Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Author: SM Staff

  • Ron Fellows: It’s a Privilege To Be Apart of the Ownership Group

    Ron Fellows: It’s a Privilege To Be Apart of the Ownership Group

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”262″][/media-credit]During the 2012 racing off-season, it was announced that the ownership of Mosport Raceway had changed hands. Canadian Racer Ron Fellows, along with partners Alan Boughton and Carlo Fidani purchased Mosport from the previous ownership.

    “It’s really enjoyable to be a part of it. Mosport has been a big part of my life,” Fellows said last weekend at the Canadian Motorsports Expo. “I went to the first race in 1969 as an 11 year old kid and that’s where I got bitten by the bug to go racing for myself and have had a lot of firsts at Mosport in terms of big wins for me so the place has meant a lot to me. For me, to get an opportunity to be part of the ownership team with Carlo Fidani and Alan Boughton, it’s pretty special.”

    The interest to get in the ownership side began while out one day with Boughton and Fidani.

    “We were down at my performance driving school just west of Las Vegas and I had the two partners – Carlo Fidani and his two sons and Alan Boughton,” Fellows tells the story. “We were talking about owning a race track and Carlo basically said ‘What about Mosport? I heard it’s for sale’ and I said, ‘I know who to call’. So we got in touch with the previous ownership group and it started from there.”

    Fellows went to say that this is a good deal to be involved in as both Boughton and Fidani have business experience to lend to the venture in trying to improve the facility and run it.

    Immediately, the ownership group began making changes to the facility to upgrade it to improve it for drivers, fans, media and track staff.

    The first change they made was adding a new tunnel above turn nine to therefore improve the infrastructure of the track and allow people to be able to get around easier. They took out what Fellows called the “mouse tunnel” and put in a tunnel wide enough for two tractor trailers to fit through side-by-side.

    To improve the experience for the fans, they’ve done grading to improve the sight lines, created some new areas for camping, and there’s a road that connects all the facilities together now so fans don’t have to go on to the public road to get from one end to the other.

    There are also plans to put in a new registration centre and a new event centre, which will feature a media centre, timing and scoring and administration.

    It was announced at the Canadian Motorsports Expo that Mosport Raceway had formed a partnership with Canadian Tire. The deal marks a long-term partnership between the two parties and will see the track change names, now known at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The newly named track will host the season opener for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in May.

    “For the Canadian Tire Series to do their season opener at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park is absolutely ideal scenario for us,” Fellows said. “And then having a marketing partner like Canadian Tire, we feel its going to grow Mosport and create a lot more auto racing interest.”

    Through his years of racing at Mosport, Fellows has had a lot of accomplishments there. Some of these accomplishments include winning in a Ferrari back in 1997 and first TransAm win in 1989.

  • Matt Crafton Leader of the Pack at ThorSport Racing

    [media-credit id=62 align=”alignright” width=”221″][/media-credit]Celebrating his twelfth season at ThorSport Racing, 35 year old Matt Crafton may well be known as the ‘leader of the pack’ among his fellow drivers, including championship runner-up Johnny Sauter and Rookie of the Year contender Dakoda Armstrong.

    And although the driver of the No. 88 Menards Toyota Tundra is fine with that ‘leader of the pack’ moniker, as well as being the ‘wily veteran’, he does take exception to anyone who pins the ‘old’ label on him.

    “That’s what they’ve named me,” Crafton said of his ‘leader of the pack’ status. “I didn’t so much come up with that but I guess that’s what they’re calling me.”

    Whether leader or wily veteran, Crafton admits that he definitely has had an unusual amount of time with the same team, especially in the ever-changing sport of NASCAR racing.

    “It says so much for Duke and Rhonda Thorson (ThorSport owners) and Menards (sponsor) who have been behind me for these past years,” Crafton said. “Duke has run this like a business and has grown each year but has not overspent, like so many race teams do.”

    “Duke said if I’d stick with him as he was growing, we would be just fine,” Crafton continued. “And he has been a man of his words.”

    Will this long-term relationship with ThorSport Racing lead to a championship run for the ‘wily veteran’ this upcoming race season?

    “I sure hope so,” Crafton said simply. “That would be a dream come true for the Thorsons and for me.”

    In addition to his teammate Johnny Sauter, who has been with ThorSport Racing for several years, Crafton is also looking forward to his newer teammate Dakoda Armstrong. With the trio racing together for ThorSport, Crafton is convinced that they may just be that team to beat for the Truck Series championship.

    “It’s definitely going to help us,” Crafton said of his teammates. “It will give us some more people to bounce ideas off.”

