By The Huffington Post News Editors
INDIANAPOLIS — A born and bred Hoosier, Ryan Newman spent his childhood racing everywhere from Anderson to Winchester and every short track he could find in a state mad about racing.
He graduated from Purdue and landed a summer job working in Jeff Gordon’s old race shop in Pittsboro. One of the perks? He got to live in the shop and sleep alongside the cars.
Read More…
More on Motorsports
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
By The Huffington Post News Editors
A commercial touting marijuana as an alternative to beer was pulled from displays outside a weekend NASCAR race after just a few airings.
The ad, seen above, was purchased by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) — the nation’s largest pro-marijuana legalization advocacy group — and was celebrated by the organization as the first time a pro-pot campaign would be seen at a major sporting event. Organizers for the Brickyard 400 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway disputed that claim, noting that the boards set to display the commercial were not technically on stadium grounds. When officials with the company that had allowed MPP to purchase air time caught wind of its pro-marijuana message, they scrambled to take it down.
“We decided to pull ultimately because it’s not obviously a great fit for the NASCAR audience, for the family kind of oriented audience, that’s why we decided to pull the ad,” Grazie Media CEO Vanessa Wojtala told WISH.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Filed under:
NASCAR has pared its broadcasts down to two providers – Fox and NBC. According to a report from USA Today, the recently inked deal will give the Peacock Network exclusive rights to the last 20 Sprint Cup races, the last 19 Nationwide races, all K&N and Whelen Modified races, the NASCAR Toyota Mexico series, Hall of Fame and banquet ceremonies, live-streams for both Sprint Cup and Nationwide races, and Spanish broadcasting rights on Telemundo and Mun2. Got all that?
The deal is in effect until 2024, but won’t officially kick off until the 2015 season, when NBC and Fox will begin sharing in earnest. The two networks are likely to air some of the races on the NBC Sports network and Fox Sports 1 (which replaces Speed TV), respectively.
Financial details have not been revealed for the NBC deal yet. Fox and NASCAR’s tie-up, which was renewed last fall, was valued at $2.4 billion, and gets the News Corp-owned network broadcast rights for the Daytona 500, 12 Sprint Cup races, practicing and qualifying, and the Camping World Truck Series.
The network shift will see ABC/ESPN and Turner Broadcasting end their NASCAR programming with the 2014 season.
NBC recaptures NASCAR coverage through 2024 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Jul 2013 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
By David Newton ESPN’s eight-year run of broadcasting NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races will end after the 2014 season. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at ESPN Headlines
There hasn’t been much in the way of positive NASCAR news this year. Rather than building more grandstands for overflow crowds, some tracks are reducing seating capacity—flagship Daytona International Speedway is trimming its bleachers by around 15 percent. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson seems to be rolling along uneventfully to a sixth crown. And Danica Patrick, who NASCAR publicists were hoping might have won three or four races so far in first full season, is turning out to be a mid-packer at best. But , if you dig deep enough, there is some unexpected good news to be found, in all places, smack in the middle of a bunch of corn fields in western Ohio. And it will occur, of all times, on a Wednesday night. And it has been sold out, nearly 18,000 seats, since January.
Eldora Speedway, the half-mile dirt track that isn’t on the way to much of anywhere, is hosting the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on July 24th. It’s the first time a major NASCAR series has run on a dirt track since September 30, 1970, when Richard Petty drove a Plymouth to victory at State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina. State Fairgrounds Speedway isn’t around anymore. Neither is Plymouth, for that matter. Has anybody seen Richard Petty lately?
Wednesday’s race, the CarCash Mudsummer Classic, is the result of a conversation a couple of years ago between the track’s owner, former Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, and NASCAR. Stewart bought Eldora from Earl Baltes, who owned it for 50 years. To understand Eldora, you have to understand Earl Baltes, now 92.
The CIA could not have done a better job of disguising a brilliant, savvy promoter as a backwoods hayseed, complete with dungarees, suspenders, a baseball cap with the bill turned up, and Elvis sideburns. A former bandleader, Baltes turned Eldora into a magic place—where else could a fan sit at the top of the grandstands, lean over while watching the race, and order a shot from a full bar? Baltes made Eldora into one of those valuable properties that is known worldwide by just one name, like Daytona, Talladega, Sebring, or Le Mans.
In 2001, he ran a late-model race that paid $1 million to the winner, which was Donnie Moran. Afterward, when we asked Baltes how the night went, he answered with his trademark line: “If I coulda sold one more hot dog, I woulda broke even.” If Baltes is there Wednesday night, ask him about the time he had Pancho Carter preside over the wedding of two gorillas. No, we are not making that up. With Earl Baltes, you don’t have to.
