I totally called it, but it was pretty obvious. At this weekend’s race at New Hampshire International Speedway Carl Edwards will be driving the No. 99 Lumber Liquidators/Red Sox Ford Fusion with a big ole Red Sox Logo on the car.
Everybody is very “proud” of this endeavor, as is stated in this Roush Fenway press release:
Roush Fenway Racing announced today that Boston Red Sox sponsors, Lumber Liquidators and Gillette, have signed on as sponsors of the No. 99 Ford Fusion driven by NASCAR NEXTEL Cup driver Carl Edwards during this weekend’s race at New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS). The companies will celebrate their relationship with the Boston Red Sox and NASCAR fans by featuring the Red Sox logo on the No. 99 Lumber Liquidators/Red Sox Ford Fusion during the race in Loudon, N.H. on July 1.
“I’m really proud to have Lumber Liquidators and Gillette on board as the primary sponsors of the No. 99 Ford at Loudon,” said Edwards. “Both organizations have deep ties in the New England area and it is truly an honor to represent a team like the Boston Red Sox that has so much respect and history. There is an obvious cross-over between the NASCAR fan base and Red Sox fans and I’m excited that Lumber Liquidators and Gillette have chosen me to represent them at New Hampshire International Speedway.”
As Red Sox sponsors Lumber Liquidators and Gillette have secured the rights to utilize Boston Red Sox marks for marketing and promotional activation. These rights allow the companies to feature the Red Sox logo on the No. 99 Ford Fusion and Edwards as a means of further leveraging their association with the Red Sox through regional sponsorship of Roush Fenway Racing at Loudon. In addition to being highlighted on the Roush Fenway Racing entry, the sponsors will look to reach a broader audience of NASCAR fans by tapping into Roush Fenway Racing’s public relations and marketing services.
“We are excited to have Lumber Liquidators and Gillette sponsoring the No. 99 Ford Fusion and using the opportunity to promote their affiliation with the Boston Red Sox,” said Jack Roush, owner of Roush Fenway Racing. “It is our intention to be New England’s NASCAR team. We hope Red Sox fans watching the races in Loudon will support us with the same intensity as they do when watching the Red Sox”.
With this agreement, Lumber Liquidators, the largest independent retailer of hardwood flooring in the country, is expanding it’s involvement in NASCAR after entering the Craftsman Truck Series as a team sponsor in 2006. “This is a dream partnership. Lumber Liquidators has a long history with the Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group was a big part of why Lumber Liquidators entered NASCAR racing last year,” said Tom Sullivan, chairman and founder of Lumber Liquidators. “As a native Bostonian myself, I can’t wait to see the No. 99 Lumber Liquidators/Red Sox Ford Fusion running up front on Sunday for all the great Red Sox fans in New England and around the nation.”
“It’s exciting to join with two of our partners, the Boston Red Sox and Roush Fenway Racing, to further leverage our NASCAR sponsorship when ‘Gillette Young Gun,’ Carl Edwards, debuts the car at Loudon,” said Michelle Potorski, associate marketing director, Gillette. “We look forward to working with the partners to bring these types of creative ideas to New England sports fans.”
Anyone on the outside looking in would think this was a no-brainer, the logical next step in the partnership between Roush and Fenway. So it’s not the biggest piece of news in the world of racing, but I’m sure die hard Red Sox fans will dig it.
To celebrate Roush Fenway Racing competing for the first time at NHIS under their new name this weekend, the Boston Red Sox will host Roush Fenway Racing Day at Fenway Park presented by Gillette on Friday, June 29 as the Red Sox take on the Texas Rangers. Festivities will include Roush Fenway Racing themed displays and exhibits throughout the ballpark as well as a special pre-game ceremony that will formally introduce Red Sox Nation to the drivers of Roush Fenway Racing. On Monday, July 2 fans are invited to visit the No. 99 Lumber Liquidators/Red Sox Ford Fusion at the Lumber Liquidators Braintree location located at 240 Wood Road. The show car will be on display between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. In addition, Mike Lowell of the Boston Red Sox will make a special appearance between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 pm. You can also see the No. 99 Lumber Liquidators/Red Sox Ford Fusion paint scheme by logging on to lumberliquidators.com.
Now if only someone would run an Oakland A’s themed car…. That’d be niiice!
Welcome to The Fast and the Fabulous! This is a blog based on one woman's thoughts, opinions and experiences involving NASCAR and IndyCar.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my feedwith your favorite feed reader or have the latest posts sent directly to your email address.