    “There’s going to be some weekends that me and Johnny will struggle and Dakoda and his team might be on a different path and able to help us,” Crafton continued. “That’s one of the great things about having a multi-truck deal.”

    “Dakoda’s going to do a good job,” Crafton said. “He’s got a lot of learning to do and he’s definitely green.”

    “But if he keeps calling me ‘old guy’, we’re going to have a problem,” Crafton said with a chuckle. “He’s going to have to learn to respect his elders.”

    In addition to his young teammate, Crafton also has another major change facing him for the 2012 season. For the first time in his Truck career, he will be driving a Toyota instead of a Chevrolet.

    “It’s been great,” Crafton said of the change. “Toyota has been a great company to work with so far.”

    “I’ve been with Chevy since I started in the Truck Series and that’s all I’ve ever known,” Crafton continued. “So, I had no idea how this was going to go.”

    “But they give you so many tools and their door is always open to ideas and questions you might have,” Crafton said. “They have 40 engineers on staff and you can go to them and they thrive on figuring out the answer.”

    “That’s one of the cool things that Toyota has given us.”

    “Chevy was great to us but we were racing against Cup-associated and affiliated race teams,” Crafton said. “To get to the next level, we felt we could get that Cup technology by going with Toyota.”

    Not only does Crafton have a new manufacturer, but he also has a new crew chief, Carl Joiner. And while Joiner may be new to the top of the pit box, he has been a long time team member and friend of the veteran driver.

    “He’s actually been our shock guy for, oh my God, seven years if not more,” Crafton said of Joiner. “I just got married this year and he was my best man.”

    “The year I won the championship on the southwest tour, he and my dad were my crew chiefs,” Crafton continued. “He was doing it back then and we’ve always had a great relationship.”

    “I’m really, really super-stoked about working with him this year.”

    While he may be looking forward to the 2012 Camping World Truck Series season, Crafton has been busy off the track as well.  In fact, he has been on the road during his time off just about as much as during his race season, even taking time to tie the knot.

    “I have been traveling,” Crafton said. “From the time I left Homestead to two days ago, I’ve only been home eight days.”

    “Everybody always says we should be resting but I love to travel so I’m not complaining,” Crafton continued. “Right after Homestead, we went to southern California and played in the sand.”

    “Then we came home and flew off to go get married just south of Cancun, Mexico and then we went to honeymoon in Costa Rica,” Crafton said. “When we got home from our honeymoon, we were home for two days and went to play in the sand again in California and then drove our motor home back.”

    “We actually take our motor home and leave it out there all winter and before the season we drive it back,” Crafton continued. “And that is not very much fun.”

    “But if we made it through that long drive stuck in the motor home for three days, I guess we can be married.”

    As hectic as his off-season has been, Crafton can barely contain his excitement for the beginning of the Truck season at Daytona this weekend.

    “I am just super-excited,” Crafton said. “I’m so looking forward to this season.”

  • New IndyCar Chassis Makes Canadian Debut at Canadian Motorsports Expo

    New IndyCar Chassis Makes Canadian Debut at Canadian Motorsports Expo

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”264″][/media-credit]

    Trevor Knowles, IndyCar Director of Engine Development

    On Friday February 10th, IZOD IndyCar Director of Engine Development Trevor Knowles unveiled the brand new 2012 Dallara DW12 IndyCar for the first time in Canada as part of the Canadian Motorsports Expo at the International Centre.

    The car includes many safety features to make the IndyCar Series safer after the death of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas last October. Ironically, Wheldon had been helping series officials throughout 2011 develop this car, so therefore the car was named DW12 after Wheldon.

    Some of the safety features and other changes include…..

    The fenders are wider in the back to therefore prevent wheel-to-wheel locking, which was one of the contributors in Wheldon’s crash.

    The drivers’ cockpit has changed as it’s wider to give the driver’s more room and sits them lower so they have more protection. Knowles also added that there is more padding with the new seats, saying, “As you remember, Justin Wilson hurt his back last year after going over a car. That wouldn’t had happened in this car.”

    The series will run spec cars, which means “the teams have to run the cars as delivered by Dallara”. Knowles says they did this to therefore keep costs down, adding that this chassis is cheaper than the 2011 chassis. He went on to say that the same suspension will be used on road courses and speedways. The gearbox is also supplied to the teams.

    They switched from steel to carbon brakes, which once again reduce the costs because the brakes last longer.

    There is no clutch button in the car as it powered by a lever on the steering wheel now. Knowles added, “Hopefully that will keep the car running and reduced the number of full course yellows during practice or a race.”

