tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14464380430658097482024-03-06T00:44:59.684-05:00JamestownOn the edge of the empire.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-24158286514956949712013-04-23T20:44:00.000-04:002013-04-23T20:44:11.195-04:0050 Essential A.J. Foyt facts (from an old St. Petersburg Times piece)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">By BRANT JAMES, Times Staff Writer<br />
Published March 27, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">A.J. Foyt. Perhaps no driver has so embodied the
brazen, bold, unabashed spirit that defined racing in the sport's golden era.
He was a winner, unapologetic for it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">At 72, he's seen it all, done it all, says what
he thinks. And he doesn't really care whom he offends. He's cheated death,
often under absurd circumstances, and somehow grown larger than life in a life
that was already legendary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">In recognition of Foyt's 50 years at open wheel
racing's top level - his IndyCar team will again compete Sunday in the Grand
Prix of St. Petersburg - here's 50 essential facts about Foyt, the kind of
ornery, contrary force of nature they just don't make anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">1</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> A.J.
Foyt won 76 races and a record seven Indy-style car national championships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">2</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He's
the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500, 24 Hours of
LeMans, 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">3</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
survived an attack by a swarm of 60,000 killer bees on Aug. 6, 2005, when he
was clearing brush on his Texas ranch. He was stung at least 200 times in the
face, sending him into systemic shock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">4</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Then
he refused to go to the hospital, asking to "die here under the oak
tree" until his doctor intervened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">5</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
is among three to win four Indianapolis 500s, and won as an owner in 1999 with
Kenny Brack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">6</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He's
the only driver to start 35 consecutive Indy 500s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">7</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> His
67 Indy-style car wins is a record.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">8</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
won seven races in NASCAR's top series, now Nextel Cup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">9</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> After
a massive crash at Elkhart Lake, Wis., in 1990, a misunderstanding with his
physician led to him being prescribed a horse medication for pain relief,
causing an allergic reaction that nearly killed him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">10</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> His
nine 500-mile Indy car wins (four at Indy, four at Pocono, Pa., and one at
Ontario, Calif.) is a record.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">11</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
won 10 of 13 USAC races (then open wheel's top level) in 1964 for a record 77
percent win percentage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">12</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Named
Driver of the (20th) Century by the Associated Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">13</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Won
Indy Racing League championships as an owner with co-titleist Scott Sharp (1996)
and Kenny Brack (1998).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">14</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> His
thought on arriving for his first Indianapolis 500 in 1958: "To be
truthful with you, I was thinking, 'This is for big men and not little kids
like me.' "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">15</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Track
officials, not knowing who he was, wouldn't let him on the grounds. "I had
a ride with Dean Van Lines. I tried to sign in two days early and Frankie
Baines says: 'We don't know who you are, and we don't know if you got the ride.
You don't get no pit pass until the car gets here.' I stood outside the fence and
couldn't get in. I'll never forget that and I'll never forget his a--."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">16</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
was mauled by a lion after qualifying at DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in Illinois
in the late 1960s. "All of a sudden, he jerked himself loose on the chain,
pulled the stake out of the ground. Well, crap, that scared the hell out of me.
That son of a gun made a leap, and I went face down on the ground. The lion was
on my back. He opened his mouth, and I turned my head up and I was like 'God
d---, he's gonna bite my head off.' So I put my head down and the trainer come
up there. He said: 'You shouldn't have run. He's trained to do that in the
movies.' "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">17</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> His
biggest fear was catching fire in the days when cars were rolling gas tanks,
having seen Pat O'Connor burned alive after a 15-car crash in a practice before
the 1958 Indianapolis 500.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">18</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
caught fire three times in his career, twice severely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">19</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> The
first was at Milwaukee in 1966 when his rear-engine car crashed during
practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">20</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> The
next was at DuQuoin, the day after the 1972 Indy 500, during a dirt car race
when fuel spilled on him during a pit stop, prompting him to unbuckle and jump
out. His car ran over him and broke his leg.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">21</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Made
the mistake of telling someone to splash water in the car while running what is
now the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, then an early afternoon race, in 1965. "God
almighty ... the floor plate started steaming the water and I felt like a d---
lobster in there.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">22</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Tussled
with Arie Luyendyk in Victory Circle after the inaugural IRL race at Texas
Motor Speedway in 1997 when the driver pushed down a friend's wife to get in.
Luyendyk had been denied victory because of a scoring error that gave Billy
Boat (Foyt's driver) the win. Luyendyk was later awarded the win, but Foyt kept
the original trophy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">23</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
was a clean, but vengeful driver. "People knew I was clean, but if you did
something dirty, I wasn't going to wait two or three laps."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">24</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> As
an owner, he chucked a laptop computer from his pit box during the 1998 Indy
500 when his driver, Kenny Brack, ran out of fuel right after a data technician
said the car could make another lap. "The computer was telling me we still
had fuel and I'm watching the car run out of fuel going into Turn 1. They kept
saying 'computer says.' That's when I told them they could take their computer
and stick it up their a--. Don't tell me when I see the thing leading the race
coasting to a stop. I don't care what the computer says, that son of gun is out
of fuel."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">25</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
admired NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., who helped pay Foyt's expenses to
coerce him to lend his fame to the fledgling Daytona 500 in the early 1960s.
"He really knew how to build this stuff," Foyt said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">26</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Though
he says he "wouldn't walk across the street to see a (NASCAR) race for
free today," he's proud of his record in the series. "You got some
pretty famous names that never won what I won and run a hell of a lot more
times than I did."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">27</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
raced long enough to see speeds increase at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from
135 to 230 mph. "If somebody told me I could run around this race track
wide open and never lift, it's hard for me to believe. ... It's so much easier.
Compared to some of those old Roadsters, you see them wiggle a little bit, they
would go spinning."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">28</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Was
pronounced dead on the track on Jan. 17, 1965, a day after his 30th birthday,
after a crash during a Grand National Race in Riverside, Calif., when the track
medic arrived to find his face blue. He broke his back, fractured his heel and
sustained a damaged aorta. But ...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">29</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Parnelli
Jones stopped at the accident scene, saw Foyt twitch, scooped mud from his
mouth and saved his life by clearing his airway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">30</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> The
footage from that accident was used in the 1965 movie Red Line 7000, starring
James Caan and George Takei.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">31</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
fractured his right arm so severely in a crash at the 1981 Michigan 500 he
nearly lost it. Foyt rehabilitated the arm by painting fences at his 1,500-acre
ranch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">32</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> At
Elkhart Lake, Wis., in 1990, he broke his left knee, dislocated his left tibia,
crushed his left heel and dislocated his right heel when his Indy car's brakes
failed and he plowed through a dirt embankment at the end of the course's
longest straightaway. "I'll live with Elkhart Lake until I die because of
my ankles and all of that."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">33</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
broke two vertebrae in his back practicing for the 1983 Firecracker (now Pepsi)
400 crashing into the wall. He won the sports car race that night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">34</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
dreads surgery. He's had plenty. He has a titanium left knee and his ankles
required multiple surgeries and plates after the Elkhart Lake accident. In
December he said, "I've got to have another knee put in because I don't
have that stuff done until I can't walk anymore. It's getting worse and worse.
I don't like those knives. When you go under a doctor's care, you lose. I've
never won."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">35</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
covered the serial numbers on the tires he used in winning the Indianapolis 500
in 1977. He mounted his own sets to maintain secrecy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">36</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
said there are no current drivers he would pay to see race.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">37</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
is friends with two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart, below, who briefly drove
USAC Silver Crowns for him and had his first Indy car test in a Foyt car.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">38</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
was prepared to field an Indy 500 entry for Stewart in 2004 but "the
lawyers got into it," Foyt said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">39</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Stewart
on his favorite Foyt memory: "At the Indy 500 one year he got out of his
car and took a hammer, beat on it and then got back in. A.J. and I are good
enough friends that I can say this: I've seen him work on stuff and I wouldn't
drive anything that he's actually touched, let alone beat on it with a hammer
and then drive it. But I say that with a lot of respect."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">40</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> On
being involved in open-wheel activity at Daytona International Speedway in
1959, when Marshall Teague and George Amick were killed: "I'm glad I was
young and didn't know any better. I don't think I did run the second race. It
scared the hell out of me probably. It's just like they talk about race
drivers, and they've never been scared. I can't remember a race I run in that
at one time or another I didn't scare the crap out of myself."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">41</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
eats his steak with butter on top.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">42</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
does not eat his broccoli.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">43</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
said the decision to end his driving career to focus on being an owner in 1993
was easier than he expected, but it was agonizing. "We were very fast that
year. Practice was going over 225. I said, 'Who hit the wall?' That's when
Robby Gordon was driving one of my cars. They said 'Robby again.' I got to
thinking I couldn't run a team and worry about the other car. I said, 'I'm
through.' "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">44</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
nearly drowned at 16 in the waters off Houston when his boat capsized. Foyt had
put on a life preserver because he was cold, but his friend, celebrating his
birthday, had not and died. Foyt was rescued by a passing oil company boat.
