Seventeen Days To Go
Mark your calendars, set your alarms. The day is fast approaching.
Seven-time Daytona 500 Champion Richard Petty, who’s father Lee won the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959, will serve as honorary starter for the historic 50th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 17.
Petty will drop the green flag at Daytona International Speedway to get the historic event underway at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
So what are your plans for that day? Will you be there? Are you watching from home? Do you have a party? Many people I know, myself included, have Super Bowl parties each year. Do you throw a Daytona 500 party? I am. Oh yeah. This is the 50th. Woot! I just wish I could be there, in person.
COT Fails At Las Vegas Motor Speedway
What an interesting headline… While visiting the NASCAR.COM website tonight they have a photo of a banged up Car of Tomorrow, with the title,
Tough day at the office
> Numerous crashes tarnish COT debut at Las Vegas
You won’t mind if I chuckle at this for a second will you? I have made it known in the past, I really don’t like the Car of Tomorrow. I don’t like what it is going to do from a competition standpoint, and I certainly don’t like what it’s going to do from a viewing standpoint, that’s for sure. The COT was tarnished, in my eyes, long before they were wrecking this week in Las Vegas.
For the second consecutive year, Sprint Cup Preseason Thunder testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway turned into a crash-fest, as eight different Cars of Tomorrow were terminally wrecked in two days of testing.
With the final two days of Preseason Thunder on tap Thursday and Friday at California Speedway, it created a logistical two-step for some teams — though 78 percent of the 33 teams contacted in an informal poll said they planned to bring the same cars from Vegas to California regardless.
Of course they will bring the same cars, they have too much time and money invested in them. The only ones that will switch will be the ones who broke them too much to use them in the race there.
Kyle Busch Has The Power
I know Hendrick Motorsports let him go to make room for Dale Jr. but wouldn’t it be hilarious if Kyle Busch just took off this season? How funny would it be if he beat all the Hendricks cars at Daytona in February.
I would literally laugh my ass off.
Kyle Busch posted the fastest lap on the first day of testing at Las Vegas Motorspeedway, going 183.580 mph on Monday.
Busch bettered new teammate Tony Stewart, who had the next fastest laps at 182.426 and 182.334 in two different Toyota Camrys. Denny Hamlin, the third driver at Joe Gibbs Racing, was fastest in the morning session but was just 24th best in the afternoon.
Busch’s day was a continuation of the strong tests he’s had since moving to JGR this season. He was fast at Atlanta in October, and posted the fastest time during the first Daytona testing session earlier this month.
He’s been fast, and more importantly, he has been consistent. He just may be a force to be reckoned with.
Educating NASCAR
Wow, first McDonald’s starts offering high school credits just for working, and now NASCAR team owners expect people to come with college degrees.
Certainly NASCAR is a get your hands dirty, crawl under the hood type sport, but added technology and increasing advancements is demanding higher levels of education for its players.
And while NASCAR’s CEO Brian France would like to “get back to the basics” of the sport, change is inevitable amidst growth and a diverse talent pool.
Team owners now expect their engineers and crew chiefs to come with college degrees, and a number of universities across the country now offer motorsports as a major paired with NASCAR-specific curriculum. Soon Ryan Newman won’t be the only college graduate on the track.
I’m not really surprised. In this day and age it only makes sense that the teams would benefit by having people who have an engineering education background, but I don’t think classroom education is always as good as real life education. Sure, it’s bound to help, but sometimes you learn more by being there, working day in and day out, learning the craft. As long as you don’t let the booksmarts override what you know is right, you’ll do just fine.
Sphere: Related ContentTakin’ A Break
Ford In It For The Long Haul
Ford Motor Company, which earlier this week announced they have lost even more money and are preparing to offer buyouts to all of their union employees, but now they say they are committed to NASCAR and promise better times ahead!
Ford isn’t giving up on NASCAR.
After a dismal 2007 season that saw the manufacturer win only seven Nextel Cup races — to Chevrolet’s 26 — Ford officials made a point Thursday to show their commitment to the newly named Sprint Cup.
Edsel Ford II, a member of Ford’s board of directors and the great-grandson of Henry Ford, visited Roush Fenway Racing’s shop Thursday during the final day of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Media Tour
”There’s been a lot of talk in the Ford Motor Company in the media in the past year, much of it negative,” Ford said. ”People have wanted to write us off, to say we couldn’t compete in the marketplace or on the race track.