    There are three engine manufactures on board – Chevrolet, Lotus and Honda. In past recent seasons, Honda has been the sole supplier of motors. The engines are going to be a 2.2 V6 turbo charged with a spec minimum weight. Knowles says that IndyCar does have control over certain individual specs of the motors, too, and changes may come during the season as they are needed. These motors will be controlled by ECUs, which will be supplied by IndyCar. It controls gear shifts and clutch, along with setting in an RPM limit. Manufactures will be allowed to change calibrations, but nothing beyond that as Knowles says that stops the usage of traction control and other tricks.

    Also, IndyCar will be incharge of how the manufactures supply the engines. Knowles spoke of how sometimes manufactures pick and choose certain people to get certain engines to therefore have some cars stronger. This will not happen as manufactures must send the motors to IndyCar first, and then IndyCar will send them out to the teams.

    Teams will only need up to eight motors a year and IndyCar will be keeping track of this. Approved engine changes will be allowed – such as when a motor reaches its life or has blown up. Unapproved changes are also allowed, but the team will be penalized for that.  Also, once the motor is put in the car, it will be sealed as officials don’t want them making changes once at the shop.

    They’ve also switched the fuel from ethanol to Sonoco’s racing fuel and switched to direct injection, which makes it easier for the manufactures in development.

    The Turbo Chargers are also supplied by one company to the manufactures to keep things even across the board. Manufactures had the choice between a single turbo charge or a twin turbo charger. Honda chose single while both Chevrolet and Lotus chose twin.

    They will also run torque sensors on select cars each week to therefore determine the varying performance levels. If a manufactures performance is significantly lower than that of their rivals, they will be allowed to make changes. Knowles says, “We don’t wanna punish a manufacture for running good, but we wanna keep all manufactures competitive.”

    IndyCar will begin the season without the overtake switch and whether or not it is implemented will depend on how the racing looks. If they

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”356″][/media-credit]choose to implement it, it will have a different set-up than they’ve had before. The old system it would initialize the overtake right away, while the new system would have a slight delay before kicking in.

    Engine recovery system is also not included on this car, but may be included down the road. This is part of trying to save the teams money right now.

    With regards to suspension and handling, teams will have an option to run a combination of the old style with the new style. The new style suspension pushes more weight towards the front of the car. By allowing this, it allows the teams to have some innovation on their side to some weeks some will get it right and other weeks they won’t get it right.

    A lot of people are excited for what the 2012 season has to bring for the IZOD IndyCar Series as it should be exciting with the changes have taken place and what it is to come.

    The 2012 season begins with St. Petersburg on March 25th. For more information on the IZOD IndyCar Series, check out http://www.indycar.com.

  • IndyCar: The Future Looks Bright For the Honda Indy Toronto

    IndyCar: The Future Looks Bright For the Honda Indy Toronto

    [media-credit id=4 align=”alignleft” width=”256″][/media-credit]

    IndyCar Director of Engine Development Trevor Knowles and Honda Indy Toronto VP & GM Charlie Johnstone

    Every year, fans across Canada head to Exhibition Grounds to see the Honda Indy Toronto, which is headlined by the IZOD IndyCar Series.

    With IndyCar debuting a new chassis for 2012, anticipation is high for this year’s event.

    “I think this year’s Honda Indy Toronto is going to be spectacular,” Honda Indy Toronto VP and GM Charlie Johnston says. “It’s the largest sporting event in Ontario. We now have a new chassis that the Indy teams will be running – it will be the first time for the new chassis in Toronto. The new engines manufactures, you’ll see increased competition so I think the future looks really bright for this year and future years for the Honda Indy Toronto.”

    Johnston was at the Canadian Motorsports Expo on Friday February 11th, part of the Canadian unveil of the 2012 Dallara DW12 chassis.

    The car includes many safety features to make the IndyCar Series safer after the death of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas last October. Ironically, Wheldon had been helping series officials throughout 2011 develop this car, so therefore the car was named DW12 after Wheldon.

    Johnston says the car looks good and addresses safety issues, but also addresses other concerns.

    “I think they’ve really addressed some of the safety issues, speed issues and cost issues so we’ve got a lighter, faster, safer racecar so it’s going to be awesome in the streets of Toronto,” he says.

    Coming into the race, a lot of Ontario fans have kept their eyes as of late on Oakville, Ontario native James Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe recently announced that he would be replacing Danica Patrick at Andretti Autosport, driving the Go Daddy car in 2012.