"I was out there about eight hours," he said. "You seen them
movies where people holler at boats going by. I'll never forget a fishing boat
went by and we were out there like carp bobbing up and down."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">45</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He's
older, takes a little longer to get around, has found some respect for things
he never imagined (bees) but is the same brash Texan as in those old
black-and-white films. "I'm the same as I always been, I'm just not too
active because I'm too d--- crippled up."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">46</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> On
whether safety advances make modern drivers unduly brave or foolish: "They
still got to thrill themselves. One time or another that car is going to jump
on you the wrong way. A good friend of mine, his throttle got stuck on his car
at Indy in practice. He hit the wall. They asked him, 'What were you thinking?'
He says, 'Faint you son of a b---- faint.' "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">47</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> He
criticized James Hylton for attempting to qualify for the Daytona 500 at age 72
but admits if Mario Andretti were to attempt a comeback, "I might have to
get me on that diet."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">48</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> Foyt
called Stewart to chastise him for bumping Matt Kenseth off the track during
the 2006 Daytona 500, asking him if he was a "drug head."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">49 </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">A vocal
supporter of bringing NASCAR to Indianapolis Motor Speedway when many of his
peers were not, he took the first lap there in a stock car for a television
commercial and raced the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">50</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> On
whether he would have liked to race in this era: "I'd like to be young
again, if that's what you're saying. We didn't make much money, but people
don't know the fun. ... I mean those are the things you can't repeat."</span></div>
Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-29129101931756462862011-12-19T09:06:00.000-05:002011-12-19T09:06:44.343-05:00AC/DC's Brian Johnson on the Top Gear experience<div class="MsoNormal"><i>Some leftover snippets from my <a href="http://bit.ly/rE8fKh" target="_blank">SI.com Brian Johnson story</a>, this bit about his experience on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6np_yjHoL0&noredirect=1" target="_blank">Top Gear in 2009</a>. James May, by the way, was at Johnson's Sarasota, Fla., home in November filming a segment for the upcoming season. Jeremy Clarkson was apparently in Miami doing something also.</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">BRIAN JOHNSON ON JAMES, JEREMY AND HAMMOND: "They are great lads. They're phenomenal. They're the funniest lads. Went to one of the nicest dinners of me life. They said, 'Brian, you want to go to dinner at the old local pub in London?' It’s called the Pig’s Ear. And we went upstairs at the Pig’s Ear and we all had shepherd’s pie without even realizing we had all ordered the same. We all suddenly realized we’re exactly the same. We all love the same things, old black and white second world war movies, old race car movies like Grand Prix and Le Mans. If I don’t watch that every two weeks ... I’ve got to get my fix of it, you know, Steve McQueen. The Fast Lady, starring Stanley Baxter, it’s an English movie. Fantastic."</div>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-87854853512904458442011-08-19T13:09:00.001-04:002011-08-19T13:09:53.175-04:00Sicking: pit wall, catch fence, T-bone crashes next safety directive after SAFER success<strong>Dr. Dean Sicking, director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska and the developer of the SAFER barrier, on the next evolution of motorsports safety.</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>On NASCAR and INDYCAR currently funding research to develop a SAFER-type system for oustide pit walls, like those at Indianapolis Motor Speedway:</em></span></div>DS: <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many tracks have these pit walls. Whichever have them, that’s a danger spot. Safety engineers’ job is to look around the track and find the most dangerous problems they have and go fix those. We think we pretty much fixed the (outside) wall, so now we’re looking at other locations. The two we identified were the end of pit wall because when you hit there, it’s usually pretty nasty and then the other one is the catch fence, which is primarily a problem for the open wheel cars. Still, that’s a significant safety risk that we’ll eventually need to address. NASCAR and INDYCAR have talked about it, but with the economy turning down, they only have so much money to spend. So, we think pit wall is a higher safety risk in aggregate because you have so many NASCAR races than you do open wheel races.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div><em>On other areas in need of improvement:</em><br />
<br />
DS: <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Improving management of the vehicle. In 2001, When (Dale) Earnhardt was killed, (NASCAR) came to us and some other experts and said 'what should we work on first?' Everyone said they needed to work on the cockpit side first, the seats. We said 'Number one, you can improve that a lot, because your system sucks.' They did. They came and really upgraded the seats and the restraint systems and we’ve seen benefit from that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second thing we said needed to be done was to mitigate the seriousness of crash by putting up barriers, and we’ve done that. SAFER barriers has been placed, we believe, in practically all the critical spots. There’s a few here and there, but we will get them soon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The third and final area, which takes longer and is more expensive, is to revise the car. They made a big step forward with the <em>Car of Tomorrow</em>. Now they’re trying to make the step to <em>The Car of the Day After Tomorrow</em>, I guess. They’ve been working on that quite a bit. You think about: if you hit the wall, we haven’t had anybody seriously hurt. Now we need to think of car-to-car crashes and the first thing that comes to mind is T-bone where you get a car that is more or less stopped on the track hit by a car going, say, 100 mph, injures the driver. That’s a tremendously difficult energy management problem and NASCAR is working on that problem now. We’re trying to help them as best we can. It’s a real challenge. What you have to do is get the stopped car up to the speed of the impacting car with available crush distance, which is about six or eight inches. That’s a tremendous amount of structure to make that happen. They’re not there yet, but they’re moving a lot closer.</span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-42286401118138664362011-06-27T15:09:00.002-04:002011-06-27T15:11:33.751-04:00Off the chain. Off the deal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHa-IIlLY-DoTym1PEQdasMOvKuvHCi57-NxRJPyPzN5-ahJOBZTONumU8dAexbExLo7VQ3MOaZeN1Bqytxe6Fqvf-eKjf19dhT0laQTc7rHpoSnSIeMhTRi0mDwWCg4Uh8tufOcLX88A8/s1600/redbull_NEW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHa-IIlLY-DoTym1PEQdasMOvKuvHCi57-NxRJPyPzN5-ahJOBZTONumU8dAexbExLo7VQ3MOaZeN1Bqytxe6Fqvf-eKjf19dhT0laQTc7rHpoSnSIeMhTRi0mDwWCg4Uh8tufOcLX88A8/s400/redbull_NEW.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">If Red Bull really leaves NASCAR at the end of the season, I will remember not the aftertaste and heart palpitations, or the fact it sent two cases of that taurine concoction to my former employer every month for four years. (I didn't drink any of it. More about the aftertaste than palpitations). I will remember Red Bull for this one image from its 2007 media guide. I suggest you do, also.</div>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-36550902388444181882011-05-24T10:37:00.000-04:002011-05-24T10:37:38.837-04:00Tom Anderson, the day before the Grand Prix of St. PetersburgFormer Andretti Autosport senior vice president of racing operations Tom Anderson is an accomplished racing professional, and a phenomenally candid quote. That made him a go-to source for me, not only to get smarter, but <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/brant_james/03/31/Marco.Andretti/index.html">make better stories</a>.<br />
On Monday, AA confirmed he was no longer with the team and Yahoo quoted IndyCar president of competition Brian Barnhart as saying "We did get an email from Tom Anderson saying he had been let go, that he appreciated his time at Andretti Autosport and that he is looking at every avenue to get back into IndyCars."<br />
Anderson was managing director of Ganassi Racing teams that won consecutive CART titles from 1996-1999, and always seemed confident of asserting himself, which seemed dangerous professionally when running, in essence, another family's business.<br />
So I asked him about it the weekend of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.<br />
<br />
<em>Q: How can you sit in meetings in a room full of Andrettis deeply invested in this operation and assert your opinions?</em><br />
<em>A:</em> I think that ... my age. I’m older than everybody except Mario. I tend to listen to Mario a little more than I do Michael. But, Michael and I have a funny relationship because I told him, “You know if you hire me you’re not hiring a ‘yes’ man. Because I’m going to tell you what I think. You’re going to do what you want to do, but I’m going to tell you what you’re going to get if you do what you do. And if you don’t want that, don’t hire me.” We’ve gone after each other a couple of times, but it always gets defused because we get to laughing or something like that. Probably (I'm) the right guy for this job because I spent 11 years with Chip Ganassi. My feelings can get hurt every once in a whole but I have a pretty thick skin.<br />
<br />
<br />
<em>Q: What is your relationship with Michael Andretti?</em><br />