Thanks for visiting!
I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time, I love the new look & feel of NASCAR.COM. I guess it was at the start of this racing season that they launched the revamped site(?). My favorite part is when you click into an article and the huge photo at the top zooms out slowly revealing itself. I love that feature, it’s so simple but so dramatic at the same time.
If you haven’t seen it yet you should. Use this press release regarding Tony Eury Sr.’s move to JR Motorsports as Director of Competition, as an example.
I think it’s awesome that Eury Sr. will be taking on this role for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s company. He obviously cherishes his family bonds and trusts the Eury’s in general. I think this can only help JR Motorsports to grow and become successful. Shane Huffman, driver of the #88 Navy Chevrolet in the Busch Series, has been doing a good job for JR Motorsports so far this year. He’s moved up to 12th place in the Busch Series standings, moving up 3 spots after last weekend’s race in Milwaukee.
Shane writes a blog on his InfieldParking.com profile page. He updates it, it seems like at least once a week.
In other news…
– I’m curious about what Carl Edwards has up his sleeve for this weekend’s race at Loudon in New Hampshire. Says Edwards, “This weekend we are also running a special New England-themed paint scheme. I can’ t say just yet what it is, but I know the fans will get a real kick out the No. 99 new look for the weekend.” A big Boston Red Sox logo? (He does race for Roush Fenway after all) A photo of a giant bowl of clam chowder? What??
– Buy King of Leon’s latest CD “Because of the Times.” It’s incredibly good rock music, like their two previous CDs. I recommend listening to the songs “Knocked Up” and “On Call” first, if you like those you’ll love all the rest.
– Do me a favor and fill out my ‘Fast and Fabulous’ survey.
Where to begin… First I guess I’ll express my surprise that it had been over a year since Carl Edwards had won a Cup race. I didn’t realize it had been that long, so good for him. The fun thing about Carl Edwards is his mom. She’s at all of his races and she’s the only NASCAR driver’s mom that I can spot instantly. Like if I saw her at the grocery store I’d be like “hey there’s Carl Edwards’ mom!” If it’s anybody else’s mom I have no clue, their son would have to be standing next to them for me to put it together. I don’t know what it is about her but she stands out. I think it’s her hair. She’s got great hair. Or, duh, it could just be that she’s always there. I dunno though… Some of those guys’ girlfriends and wives are always there and I wouldn’t be able to pick them out of a crowd. It could just depend on who it is.
Ok, I totally went off on a weird tangent there.
In other news…
– I’ve been watching “Fast Cars & Superstars” (on ABC) here and there. I have it Tivo’d so I can watch it whenever. I like the fact that they’ve done this show period, because it proves that there’s so much more to NASCAR than just turning a wheel. While it doesn’t go into the whole strategy part of it, I think people get a sense of the skill involved.
– How nice was it to see Michael Waltrip back in a Cup race? And he finished 10th no less! That was very cool. I’m happy for him. It feels like his whole season has been marred by his little off track accident and the Daytona 500 shenanigans, which is really sad. I’d like to see his team be successful. I know they can be it’ll just take some time. But I just miss the old funny & slaphappy Mikey that we used to see every week.
– Casey Mears. He’s a guy that’s steadily moving up the points standings every week. At one point this year, a few weeks ago I believe, he was in 34th place and now he’s up to 19th. Ya never know, if they keep this up we could see Casey in the Chase this year. That’d be very, very cool.
– Please tell me I’m not the only person who dislikes Marc Fein and Bill Weber? I’d trade both of them in for Mike Joy and Allen Bestwick any day. They’re sooo annoying. I don’t understand Weber, it seems like he’s yelling all the time. He’s just too loud. And Fein seems like he’s not listening to people ’cause his comments after they make a point never seem to match up. Ugh. Luckily we only have 4 more races of them until we’re on to the ESPN/ABC coverage.
– The topic of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s move to Hendrick Motorsports is starting to annoy even me. And I’m a big Dale Jr. fan. Maybe it’s because they seemed to extend the pre-race show for an extra hour and filled it with an interview of Junior and Rick Hendrick that shed absolutely NO new light on the situation. I’d rather they talk about Mikey Waltrip making it back into a race, or the Red Bull boys managing to qualify every week after a slow start to the season. Or why Juan Pablo Montoya seems to have stalled (which is totally fine by me) or what’s going on with Jeremy Mayfield (where the heck is he??).