    “I think it’s great,” Johnstone comments. “James is a great kid to be in the Go Daddy, to be driving for Michael Andretti, who has won this race five times and this will be his hometown race. I think the future is bright for both James and his involvement in the Honda Indy Toronto.”

    Beyond Hinchcliffe, Alex Tagliani is locked to be part of this year’s edition of the race, while Paul Tracy is trying to solidify details to be there.

    “Anytime you can have Canadians involved with the Honda Indy Toronto is great and cheer for the local heroes is fabulous,” Johnstone comments.

    For more information on the Honda Indy Toronto and to get tickets, check out http://www.hondaindytoronto.com.

  • USAC Amsoil Sprint Cars End Show With A Bang.

    The Bubba Raceway Dirt Army 3 day USAC Amsoil Sprint Car show was cut to two days by mother nature with the second night being rained out by torrential rains. The rains left the track a soggy wet marsh that track officials and the Sprint car drivers themselves worked all day to make race able. And man were they successful with the closest A main finish in Bubba Raceway history coming between Darren Hagen and Bryan Clauson. The margin of victory .092 seconds.

    There was no doubt that the track was going to be fast and the show was going to be furious when the top 3 qualifiers all broke the old track record that was set by Brady Bacon (14.366) on Friday. Darren Hagen broke it first with a lap of 14.282. Levi Jones broke it immediately following with a lap of 14.123. Finally the last qualifier of the night, Justin Grant broke it for the final time with a lap of 14.018.  Cars coming dangerously close to the record included Jon Stambourgh, and Cody Swanson.

    The four heat races were hard fought and no holds barred events that showed the skills and the determination of all in the field. Four wide was the standard of the day and the power slides were simply breath taking. The four winners, Casey Shuman, Brady Bacon, Chase Stockon, Bud Kaeding would all breathe a sigh of relief knowing their transfer positions were secure.

    The B Main was not short on excitement with it’s 6 transfers being Kevin Thomas Jr, Cody Swanson, Wes McIntrye, Hunter Schuerenberg, Robert Ballou, and Mitch Wissmiller. Kyle Cummings would take a provisional to start the A Main.

    Coleman Gullick who had earned a front row starting spot had to give up that spot and start at the back of the field when he could not find a replacement rocker arm and had to go to a back up car to start the race. Gullick would manage to finish 13th but never was a factor the rest of the evening.

    The A Main was a hard run race with some of the closest racing I have seen in a long time. Two and three wide throughout the pack. The battle of the night was between Bryan Clauson and Darren Hagen. Clauson tried numerous times to take Hagen on the low side pulling up even but not able to make the pass. Hagen held his line until the last lap when he moved to protect the bottom out of three. Clauson then dived to the top and pulled even with Hagen down the front stretch the pair touched right before the start finish line forcing Clauson into the wall at the start finish line and spinning him down into the infield in turn one. Hagen’s margin of victory over Clauson was .092 seconds. Clauson who was unavailable for comment walked away from the car uninjured.

    Also in a tight battle all evening were Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones and Jason Grant. Although for they were battling for the 3rd position, the battle couldn’t have been more heated. Grant flexed his muscle in the final 3 laps to finally pull ahead of Jones for the 3rd spot with Jones coming home a very very close 4th.

    Also running tonight in Scraven Georgia was the second night of the UNOH ASCOC series. And the A main was incredible. With 15 laps to go the Winged Sprints had already run 53 laps on the track and were forced to stop and fuel the cars under the red flag for a 4 car crash in turn 1. When the green flag flew again the cars at the front of the pack were on a mission. Lead by Jason Sides the top 5 started slicing around the track. On the back stretch Joey Saldana made a daring pass on Tony Stewart. Stewart went high into 3 and took the position back and began his march to the front taking the lead on the next to last lap, Stewart never looked back and took the race in convincing style. When you stop to consider that the track was frozen due to temperatures in the low 30’s it was an incredible feat of driving. “It’s not ideal racing conditions. There is ice on the bottom down there. I am real appreciative of everyone who stuck it out with us here.” Stated Stewart in victory lane. When he was asked if he was holding something back there in the beginning he said, “I wish I could say I was. But the car just came around. I’ve worked my guys to death the last few days. I couldn’t do it without them.”

    So ends an incredible weekend of racing and we look forward to yet another next weekend. Many thanks to 3 Wide Life whose broadcasts enabled millions to watch the racing in Florida who could not afford to travel there. Your coverage was incredible! Also thanks to the Dirt Vision folks who broadcasts from Scraven Georgia save a few audio difficulties allowed people all over the world to enjoy the UNOH ASCOC competition and the WoO late models as well. Congratulations to all the winners. Incredible job to all the competitors and teams.

