Monday night will be Barbeque at Ridgewood (best in the world) and then the Bristol Speedway Lights.
‘Sliced Bread’ learning Daytona at ARCA testing session
Teen driver will race there five times during Speedweeks
By Official Release
December 21, 2008
11:03 AM EST
type size: + -DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Joey Logano is only 18 but is about to attempt a rare Daytona double, and then some.
Logano, who has never raced at Daytona International Speedway, will make his first two starts on Feb. 7 when he races in both the ARCA Re/Max Series season opener and Budweiser Shootout.
Legendary NASCAR crew chief Ray Fox shakes hands with Joey Logano during ARCA testing at Daytona.”I’m doing it,” Logano said of his busy Speedweeks 2009 schedule. “I’m running both races and then I’ve got the Nationwide race ... then running the Cup race. Between all that, I’ve got my hands full.”
Toss in the Daytona 150-mile qualifying races, and Logano will be racing five events during Speedweeks.
“I’m just getting as many laps as I can and learn as much as I can,” Logano said. “I’ve got a big year ahead on the Cup side ... whatever I can do to make myself better.”
Logano, who was signed to Joe Gibbs Racing’s driver development program in 2005, has generated plenty of buzz since he began racing at the age of 6. He already has amassed a long list of accomplishments including winning the 2007 Camping World East championship and more recently winning in his ARCA debut in May at Rockingham and winning in just his third Nationwide Series start in June at Kentucky.
Logano, who is replacing Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Toyota, will next try to add youngest Daytona 500 winner to that list. The current record is owned by Jeff Gordon, who won the Daytona 500 in 1997 at the age of 25 years, six months and 12 days.
Logano began his indoctrination to Daytona on Friday, the first of a three-day ARCA test with close to 50 other cars. Driving the No. 25 Toyota of Venturini Motorsports, Logano clocked in at 179.569 mph in his first laps around the legendary motorsports facility.
“I’ve been here and watched a ton of races, watched the 500 a hundred times probably,” Logano said. “I just want to get out there. We’re almost ready to go out there and just go around Daytona with all the history around this place.
“Just to go out there and make laps is going to be really cool. We’re going to learn a lot, as much as we can about the race car and about the track and drafting and see if we can come back with a good race car.”
A Champion’s faith: Former crew chief enduring storm
Piecing life back together after tragic boating accident
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
December 17, 2008
02:10 PM EST
type size: + -HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Last year at this time, Cliff Champion sat lounging in the living room of his home. A lighted Christmas tree stood a few feet away from the couch the former NASCAR crew chief rested on, as the gentle waves from a large lake lapped at the doors of his converted 80-foot Somerset houseboat.
Once the man who helped build cars and call the race-day shots for the likes of Cale Yarborough, Dale Jarrett, Ricky Rudd, Benny Parsons, Richard Childress and Alan Kulwicki, Champion had long ago traded in the fast lanes of NASCAR tracks for the tranquil waters of Lake Norman, which boasts 520 miles of shoreline, a surface area of more than 50 miles and is located on the outskirts of Charlotte.
He ran a luxury charter boat business called Championship Yacht Charters, which catered to all kinds of folks looking to have a good time while floating on the water. He hosted wedding receptions, graduation parties — even the occasional celebratory party of a recent NASCAR winner — on the top two decks. His modest but more-than-adequate living quarters comprised most of the bottom deck.
He also hosted many charity events, including a series of cruises one day last May when he took 300 members of the U.S. Armed Forces out on the lake to show his appreciation for all that they do. Bobby Allison was among those who showed up to help him out in that endeavor.
Life seemed grand, its possibilities endless. And Champion loved the slow, leisurely pace of it all as he cruised his guests around the expansive lake at a top speed of 6 mph.
That all changed six months later, and life since has not been the same for Champion. On the afternoon of June 10, after dropping off 60 passengers who had been part of a high school graduation party, everything was altered in a grim, ghastly flash. Shortly after worker Nathan Coppick, 19, began refueling the boat, a powerful explosion engulfed it in flames, along with much of the Westport Marina dock where it had parked.
Crew members Katherine Jones and Jessica Young jumped from the boat and swam to safety. Champion and Mike Federal, father of the graduate being celebrated, also were on board along with Coppick. But while Champion and Federal were at the front of the boat, Coppick was near the rear, where the explosion had occurred.
Champion tried to get to Coppick through the flames.
“You couldn’t get to there because the whole back of the boat was a fireball,” Champion said then. “I couldn’t get to Nate.”
Eventually, Champion escaped along with Federal before the huge boat slipped underneath the green-gray waters of Lake Norman. Coppick wasn’t found until the next day, when a team of investigators and rescue workers pulled the boat up from the bottom of the cove where it had settled — and Coppick’s body was recovered in the rear near the engine room.
The aftermath>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Monday night will be Barbeque at Ridgewood (best in the world) and then the Bristol Speedway Lights.