NASCAR Offseason Withdrawal Therapy Thread 2005

Various News Sites ^ | 11-21-05 | Me & Jack

[WestCoastGal]

**Welcome**
Well here we are again, another year of racing, gone by in a flash! Is it Daytona yet? Are we there yet?

This forum is to help us get through the offseason by posting news, silly season rumors and anything else devoted to Nascar.

[glock rocks]

Al, you and your gorgeous missus have yourselves a Very Merry Christmas, and an Excellent New Year!

- the glock family

[glock rocks]

Merry Christmas
Nascar Gang !!

[tubebender]

Hi there Gork. How is the weather in SLC? It is very wet and warm here. We set two record highs this week. 67 degrees at 2 AM

Best Wishes to All of you...

[umgud]

Merry Christmas back at ya.

[glock rocks]

Hey there. 45 and raining. It was a warm south wind day. Supposed to be 50, sunny and dry for Christmas!

Pete said he brought the wind and rain with him from the coast. At least it's warm.

I got a visit from the UPS elf today. Delightful, er, Eureka!

Very warm Christmas wishes to you, your wonderful first wife, and your family.

May the New Year bless you with continued good health, prosperity, and happiness.

[flutters]

Merry Christmas!

Racing season might be over but I did not forget all the great work all of you have done to make the NASCAR threads so wonderful. Thanks to all of you and a very very Merry Christmas.

(who has the fastest train under their tree?)

[umgud]

Back at ya. Merry Christmas.

[Pete-R-Bilt]

Hi there Gork.

Oh GREAT! he's got another new name?!

I can't keep up with you guys anymore!!!

[Jackknife]

Merry Christmas to you, too!! I hope you and yours have a blessed time together.

[WestCoastGal]

For the 21st consecutive season, the primary team sponsor of the NASCAR Cup Series champion (The Home Depot/Tony Stewart) did not earn the most in-broadcast exposure value for the season.
The 2005 team sponsor top-five ranked as follows: Budweiser ($149.0 million), Lowe's ($140.2 million), The Home Depot ($125.0 million), NAPA Auto Parts ($105.5 million) and DuPont ($84.7 million).

Top 10 Cup hoods (on-screen time)
Rank Sponsor Driver Exposure Time % of brand's exposure
1. Lowe's Jimmie Johnson 7 hours 16 min. 32 sec. 22.0%
2. DuPont Jeff Gordon 5:40:24 28.3%
3. The Home Depot Tony Stewart 5:39:27 19.7%
4. DeWalt Tools Matt Kenseth 4:34:44 38.1%
5. Dodge Motorsports Kahne/Mayfield 4:27:03 34.9%
6. Viagra Mark Martin 4:18:53 29.8%
7. Alltel Ryan Newman 4:17:13 32.2%
8. Miller Lite Rusty Wallace 3:51:11 28.6%
9. Budweiser Dale Earnhardt Jr. 3:43:23 11.1%
10. M&M's Elliott Sadler 3:43:06 34.9%

[WestCoastGal]

Stewart's change in attitude and his fence climbing seemed to help his popularity with NASCAR fans. But does he ever see himself being voted by fans as the most popular driver in the sport?
Stewart was stunned at the question. His mouth dropped as he stared at me. He was at a loss for words. I had asked him something he had never been asked before – and given his ways of old, that's not too surprising.

"Oh my God, I think the sky would be falling and the world would come to an end if that ever happened," Stewart cracked. "I don't think that as long as Dale Earnhardt Jr. is on the face of this Earth that anybody's got a shot at it right now.

---

I don't know what link this came from I found it on Jr's board. The article above was from Fox, I forgot to link it.

[tubebender]

I can't keep up with you guys anymore!!!

Jeez Pete...I didn't mean to keep you awake until 3AM pondering such a weighty issue.

Be thankful your run doesn't include 101 through the Redwoods this winter. It has been one major rainstorm after another and the rivers are all near flood stage and the highway is one pothole from Ukiah to the Oregon border.

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

[SouthTexas]

And a Merry Christmas to you too!

[Pete-R-Bilt]

I wish the reason I was up at 3 was to ponder, I'd have had a beer in my hand then!

I had just gotten home from Twin after spending an hour in a hurricane on the side of the road on Sweetzer pass, from your rain storm fixing a brake line that blew out behind a ferrel under a brand new trailer I bought last week...

what fun...

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[WestCoastGal]

A CHRISTMAS STORY



'It looks just like it! I can't believe it! It looks just like it!'

By Marty Smith, NASCAR.COM
December 24, 2005
11:51 AM EST (16:51 GMT)

The best gifts aren't the most expensive, the gaudiest or most elaborate, rather those given obvious thought, consideration and time by the giver.

This is a story of one such gift, presented, ironically, to a rosy man with a white beard by a jolly type known for a red suit and a red sleigh.


Two falls ago, a persistent rumor filtered across the Dale Earnhardt Inc., campus that the last racecar Tony Eury Sr. ever piloted had surfaced on Ebay. Initially it was a joke among DEI employees, but the more scuttlebutt Dale Earnhardt Jr. heard the more intrigued he became.