    One note of correction from my piece on Friday. I misunderstood the announcer on Friday when he announced where the electric midget was built. The electric midget was built in Columbus, OHIO by Columbus Electric Motorsports, in cooperation with USAC, and with the support of CAR Technologies LLC. I apologize for the error to my readers and the Columbus Electric Motorsports company for the error.

  • Sergio Pena Looks Forward to Freshman Year On and Off the Track

    Sergio Pena Looks Forward to Freshman Year On and Off the Track

    [media-credit name=”Photo Credit hometracks.nascar.com” align=”alignright” width=”262″][/media-credit]Sergio Pena, one of the graduates of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity Program, is looking forward to his freshman year of learning on and off the track. The young up and comer will soon enjoy his freshman run with a new race team on the track, as well as his freshman year off the track as a student at Radford University.

    For his freshman year on the track, Pena will pilot the No. 1 Toyota Camry in the K&N Pro Series East with Hattori Racing Enterprises. The 18 year old from Winchester, Virginia had previously raced in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program with Revolution Racing.

    “I’m really excited for this season,” Pena said. “I actually did not re-sign with Revolution Racing this year, who I was with for two years, but signed with a new team, Hattori Racing Enterprises.”

    “My crew chief and Andy Santerre all left Revolution Racing and merged with Shigeaki Hattori and created a team for me to race in the K&N East Series.”

    Santerre, a four-time champion in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, will manage Pena’s race team. He will be assisted by Matt Goslant, who will continue as crew chief for Pena, having worked with him last season, winning three of 12 races and finishing 5th in the East Series point standings.

    “I am excited to be working with Sergio again this season,” Goslant said. “He has the talent to be a champion and we are a good team together.”

    “He gives me 100% and I could not ask for anything more in a driver.”

    Although a freshman with Hattori Racing Enterprises, Pena actually will be entering his third year in the K&N Series. And with that experience, he has his eyes set on one goal for 2012.

    “My main goal is to win a championship,” Pena said simply. “The first year I struggled learning all the tracks and how to drive the cars because they were a lot different than anything I had ever driven before.”

    “Last year, I learned a lot and I caught on quicker than I thought I would,” Pena continued. “So this year, the way things are looking, I think we have a great chance to win it.”

    “My goal is to win as many races as possible and just learn a lot,” Pena said. “I want to be able to get more comfortable at the bigger tracks like Dover and New Hampshire and Rockingham.”

    “I want to gain experience and learn as much as I can from these guys.”

    Pena, like so many racers, comes by it genetically.  His father, who came to the United States from Bogota, Columbia when he was 19 years old raced go karts and dirt bikes in his home country.

    “He was a two-time champion in national dirt bike racing down there,” Pena said proudly of his father. “So, that’s pretty cool. That’s where I get my racing blood from.”

    Pena himself initially followed in his father’s dirt bike footsteps as he launched his racing career.

    “I actually started racing dirt bikes when I was five years old,” Pena said. “I got into jumping them and one time I hit a jump and my dad said, “No more, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

    “So, he got rid of the bike and got me a go kart instead,” Pena continued. “At the time, I was really upset but now I’m really happy about it.”

    “I did go karts from when I was eight years old until thirteen,” Pena said. “Then I moved to a championship series out west and ran road courses in formula cars.”

    “Then I had to switch to the ovals, where there was more of a future,” Pena continued. “When we heard about the Drive to Diversity Revolution Racing program, we thought that would be a great opportunity. And that’s how we got into this kind of racing.”

    Pena has definitely put his go kart and dirt bike racing behind him, growing fonder for stock cars and oval racing. But the young driver has never forgotten his road racing roots.

    “At this point, I like the ovals more,” Pena said. “But there still are some things I like about the road courses, like out-braking people and downshifting and all the switch-back turns.”

    “The ovals just bring more excitement,” Pena continued. “You can beat and bang and everything’s really close. It’s a lot harder to win on an oval and so that just makes for more competitive and exciting racing.”

    In addition to his on-track career, Pena’s other freshman activity includes starting his college career at Radford University in southern Virginia, where he is majoring in communications. As a freshman, Pena is facing that difficult task of balancing his studies with his new endeavors on the race track.

    “It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be with racing,” Pena said. “Missing classes in high school wasn’t too bad but here it’s a little bit tougher to get them to understand that what I’m doing is not just a hobby anymore.”