When the time finally came to sell Eldora, the list of buyers who might operate Eldora in the manner in which we’ve become accustomed to was pretty short. At the top was Stewart, an Indiana native who raced …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver
By David Newton NASCAR has suspended the use of aerial camera systems that hang over tracks until the investigation into what caused a failure that interrupted the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May is complete. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at ESPN Headlines
By David Newton Reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski says the parts that NASCAR confiscated from his car and Penske Racing teammate Joey Logano‘s last week at Texas Motor Speedway were approved.
By Associated Press NASCAR suspended seven members of defending champion Penske Racing on Wednesday for bringing unapproved parts to Texas Motor Speedway on the cars of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano last weekend.
“Before I say anything about what our team has done, credit goes to our fans who come to the to the track and to our entire industry, “said Dr. Michael Lynch, Managing Director of Green Innovation for NASCAR .
By David Newton Reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski will not be fined for his profanity-laced tirade directed at NASCAR following Saturday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
From: http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/9174688/brad-keselowski-fined-texas-tirade
By Kevin Spak 
This probably wasn’t the kind of visibility the NRA was looking for when it decided to directly sponsor its first NASCAR event. A 42-year-old racing fan shot himself in the head at the NRA 500 Saturday night in Texas, the New York Post reports. Kirk Franklin was in a pickup…
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166255/man-shoots-himself-at-nras-nascar-race.html
By Terry Blount Brad Keselowski lashed out at NASCAR officials after Saturday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway because of NASCAR inspectors forcing his team to change the rear-end housing in the No. 2 Ford before the race.
By Associated Press Kyle Busch took advantage of a late caution to regain the lead and held on for the final 16 laps after the last restart Saturday night to win the Sprint Cup race at Texas, completing a NASCAR weekend sweep.
From: http://espn.go.com/dallas/story/_/id/9169225/kyle-busch-gets-nascar-weekend-sweep-texas
By Terry Blount NASCAR plans to become more involved in race sponsorship decisions by speedways in light of the continuing controversy surrounding the National Rifle Association sponsorship of the Sprint Cup race Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway.
From: http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/9163799/nra-flap-nascar-scrutinizing-sponsors
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Time Warner Cable Launches “The Coach” TV Campaign
Super Bowl Winning Coach Bill Cowher Signs Multi-year Deal to Coach Time Warner Cable Into The Demonstration Phase of Its ‘Enjoy Better’ Campaign
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Time Warner Cable today announced the launch of “The Coach” TV campaign, the second phase of its national campaign. Following the footsteps of its original announcement at the beginning of the year, Time Warner Cable is now ready to demonstrate how it got better with the help of Coach Bill Cowher – the company’s consumer advocate for its products and services. The first phase of the campaign declared the points of competitive differentiation and the benefits of switching to Time Warner Cable for The Better Guarantee – a 30-day money back guarantee.
“The Coach” TV campaign is comprised of five TV spots featuring Coach Cowher‘s demonstrations of how he is set to take Time Warner Cable to the next level. The campaign is headlined by a spot featuring three top athletes in the world of Sports including, football wide receiver, Victor Cruz; professional golfer, Ian Poulter; and NASCAR driver, Kasey Kahne. Together, the three demonstrate how Time Warner Cable customers can enjoy the most sports content on all types of devices at the same time.
“Coach Cowher is well positioned to be the personification of how Time Warner Cable operates as a company today,” said Jeffrey A. Hirsch, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, Residential Services of Time Warner Cable. “We are excited to have Coach Cowher on board and look forward to seeing how he inspires us to do better while motivating customers to experience the Time Warner Cable difference.”
This multi-media campaign, featuring Coach Cowher, will continue to ramp up over the coming months. TV spots will debut across the company’s footprint and will communicate a plethora of products and benefits like the company’s exclusive Look Back® feature which allows customers to watch Primetime shows up to 72 hours after they’ve aired; improved fiber rich Internet speeds, reaching download speeds of up to 50Mbps (75Mbps in Dallas and 100Mbps in Kansas City and soon in New York and Los Angeles) to support all devices in the home; exclusive Start Over® feature allowing customers to restart shows already in progress; more On Demand choices with a selection of over 15,000 movies and shows ready to be watched instantly; the TWC TV app that provides Digital TV customers with access to up to 250 channels
From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/12/time-warner-cable-launches-the-coach-tv-campaign/
By Zach Bowman
Filed under:
We’ll admit to been pretty irritated at the NASCAR-centric programming at Speed in the past, but never to the point of stripping down to our bare backsides and terrorizing the company’s offices.
That’s exactly what one unidentified man did early Monday morning in Charlotte, NC. Police responded shortly after the individual entered the building, and while he started by tearing papers off of the wall, he soon moved on to dumping trash cans and flinging trophies around. After realizing that law enforcement was on the scene, the man attempted to make a run for it.
Police quickly caught up with the perpetrator, however. It’s unclear if he’s facing charges for his sans-clothing antics. Listen, guy, we’re pretty sure there are better ways to tell Speed to bring back its WRC coverage.
