And so here are a lot of the things I’ve been meaning to post this week.
– Jeff Gordon escorted his wife, Ingrid Vandebosch to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala on Monday night. The theme of the night was “Superheroes” and I think Ingrid was trying to channel Zorro with her flamenco inspired dress. It was good enough to make the “good” part of Jezebel’s “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly” list for the night.
– In case you hadn’t heard this Sunday is Mother’s Day and as is customary some of the NASCAR drivers’ moms will be in attendance at the Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway on Saturday. The mothers will be introduced with their sons during driver introductions and will also give the guys the go ahead to start their engines.
Casey Mears’ mom, Carol, will be there this weekend and he had this to say about her: “My mom is a great lady. She has been there for me and my racing career since the beginning. She still does a lot for me and my company, Casey Mears Inc. She’s just always there and is honestly one of the best people I know.
“It’s cool what Darlington does for all of the mothers on Mother’s Day weekend. I know that it gives my mom a good perspective of what I do each weekend with walking across the stage and waving to the fans — what I see and hear every race day. I know that every year she wears heels and every year she is so nervous and worried that she’s going to fall. She doesn’t really like the steps much.”
– Brian Vickers’ mom Ramona will also be at Darlington tomorrow and she had this to say about Brian:
“All you want is for your child to be successful, and every mother wants their child to be happy,” Ramona Vickers said. “I’m so proud of Brian — his actions, what he says, how he drives. I supported him in whatever he chose to do, and he chose NASCAR.”
There have been times where a mother’s instinct kicks in.
“He’s made us nervous a little bit,” she said, “but as you progress in your career, there’s a little more protection as far as safety. I’m more worried about who’s around him (in traffic), but I think he’s sometimes safer in the race car as he is out on the streets. I feel confident that the team is on its game with safety.”
– Kurt Busch is set it unveil the new Kurt Busch Superdome at the Victory Junction Gang Camp on Tuesday, May 20th at 2 p.m.:
The project was announced in May 2006, with Kurt announcing the donation of the initial $1 million in support of the project. The facility will provide opportunities for indoor sports in a climate-controlled environment. “It’ll be like seeing a dream come true to finally get the doors open and see all the kids enjoying themselves,” said Kurt. “It’s been a labor of love for all of the people involved and I’m so proud and grateful to have the opportunity to make a contribution in this manner to the Petty camp.” Officials are still ironing out all the final details. Several entertainment and sports figures are expected to attend including members of the Carolina Panthers and Ryan Newman, 2008 Daytona 500 Champion, Kurt’s teammate at Penske Racing.
– And since we’re on the subject of Penske Racing, wanna meet Ryan Newman? He will be at the Alltel Store in Concord, North Carolina (6140 Bayfield Parkway) from 6-8 p.m. on May 14th, 2008. There will be a chance to get autographs from Ryan and win prizes too!
Newman will be part of a webcast from the store at 7:30 p.m. ET, which will be broadcast on www.alltelracing.com. Fans can submit questions for Newman through the Alltel Racing web site.
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Ok… So I really only have a bunch of quick hits to share with you today, so here it goes:
– Best Week Ever (the super funny TV show from VH1 that you should never miss!) has a blog and this week they posted a hilarious photo combination that ends with Jeff Gordon. Just check it out. SIMPLE CELEBRITY MATH: How To Build A Legendary Driver
– Kurt Busch talks about his NCAA Basketball predictions, and I totally have to agree with him on Davidson’s loss to Kansas. I wish they could have gone all the way: “NASCAR’s PR guys asked us for our predictions just before March Madness began and I told them then that I thought I’d have to go with North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis making up the Final Four,” Kurt said on Monday night. “I’m proud that I predicted that and it came true, but I really hated to see Davidson lose to Kansas, or to anybody for that matter. That was such a great story and the Curry kid helped really put them on the map. I’m a big Pac-10 fan because of growing up in Vegas and going to Tucson (University of Arizona) for a year. I said a couple of weeks ago that I thought I’d be pulling for my Pac-10 UCLA Bruins, but that Memphis would win it all and I’m sticking by that prediction. North Carolina has looked like they are unbeatable so far in the tournament. My thinking is that they sooner or later have to have one off game. I think it’ll be when they meet Memphis in the finals and Memphis will take advantage of the situation.”
– On Friday (This Friday the 4th of April) Casey Mears will be at the Chevy Thunder at Stockyards Station in Fort Worth, Texas, along with fellow drivers, Aric Almirola, Regan Smith, Jeremy Mayfield and Kevin Harvick. They’ll be signing autographs and participating in a question & answer session. For more details go to: http://chevythunderdays.com/index2.php
– On Saturday you can have Ryan Newman autograph a copy of his book “Pit Road Pets” for you. He’ll be at the Petfinder.com tent in the Blue Ox Camp Ground at Texas Motor Speedway at 2:30pm (local Texas time).