    “Some of them understand but some of them don’t,” Pena continued. “It’s the ones that want you to focus on school and nothing else that are a little tricky. But overall I’ve been able to manage it and I’ll continue to do both until it gets too hard.”

    “I really think the communications degree is going to help, like with the media and doing interviews,” Pena said. “I’m also doing media production and I’ve gotten into making videos recently.”

    “We have been making videos of the race weekend for promotions and sponsors,” Pena continued. “But being able to speak to the sponsors and the media fluently and well will help me a lot.”

    Now that he has his first freshman semester under his belt at college, Pena is looking forward to kicking off his freshman year with Hattori Racing at a storied NASCAR track, Bristol Motor Speedway, on March 17th.

    “We actually start off at Bristol this year and that will be pretty cool,” Pena said. “I’ve never even been to Bristol before but I’ve heard a lot of great things about it and watched a lot of races on TV from there.”

    “I’m really excited to get started there,” Pena continued. “I think that will be a pretty cool race.”

    “I know we will definitely be one of the teams to beat this year.”

  • Jeff Gordon’s On Track Drive to End Hunger Takes Off Track Twists

    Jeff Gordon’s On Track Drive to End Hunger Takes Off Track Twists

    [media-credit id=18 align=”alignright” width=”196″][/media-credit]With the partnership between Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon and the AARP Foundation’s Drive to End Hunger initiative heading into its second year on the track, this special promotion has taken some new twists and turns off the track as the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet readies for the 2012 season.

    The first twist on one of the most successful cause-related marketing campaigns in the sport is a new partnership with Quaker State, who has joined the Drive to End Hunger effort by pledging portions of its product sales at Walmart. This new fundraising effort will take place from February 1st to March 31st.

    “We are proud to initiate this cause-related effort to support the AARP Foundation in its quest to help those in need through Jeff Gordon and the Drive to End Hunger,” Chris Hayek, Quaker State Global Brand Manager, said. “By partnering with Walmart, the promotion is elevated onto the national stage.”

    “We’re really thrilled that Quaker State engaged with us,” Jim Nedohon, Interim Vice President for AARP Foundation’s Hunger Initiatives, said. “By allowing us into Walmart, this ensures that we can attract national attention to the need to alleviate hunger for seniors.”

    The idea for taking the Drive to End Hunger promotion off the track and into stores was hatched in discussions between the AARP Foundation and Quaker State right at the track. And it all came about in an effort to elevate Drive to End Hunger to another level.

    “We were at the track talking,” Nedohon said. “My background is in cause-related marketing and we were brainstorming about how to activate our sponsorship of Jeff Gordon in a brick and mortar store.”

    “This is a new opportunity for Quaker State to have a cause related marketing campaign on one of their products,” Nedohon continued. “It developed over a couple of months.”

    “We worked through all the details, such as having a bottle flag with Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger car,” Nedohon said. “Jeff is on the bottle and has a relationship with Quaker State as an associate sponsor.”

    “So, Jeff was thrilled to be able to extend his brand to support our cause.”

    The best part of the new twist in the Drive to End Hunger sponsorship is that it furthers the mission of the AARP Foundation, which is to raise awareness about the issue of older Americans who are facing hunger, as well as fulfilling Quaker State’s social mission.

    “Quaker State is very socially oriented and they were totally onboard with helping us execute our mission,” Nedohon said. “It’s one more corporation that embraces the mission that we have to end hunger.”

    “Quaker State could have easily written a check for $50,000 but we are focused together on efforts that have long-term, sustainable impact,” Nedohon continued. “This Quaker State promotion is taking us off the track and into Walmart stores.”

    “This allows people to really take the time to read the materials and it will mean even more to our work at the Foundation.”

    The new sponsorship twist off the track has also permitted the AARP Foundation to make grants to other nonprofit organizations focused on sustainable solutions for ending senior hunger.

    “We sent out an RFP to identify organizations that are trying to address stable solutions to hunger,” Nedohon said. “We had over 750 letters of inquiry and 150 completed applications and awarded ten grants throughout the United States for $1.9 million for sustainable solutions to ending hunger.”

    “Every time we put this effort in a new place, it reminds people about the hunger issue,” Nedohon continued. “And it may even be occurring for someone they know.”

    The second twist on the Drive to End Hunger took place at the recent Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction, where a Corvette donated by team owner Rick Hendrick was auctioned off for $700,000.

    “I got to go out with Mr. Hendrick to Phoenix to the Barrett-Jackson auction,” Nedohon said. “It’s incredible because this again is reaching another level of enthusiasts around the automobile industry.”

