NASCAR legend and current TV racing analyst Darrell Waltrip knows as much about network technology as I do about stock car racing. At least that's the case based on the cyber exchange I had via a fun new FoxSports.com/MSN Web site feature powered by Carnegie Mellon University-developed technology that lets NASCAR fans pose questions to racing experts.

The virtual "DW," a video image dressed in black who crosses his arms, thinks hard and fidgets a bit, is based on "synthetic interview" technology created by CMU researchers, and that in the past has been used to enable people to "interview" famous figures such as Albert Einstein and Ben Franklin. In this case, the multimedia database technology has been adapted for NASCAR use in honor of this past weekend's 50th running of the Daytona 500 by a student project team at the CMU Entertainment Technology Center. (The virtual DW reminded me of SGT STAR, an artificial intelligence program used by the U.S. Army as a recruiting tool.)

When it came time for me to grill the virtual DW, I confess my motives weren't entirely pure.

Taking a page from our story late last year about Microsoft's infamous potty-mouth Santa, which when prompted could be led to stray from the children's topics it was designed to address, I naturally tried to trick the virtual Waltrip into saying something he might regret about sex or drugs. But he played it safe, generally replying: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's keep it to racing" or "Gee, I've never really thought about that." When asked about stealing from other drivers, he replied with a list of his bad habits: "Let's see, next to lying, and stealing and cheating what were some of my other not-so…."

Strangely enough, the virtual DW brought up the issue of technology before I could. I asked him an honest-to-goodness question about 2007 Daytona 500 winner Kevin Harvick, who was dethroned this past weekend by Ryan Newman.

Question: What do you think of Kevin Harvick?

Answer: I'm not a technical guy. I'm a common sense, kind of seat of the pants guy. I'm not real technical. I figure if you've got a phone, what do you need a fax, or if you got a fax what do you need an e-mail, or if you've got an e-mail, what do you need all that for. But nonetheless, I'm getting there and it's kind of exciting once you figure out how to do some of those things.

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