<em>A:</em> I was Michael’s buffer with Chip, so that’s how we got our relationship and things worked well together, so we have a good time. We get a little hot at each other once in a while but I understand the golden rule and I said if you want to apply the golden rule, OK, it’s your team, but I’m telling, if you do, you’re going the wrong direction.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-64697179293839794972011-03-27T08:00:00.000-04:002011-03-27T08:00:33.127-04:00Sunday morning, pre-Grand Prix clickables<strong>INDYCAR embraces the show to sell the game</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/i5DPUb">http://bit.ly/i5DPUb</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Roger Penske is pretty sure he's done his share</strong><br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/g7IngL">http://bit.ly/g7IngL</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>The Essential Danica</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://bitly.com/emf4DX">http://bitly.com/emf4DX</a><br />
<br />
<strong><br />
</strong><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Will Power profiled</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.baynews9.com/article/sports/2011/march/221221/Will-to-win,-Power-to-succeed">http://www.baynews9.com/article/sports/2011/march/221221/Will-to-win,-Power-to-succeed</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>INDYCAR embraces the show to sell the game</strong><br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/i5DPUb">http://bit.ly/i5DPUb</a><br />
<br />
<strong>Roger Penske is pretty sure he's done his share</strong><br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/g7IngL">http://bit.ly/g7IngL</a>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-11055671655444630792011-03-26T07:54:00.000-04:002011-03-26T07:54:12.231-04:00Snippet of Paul Dana interview, March 24, 2006<em>On moving to a three-car team for the first time</em><br />
<br />
Right now my learning curve is so steep. Just now starting to get to a point where I can contribute to the set-up of the car.<br />
The adjustment has actually been pretty easy. The team (Rahal Letterman) is so successful and so organized. There’s enough going on driving the car at this level, they want to make your job as easy as possible because this series is s so competitive, they just try to free you from distraction. The team was been very welcoming. They obviously had a very successful rookie campaign last year with Danica. They know how to do it. They know how to bring a new driver into this sport at the top level. They’ve been very supportive and they’ve seemed to be happy with my performance so far.<br />
In general, it’s awesome to be back in the series and to have come back from the injury last year. Awesome to be doing it with a bigger team.<br />
<br />
<em>Will you be able to compete?</em><br />
Last year Panther was a one-car team and <a href="http://www.racing-reference.info/drivdet/schecto01/2005/O">they won a race</a>. You need everything. You need budget, development time and testing time and an awesome driver and engineering staff. It can be done, but that was with a veteran driver. That same team had a rookie a few years ago and that same rookie isn’t in the sport anymore because he had a very difficult season he wasn’t able to come back from. It can go either way. It’s a tough deal. This is far more competitive than Formula One in that the cars are so identical and people are even on a spec car. Today something like the top 12 cars were within the first second, second and a half, especially on ovals. You’re not screwing around. You can get seriously hurt or killed. I learned that first-hand last year (suffering a spinal fracture practicing for the Indianapolis 500). There are better things to do in life than drive an Indy Car on an oval unless you think you can be competitive. Unless you’re out there to go to the front, it’s a very volatile thing. It’s a very dangerous thing. I’m very confident in my abilities.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-48504043264204316282010-11-20T13:16:00.001-05:002010-11-20T13:16:57.761-05:00Ford exec: IndyCar not a goal<span xmlns=''><p>HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Jamie Allison, Ford's director of North American motorsports, said the manufacturer currently has no interest in joining competitor Chevrolet as an engine-provider to the Izod IndyCar Series and will concentrate, he said, on "production-based racing."<br /></p><p>Ford currently support programs in NASCAR, the NHRA, and professional rally and drifting domestically and internationally, but wouldn't benefit from expanding into open wheel racing, Allison said.<br /></p><p>"We were approached. We had conversation. We gave our feedback," Allison said. "We see affinity of our customers with production-based racing and the showcase on our technology. That's why we're focused on the platforms we have today, and today is a sign of all the excitement regenerating in the new rally car and rally cross, X Games. We plan to take advantage of putting our cars, as well with the technology in our cars, to showcase what we do. I'm sure Indy is right for many manufacturers, but at this time our priority is to focus on the stuff we have."<br /></p><p>Chevrolet and Lotus announced recently their <a href='http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing/indycar/columns/story?columnist=oreovicz_john&id=5825004'>intention to join Honda as engine-providers beginning in 2012</a>.</p></span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-90091966363481664162010-11-18T16:30:00.002-05:002010-11-18T16:31:46.239-05:00Camp Hornaday grads reach a crossroads<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick were asked at the championship weekend press conference today about their short term as roommates living at Ron Hornaday's house. Here's my story on the topic from February, 2007 for the <em>St. Petersburg Times</em>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Maybe Ron Hornaday should have charged rent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Eight years ago, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick were two unknown Southern California expatriates jostling for bathroom time in Hornaday's always-bustling Lake Norman, N.C., home, hoping they would someday find a NASCAR job steady enough to afford such a place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Johnson was an off-road truck racer from El Cajon, with a line on a Busch Series deal. Harvick, from Bakersfield, was driving in the truck series and working on a budding relationship with Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s team owner, Richard Childress. But until they figured out exactly where their careers would go, Hornaday, then a star for Earnhardt's truck team, and wife Lindy made sure they had a pillow for their head and a steak on their plate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Their door was always wide open for anyone who needed a start," Johnson said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Johnson, 31, begins the Nextel Cup season as the defending Daytona 500 and series champion. Harvick, also 31, is the defending Busch Series champion, a threat for a first Cup title after finishing fourth last season, and a burgeoning car owner. He's Hornaday's truck series owner, in fact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I guess the food wasn't too bad at Ron's," Harvick laughed. "His place must be a good way to get your career started in the right direction."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I'd always feel bad because I wanted to pay rent, but they wouldn't have it," Johnson remembered. "I found myself washing a lot of dishes and taking out a lot of trash so I could feel like I was earning my keep."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Harvick had dreams like anyone else, but in 1998 he was happy to have a home and a full-time ride in the truck series with Spears Racing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Heck, I thought I was on top of the world, just enjoying myself," he said. "I was 22, 23 years old and doing what I wanted to do."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Anywhere from two to five drivers crashed at Hornaday's at any one time. They called it Camp Hornaday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Lindy was a phenomenal cook, Harvick said, and Hornaday had a flare with the grill.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Yeah, the steak with dill seasoning, salt, butter, onion and mushroom," Johnson said. "The funny thing with dinner at the camp was four of us would be sitting there eating and then all of a sudden it could be six, seven or 30 and he'd just keep cooking."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The ski boat and tubing gear were the entertainment. There was jug fishing for catfish and that big old bass that taunted Johnson.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Ron had sunk this thing out by his dock to try and get fish to hang out by it," he said. "There was this huge bass that would hang out there right under the water, and we could never catch him. One time I finally grabbed a net and I was like, 'I'll get that damned bass.' Never got it."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Hornaday met Johnson at a General Motors function in Detroit and invited him to stay a few weeks as he prepared to take a job driving a Busch car for Herzog Racing. He stayed four months.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I could have gone out and found some kind of apartment ...," Johnson said, "but it was so nice to have some place to come home to."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Hornaday, now 48, brought Johnson to lunches with drivers and executives, helping him weave into the Charlotte racing community. Johnson befriended Jeff Gordon in 2000 and signed with Hendrick Motorsports for 2001, becoming an instant success at the Cup level.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Hornaday was instrumental in Harvick's career well before he ever made it to North Carolina, helping him land his deal at Spears. Finally signed to a Busch deal at Richard Childress Racing, Harvick won three races and finished third as a rookie in 2000 and won the championship in 2001. That season he replaced Earnhardt Sr. at the Cup following his death in the Daytona 500. Running both series last year, Harvick won a second Busch title by an astounding 824 points.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Harvick is fiercely loyal to Hornaday, hiring him as a truck series driver and running a program for him last season though he had no sponsor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I guess Kevin's paying me back now," Hornaday said.</span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-85549856848147627722010-11-12T12:07:00.003-05:002010-11-12T12:11:45.965-05:00Tony Kanaan on possible NASCAR trucks future<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<em>What is the status of your discussion with Kyle Busch of racing for his NASCAR truck series team?</em><br />
