforts to open an urban track in D.C.)

But it wasn’t any sort of investigation into these topics; they were merely touched on.

The show, understandably, centered on the death of Dale Earnhardt and how his passing at the 2001 Daytona 500 changed the sport. By comparison, the other topics are not nearly as dominant, nor should they be.

(Photo by Lisa Poole/Associated Press)