    “This was a special limited edition Corvette and only 60 will be made,” Nedohon continued. “This was the first one to be auctioned to benefit Drive to End Hunger.”

    “When the bidding started and Mr. Hendrick sweetened the deal by inviting the new owner to Daytona, it just erupted,’ Nedohon continued. “ It went to $300,000 and kept going.”

    “It was just phenomenal,” Nedohon said. “After the auction was finished, another bidder donated an extra $100,000 to the Drive to End Hunger effort.”

    “I can’t tell you how amazing it was to see how the cause resonated with thousands of people watching.”

    While the AARP Foundation is ecstatic about these twists and turns, as well as their partnership with Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick, they have not been completely surprised about the success of their sponsorship.

    “It’s not completely surprising,” Nedohon said of the sponsorship. “It’s amazing to see how many NASCAR fans care.”

    “We’ve found that the NASCAR fans want to know how they can help,” Nedohon continued. “That’s why we’ve been so pleased to support our local food banks at track and now with this new initiative off-track.”

    “It helps when you have partners like Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick,” Nedohon said. “We couldn’t really think of any better partners to help fight this good fight.”

    And for his part, the Drive to End Hunger driver could not agree more.

    “Honestly, I don’t know if 10 years ago I would have gotten behind something like this but with just the experience of life and the things that become more important to you, I’ve gotten into it,” Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger, said. “I feel like it did come at the right time in my career.”

    “We’ve sort of set a trend in NASCAR that will be catching on.”

  • RAB Racing Suspends John Wes Townley: Outrageoous!

    RAB Racing Suspends John Wes Townley: Outrageoous!

    [media-credit name=”Christian Peterson/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”220″][/media-credit]Early Friday morning 22 year old John Wes Townley was arrested for DUI for the second time in his career. Townley, who just inked a deal to drive in the Camping World Truck Series with RAB Racing, crashed his car into a telephone pole while apparently being under the influence of alcohol. RAB Racing, Townley’s new Camping World Truck Series team, suspended the driver until they feel he can return.
    Don’t misunderstand me. RAB Racing and team owner Robby Benton should be commended for their actions after the incident with Townley. They made the proper decision in this deal, especially since Zaxby’s, Townley’s sponsor, is owned by John Wes Townley’s father. It was a risky move by RAB Racing.
    While RAB Racing was suspending Townley and the NASCAR world was learning about the horrible incident with the 22 year old, NASCAR themselves were……well. Nobody really knows.
    If you went on NASCAR’s website, you could read an article about Juan Pablo Montoya’s new crew chief, Chris Heroy or you could read about Jeff Gordon being “Fired up.” And the article about John Wes Townley? There isn’t any.
    It’s absolutely obscured that NASCAR, a sport which has a no tolerance with drugs, doesn’t even make a comment, or put an article on their website or make a comment saying they were disappointed in the situation or anything.
    NASCAR does nothing.
    It reminds me of a situation in the early 1990’s when another young racecar driver got in trouble with the law several times and had several DUI’s including incidents that NASCAR did nothing about.
    That driver, whose name is I shall not say, had another accident one night where he lost his life after a race at Rockingham in 1990.
    Do the right thing for John Wes Townley NASCAR! Do the right thing! God forbid we have another incident like we did in 1990. Nobody ever wants to see that again.
    Quit pretending like this stuff is not happening and put your foot down.
    Brian France, Mike Helton and everyone involved, you should be ashamed!

  • USAC Amsoil Sprint Cars Start Season in High Gear

    The first points race of the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car series is in the books. Tonight was the first race of the season and the first of a 3 night show at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala Florida. The USAC stars were out in force with names like Bryan Clausson and series champion Levi Jones in the field.

    The qualifying of the 30 car field was smooth and uneventful save for one accident involving Jake Simmons who hit the wall and over turned following his second lap of qualifying. Simmons crawled from the car under his own power and walked away. He was however, unable to make call for his heat race and was done for the evening.

    Fast time went to Bryan Clauson with a lap of 14.409 seconds around the 3/8ths mile track. Clauson broke team mate Levi Jones record set last year with his run.

    The 30 car field ran 4 heat races with the top 4 transferring to the A main and a B main with the top 6 transferring to the A main.

    The heat races were hotly contested races with three and four wide competition through out the pack. Heat race winners included Brady Bacon, Jon Stanbrough, Damien Gardner, and Casey Schuman.

    The B Main was action packed event that was won by Justin Grant with a hard charging Chris Stockon coming home 2nd. The B main would set up an interesting scenario when Chris Windom would spin out of the final transfer spot with just 5 laps to go. Unable to climb any further than 7th, Windom would be forced to take a provisional to get into the A Main and start next to last.