– In case you’re thirsty for more speculation on the ramifications of Junior’s move to Hendrick, then you should check out this article “Is Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s big move good for NASCAR?” on Slate.com by John Swansburg. He digs my blog, so I’m giving him props. But really it’s a good article and you should read it.
This week has been a rollercoaster of emotions for NASCAR fans. First you have the great high — the victory for Martin Truex Jr. at Dover, his first-ever Cup win.
And then the great low of losing Bill France Jr. the former chairman of NASCAR. After his father (NASCAR’s founder) died, France took charge of his family’s business and grew NASCAR to be the national, ever-growing and highly profitable sport we know today. You have to respect someone who took risks and was dedicated to seeing this league grow. I don’t know the complete history of the France family (of course I’m learning more and more every day) but you’d have to think that building this sport/company must have been a fun ride.
In other news…
– In what I think is the most current issue of ESPN The Magazine they have an article about the new ABC show “Fast Cars & Superstars.” The show comes on tonight and features various celebrities attempting to race stock cars. Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, and Kurt Busch serve as coaches. Serena Williams, Jon Cena, Tony Hawk are some of the celebs participating. This should be fun to watch. I like seeing people realize that it really is harder than you think to “drive around in circles all day.”
– I never got around to writing about Dover. There really isn’t much for me to say about it since I didn’t get to watch it live. A note to Mother Nature: Please stop raining on NASCAR! Some of us have jobs and can’t stay at home on Monday to watch the race.
– At any rate I was very happy to see that Martin Truex Jr. won Dover. I always knew he could do it, and it bothers me to see headlines saying things like “Truex shows DEI’s more than just Junior” because everybody knew that there was more to DEI than just Junior. I don’t remember saying that, do you remember saying that??
And now for some photo goodness:
Ryan Newman carries a piece of his car after a wreck during the Nextel Prelude to the Dream on June 6, 2007 at Eldora Speedway in New Weston, Ohio. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for Eldora Speedway)
Carl Edwards #99 leads Jeff Gordon #24 on the pace lap prior to the start of the Nextel Prelude to the Dream on June 6, 2007 at Eldora Speedway in New Weston, Ohio. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for Eldora Speedway)
Aric Almirola gets ready to drive during the Nextel Prelude to the Dream on June 6, 2007 at Eldora Speedway in New Weston, Ohio. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for Eldora Speedway)
Martin Truex Jr. sprays champagne on the trophy for winning the Autism Speaks 400 Presented by Visa at the Monster Mile, Dover International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland / Getty Images for NASCAR)
AJ Allmendinger takes a break during practice at Dover International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)
This whole Jeff Gordon winning thing is becoming a problem.
I don’t like the fact that he’s been winning so many races lately. I don’t dislike the man, I’m just tired of him. We know who Jeff Gordon is, we know he’s a winner, blah, blah, blah. I want to see someone else, someone else who can become the next face of NASCAR.
Because even if you’re not a fan of NASCAR you know who Jeff Gordon is. I suspect that Jeffie is a little jealous of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Even though Gordon is still obviously kicking butt and taking names, I think he’s irked that Dale Jr. is more popular than him, especially now that there’s all this hubbub surrounding Junior’s free agent status. If Junior would just get out there and do stuff like Saturday Night Live (and win the Championship) he’d be the new golden boy.
Others are trying to make names for themselves outside of NASCAR, Carl Edwards for example. Lately he’s been on MAD TV and covers of many magazines. Carl has been working it and I appreciate that. He’s making the most of the opportunities that are being given to him. He’s got charisma too, which is helpful. I like Carl, but of course I don’t want him to win a championship before Junior.
If I’m anything I’m loyal.
In a semi-recent interview with Sports Illustrated Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that he may not be the marrying kind. Here’s an excerpt:
SI: Do you hope to get married one day?
Earnhardt: If it happens, it happens. It’s a hell of a commitment. Can’t you just hang with them? Do you have to get married? I imagine marriage changes the atmosphere of the relationship for the worse.
And millions of women around the country cry into their Dale Earnhardt Jr. licensed pillows.
In other news…
Carl Edwards has set out on a campaign to prove that he is the most buff and athletic NASCAR race car driver that has ever lived. Lately he’s been on the cover of Men’s Fitness, and Men’s Health. Maybe this is his way of proving to the sports world that NASCAR is indeed a legitimate sport that requires strength and training, or maybe he’s just trying to prove that he’s hot shirtless. I’m thinking it’s a combination of both.
So now the question is which cover is better??? I’m going with ESPN.
