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Dale Earnhardt, who has a statute in front of Daytona International Speedway, once dominated NASCAR the way Jimmie Johnson has recently.

Ten years after Dale Earnhardt's death at the 2001 Daytona 500, his personality, legacy and reputation continue to be a mixed blessing for the sport and, more specifically, for Fox Sports as it attempts to revive auto racing's flagging Nielsen ratings.

Fox Sports chairman David Hill brought up the topic Thursday as he discussed, with some frustration, the relative yawn Jimmie Johnson's five-year domination of the sport has produced among fans.

"If he had done this in Formula One, he would have been knighted and parades would be held for him," Hill said. "I find this incredulous. If the Packers had won five straight Super Bowls, statutes would be going up for them.

"In NASCAR, it's 'well, yes, he (Johnson) won again.'?"

It took just a few minutes, though, for Hill to deliver an answer to his own quandary as he contemplated the hold Earnhardt continues to have over the hearts and minds of NASCAR fans.

"He was such a dominating personality," Hill said. "The question every driver will ask is has the death of Dale Earnhardt overshadowed individual achievement in the decade since his death?

"It's almost like we're saying to ourselves that no one was as great as him.

"The legacy of Dale Earnhardt is both a blessing and a curse, and, psychologically, it has had an impact on the standing of drivers. The Earnhardt legacy has stood in the way of the full recognition that Jimmie Johnson and the Hendrick (Motorsports) team should be receiving for what they have achieved."

That's a problem and a challenge, particularly as Fox approaches a Daytona pre-race show Sunday that will include segments on Earnhardt's death and the changes in the sport that have followed over the past decade.

And so many within the sport are rooting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make his way from the back of the pack after a practice crash Wednesday to win Sunday's race.

It's also a problem, potentially, as NASCAR tries to jump-start its numbers by pledging to focus on personalities rather than technology — on drivers, as Hill said, rather than "dingle-flappers and crankshafts."

"We loved Dale and what he accomplished and who he was," Darrell Waltrip said, "but he has overshadowed what great drivers we have now and how they are the equal to a Dale Earnhardt of the past."

There's no way Earnhardt's death won't be on viewers' minds Sunday.

I will never forget the alarm in the voice of Mike Joy, who broadcast the 2001 race and returns for Sunday’s event, as he saw Earnhardt’s car slam into the wall on the final turn.

Nor will I forget Joy’s comments afterward, when he said, “The compass of this sport has lost its true North.” And that’s why I was particularly interested in his thoughts Thursday on how NASCAR can ever move on from Earnhardt’s death.

“What has helped is the passage of time,” he said. “This 10th anniversary has been cathartic. People have spoken who have not spoken (on the topic) in 10 years.

“Quite frankly, for 10 years now this sport has been apologizing for the death of Dale Earnhardt. Now everyone realizes we can consign what Dale has done to a different era. It’s time to move on and to recognize the fellows who are going to be on the track racing at 200 mph on Sunday for the heroes that they are.”

We'll see how viewers react and tune in, or not, Sunday.

Pre-race segments also will include a performance by singer Brad Paisley and a feature on Daytona's repaved track.

As it did in the races after Earnhardt's death, Fox's announcers will remain silent on the third lap of the race in his memory.

The Earnhardt discussion is a sobering one, but it wasn’t the only topic of discussion Thursday. David Hill had a hush in his voice (and, of course, tongue in cheek) as he discussed the travails of Digger, the animated rodent who pops up on screen as part of Fox’s embedded, in-track camera coverage.

Digger, Hill said sadly, in recent months had taken to hanging out with Charlie Sheen and overindulging in “fermented turnips.” However, he has seen the error of his ways.

“I think Digger is contrite, and he is going to have a better year,” Hill said. “He’s moved back to Talladega and left his house in the Hollywood Hills. … I blame myself. I was a stage-door father pushing the little guy. He wasn’t ready for stardom.”

Moreland to CubsKeith Moreland, the longtime radio analyst for University of Texas football and baseball, has landed one of the most coveted and highest-profile openings in the business, succeeding the late Ron Santo as Cubs radio analyst alongside Pat Hughes on WGN.

