Full Throttle

You are browsing the archives of 2005 February.

The legendary Babe Ruth is said to have “called his shot” during a game. The story of Ruth pointing his bat at the right field bleachers, then producing a homerun blast lives til today. Greg Biffle made good on two “shots” during the Auto Club 500 in Fontana, California. The first was [...]

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — Mark Martin added to his record Busch Series win total, pulling away from Kevin Harvick on Saturday at California Speedway for No. 47.
Martin, the longtime star of NASCAR’s top stock car series, was dominant. He led 102 of the 150 laps, including the last 34. He easily held off Harvick in [...]

Rusty Wallace, taking a cue from Kevin Costner, has made good on a promise made last year to provide Iowa a sequel. While he has made no claims of Curtis Turner, Robbie Flock, Junior Johnson, or even “The King,” appearing amidst the tall corn of Iowa there will be a place for new legends to [...]

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — Steve Park completed his comeback from a serious head injury sustained in 2001, capitalizing when leader Mike Bliss ran out of gas with six laps remaining Friday night for his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race victory.
The win at California Speedway was Park’s first since taking the checkered flag in a [...]

Diversity and the inclusion of minorites in auto racing has been a subject with a long history in all its forms. NASCAR’s recent efforts have included signing a women (the third to compete in an entire season) to compete in the Busch Series and the Series moving a race date to Mexico City. Along with [...]

As NASCAR moves into the land of Fruits & Nuts here are some of the stories making the headlines:
Crew Chief to call race strategy from long distance. Instead of sitting on a pit box for Sunday’s Nextel Cup race, Michael McSwain will be making his calls on race strategy by long distance. Ricky Rudd’s crew [...]

I guess the new NASCAR drivers of Mexican decent need a little primer on bump drafting. Even if it is on the streets of Mexico City.
Drivers who have no trouble weaving racecars through crowds of competitors at 150 mph apparently were no match for the Mexican capital’s streets yesterday. A news conference to promote the [...]

Fox’s Daytona 500 Ratings Tops For Nascar
Fox Sports coverage of the Daytona 500 on Sunday afternoon produced a 10.9/23 preliminary national rating and share, also pulling in 18.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
That matches the highest rating recorded for a Nascar race, matching the rating for the 2002 Daytona 500 on NBC, [...]

Dave Laurence of Racing Underdog has posted this years first “Kangaroo Court.” A feature started last year (I believe) that looks at the previous weeks NASCAR action and places any on/off track “offenders” in the “underdogs” docket. Reprinted without permission, but with great admiration:
The Court is now in session. This week

NEW YORK (AP)

Daytona lived up to it’s advertising tagline, “Great American Race.”
Gordon starts his “drive for five” with his third Daytona win. Defending NASCAR Champ Kurt Busch shows he still is a force, and all the usual faces were there at the end contending, Stewart, Martin, Earnhardt, and Johnson. And a few surprises, Scott Riggs fourth [...]

White Supremacists Target NASCAR’s Daytona 500 Race for Major Recruitment Drive
One of the country’s largest and most virulent anti-Semitic and racist hate groups plans to undertake a major recruitment drive at the Daytona International Speedway during NASCAR’s Daytona 500 Race on Sunday, February 20.
Among other claims, the neo-Nazi National Alliance (N.A.) says it has arranged [...]

On the discovery of drafting at Daytona….

Mark Martin became the winningest driver in IROC history, moving past the late Dale Earnhardt and Al Unser Jr. by taking the season-opening race Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. Martin earned his 12th International Race of Champions victory by passing fellow NASCAR Nextel Cup star Matt Kenseth on a restart with four laps remaining. [...]

You have to hand it to those boys from NASCAR. For years the race sanctioning organization has been urged by the EPA to remove the lead from the fuel used in its race vehicles. To which the organizers of what has become the most vibrant race series turned a deaf ear. Now, Clean Air Watch [...]

NASCAR has a game to play called TEGWAR, which stands for

Following on the heels of race two of the “Duel 150’s” is the crash mared Florida Dodge Dealers 250 for the Craftsman Truck Series. In something that was a less than a perfect ending, in a wild race that included several major crashes and two flipping trucks, Bobby Hamilton was standing on pit road and [...]

You just know NASCAR wouldn’t get through Speed Weeks without controversy. And it was a safe bet Kevin Harvick might be sitting smack in the middle of the largest one. But first the words of those effected, then my take.
Joe Nemechek “It’s frustrating because I know how much all these guys have put into this, [...]

Former NASCAR Champion (2002) Tony Stewart has never been one to shy away from controversy. He has been involved in a number of altercations during his five-plus seasons in NASCAR’s top division, ranging from on-track skirmishes with fellow competitors to an incident in which he allegedly punched a newspaper photographer.
I find it too cute, by [...]

Ernie Irvan, who retired from racing midway in the 1999 season due to severe head injuries, has launched a Web site dealing with the subject (Ernie Irvan’s Race2Safety) and offering advice for others suffering from such injuries.
”Every 24 seconds there’s another head injury in this country,” said Irvan, 46, winner of the 1990 Daytona 500.
”It’s [...]