So he went looking for confirmation. And sure enough, one late evening in December 2003 Junior was drifting through Ebay oblivion and stumbled upon a rusty, forgotten dirt Late Model racecar. The accompanying photograph was grainy, but the car was nonetheless familiar.

Tom Piston, a Charlotte-area entrepreneur, had repossessed the car in the early '80s and stowed it away in a dusty corner of his auto body shop.

It hadn't moved since. Earnhardt had an inkling to change that.

After consulting with his cousin, Tony Eury Jr., about the possibility of restoring the old man's ride, Earnhardt pulled the trigger.

He bought the car for " a couple grand," then got to work making it priceless.

In that, he most certainly succeeded.

With rebuild help from Tony Jr., Martin Truex Jr., and his stepfather, Willie Jackson, among others, and invaluable parts location assistance from uncle Robert Gee Jr., Ken Schrader, Piston and Danny Richardson, Earnhardt spent the better part of two years rebuilding the baby blue and white No. 72.

In all, more than 30 sets of hands played a part in the restoration.

But it's not about those that built it. It's about those that built it showing Eury how much they love and respect him.


The extensive restoration of the No. 72 Late Model car included the weathered cockpit. Credit: Courtesy Dale Earnhardt Jr.

All numbering and lettering on the machine was hand-painted. Nary a decal was used. Earnhardt estimates the car is about 98 percent authentic. The seat, motor, transmission, rear end and front suspension are all original pieces.

Two years right under his nose, and Eury Sr. never had a clue.

So imagine Eury's confusion when Earnhardt hopped atop a table last week at the No. 8 shop in front of 200 DEI employees and began reading the names of the 32 folks that helped restore the machine.

When finished, he asked Tony Jr., to "bring it in," jumped off the table and walked Tony Sr. over to a better viewing position.

As the car rolled into view, Eury's face became flush with emotion.

"Damnit, man!" he said, astonished, wiping a tear from his eye as he embraced his nephew.

"He just walked circles around it for a while and kept saying, 'It looks just like it! I can't believe it! It looks just like it!' " Earnhardt said.

"He must have said it 20 times, over and over."

Later that evening at the DEI Christmas party, Eury again thanked Earnhardt.

"It was really special for him, something he deserved for a long time coming," Junior said. "Seeing him that happy is the best Christmas present I could get."

Now that's a NASCAR Christmas story if I've ever heard one.

Merry Christmas, everyone ...

LINK

That's why his fans LOVE him!!!

[steveegg]

Well, NASCAR fans do have a way of warming up to firebrands later in their careers (Earnhardt, DW, Rusty).

---

Some quickie last-second pre-Christmas news from Jayski:

- Kurt Busch's court date was changed from Thursday to January 27.

- Former Champ Car champ Paul Tracy's on-again/off-again flirtation with NASCAR is on again; he'll run a few races for the Biagi Brothers in Busch and a couple for somebody in Cup next year, retire from Champ Car after their 2006 season, and go full-time in NASCAR in 2007.

- In an announcement that Robert Yates Racing will be signing the 2-time defending NASCAR Midwest champ, RYR team manager Eddie D'Hondt let slip that RYR will have 3 Cup teams next year, but not who the third team is (rumors have named the #61-nee-#66 Peak Performance and the #50 Arnold team as candidates for the 3rd RYR team).

---

Have a blessed Christmas, everybody.

[tubebender]

A man and his friend were enjoying Deer
Hunting Season in Noxubee County, Mississippi
near a blacktop highway.

A huge buck walked by and
the hunter carefully drew his bow and took careful aim.
Before he could release his arrow, his friend pointed at a
funeral procession passing on the road below their stand.!

The hunter slowly let off the pressure on his bow,
took off his hat, bowed his head and closed his eyes in prayer.
His friend was amazed. "Wow, that is the most thoughtful and
touching thing I have ever seen. You are the kindest man I
have ever known."

The hunter shrugged. "Yeah, well, we were married for 35 years."

[WestCoastGal]

Brian France buys the NFL

NASCAR Chairman, Brian France purchased not a single team but the entire National Football League. “We feel that the combination of players and drivers on the same field/track at the same time we’ll bring excitement to the new sport of NASCAR-ball never before seen…besides it will be nice to no longer have to worry bout catching them in the TV ratings.”

France added that the “Chase for the Cup” would be more thrilling as well:

--(cont'd from front page) “When a driver is in the top ten in points, their pit crews will have to get through a wall of linebackers in order to complete a pit stop…that should make for some real excitement.”

MORE>>>>>>

[tubebender]

Well it beats the dumb movies Speed TV is showing lately...

[SouthTexas]

Trying to reconstruct everything. Crashed my OS Christmas Eve going to a government site. Didn't think tracking Santa would be a no no.

It was either that or the note from the CIA about visiting 13 illegal websites. ;)

I'll be baaaack!