Right now it's just talk. I'm going to go watch the race in Homestead. But obviously, I'm still trying to get something in IndyCar. That's where I have been all my life. I've been in talks with a lot of teams, but financially it's a very difficult situation for everybody. A lot of teams don't even have the budget for a full car, forget about paying me. So I've got to explore all my options. Me and Kyle know each other because we shared the same sponsor (Mars) and did a lot of the same functions. He has his own truck team and doesn't do all the races, so he called me up and I said, "Why not? Let's talk." People are making a big deal like I am going there already. Well, I've got to listen to anybody. Right now I don't have a deal. If I did I would have said 'no'. It's still baby steps. Right now I don't think he even has the sponsorship to run it, as well. You need to put all the ideas together.<br />
<em>When did he call, because originally 2005 IndyCar series champion Dan Wheldon had been linked to that supposed opening?</em><br />
Two weeks ago. He's probably talking to other people as well, not just me. He's looking for a driver to do seven or eight races that he's not going to do.<br />
<em>So there's been no formal offer?</em><br />
No, not even talk of doing a test or anything. It was a friendly phone call. "Come over. Come watch it. Maybe then we'll sit down." And it wouldn't be a full-time job unless he can find a sponsor to put trucks out there and it would be financially worth it for him to run a full season. I can't say that right now.<br />
<ul><li>BRANT JAMES</li>
</ul>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-91294388216053988122010-11-08T13:21:00.005-05:002010-11-08T14:36:11.155-05:00Travis Pastrana trying to cross another item off his bucket list?<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCuQ-aKqCMZ-immfzbWcEGXLrxxngOIKfWCrK3u7rOGoIJHtaTFZMv3aRRLQHfor0wflinW5dQ59MwWmmeYA22IszqkJBTPrg129tGEU7nxCt4k_6R2Kl9Ntf7AKY3ZfRF-YBJ_sdtrs2/s1600/2010-09-14+13+13+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCuQ-aKqCMZ-immfzbWcEGXLrxxngOIKfWCrK3u7rOGoIJHtaTFZMv3aRRLQHfor0wflinW5dQ59MwWmmeYA22IszqkJBTPrg129tGEU7nxCt4k_6R2Kl9Ntf7AKY3ZfRF-YBJ_sdtrs2/s400/2010-09-14+13+13+12.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Ralph Shaheen cited various sources in tweeting on Sunday that freestyle motocross/rally star Travis Pastrana would soon announce a deal with Michael Waltrip Racing to attempt some sort of NASCAR event. Waltrip coyly tweeted a few vague Pastrana messages later in the night and rally sources told me that something would be announced within a week. A source at Red Bull, which would seemingly have been the outlet for Pastrana's eventual NASCAR dalliance, considering their five-year relationship and the fact the energy drink company owns and sponsors a two-car Sprint Cup team, claimed no knowledge of the possible deal on Monday.<br />
Bottom line, however, is whatever NASCAR endeavor Pastrana undertakes is not likely a precursor to a full-time switch to stock cars. A rally racing zealot who still competes in the X Games, stars in action movies and is trying to get a screenplay financed for a film, Pastrana told me in September he is not interested in being constricted into a 36-week NASCAR schedule. He is quite interested, however, in eventually attempting to qualify for the Daytona 500, because, "as an American, that's something you need to do."<br />
Pastrana's NASCAR ambitions are all about the bucket list.<br />
"I'd love to try everything," the 27-year-old said. "That's the cool thing about Red Bull is I kind of have that at my fingertips to try different stuff. I ran Baja (the 1000, on a motorcycle), but I'd like to run the car sometime just to see how it is. I'd like to do enough NASCAR to maybe do a Daytona. I haven't tested with Red Bull or anything. Rally is way more exciting than NASCAR will ever be, but just to have the opportunity, to have a bucket list kind of thing, my bucket list is going to be pretty epic. I am pretty excited about it."<br />
That list includes:<br />
"The biggest thing was always winning a 250 supercross championship. That'll never happen. ... Climb Mt. Everest. Still maybe. Race Daytona, win a rallycross championship, win a motocross championship, win Motocross of Nations, jump out of a plane without a parachute. Check. About three quarters of my list as a kid is checked off, but I still have a quite a bit to do. I'd love to win Monster Jam World Finals."Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-79207392828676041982010-10-06T11:22:00.002-04:002010-10-06T11:24:27.399-04:00From the vault: When Gillett’s lofty ambitions turned to NASCAR<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">By BRANT JAMES</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 8pt;">St. Petersburg Times (Aug. 4, 2007)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">All Pete Rozelle could do was so say no. The worst would be hanging up on a daring 27-year-old looking for a new direction. But he didn't, thinking that this George Gillett Jr., founder of a successful software enterprise and very recently formerly of a Chicago-based marketing firm, was of the Gillette - as in razor empire - family.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I said, "Do you have a pro football team for sale?' " Gillett recalled of his seminal 1966 cold call to the then-NFL commissioner. "He said, 'No, but I've got part of the Miami Dolphins you could buy.' ... They say the rest is history."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Forty years later, Gillett's empire (worth an estimated $250-million in 2006) includes the NHL's Montreal Canadiens, part of the English Premier League's Liverpool Football Club, several ski resorts, nearly 30 car dealerships and several organic foods companies. On Monday he will add a NASCAR team to his portfolio, buying a majority interest in Evernham Motorsports, which fields three Nextel Cup entries and a Busch Series program. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Gillett, 68, an elusive but affable Midwesterner, has marked his career by taking chances on known commodities in need of a new approach. The expansion Dolphins' season-ticket base mushroomed with him as a minority partner as the team drafted the likes of Bob Griese and built the foundation for a championship in 1973, though Gillett had by then sold his share.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Gillett's knack for marketing player personalities helped make the Harlem Globetrotters a national draw. He sold the team in 1976 and used some of the proceeds to buy Green Bay's Packerland and its inventory of poorly marbled dairy cattle. He made a fortune, convincing consumers to buy his "lean beef," an unheard of notion at the time. A reported billionaire by 50, he declared bankruptcy in the mid '90s, but came back partnering in a company that made Lunchables a school lunch staple.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Gillett, often assumed to be a French-Canadian because of his last name and his hockey team, became the first non-Canadian owner of the NHL's Canadiens in 2001. This year, he and Texas Rangers/Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks partnered to buy perennial soccer power Liverpool for about $430-million and plan to erect a $400-million stadium.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Gillett didn't try to reinvent hockey or soccer in places where they are holy, and he said he knows better than trying to fake his way through motorsports with partner Ray Evernham, though he is a fan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"It's fair to say Ray's primary emphasis and time commitment will be on the racing side," he said. "The key for us is that there's some things that we know and some things that we don't, and I'm not going to tell you we know anything about pro football drafting any more than I know how to make a car go fast. What we do is we concentrate on the things we do well, which is take care of the customer or the fan base."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Gillett's interest in racing shouldn't be lumped with a spate of recent NASCAR mergers and partnerships: Red Sox owner John Henry and Roush Racing, Newman/Haas/Lanigan and Robert Yates Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Ginn Racing. A self-described "best crasher in history," Gillett and buddies raced their personal cars at Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin as younger men; he sponsored late Midwest legend Larry Detjens and co-sponsored the car Buddy Lazier used to win the 1996 Indianapolis 500.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">He has close ties to the France family that founded and runs NASCAR. When in need of a racing metaphor, he conjures vintage names that come from years of interest, not quick study. And he already carps about other drivers running into Evernham cars.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Papa and Mama (France) and I knew each other pretty well and we talked about doing something as late as 1976, doing something in and around NASCAR," Gillett said. "Three and a half years ago we started actively looking at making an investment or being a partner in NASCAR, but we weren't interested in just coming in and bringing money."