Moreland, who spent six of his 12 years in the major leagues with the Cubs, will have to give up his duties at Texas to take the job. UT broadcasters are paid by KVET, the Texas flagship station in Austin, so the station will hire replacements in conjunction with the university.

Hughes said Moreland has retained his ties to the Cubs, attending the annual Cubs convention in January, and has worked several Cubs games on radio and TV in recent years.

“He’s a natural talent, and he isn’t condescending,” Hughes said. “A lot of ballplayers act like they know everything and fans don’t know anything. Keith explains things clearly without talking down to the audience. People will take to him quickly.”

Hughes, by the way, said he recently completed one of his Baseball Voices CDs on former Pirates and Astros announcer Bob Prince and is now working on a CD of Santo’s radio highlights.

Houston and Los Angeles were cornerstones of Fox Sports Net when it was created in the mid-1990s, and now Fox has suffered a blow in LA with this week’s announcement that the Lakers will leave after the 2011-12 season for English- and Spanish-language regional sports networks owned by Time Warner Cable.

If estimates valuing the deal at $3 billion over 20 years are reasonably correct, cable bills in LA are about to go up big-time. However, Time Warner in LA, like Comcast in Houston with its Rockets-Astros network launching in 2012, now must sell the new channel in a marketplace that has substantial numbers of households serviced by providers and about 620,000 households with no pay TV.

DirecTV has more than a million customers in LA, which, along with other providers and uncabled households, together account for more than half of the households in the LA market. Another remarkable element of the deal is that Time Warner is paying so much money for, given the Lakers’ popularity with the NBA’s national outlets, maybe 60 to 65 exclusive telecasts each year.

Fox Sports Net, meanwhile, isn’t going out of business, but is remarkable to consider the extent to which it is fading as a force in Top 10 markets.

It still has a full run of teams in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and, until the Lakers leave, Los Angeles. But in addition to team-owned outlets like NESN in Boston and YES in New York, Comcast is now a dominant Top 10 player with MLB/NBA/NHL deals in the San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C., with Houston soon to follow, plus the Mets in New York and the Celtics in New England.

So don’t snicker about the LA deal. Your cable bills are about to go up, too, as teams take advantage of this remarkable bull market for RSN launches. There’s always a chance of carriage fights, too, like the ones that have bedeviled Comcast in Portland.

Four DVRs, no waitingIt's NBA All-Star Game weekend. TNT has the Rookie Challenge at 8 p.m. today, the All-Star Saturday Night extravaganza at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and the All-Star Game at 6 p.m. Sunday.

ESPN has the celebrity game at 6 p.m. today, and ESPN Radio has all the weekend's activities.

… ABC says it is averaging 7.3 million viewers, up 44 percent from 5 million a year ago, and ESPN is averaging 2 million, up 20 percent from 1.6 million. TNT is averaging 2.35 million viewers, up 33 percent from 1.76 million. …

KIAH’s (Channel 39) NewsFix premiere now has been pushed back to March, general manager Roger Bare said Thursday. “Things take longer than you think they will all the time,” Bare said. “We’re in daily rehearsals, and we expect to launch in March.” …

The Clear Springs girls basketball team joins Todd Freed for Todd Freed’s High School SportsZone at 9 p.m. Sunday on KUBE (Channel 57). … Fox Sports will webcast the UIL swimming and diving championships Saturday at FoxSportsHouston.com. A highlight show will air in March on FS Houston. …

Kabletown synergy makes its formal debut Sunday with the inaugural Hockey Day in America observation Sunday on NBC and Versus. NBC will have regional coverage of NHL games, with Red Wings-Wild at 11:45 a.m. on KPRC (Channel 2), interspersed with tales of hockey lore beginning at 11 a.m. Versus has an outdoor game from Calgary between the Canadiens and Flames at 5 p.m. …

Meanwhile, Steve Burke, the new president of NBC Universal, said during Comcast’s quarterly earnings call that the network will be “disciplined. We’re going to concentrate on businesses that have good returns.” That, in turn, prompted speculation on how high NBC will go to pick up rights for the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Olympics when bidding begins this year. …