– More JR Nation apparel is going on sale at Sports Authority stores in Texas:
After making its debut in Daytona at the start of the NASCAR season, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s adidas JR Nation Gear has invaded the Lone Star state! Consumers can pick up the latest adidas Dale Jr. gear including men’s and women’s t-shirts, jackets, hats and jerseys, at any of the six Sports Authority locations in the Fort Worth area (addresses below). In addition, fans can check out Dale Jr.’s #88 AMP show car, which will be visiting Sports Authority stores across Dallas and Fort Worth starting April 1 and culminating on April 5 (dates, times and locations below).
Locations, dates and times of Dale Jr.’s #88 AMP show car appearances include:
April 2, 4-7pm
Cedar Hills Store
727 North Highway 67
Cedar Hill, TX 75104-2142April 3, 4-7pm
Irving Store
3524 Airport Freeway West
Irving, TX 75062April 4, 4-7pm
Denton Store
1800 South Loop 288, Ste 240
Denton, TX 76205April 4, 10am-1pm
Stonebriar Store
2930 Preston Road, Ste 200B
Frisco, TX 75034April 5, 10am–1 pm
Watauga Store
7612 Denton Highway, Ste 404
Watauga, TX 76148
I have an idea for a great post and of course all I need to do is write it out but I’m not prepared for it right now. So for today I have some photos I missed and a new JR Nation announcement.
Back in February Casey Mears, driver of the No. 5 CARQUEST/Kellogg’s Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, spent some time out at the sand dunes in Southern California. When asked about his west coast hobbies Casey said “I love the sand dunes. I know I talk about it all the time, but really that’s where I want to be during any time off that we have. I got a new sand car last winter, and I’ve really been working on that. We take a motorcoach out there and just ride all day. There’s no one telling you where to go, or to stop here, or go here, or slow down, or whatever. There’s no road signs, no street lights. You really can do whatever you want. I guess I kind of recharge out there.”
Casey Mears, driver of the No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Chevrolet, spent Feb. 28 driving around California’s Dumont Dunes. Other than racing, this is it,” Mears said. “The sand dunes are such a huge part of my life.” (Courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports).
In other news…
– Dale Earnhardt Jr. fans have a new opportunity to show their love for the man at the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27th:
As the season continues to heat up for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., his fans — known as JR Nation — now have something else to get excited about. For the first time ever, members of the JR Nation Crew, Dale Jr’s official fan club, will be able to tailgate, watch and cheer together when Earnhardt, Jr. competes in the #88 AMP/National Guard Hendrick Motorsports Chevy at Talladega Superspeedway for the Aaron’s 499 on April 27th.
VIP race packages exclusively available to JR Nation Crew members include reserved parking in the JR Nation VIP tailgating area, a ticket for the Aaron’s 499 in the JR Nation seating section, a four pack of collectable AMP Energy drinks, a Talladega Superspeedway/AMP Energy lanyard and a $45 Visa gift card.
The JR Nation VIP tailgating area will feature giveaways, live music and a place for fans to come together and socialize. During the race JR Nation will have a great view of the action from the exclusive JR Nation seating section in turn four of the Gadsden Tower at Talladega.
“I’m thrilled to provide my fans with this unique experience,” said Dale Jr. from his home base in Mooresville, NC, “I always look forward to Talladega, and now I’ll be looking for my JR Nation Crew to cheer me on from their dedicated section in the stands!”
Ticket packages for Talladega are on sale now though April 4th. Quantities are limited and packages are exclusively available to members of the JR Nation Crew.
For $34.88 annually, members of the JR Nation Crew get full-access to JR Nation online including access to exclusive videos, photos, contests, members-only message boards and chats; 10% off merchandise at ShopJRNation.com, and an annual JR Nation Crew Kit. The 2008 Crew kit includes a package full of goods to identify the serious Dale Jr. fan - a welcome letter, vinyl banner, license plate frame, decal, zipper pull, two collapsible can coolers, soft-sided cooler and membership card all emblazoned with “JR Nation Crew.”
Visit www.jrnation.com for more information.
– Little Ella Gordon is adorable!
Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, spends time with his daughter, Ella, before the start of the race in California. (Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports).
I got back from Las Vegas yesterday and I’m still tired. I’m going to break up my recap of Sunday into separate posts, along with photos ‘cause there’s kind of a lot to talk about.
To start, I gotta talk about the Neon Garage.
The Neon Garage at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a playground for adults. At least that’s what it looks like to me. There’s a big bar, food and a concert stage right smack dab in the middle of the garage. The thing I loved about it the most is how much of the team garages you can actually see. You could even go one step further and say that you really don’t even need to get a garage pass. There are windows into each of the team’s stalls, from the top and the bottom so that fans can see in from almost every angle. The teams have no privacy when they’re working on their cars. If someone’s butt crack is showing or they’re picking their nose everybody is going to see it.