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Dean Bonham, of Denver-based Bonham Group sports marketing group, called Gillett "one of the most interesting personalities in the business of sports" after assisting on a failed bid to buy the NBA's Nuggets, the NHL's Avalanche and the Pepsi Center in 2000.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"Nothing keeps him down for long," he told ColoradoBiz magazine. "He's as passionate and enthusiastic about the business of sports as anyone I've met in my career. I think he was disappointed, but it was on to bigger and better things once the deal didn't go through."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">An intermediary introduced Gillett to Evernham, who won three championships as crew chief for Jeff Gordon. But as an owner, his team had bogged down in recent seasons. Evernham complained this spring that he would need 50 more employees to compete with resourceful megateams such as Hendrick Motorsports. Negotiations intensified five months ago and his immediate personal connection with Gillett may have signaled in what he called "the cavalry."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"We've become friends. But again, it's a big business proposition, and it has to work good for everybody," Evernham said. "I want to win the Cup. I don't care if I have 100 percent or 1 percent (ownership). My goal when I started this thing was to win the Cup and I am going to do whatever it takes to do that."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Kasey Kahne won six of the eighth-year organization's 13 Cup races when he finished eighth in points in 2006. The team hasn't won since and Kahne (28th in points), Elliott Sadler (22nd) and Scott Riggs (23rd) are well out of Chase for the Championship contention. Aerodynamics issues with the new Charger have bedeviled the team the past two years and more employees would help. Evernham is getting divorced, and Jeremy Mayfield, fired by the team last year, said in a civil suit that Evernham had neglected the team as he focused on developmental driver Erin Crocker. Gillett said he had not known about the relationship.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"What's happened with Ray, is he's obviously been distracted the last year, year and a half of his life," Gillett said. "He's not been able to devote as much as time to the racing side. The business side and personal matters have distracted him, and while he's very good at business, it's not something he enjoys that much and he doesn't have the same level of superiority - at least he doesn't think he does - that he does on the racing side."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Gillett and Evernham are both partners and friends. (They had a half-serious bet to drop their pants at the start/finish line at Indianapolis if Everhman's cars did not perform well, but both thought better of it, Gillett laughed.) But both are in this deal to further their own ambitions and advance the whole.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"He loves to kid and he loved to be kidded," Gillett said of Evernham. "And my style and my son's (Geordie's) style is we're very open and no one is immune from comments, kidding or criticism. When we discovered Ray was self-deprecating in terms of his recent performance, that he had a great sense of humor, that was really what sold us. We'd already done enough investigation to know that he is an absolute genius at making cars go fast. That was never a question.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"The question was, would he have a sense of humor? ... Because there's no way - unless your name was Richard Petty or Fonty Flock or Marshall Teague, one of the early guys when you could get winning streaks going - but in the new NASCAR, it's significantly more competitive and a lot more even. So you're not going to win every week, so you've got to be able to laugh every week, don't you think?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">That might have just gotten a lot easier at Evernham Motorsports.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Read the full Gillett interview at http://blogs.tampabay.com/racing/</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Fast facts (circa Aug. 4, 2007)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">George Gillett Jr.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Age: 68</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Hometown: Racine, Wis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Net worth: Approximately $250-million (2006).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">What he owns: Coleman, the largest supplier of meat and processed meats in the organic industry; Wheat, Montana, comprised of organic farms, flour mills, bakeries and delicatessens; seven ski resorts; nearly 30 car dealerships; the Montreal Canadiens (NHL) and their home, the Bell Centre (since Jan. 31, 2001); this year he bought interest (with Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks) in Liverpool Football Club (English Premier League).</span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-64390037768760906382010-09-24T00:14:00.001-04:002010-09-24T00:15:09.061-04:00From the vault: A.J. Foyt 10, Grim Reaper 0(AUGUST 3, 2007) - A.J. Foyt remains hard to kill. But the 72-year-old Texan, one of the greatest drivers ever, had another close call on Thursday in Waller, Texas.<br />
“I came awful close this time,” he said. “It scared me.”<br />
Foyt, working dirt on a bank, plunged sideways into a lake on a 35,000-pound bulldozer when the earth collapsed. <br />
“It was such a helpless feeling when that dirt broke away and I was going down and down,” said Foyt, who estimated the bulldozer dropped upside down into the lake about 15 feet. <br />
“The dozer had a steel cage on it which probably saved my life,” said Foyt, “because without it, the dozer would have crushed me. But the cage also made it hard to escape. I had to crawl through the front of it and it was hard to do under water with all my clothes on and with my bum legs and all. I’ll be honest, I was panicked a little bit. <br />
“If I hadn’t made it to the top of the dozer, they would never have found me because it was completely under water. I didn’t want to swim to the bank ‘cause it was covered in vines and steep and I was already out of breath from getting out of the dozer. I knew I’d get too tired trying to haul my big butt outta there. But as I was calling for help, I saw a water moccasin [snake] swim by. I started splashing like hell then. After about 15 minutes someone heard me and stopped to help.” <br />
Foyt refused medical treatment and spent the next four hours trying to extracate the bulldozer, according to a team release. Three wreckers were needed to pull it out.<br />
“There’s never a dull moment in my life,” said Foyt in the understatement of the century. <br />
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Some of Foyt’s other brushes with the great beyond:<br />
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January, 1950 – Foyt nearly drowned when his boat capsized outside of Galveston; he clung to a buoy for nearly eight hours before being rescued. Foyt had put a lifejacket on earlier because he’d been cold. His buddy didn’t and drowned on his 16th birthday.<br />
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January, 1965 – He flipped down an embankment in turn nine at Riverside (CA) Raceway when the brakes failed on the Nascar stock car he was driving. The track doctor pronounced him dead at the scene but fellow driver Parnelli Jones noticed movement and scooped the dirt from Foyt’s mouth that had been suffocating him. He sustained a bruised aorta and broken back among other injuries.<br />
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June, 1966 – He became trapped in his burning rear-engine Lotus Indy car when it hit the wall at Milwaukee in practice. Suffered second and third degree burns.<br />
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Circa 1968 – He was attacked by a lion in the infield at the fairground speedway in DuQuoin, Ill. The lion, on display while race cars qualified, broke away from its stake in the ground and lunged at onlooker Foyt, taking him down. Foyt was bruised and badly scratched. Foyt raced later that day but had to change into a different uniform after the lion inflicted multiple lacerations.<br />
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May, 1972 – He was run over by his own race car when he jumped out of it during a refueling stop at DuQuoin Fairgrounds because the car caught fire. He sustained burns, plus a broken leg and ankle.<br />
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July, 1981 – He nearly lost his right arm to the Armco guardrail in an Indy car crash at Michigan Speedway. He spent the autumn painting miles of fencing on his ranch as his therapy for the badly broken arm.<br />
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July, 1983 – He crashed his stock car in practice at Daytona but won the Paul Revere 250 sports car race later that night. Woke up the next morning and could barely move—he’d broken two vertebra in his crash the day before.<br />
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September, 1990 – He sailed off the mile-long straightaway at Elkhart Lake, WI’s Road America when his brakes failed. His car crashed into a dirt embankment, missing a huge rock boulder by about two feet. He sustained severe injuries to his lower legs and feet from which he still suffers.<br />