Also in Kabletown, the San Jose Mercury News speculates that Comcast could be an alternative if Fox does not, as expected, renew its rights deal with the Pac-12. … NBC, meanwhile, could be in position to regain sole control of horse racing’s Triple Crown with ESPN’s decision not to retain the Belmont Stakes. The Belmont had a mere 3.0 Nielsen rating on ABC last year and only once, in 2008 with a Triple Crown on the line, topped a 4.4 rating in five years. …

… MLB Network will air 83 spring training games beginning with Phillies-Yankees on Feb. 26, with each team featured at least three times. MLB Tonight returns for the season Feb. 28. … ESPN has launched its Baseball Tonight bus tour of spring training sites, with the Astros scheduled for a March 6 stop with the Braves and Yanks in Tampa. …

Fox's Saturday Game of the Week schedule will feature three prime-time dates in May, with the Rangers in two of the three regional slots. The Astros, reflecting their less-than-stellar finish last season, are not down for a single appearance on Fox in 2011. Seven teams will appear nine teams each, four teams are down for eight dates, three for seven and the Rangers have six slots. …

Former MLB Network analyst Barry Larkin has jumped ship to ESPN.

As part of his stated intentions to focus more attention on CBS’ cable properties, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said this week that CBS College Sports will be rebranded April 4 as CBS Sports Network. College programming will continue to dominate, but the name change will allow the option of adding, for example, boxing or MMA content through Showtime. …

Beth Mowins and Doris Burke were scheduled Thursday to call DePaul-Providence, marking the first time two women have called a men’s college basketball game on ESPN. …

Other ESPN hoops action this weekend includes Texas A&M-Oklahoma State at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPNU with Dan McLaughlin and Bob Valvano, Arkansas-Pine Bluff-Prairie View A&M at 6 p.m. Monday on ESPNU with Anthony Calhoun and Stephen Howard and Baylor-Missouri at 8 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN2 with Mark Jones and Hubert Davis. In women’s hoops, ESPNU has UAPB-Prairie View at 3:30 p.m. Monday, and ESPN2 has Texas-Iowa State at 8 p.m. …

ESPN has a Black History Month documentary doubleheader beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday with The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story, on the trail-blazing Tennessee quarterback, and Wendell Scott: A Race Story, on the first African-American driver to win a race in NASCAR’s top series. The Holloway film is produced and narrated by country singer Kenny Chesney. …

ESPN’s Outside the Lines at 8 a.m. Sunday includes a feature on the Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project, which raises money to install headstones on the graves of great Negro Leagues players. …

As part of his stated intentions to focus more attention on CBS’ cable properties, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said this week that CBS College Sports will be rebranded April 4 as CBS Sports Network. College programming will continue to dominate, but the name change will allow the option of adding, for example, boxing or MMA content through Showtime. …

… ESPN said Thursday it will air TCU-BYU from Cowboys Stadium on Oct. 28 on ESPN2.

I'm sure high school coaches in Dallas-Fort Worth will be less than thrilled by that bit of timing.

… ESPN will air five ACC games in prime time on Thursdays as part of its new 12-year deal, plus Miami-Maryland on Monday, Sept. 5. … Michael Vick has postponed his scheduled appearance with Oprah Winfrey but says he “hope(s) to be able to participate in an interview in the future.” …

List shows can be a mixed bag of good and wretched, and NFL Network likely will feature both in its Top 10 marathon from 5 a.m. Sunday through 5 a.m. Monday. NFL Network also re-airs the five-part AFL documentary Full Color Football at 1 p.m. Saturday, with two more full airings on Monday. …

NFL Network will have, no kidding, 23 reporters on hand for its NFL scouting combine coverage beginning next Thursday. …

Nielsen says the Super Bowl was the most-watched program ever among Hispanic viewers with an average audience of 10 million, beating the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands at 8.95 million. …

The marketing research company YouGov says Snickers and Doritos have gotten the most postgame positive buzz from their Super Bowl spots. Snickers, CarMax, Hyundai and E*Trade were the top scorers among women and Doritos, Kia, GoDaddy.com and PepsiMax led among men. Buzz losers, the company said, were Coca-Cola, Bud Light, Chevrolet, GM and Android. …