    The A main was a fast paced event that ran with only one caution until lap 25 of the 30 posted laps. The hot dry track had begun to take rubber out of four and passing became difficult. On lap one Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones spun coming out 4 and collected two other cars. All cars were able to continue but it forced a complete restart with the three cars involved going to the back of the field.

    Damien Gardner lead for nearly the whole race only giving up the lead briefly on lap 25 when the caution flew for another series of spins out of turn 4. After 4 attempts the field finally went green and Gardner took the point for the final time. Brady Bacon ended up 3rd but paced Gardner for most of the race fading in the last 3 laps.

    Gardner whose A main victory is his 5th out of 6 attempts in Florida, made the victory seem effortless with the exception of the restart when he briefly lost the lead to Bacon.

    The final finishing order for the opening night of the season was: 1) Damion Gardner 2) Jon Stanbrough 3) Brady Bacon 4) Darren Hagen 5) Bryan Clauson 6) Bud Kaeding 7) Dave Darland 8) Casey Shuman 9) Kevin Thomas 10) Justin Grant 11) Chris Windom 12) Levi Jones 13) Tracey Hines 14) Robert Ballou.

    Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones made a courageous recovery after his 1st lap spin finishing 12th.

    Also on the card tonight was the unvieling of an electric midget built in Columbus Indiana. The car was driven around the track by Casey Shuman. The car which made almost no noise at all, seemed to have enough power to slide it sideways and get it’s front wheel off the ground out of four. The midget is the only car of it’s kind and Shuman seemed pleased with it’s performance. “If they can build a few more of them we can take them out and see how they stand up.” He stated.

    Tomorrow nights action begins at 6 PM EST and can be viewed via live stream pay for view at

  • Rahal Letterman Lanigan Signs Takumo Sato for 2012 IZOD IndyCar Season

    Rahal Letterman Lanigan recently announced that they had signed Takumo Sato to drive for them in 2012.

    “I think we all look forward to having him with us because, as I said earlier, he’s shown his pace over the last couple years in IndyCars,” co-owner Bobby Rahal says of the announcement. “As I said in the beginning when we reentered IndyCar racing, it was important for us to do so with someone who was going to be competitive. I had no real interest in just being here. Taku certainly fits that bill.

    “I think we are quite excited for the start of the year. We have testing to do yet. We’ve done a little bit already in December which went I think pretty well. So I think everybody’s just anxious to get going.”

    Rahal adds that he’s excited about working with Sato due to their friendship. The relationship between Rahal and Sato began back in 2001 when Sato was running Formula 3.

    “I had a chance to see Taku not when he first started racing but when he was Europe in England in Formula 3 in 2001 when I was over there with Jaguar Formula One,” Rahal says. “I managed to watch Takuma win a lot of Formula 3 races. I think Formula 3 has always been considered a very good judge of talent.

    “Of course, you know, I kept an eye on him when he was in Formula One. So I’ve known his competitiveness, his speed. I’ve seen that many times over the years.”

    Sato says he made the move as Rahal offered him a good offer and the team has a great history.

    “The numbers in racing is very impressive winning record,” Sato says. “It’s just great success. Okay, the IndyCar Series wasn’t entering full-time in a couple years, but they showing great speed last year every single time they were entering IndyCar. So I was very confident.”

    Sato says he has high expectations for this year and excited about the new operation. The addition of Sato to the team isn’t the only change as Rahal moved the team to Brownsburg, Indiana over the off-season.

    “It’s really become the center of IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis area,” Rahal says of the move. “You look at the resource that exists here within the area, both the human resource, but the subcontractors, what have you, that can provide services for an IndyCar team.

    “It just seemed to me that we needed to be in sort of the epicenter of IndyCar racing now that we were going to come back into it on a full-time basis. So we managed to lease the space that Gil de Ferran used to be in from my friend Don Prudhomme. It’s a nice shop up here in Brownsburg. This is a start for us. But the IndyCar team will certainly be headquartered here for many years to come because we think this is the place to be both for now and in the future.”

    Rahal added earlier this week that the team is looking into options of adding a second car to make the team better for 2012. Though if another team is not put together, it is okay.

    “While a single-car team may not be ideal, I think your ability to be competitive is just as good there as anywhere else,” he says. “You’re able to focus all your efforts on one driver, one car, a small group of people tightly knit. That can do a lot of good things.

    “In the end, if we have our options, we want to be a two-car team. We’re working hard for that. I think we will be. So that’s how we’re going forward at this stage.”