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August, 2005 – He was attacked by a swarm of Africanized Killer Bees while clearing land in Hempstead, TX. Sustained over 200 stingers in his head and went into systemic shock but refused to go to the hospital.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">From August 3, 2007 Lug Nuts blog item, St. Petersburg Times</span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-12519329147668958182010-09-23T11:43:00.001-04:002010-09-23T16:09:25.061-04:00First photograhic evidence of illegal modification to Clint Bowyer's race car<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhFEDc2Qhz1yeXF11Xb-nSAr90-Iko3XrxYfwZmssBftXjHXHfnQgj3ZkGYrJOPU_-KAUa5do6DDTiFFy1MoJ_er_9rXj7kkDhyzphu5VLaZ9c61GHSjvQKyEeHwH2WmAXpsTWQM_Pcrd/s1600/bowyer.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" px="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhFEDc2Qhz1yeXF11Xb-nSAr90-Iko3XrxYfwZmssBftXjHXHfnQgj3ZkGYrJOPU_-KAUa5do6DDTiFFy1MoJ_er_9rXj7kkDhyzphu5VLaZ9c61GHSjvQKyEeHwH2WmAXpsTWQM_Pcrd/s400/bowyer.bmp" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Finally, an excuse to use this picture again. Couldn't she have pushed away the wrecker and the other drivers bumping him?</div>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-79342681889406849462010-09-12T12:38:00.134-04:002010-09-13T14:56:39.816-04:00Travis Pastrana, Mt. Washington and me<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_cConskbz2hiLsZ5mYGGKTGLlAvsNWmjm5kfXTyyDMZkED__BTjIcs42tOqTfyZOsU0zHNJoc84kU3U9DMGRxnAcb-ddU-8rlzvyfz9MX_K5_BtDW_YVBrlhn-PQYDnRLj49N6MaSNAD/s1600/IMG00344.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz_cConskbz2hiLsZ5mYGGKTGLlAvsNWmjm5kfXTyyDMZkED__BTjIcs42tOqTfyZOsU0zHNJoc84kU3U9DMGRxnAcb-ddU-8rlzvyfz9MX_K5_BtDW_YVBrlhn-PQYDnRLj49N6MaSNAD/s400/IMG00344.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's some video from last week when I was allowed behind the scenes as Travis Pastrana tested a Vermont SportsCar Subaru up the 6,288-foot high, 7.6-mile-long Mt. Washington Auto Road outside Gorham, N.H. The highlight of the first day was a ride up the 149-year-old, twisting, undulating, edge-of-the-face-of-God road with Pastrana in a street car. I won't lie. I watch Nitro Circus, and I was therefore a little apprehensive. The two-page waiver didn't didn't alleviate any of the concern. But it was a great experience. Keep checking SI.com for the Pastrana profile I am eagerly working on since returning.</div><br />
As for the video. This was done with a Flip right out of the box, while trying to maintain conversation, see everything with my own eyes and sort-of poke at an interview at 50-plus mph on a road fit for goat herds. So please excuse the amateurish lack of quality in these snippets.<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzTMEjx13Alx29c-Ps9hrYHQ4nfNmrgAb8PwoXPvNRsGEKQ3OkoLOtaSclZCbgQm8UtGazWdvmSblWxenzXsA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Base of the mountain on Tuesday. The road had not yet been closed to the public as we started up.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzJRNoMdbKN9uilcopkh2BOJJ8Mn9QQxjdzTS5MvJoNDFU1mLJ2yaCcj-esqZNg2Eugh1lh_rhSSAM_FpTqoQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">And up ...</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxHr3NnBZkyIeLUsifdK8xrMaW2abT9P_tlBCHTFejI2h90_TC1PhmZBEwiecPpsDW3M0YB09m40TnXAfoZRg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Check out that first step.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dySyps5tNGmyTohTJr46Huv2DUsrewn9ZglUrRUFgiOEa23iTfRktKlrkef9xJqnfHMdYztoFWKNYptliZJtQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Off the asphalt and onto the 15-percent of the road still unpaved. The sensation of speed is amazing here.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxpSwBVgdxQ8zBBBSc_D2EN1Ff7MXiJi-Ay1RAz8iJFASL7Gs7Wr8znYNIO9KSN8HruOit-ttILB9ANOxEr3A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">The road never ends. Pure exhiliration as we continue nearer the summit and the finish line near the weather observatory.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw6zrC_OIOPlbdke9zsacAtCt01NFzKNOXAC6B1zOl4WkYrX03KMe7BKh26ViMIZ3gZlZ3TInEnjuAhpzMqDQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">I mention to Pastrana just before this clip begins that it appears a nuclear bomb has been detonated at the summit, as the vegetation has been replaced by fields of granite boulders. Co-driver Marshall Clarke had apparently said the same thing earlier. I'm a trained observer.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxGrTmnyE5W_1GfAEiJ1LHYfnkWvRnlv1UySmKwrw00gm35DIBbXGqlN8Cf66wq5xsbMNh6YJB1Ua9pGFwRUw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Still going. ... </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxgCtyWWZKAQaoBFL7_EQv3IyNVdZNuTksVslfg28PZjncpdS17U7v7_xexutgd4PWxxp7uEtKbo_hB2DSV8g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Big finale.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz8HUuFGIsllQOzHXI7qh75CasIoLdOnJw8xUDqwtMyrmxt3NDC7jzhGm1QNgcOyQcSPQyvybqpNMvfR1blaQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">And into the parking lot at the summit.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwSmu-W9c3a2w_I1qT0w-DJ5A4n6879WbrqgXZGw0p7z55dI8gtnqgdBe3CNMThJB76zPe1DNbjd9KiMrUwQA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">Standing atop a pile of rocks at the summit.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxRrkwQjuqS0Ast0PoeMe8X1dMmpnEG4pTGzbPZ7naKVl0zP7Gzlmze0YDCyEPo8rAnszQ3o40mPtd2SjVuFg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw-ZMCjc8F6iExpvAtqfPRSoxMgJjaAEloiTMiFSmbV25uoGGjkeToDUoATMqoffqtEBdPYha9yVEW8wPlO' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">A pseudo 360-degree panorama just as Pastrana begins a brief photo session with the marker atop the mountain. I've seen the proofs. A very cool shot came out of that one.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZI4i7qqnqNVtKgWHQ-FYu7r904cZkeeSd9Mat7Yhyphenhyphenlw0Ufijew9mpriOFNkFcth8NY8kDH1iaAHU49fl94WWzq1giv0Yu4U3nqq905xTzEMQei2gmHLupGbkfTp8R7i8tA9Y-rwVqSk8D/s1600/IMG00353.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZI4i7qqnqNVtKgWHQ-FYu7r904cZkeeSd9Mat7Yhyphenhyphenlw0Ufijew9mpriOFNkFcth8NY8kDH1iaAHU49fl94WWzq1giv0Yu4U3nqq905xTzEMQei2gmHLupGbkfTp8R7i8tA9Y-rwVqSk8D/s640/IMG00353.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rally cars have license plates.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjswvgJg3rPkpV2_645TztIyJ9fvGMl5yhe5todswbD1l6T50GXxn792rprgbMYfRoOxHEVATttcZuL0zS2YnCj1fVgGUD0f6uOkHlfZJH8Ev-DzvvMmGo6FQrcgxNToI5ctgux04b2m2S6/s1600/IMG00349.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="484" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjswvgJg3rPkpV2_645TztIyJ9fvGMl5yhe5todswbD1l6T50GXxn792rprgbMYfRoOxHEVATttcZuL0zS2YnCj1fVgGUD0f6uOkHlfZJH8Ev-DzvvMmGo6FQrcgxNToI5ctgux04b2m2S6/s640/IMG00349.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty self-explanatory.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzX5-3yCbZ61P0kvgE6WtDb14rQtFxiXTlwccWyfdybwOWu4rf0XC4G9lExgjU-pKd9zGI0vumhf12ESFM4vQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe> The next morning, Pastrana smashed the record for quickest trip up the mountain, covering the course in 6 minutes, 20 seconds and .47 hundreds on his first attempt in this car. He averaged 72 mph. Fifty had seemed like light speed the previous day. Amazing. The previous record of 6:41.9 was set by Canadian Frank Sprongl in 1998. He and co-driver Marshall Clarke were unable to attempt any further full runs as clouds and fog socked in the summit.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpyItJUsRkC0cyDMjwTrs9yifjbDfMecn9y2Or-gxhX5kbkivyE6eoVt0sVg4CiVtnpjiD8BxRoCiE3nZyGAPGhRolk0lhkr5glfmJ-TfW6CGH_Eju53naddCU_j4P2ipjh78bHoDsGMr/s1600/IMG00336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpyItJUsRkC0cyDMjwTrs9yifjbDfMecn9y2Or-gxhX5kbkivyE6eoVt0sVg4CiVtnpjiD8BxRoCiE3nZyGAPGhRolk0lhkr5glfmJ-TfW6CGH_Eju53naddCU_j4P2ipjh78bHoDsGMr/s640/IMG00336.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXW3QaN2DcZObrJGe1NkIrq2IAtxsaEVJo3es_tnyp54TNce404Zdpzt1VDkm5Gj436vO2os54rUutfTuIs42snwfkoCjNxIXkwaOzEomBbj525X7L6A0koWqwM-fC2aNUu_shUBgIGRP9/s1600/IMG00357+00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXW3QaN2DcZObrJGe1NkIrq2IAtxsaEVJo3es_tnyp54TNce404Zdpzt1VDkm5Gj436vO2os54rUutfTuIs42snwfkoCjNxIXkwaOzEomBbj525X7L6A0koWqwM-fC2aNUu_shUBgIGRP9/s640/IMG00357+00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-36986170313730268832010-08-18T16:41:00.000-04:002010-08-18T16:41:04.850-04:002011 NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide, truck series schedules<b><u>2011 NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SCHEDULE</u></b><br />
<br />
Feb. 12 Daytona International Speedway (Budweiser Shootout At Daytona *)<br />
Feb. 13 Daytona 500 Qualifying<br />
Feb. 20 Daytona International Speedway <br />
Feb. 27 Phoenix International Raceway <br />
March 6 Las Vegas Motor Speedway<br />
March 20 Bristol Motor Speedway<br />
March 27 Auto Club Speedway <br />
April 3 Martinsville Speedway<br />
April 9 Texas Motor Speedway<br />
April 17 Talladega Superspeedway<br />
April 30 Richmond International Raceway<br />
May 7 Darlington Raceway<br />
May 15 Dover International Speedway<br />
May 21 Charlotte Motor Speedway (NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race *)<br />
May 29 Charlotte Motor Speedway<br />
June 5 Kansas Speedway <br />
June 12 Pocono Raceway <br />
June 19 Michigan International Speedway <br />
June 26 Infineon Raceway <br />
July 2 Daytona International Speedway<br />
July 9 Kentucky Speedway <br />
July 17 New Hampshire Motor Speedway <br />
July 31 Indianapolis Motor Speedway<br />
Aug. 7 Pocono Raceway<br />
Aug. 14 Watkins Glen International<br />
Aug. 21 Michigan International Speedway<br />
Aug. 27 Bristol Motor Speedway<br />
Sept. 4 Atlanta Motor Speedway<br />
Sept. 10 Richmond International Raceway<br />
Sept. 18 Chicagoland Speedway <br />
Sept. 25 New Hampshire Motor Speedway <br />
Oct. 2 Dover International Speedway <br />
Oct. 9 Kansas Speedway<br />
Oct. 15 Charlotte Motor Speedway<br />
Oct. 23 Talladega Superspeedway <br />
Oct. 30 Martinsville Speedway<br />
Nov. 6 Texas Motor Speedway<br />
Nov. 13 Phoenix International Raceway<br />
Nov. 20 Homestead-Miami Speedway<br />
* – Denotes non-point event.<br />
<br />
<strong><u>2011 NASCAR NATIOWIDE SERIES SCHEDULE</u></strong><br />
<br />
Feb. 19 Daytona International Speedway<br />
Feb. 26 Phoenix International Raceway<br />
March 5 Las Vegas Motor Speedway<br />
March 19 Bristol Motor Speedway<br />
March 26 Auto Club Speedway<br />
April 8 Texas Motor Speedway<br />
April 16 Talladega Superspeedway <br />