”I’m here to tell you one thing today: don’t underestimate our resolve.”
If they had this much resolve in the marketplace, they wouldn’t need to be offering buyouts to their employees to save money, would they? Good luck during the race season though.
Sphere: Related ContentCraving Daytona
Great. Now while I am watching the race, not only will I crave Subway (which happens everytime I see Greg Biffle’s car) but now I will crave a Big Mac or fries too. Thanks guys.
McDonald’s USA and Gillett Evernham Motorsports have announced that McDonald’s will sponsor Elliott Sadler’s No. 19 Dodge in six Sprint Cup races in 2008.
“McDonald’s is thrilled to partner with Gillett Evernham Motorsports, which is one of the premier teams in the Sprint Cup Series,” said John Lewicki, McDonald’s senior director of alliance marketing. “This partnership is a great fit as McDonald’s, Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Elliott Sadler are all committed to delivering quality experiences to fans and customers alike.”
McDonald’s will sponsor Sadler’s No. 19 Dodge all season and serve as the primary sponsor at Martinsville on March 22, Darlington on May 10, Michigan on June 15, California on Aug. 31, Talladega on Oct. 5 and Atlanta on Oct. 26.
I’ve never “switched” using one product over another based on the logos that appear on a racecar, but I have been known to suffer from intense cravings while watching them race around in circles.
Those cravings, however, are nothing to my want for the Daytona 500 to get here already.
Dale Jarrett Replaces Rusty Wallace On TV
Last season, it was difficult, at times, listening to Rusty Wallace’s analysis of the race. Our son, who idolizes the veteran drivers, loves Rusty Wallace. In fact, several years ago, we went out and waiting in a line for hours just so he could meet him in person. Rusty Wallace was a great racecar driver, but as a television announcer he’s not quite there yet. He seemed to loosen up during the season, and I really think he will do better this season, we shall see.
Dale Jarrett will replace Rusty Wallace in the booth this season for ESPN’s coverage of NASCAR, while Wallace will become the lead analyst for the network’s studio programs.
”We now have the opportunity to provide our viewers with analysis from a pair of former NASCAR Cup champions,” Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, said of the switch.
The move is not exactly surprising — Jarrett thrived last season when he helped call Nationwide Series events last year, and many believed he was headed into a second career of broadcasting when he retires from racing after driving the first five races of 2008.
…
But Wallace struggled at times in the booth, and fans complained he mispronounced drivers’ names and didn’t seem comfortable.
Now in the studio, Wallace will run all the studio programs and will fill in for Jarrett when needed.
Don’t you love the way the television execs sugar coat the whole thing? Wallace is now running all the studio programs, yada yada yada. Ha!
Turner Broadcasting To Continue With NASCAR Site
This is not good news, as far as I am concerned. Their website is bloated with a bunch of crap that no one wants to see, well, I don’t anyway, and their videos starting automatically when you visit the site is the most annoying thing since blinking text.
U.S. cable network Turner Broadcasting System on Tuesday announced a multiyear contract extension with NASCAR to continue to operate the racing circuit’s official Web site.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The extension, which runs through 2014, also allows Time Warner Inc-owned TBS to collaborate on content creation, e-commerce and race ticket sales, in addition to operating the NASCAR.com site, Turner said.
I hope they decide to revamp the site anyway, just to keep things fresh for everyone.
Ken Schrader Tries To Make Daytona
The Daytona 500 wouldn’t be the same without him. It’s great to see that Ken Schrader will be attempting to make the race.
All three of my kids are huge NASCAR fans and in this day and age you might think they were all following Jr, or Jimmie Johnson or one of the other “young guns”, but one of our kids is a huge Ken Schrader fan. I hope he makes it into the race so all three of the kids can root for their favorite.
Ken Schrader is back in a Cup car — for one points race, at least.
The veteran NASCAR driver will pilot the No. 49 Dodge of BAM Racing in the Budweiser Shootout, and attempt to get the unsponsored car into the 50th Daytona 500 on Feb. 17. The 52-year-old Schrader replaces John Andretti, who drove the No. 49 in 10 events last season, and was scheduled to drive it full time in 2008. But the team and the driver have evidently parted ways.
Wow. I wonder what happened with BAM racing and John Andretti. Thing is, it sucks to be him, huh?