What A Finish!

Amazing, that Carl Edwards gets out of the car and sprints across the finish line.

Matt Kenseth Goes For A Wild Ride

Woo Hoo!

Matt Kenseth wins two in a row!

Champion!

Matt Kenseth is the Daytona 500 champion! Whoo hoo!

NASCAR

Do the southern senators really want NASCAR to fail?

"We're fucked."An employee for a NASCAR race team, on his sport's future. Twelve of 42 cars lack a sponsor for the Daytona 500.

I suppose the UAW is not going to sponsor the Dodge they had been sponsoring. One car last year did not have a sponsor for about half the races. It did have a sponsor for the Daytona 500 however. Can NASCAR survive without the big 3?

Free Curly Fries Monday

Matt Kenseth won the Nationwide Series race. He was driving the number 17 Arby's Ford. In the post race interview he said free curly fries on Monday at Arby's.

Hopefully he will do well tomorrow.

Old School

I remember when nascar used to race stock cars. That era is over now. They race something called the car of tomorrow. The NYT has a good article with great pictures.

This year’s 500, the 50th running of the race and the season opener for the Sprint Cup series, is the first of a new era in which a single car shape will be used by all teams at all races. The generic body, not related to any “stock” model in showrooms, was designed specifically for Nascar competition.

Called the Car of Tomorrow, its phase-in began last year in a program Nascar instituted to improve safety and reduce costs, admirable goals indeed. But its arrival also signals the probable end of fan loyalty to favorite cars; the battle front will be entirely under the hood, with the V-8 racing engines becoming the main difference among them. To tell a Fusion from an Impala or a Charger from a Camry, fans will have to read the lettering on the fenders.

It wasn’t always this way.

Physics Of NASCAR

The New York Times has an article about the physics of NASCAR.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When Junior Johnson entered the Daytona 500 in 1960, he’d already achieved fame in two careers — first as a moonshiner who kept outrunning federal agents, then by applying those skills to win stock-car races.

Now he was ready for a new career as an “intuitive physicist,” a term borrowed from Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, who teaches nonintuitive physics at the University of Nebraska.

Johnson was stuck driving an old Chevrolet that was slower than the Pontiacs at Daytona that year. But in practice he discovered that he could keep up with a Pontiac if he stayed close to its rear bumper. He suspected, as he put it, that “the air was creating a situation, a slipstream type of thing.”

Just in time for this years Daytona 500.

Jimmy Johnson

Nascar champion Jimmy Johnson visited the Oval Office. Steve Benen has the details and great commentary.

* And finally, Jimmie Johnson, a NASCAR driver, got a chance to meet the president at the White House recently, but thought the Oval Office was just for show. “[Y]ou can tell that’s not the office he really works in,” Johnson said. “It’s way too clean. There isn’t a paper on the desk. There isn’t a computer on the desk. And I’d really like to see his spot. Obviously there are things that are done in that office, but I want to see the spot. I want to see how messy this man is or how organized this man is, you know?” I wonder if Johnson considered the notion that maybe the president doesn’t actually have a place where he does actual work?

Product Placement

The NYT has an article about how products are getting placed in TV shows. It is hard to believe that people do not realize that this happens. As a NASCAR fan, I get bombarded by advertising. I personally root for the number 17 DeWALT Powertools Ford, driven by Matt Kenseth. The announcers, commentators, drivers, crew chiefs, and everyone else is in on it. You are more likely to hear the name of a sponsor than the number of the car. Coke is the largest placer of product. It is easy to believe if you watch NASCAR. Drivers are always drinking it during interviews. Coke even had an add joking about which driver could get in TV the most drinking Coke. Rumor has it they get a bonus. Who cares?