April 23 Nashville Superspeedway<br />
April 29 Richmond International Raceway<br />
May 6 Darlington Raceway<br />
May 14 Dover International Speedway<br />
May 22 Iowa Speedway<br />
May 28 Charlotte Motor Speedway<br />
June 4 Chicagoland Speedway<br />
June 18 Michigan International Speedway<br />
June 25 Road America<br />
July 1 Daytona International Speedway<br />
July 8 Kentucky Speedway<br />
July 16 New Hampshire Motor Speedway<br />
July 23 Nashville Superspeedway<br />
July 30 O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis<br />
Aug. 6 Iowa Speedway<br />
Aug. 13 Watkins Glen International<br />
Aug. 20 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal<br />
Aug. 26 Bristol Motor Speedway<br />
Sept. 3 Atlanta Motor Speedway<br />
Sept. 9 Richmond International Raceway<br />
Sept. 17 Chicagoland Speedway<br />
Oct. 1 Dover International Speedway<br />
Oct. 8 Kansas Speedway<br />
Oct. 14 Charlotte Motor Speedway<br />
Nov. 5 Texas Motor Speedway<br />
Nov. 12 Phoenix International Raceway<br />
Nov. 19 Homestead-Miami Speedway<br />
<br />
<strong><u>2011 NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES SCHEDULE</u></strong><br />
<br />
Feb. 18 Daytona International Speedway<br />
Feb. 25 Phoenix International Raceway<br />
March 12 Darlington Raceway<br />
April 2 Martinsville Speedway<br />
April 22 Nashville Superspeedway<br />
May 13 Dover International Speedway<br />
May 20 Charlotte Motor Speedway<br />
June 4 Kansas Speedway<br />
June 10 Texas Motor Speedway<br />
July 16 Iowa Speedway<br />
July 22 Nashville Superspeedway<br />
July 29 O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis<br />
Aug. 6 Pocono Raceway<br />
Aug. 20 Michigan International Speedway<br />
Aug. 24 Bristol Motor Speedway<br />
Sept. 2 Atlanta Motor Speedway<br />
Sept. 16 Chicagoland Speedway<br />
Sept. 24 New Hampshire Motor Speedway<br />
Oct. 1 Kentucky Speedway<br />
Oct. 15 Las Vegas Motor Speedway<br />
Oct. 22 Talladega Superspeedway<br />
Oct. 29 Martinsville Speedway<br />
Nov. 4 Texas Motor Speedway<br />
Nov. 18 Homestead-Miami SpeedwayBrant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-48321897803097930922010-08-17T16:13:00.002-04:002010-08-17T16:14:54.968-04:00Pull up a chair<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/f0BdMDhtYfg?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/f0BdMDhtYfg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<span xmlns=""></span><br />
Too bad NASCAR chairman Brian France and Izod IndyCar series counterpart Randy Bernard aren't scheduled to actually appear together at tonight's Texas Motor Speedway 2011 schedule bash until a post-ceremony photo opportunity. We're not looking for the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate – lip sweat notwithstanding – but two directors chairs and some lively banter from the leaders of North American racing's preeminent series could have been entertaining and informative. France and Bernard are acquaintances, anyway, so there should have been no formalities, maybe even a little playfulness – if allowed – over the wow-factor of each series' announcement tonight.<br />
Night racing in April? Yeah, whatever. <a href="http://brantjames.blogspot.com/2010/08/care-for-another-duals-unusual-but-not.html">We're racing twice in a day</a>!<br />
But alas, just a photo op. Too bad.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-21803145116836366282010-08-13T13:54:00.001-04:002010-08-13T13:54:44.234-04:00Excerpt from Sept. 23, 2009 SportsIllustrated.com Chitwood bit<span xmlns=''><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'><strong>Joie Chitwood</strong>'s biggest leap of faith continues to benefit the IRL, even after he made another and left for a new job this summer.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>As NASCAR's Chase ramps up toward what may or not be a climactic finish on Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the IRL's season will culminate at the same track in two weeks with three drivers within a nose piece of a title.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>Defending series champion <strong>Scott Dixon</strong> leads 2007 champion <strong>Dario Franchitti</strong> by five points and <strong>Ryan Briscoe</strong> by eight.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>The race virtually assures another close points finish, a hallmark of the simple system the IRL has employed -- with a few adjustments -- since its formative days in 1996. And it all started with Chitwood auditing a race result.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>*****<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>Chitwood wasn't sure he'd made a prudent decision. He'd grown up riding stunt bikes in his Tampa family's traveling daredevil show, broken away on his own to finish an MBA, and here he was lugging boxes full of medical supplies for this start-up racing circuit at a makeshift track at Walt Disney World in 1996.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>"I get hired for three months to help out at Disney World Speedway. I'm carrying TVs, all kinds of stuff," he said. "I'd just graduated with a finance degree. I'm thinking, 'My wife is going to kill me. This is not what I signed up for.'"<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>The gamble eventually proved worthwhile. The IRL prevailed in the bitter but equally destructive civil war with Champ Car, and Chitwood rose from an administrative head -- "I was in charge of entry blanks, credentials, prize-winning, insurance, everything you didn't have enough of " -- to the presidency of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>It was more than a name plate on a desk for a man who had "been to every track in the country" as part of his family's show. His grandfather, and namesake, had contested seven Indianapolis 500s from 1940 to '50, finishing fifth three times. He felt a kinship with the place and what was a restoration project for its image and national relevance.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>His departure in August -- to become vice president for business operations with International Speedway Corporation -- removes another set of hands that helped hold the fledgling circuit together. But he's left a few things behind, among the most important, the simple, yet fair scoring system that has produced several compelling championship battles in recent years.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>And to think it all began when he used his finance degree to work while vetting a USAC points report in the league's second season.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>"After the Phoenix race, I'm kind of putting together what the prize money should be and I catch a mistake with the USAC points after the race that no one else caught. And I'm a little bit like, 'What if I do it, and it's wrong, it's going to affect how you pay out prize money'," Chitwood recalled. "So I kind of write out a little memo trying to be politically correct, but basically catch a mistake."<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>Indy Racing League officials decided to form their own sanctioning body before the 1997 season and Chitwood was tasked with Speedway historian <strong>Donald Davidson</strong> to concoct an original system for awarding points for race finishes. They tinkered with the USAC model, applied some ideas to the results of past CART seasons.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>"So we took the last year and started running some things and came up with 50 to win, 40, 35, 32, then down by a point, and that's how we did it, basically," Chitwood remembered. "But it wasn't like we just did it. We looked at some other models, at what other people were doing and came up with something that seemed to make sense. You have a benefit for winning, but fifth place wasn't a detriment and it seems like it worked out well."<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>Very well. Since 2006, the eventual champion has won by fewer than 17 points. <strong>Sam Hornish Jr.</strong> won his third title in 2006 on a tiebreaker when he and defending series champion<strong> Dan Wheldon</strong> tied atop the standings. Franchitti won by 13 points, Dixon by 17. There have been two ties since 1996.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>All of which greatly pleases IRL president of competition <strong>Brian Barnhart</strong>, for whom there is beauty -- and validation -- in simplicity for a series that brandishes both in its constant struggle for viability against NASCAR.<br /></span></p><p><span style='color:black; font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'>"It was well thought out, because it balances out the emphasis on winning and it rewards some consistency and it plays out very well," he said. "And I think our points battles over the past several years have certainly validated our points system, and we don't need to do anything to contrive competition or reseed or do anything in terms of artificially trying to create excitement. It's not to say someone can't come in and dominate. They can, but we've been very fortunate the sport has been exciting and on the edge the last couple years, and we've come down to the last race."<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Verdana; font-size:12pt'><span style='color:black'><br/><br/>Read more: <a href='http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/brant_james/09/23/tony.stewart/index.html'/></span><span style='color:#003399'>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/brant_james/09/23/tony.stewart/index.html#ixzz0wVfCZuHR</span><span style='color:black'><br /> </span></span></p></span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-28227103030291205452010-08-13T13:49:00.001-04:002010-08-13T13:49:12.345-04:00Chitwood has come from Tampa stunt shows to run American racing’s two biggest arenas<span xmlns=''><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><span style='font-size:16pt'>(2005 article from when Chitwood was in his second year as president and CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway)</span><br /> </span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><strong>BYLINE: <span style='color:#cc0033'>BRANT JAMES<br /></span></strong></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><span style='color:#cc0033'><strong>St. Petersburg Times, 2005</strong></span><br /> </span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>Joie Chitwood admits his 36 years have been unusual. Born into a family that barnstormed the country for four decades as the stunt-driving Chitwood Thrill Show, a staple of state fairs and dragstrips, Chitwood grew up in Tampa, attended Jesuit High School and went on to earn a bachelor's degree at the University of Florida and an MBA at USF.