NASCAR BLOG

Jimmie Johnson, the Reigning Cup Series champion will return to the White House for a visit on February 5 to chat with President George Bush. He will meet with him for a while and then they get to have an official picture taken. This is a tradition for whoever wins the Sprint Cup Series in racing. Johnson says it is a supreme honor for him to be able to visit the White House and meet with the President. He is quite looking forward to the visit in the Oval Office. After he concludes his meeting with the President, he will go speak to both the Senate and the House. He will also be meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Since he has been winning consecutive races since 1998, this will actually be his third visit to the White House. He also made the trip in 2003 and 2007. He had a week of activities planned. He went first to the Las Vegas Speedway to test out his car and the track. He then headed to the California Speedway for more testing. He had plans to attend the Super Bowl in Arizona on Sunday night. The following Saturday, he will be back in Daytona for a Budweiser Shootout.

Besides being the second watched sport on TV, football was number one, NASCAR (The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing carries a lot of fan power behind the sport too. An estimated eighty million people watch the races in the stands or at home. 2008 will see almost four billion in sponsorships toward NASCAR. There is a large chance for investment and return in the coming years and people are trying to get in on the deal now.

There has been a lot of buzz about what kind of car to use on the track this year. They have Chevrolets, Toyotas, and Camrys. The Hendrick Motorsports team swears by the Chevrolets. The Camrys have been dominant in their attack, while the Toyotas did get six places in the top eight fastest times.

Sterling Martin has lost his backing. The Morgan-McClure Motorsports team has shut down. Based in Abingdon Virginia, one of the owners stated that without backing and sponsorship, they could not feasibly run their cars. They have already had to let around thirty people go. The racing team had been in business for almost twenty years. This is a bad loss for some of the older and newer drivers.

  Count down has officially started for the 50th running of the Daytona 500 and DC Brands International’s Corvette Giveaway. There are 100 contest winners and VIPs of region’s top retailers for the land marking of the race which will hold on 17^th February 2008 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Daytona International Speedway is a super speed way which is 2.5 mile long and is in tri-oval race track. It has seating capacity for almost 169,000 spectators. Nascar’s founder William France Sr. And another small group promoted this race at Daytona Beach, Florida. This year Daytona 500 race will be held among 43 drivers, who will be racing for more than 18 million dollars while more than 1.5 million dollars for themselves. This is term as the “Great American Race” and drivers give this race a top priority. This race track is the platform for the newcomers as well and experts are also promoted more than any other track race. The famous winners of this race are Richard Petty (seven times winner), Fireball Roberts, Fred Lorenzen Marvin Panch, Tiny Lund and Junior Johnson winning in the early 1960s. There will be a party at the Cruisin’ Café, with fully-outfitted staff in Turn Left gear and one lucky person will win the 2007 Turn Left Corvette.