I must confess that I missed the bulk of Saturday night’s NEXTEL Cup Series race at Phoenix because I was out looking at models of homes that I can only hope to afford at some point in my life (please!).
I managed to catch a smidgen of the race wrap-up long enough to find out that Jeff Gordon won (ew) and that Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished back in 19th, not a lap down.
On Sunday I checked my email and found a press release containing a photo of Jeff Gordon seasoning some food with renowned Bay Area chef Victor Scargle at Infineon Raceway (see below). Gordon attended the luncheon at Infineon to promote the Toyota/Save Mart 350 and his line of wine, the Jeff Gordon Collection. The media event was filled with the usual yuk-yuk jokes and adulation that’s par for the course at events of this nature.
“This is scary. Tony Stewart doesn’t scare me but this scares me,” Gordon said of preparing the meal.
“Jeff is the best at what he does on the racetrack and to come into the kitchen with an open mind like he did was great,” Scargle said. “He has the hand-eye coordination down. There’s a second career waiting for him if he needs it.”
It would have been a nice shindig to attend, only because McDreamy himself was in attendence. Yep, Patrick Dempsey of “Grey’s Anatomy” was there, apparently he was involved in the filming of a documentary about Jeff Gordon’s life that’s set to air before the Pepsi 400 in July.
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver Jeff Gordon and renowned Bay Area chef Victor Scargle prepare a meal for the media on Sunday at Infineon Raceway. (photo credit: Mike Doran)
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Thanks to my handy dandy Dale Earnhardt Jr. Desk Calendar I am proud to tell you that the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series has more female fans than any other sport!
Now I’m sure a bunch of close-minded, idiotic, jerky men will tell you that this is because we women just want to look at hot dudes. They couldn’t be more wrong; besides, the NFL, NHL and MLB all have gorgeous men on the payroll too. While I don’t know the exact reasons why women love NASCAR so much I have my suspicions.
For me it’s about the event, it’s about the competition, and it’s about the people. Obviously I like knowing who’s dating who and what so-and-so’s wife is really like, but what I really dig is that every race is like a mini Super Bowl. There are the flyovers, the increasingly large pool of celebrity honorary grand marshals, and of course the usual Nashville recording artist singing the national anthem.
NASCAR is very family friendly. You can bring the kids to the track and make a day, or even a three-day weekend, out of it. There aren’t many sports that give you the access to the teams the way that NASCAR does. You know that before every race your favorite driver will be out signing autographs at a certain time, and even if you don’t catch him there you could bump into him in the garage with your trusty garage pass.
It’s just so easy to be a fan of NASCAR. If you want to listen the in-car communications between the team and the driver you can. If you really wanted to every piece of furniture, clothing or accessories you own can have your favorite driver’s name, car number or face on it.
Bottom line — NASCAR makes it easy for you to feel like you’re apart of something.
NASCAR announced today that it will be honoring the victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy that took place on Monday. Stickers showing the Virgina Tech logo will be placed inside all of the race cars for the next three weeks.
NASCAR To Honor Victims Of Virginia Tech Tragedy
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 18, 2007) — The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has received permission from Virginia Tech University to display the school’s logo on race cars for the next three weeks, in a tribute to the victims of this week’s shootings at the Blacksburg, Va. campus.
The logo will be displayed against a black background on the “B-post” — the area just to the right of the driver’s side window net — of cars competing in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series events at Phoenix International Raceway (Friday and Saturday), Talladega Superspeedway (April 28-29) and Richmond International Raceway (May 4-5).
Additionally, trucks competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event April 28 at Kansas Speedway also will display the logo.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their family members, their friends — and the entire Virginia Tech community,” said NASCAR Chairman Brian France. “We wanted to make a simple, but strong, gesture of remembrance. We are grateful the university gave us clearance to display their logo.”
Good news!
Liz Allison, widow of NASCAR driver Davey Allison, has a new book coming out in September of this year entitled “The Girl’s Guide to Winning a NASCAR Driver.” The book is a follow-up to her 2006 release “The Girl’s Guide to NASCAR.”
I immediately ran over to Amazon.com to see if I could pre-order this sucker but alas it’s not listed yet. I’m dying to know what advice Liz gives on how to lasso your own NASCAR hunk. If anything I’m sure it’ll be a fun read. Until the book comes out check out Liz’s new blog over at the Prilosec OTC Girl’s Guide to NASCAR site.
I’m a little late on this but I had to post this press release about a local (to me in the San Francisco Bay Area) woman who races and is a part of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program.
Jessica Helberg Earns Third-Place Finish For Drive For Diversity Program
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (April 3, 2007) — Jessica Helberg, driving for Bill McAnally Racing and the Richard Childress Racing Development program, gave the Drive for Diversity program its first top-three finish of the season last Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif. Drive for Diversity participant Paulie Harraka, also driving for Bill McAnally Racing, finished the race seventh.
Saturday night was the first race of the 2007 season for Harraka and Helberg, who race in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Helberg, of Rohnert Park, Calif., qualified strong and started seventh. She made the most of the abbreviated 55-lap race, crossing the line with a solid third-place finish.
“It was a great start to the season,” Helberg said. “I was able to keep my car clean and avoid the wrecks, and I’m really excited about the third-place finish.”
Congrats Jessica!
To say that I would love it if there was a full-blown feud between Juan Pablo Montoya and Tony Stewart would be a huge understatement.
When Montoya caused Stewart to spin out this weekend at Texas I was as giddy as a schoolgirl that just got asked to go to prom. The minute it happened I knew Stewart would be mad, pissy, and whiny and that Montoya’s days were numbered. Once you’re on the Stewart shit list you’re done.
It adds more excitement and anticipation to next weekend’s race at Phoenix. Of course I don’t want anyone to get hurt I do love it when people exact revenge on each other. While the incident at Texas doesn’t require serious revenge tactics, I think if Juan Pablo happens to come up behind Tony early in the race some unnecessary blocking would be in order.
On the other side of this debacle was the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car was ruined after Kyle Busch ran into the back of him while trying to avoid Stewart’s spinout. This of course made me so incredibly mad (just ask my friend who was watching the race with me, “they can’t hear you Valli,” he said).
Anyway, after some work on his car Junior went out again but then was off again. Busch’s car was still sitting in the garage with his team trying to get it back out on the track. So Busch leaves the track altogether. His team was able to get the car going again but without their driver they turned to Junior who was happy to take it back out on the track again so that the #5 team could gain some points.
Let’s all take a moment to sigh and think about how sweet Junior is. 
Hehe, ok, ok, but the point is that that was a very nice thing of him to do and he didn’t have to do that, they’re not even teammates. You think little whiny baby Kyle would do that for Junior? I highly doubt it. Or at least I want to doubt it ’cause he’s just a big freak. Why leave?? You have nothing else planned for the rest of the day because you were supposed to be in the race, so why the big rush to go home?