Some other pluses for the fans are the fact that the place is super clean and just incredibly open. Oh and about that concert stage. I saw the impersonators for Elvis and Stevie Wonder. And really it’s not a trip to Vegas without a performance from Elvis right? In addition to Stevie and Elvis there was a complete line-up of celebrity impersonators and then a bunch of cover bands — no race weekend is complete without a cover of “Life is a Highway.”
Ok. So here’s the deal. I went down to La La Land (aka Los Angeles) Saturday morning. I would have left earlier like on Thursday but I had long standing plans with friends that I wasn’t willing to break. Luckily because of the rain I really hadn’t missed anything by the time I arrived at the Auto Club Speedway on Sunday morning. Qualifying had been cancelled and practice was minimal. So the story was the rain. When would it stop? Would it stop? When would they start the race? Could they get both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races done the same day?
I have to say that watching a rain delay on TV is a lot less painful than it is to witness first hand. When you’re at home you get to watch all of the pit reporters go around interviewing the drivers. When you’re there in person it’s a totally different story. Watching those jet engine dryers go around and around the track was as boring as you’d expect watching dryers go around a track would be. I went through the garage a couple times but because of the rain and the wind and the cold it wasn’t very much fun. Trying to hold on to my umbrella and keep my camera dry was kind of annoying.
Anyway, besides all of that I had a good time at the track for the short time I was there. I left at around 4 to get back to my sister’s house to watch the Oscars with the family. Although if I had known the Oscars were going to be that lame I wouldn’t have left. When I was driving out of the track I heard about the Casey Mears crash, and watched on the big Sprint Vision screen as Casey was pulled out of his mashed up car.
I’m getting ahead of myself. When it was still raining earlier in the day, before the jet dryers were out on the track, I walked down pit road. Some of the crew for David Gilliland’s team were in their pit area cleaning nuts. I stopped and talked to them and it was really cool. I’ll post more about that later.
At driver introductions I got a close-up look at the Auto Club Speedway Umbrella Girls, basically a bunch of models that carry umbrellas. Anyway, I felt bad for them because they had to wear tiny little shorts with no leggings or stockings or anything. You could see the goose bumps on their legs. Crazy. Speaking of crazy, ok, ok, not really crazy, just weird, ZZ Top performed before introductions out on the grass in front of the start/finish line. When they were done they were scuttled off stage like they were the President surrounded by cops and security.
Anyway, back to the drivers. There was a girl and some dude, he might have been her boyfriend but couldn’t tell for sure, standing next to me who was seriously freaking out when Dale Earnhardt Jr. came into view. He was hard to spot at first. He had on a black hoodie over his race suit with the hood up and sunglasses on. He stopped to do some interviews before running up the stairs and under the tent of the stage — hidden again. The girl yelled, pleaded with him to come out again so she could take a picture but he didn’t budge.
On the other hand there was Carl Edwards. He has to be one of the most charismatic guys in NASCAR right now. Maybe he was just having a good day (or he knew he was going to eventually win the race the next day) but he’s the one that interacted with fans the most, at least from my vantage point that is. He walked up on to the platform, and then walked to the end of the stage closest to where I was standing and proceeded to wink and smile at anyone that made eye contact with him. So yea, I have like a smallish crush on him now.
In other news…
– Check out my photos from Sunday at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. (slideshow)
Actor Tom Cruise, with his son Connor, enjoys the Auto Club 500 on Monday, February 25th, 2008 from the pit box of defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson (Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
It feels like I haven’t written here in forever. I’ve been busy with working on the redesign of the site and playing with my Christmas presents. I received a sweet digital video camera from my sister and the iPod Classic that I wanted from my fabulous mother. It holds 80GB of music and so far I’m up to 20GB. I spent the last week or so chained to my computer at home uploading all of my CDs. It’s a beautiful thing.
Anyway, in NASCAR news the off-season is officially over as teams began testing their cars at Daytona. Dale Earnhardt Jr. showed up and surprised everyone — even his new teammates — because his testing session isn’t for another week.
As always I’ve got photos for ya, I was mostly interested in seeing those drivers that changed rides for this year in their new uniforms. It always takes me awhile to remember who’s driving what and for which team.
Kyle Busch gets ready to take his first laps in his new No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)
New Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. greets teammate Casey Mears in the garage on the first day of Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing crew chief Brandon Thomas meets with his new driver J.J. Yeley in the garage. (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Not a new team, but a brand new paint scheme and uniform for Greg Biffle
On the first day of Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway, Greg Biffle helped unveil an American Red Cross paint scheme that he’ll drive at two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this year. (Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood / Getty Images for NASCAR)
We have a Busch down, I repeat, a Busch is down! 
Kurt Busch checks out the bottom of his New Car during the first day of Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images for NASCAR)