Speed Network offices ransacked by naked intruder originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
From: http://feeds.autoblog.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~3/2GWlE1fQVnk/
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
WWE® Tops 100 Million Facebook Fans at WrestleMania
STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE® (NYS: WWE) today announced it eclipsed 100 million Facebook fans across its network of pages during WrestleMania 29, further cementing itself as one of the most followed brands in the world.
WWE‘s Facebook network currently has more fans than the NFL and its 32 teams combined and MLB and its 30 teams combined. The main WWE Facebook page also has more fans than the NHL, The New York Times, ESPN, Pepsi, Burger King, NASCAR and CNN. Seventeen WWE Superstars rank in the top 100 most-followed athletes on Facebook, with John Cena ® (more than 14 million fans) as the third most-followed athlete in the U.S. behind only Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
To drive additional fan engagement, WWE launched “Superfan Showdown,” a Facebook app exclusive to the platform that allows fans from around the world to compete in fast-paced interactive trivia challenges, rapid-fire polls, mind-bending puzzles and much more. As fans go head-to-head, they earn points, climb the global leaderboard and accumulate “WWE cash” that can be spent to purchase exclusive virtual goods, including: limited edition badges, rare Superstar trading cards, and never-before-seen WWE video content.
WWE now has more than 150 million followers across all social media platforms while ranking in the top 20 most social companies according to the Dachis Groups Social Business Index. WWE is also one of only seven brands in the world to obtain a Klout score of 99 from Klout.com, which measures a brands’ social media influence on a scale from 1 to 100. The other six brands include YouTube, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Time, Associated Press and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
About WWE
WWE, a publicly traded company (NYS: WWE) , is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE programming is broadcast in more than 150 countries and 30 languages and reaches more than 650 million homes worldwide. The company is headquartered in
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
You’ve heard of Danica Patrick, right? She’s the most successful and well-known female racecar driver in the world. Driving the GoDaddy.com car for Stewart-Haas Racing, she’s an international NASCAR celebrity. Besides possessing nerves of steel, hair-trigger reflexes, and proving to be a ferocious competitor while driving at 200 mph, she’s a beautiful and sought after model. Of course she attracts blue chip sponsors like Coke Zero, and has helped GoDaddy.com break all their sales records. She’s a rare gem in the world of celebrity sponsorships, accessible only to an elite group of brands with extraordinarily well-funded marketing budgets. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Tim Powers
My assumption of the best example of a pledge would be by The Pledge of Allegiance. Is it taken seriously anymore by the majority of Americans or is it just something that we have been trained to do over the generations before starting a school day, sporting event, or NASCAR race? I’m sure that most of you who are engaged in the happenings of this country have seen the picture of our muslim/communist plant, Barack Hussein Obama, holding his hands down by his groin area while everyone else had their hand on their heart during the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. That gesture was nothing short of un-American.
A pledge should not be taken lightly. Our Military members have all taken a pledge to protect, defend and uphold our Constitution and have been successful in defending our rights for over 200 years. Our politicians have taken the same pledge, but in their case, not a very good track record when it comes to defending the Constitution.
Some of us have made a pledge to our spouses as well. How well has that worked out for some as of late? When this pledge means nothing, divorce is certain. Or what about the pledge that we made to God upon accepting Jesus Christ as our lord and savior? The word “Christian” meaning Christ like. Are we living up to that pledge? Are we even trying to?
When our founders were faced with the challenge of not only establishing a viable government, they also knew that they would have to fight to the death in order to secure the Liberty and Freedom that they so desired. So to this end, they all decided to “pledge” their lives,fortunes and sacred honors,(their individual covenants with their creator) in order to make this happen. Can you, or are you willing to take the same pledge that our Founders did? Will you stand by it at all cost? Only you and your Creator will ever know the true answer. As always,fellow Patriots, stay safe and be aware of your surroundings.
Filed under:
Barrett-Jackson auctioned off the first production 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible in Palm Beach this evening, with the open-top two-seater commanding a huge winning bid of $1,000,000 from Rick Hendrick, owner of NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports.
While the Geneva Motor Show C7 prototype is pictured above (it also was shown at Barrett-Jackson), Hendrick won rights to the first retail production model (VIN undetermined at this time), allowing him to choose both color and options before his V8 sports car rolls off the assembly line in the near future. Hopefully, by the time that happens, we will all know more about its soft convertible top, double-bubble tonneau and the mechanism that opens and lowers the fully automatic roof at speeds upwards of 30 mph.
It is worth mentioning that proceeds from the sale of this first C7 droptop will benefit the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer institute, one of 40 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States that strives to prevent, detect and eradicate all forms of cancer. The General Motors Foundation is a longtime supporter of Karmanos, with nearly $6 million in support over the last 15 years.
First production 2014 Corvette Stingray Convertible auctioned for a cool million originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