<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>Daring to think big, and yearning to use his education to return to his family roots in racing (his grandfather raced seven Indy 500s from 1940-50), he applied for jobs at just two places when he finished school: Daytona International Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>Hired by Indy Racing League founder Tony George to help open a speedway at Walt Disney World in 1996, Chitwood has climbed the company's ranks until being named president and chief operating officer of IMS last year. <br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>It has been a long journey from the go-cart he drove in the family show as a 5-year-old. This week, Times auto racing writer Brant James talked with Chitwood about his memorable life and career.<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><br /> <strong><em>How did the family come to be the Chitwood Thrill Show?<br /></em></strong></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'> My grandfather (also Joie Chitwood) was a race car driver, raced in the '40s. During World War II, racing was outlawed. There was a gentleman out there that ran a stunt show and his name was "Lucky" Teeter. He died performing a stunt in a show, and his widow went to my grandfather and asked if he would help her sell the show. He was an out-of-work race car driver (so) he decides to buy the show. By 1950, the stunt show is barnstorming. He has shows going all over the United States at fairs and speedways, so he retires as a driver and becomes a full-time stunt man.<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>He had two boys, Joie Jr. and my uncle, Tim. I'm Joie III. At some point during the early '60s, my grandfather moved the family down to Florida. We need a place to work on the vehicles (during the winter) and being in Pennsylvania doesn't really work well when your schedule is May to October.<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><strong><em>What was your role in the show?<br /></em></strong></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>When I was 5 I started driving a go-cart. When I was 8 I started driving a mini-Indy. At age 12 I started driving a Chevette, and after that I started doing everything, whether it was standing on the side of the car when Dad was driving it on two wheels, or driving the car on two wheels, or performing reverse spins, or doing a 180.<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>You're the caretaker of a venue that millions of fans are passionate about, more like a Fenway Park than a normal speedway. What's that like?<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>I've run other racetracks and it's always about generating attention for your property. But here at Indy, if we do anything it's newsworthy, and if it were to occur at another track, no one may care. But whether we repave the track, or we grind the surface or we change a day or a schedule time, there's always a consequence. Is it going to cause this or that? People are very passionate about this place. They have great memories. They always talk about, "I remember when I saw (A.J.) Foyt win his fourth race" (or) "I was there when they broke 200 mph." And so that passion translates into attention.<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>What I probably enjoy most is (that) I feel like I have a connection to this place. Because my grandfather raced here - he finished fifth three times, he is credited with being the first man to wear a seat belt in the Indy 500 - there is that special connection. I feel like I have some history here, and it's not just a job for me.<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><strong><em>I would imagine there are some amazing perks to your job.<br /></em></strong></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>No. 1 is during the prerace activities. We typically drive some old cars around the track from the museum. One of my grandfather's race cars that he drove in 1946 is in the museum - it's called the Noc-Out Hose Clamp Special - and a couple of years ago I got to drive that around the track. So give or take 50 years of history, I'm driving around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the morning of an Indy 500 in a race car that my grandfather finished fifth. So that, by far, is the greatest of activities.<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>Will the U.S. Grand Prix Formula One race be back after the disaster this year (just six cars raced after tiremaker Michelin advised its seven entries that their tires would be unsafe without last-minute changes to the course)?<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>We've made a significant investment in that sport. With what it took to build the road course and Gasoline Alley suites and all the improvements to make it an FIA-acceptable road course, we made an investment that we're not looking to be over. But (we) have to make sure having (the event) here is good for us, the city of Indianapolis and the fans. Obviously, the quality of the last race wasn't up to anyone's expectations. We don't want it to go away, but we have to make the right decision for all involved, and right now we're trying to see if it's possible.<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><strong><em>Is it Indy or nowhere for U.S. venues?<br /></em></strong></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>My feeling is there is no other place than Indy where an F1 race could be successful in America. In terms of our property, our ability to hold fans, the history, the uniqueness, I don't think having an F1 race in Las Vegas or wherever would really match up to what we have here. So I think it really would be very tough to be successful anyplace else.<br /></span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'><strong><em>What do you most miss about Tampa?<br /></em></strong></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>So many things. Spanish food. I love Cuban sandwiches, deviled crab, stuffed potatoes, black beans, you name it. It's something Indianapolis doesn't have much of. I miss the water. I used to live five or six blocks from the water in South Tampa right near the WestShore mall. I miss the SEC. I always enjoyed that Tampa, although it's a good-sized town, it always felt like a small town to me. I always had that good feeling about it. My wife (the former Susan Garner) is a fourth-generation Floridian, from Arcadia, and they're quite rare, and she misses it very much.<br /></span></p><p><span style='font-family:Times New Roman'>I always miss it. I've always assumed at some point I will be back in Florida. I don't know when, but I would love to make it back there, whether my career here is over or whatever. But Tampa is still home to me.</span></p></span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-78744301927770965592010-08-11T18:16:00.002-04:002010-08-11T18:27:21.373-04:00Care for another? Duals unusual but not unprecedented for Indy car series historically<span xmlns=""></span><br />
The Izod IndyCar Series' running of dual same-day races at Texas Motor Speedway in 2011 would be new for the circuit in its current incarnation, but not unprecedented for major open wheel racing in North America. That said, it's still rare.<br />
USAC contested <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_USAC_Championship_Car_season">Twin 125s at Michigan in 1973</a> and <a href="http://www.racing-reference.info/raceyear/1979/R">CART did the same in 1979</a>. CART also held 125- and 126-mile duals at <a href="http://www.racing-reference.info/raceyear/1979/R">Atlanta in 1979</a> and <a href="http://www.racing-reference.info/race/1981_Kraco_Twin_125_1/R">1981</a>.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-66024373884250761392010-08-11T14:25:00.001-04:002010-08-11T14:25:40.194-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9Jnm_xe5gtLS9RxzdWRpwpeePUxD-Geywg5AiA8kwC2gZd_EVJOdP-D9uLbMGqj6P_FIsgXrUwXTIfPC9zb7921uOoQptGMN88h23lV8WmU4yt4wrAPM0njFX1FzgHxk3NTYSk9yI4V-/s1600/2008spgp.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" ox="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg9Jnm_xe5gtLS9RxzdWRpwpeePUxD-Geywg5AiA8kwC2gZd_EVJOdP-D9uLbMGqj6P_FIsgXrUwXTIfPC9zb7921uOoQptGMN88h23lV8WmU4yt4wrAPM0njFX1FzgHxk3NTYSk9yI4V-/s400/2008spgp.bmp" width="400" /></a></div>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-21622293535158396892010-08-10T18:31:00.002-04:002010-08-10T18:32:46.260-04:00Dodge finds Indy cars intriguing, but doesn’t want to date right now, says CEO Gilles<span xmlns=""></span><br />
CEO Ralph Gilles said on Tuesday that he "briefly looked into" the possibility of Dodge joining the Izod IndyCar Series in 2012 as one of at least two engine-providers, but added "right now, my focus is on NASCAR."<br />
Gilles said he "kind of met" with IICS officials at a recent race, and although he came away intrigued by the possible reach into new demographic base, he didn't sound eager to join Honda, the sole engine provider after Toyota and Chevrolet left the series after the 2005 season. Honda officials have expressed a desire to bring in other manufacturers, and league president of competition Brian Barnhart said in July that he and league officials planned domestic and foreign junkets to find them. Gilles isn't ready to commit.<br />
"It is kind of locked up with Honda right now," he said. "From actually studying that viewer base, it is quite different from Formula 1 and NASCAR. There is a unique viewer base there. It was intriguing, but it's a couple years out."<br />
Roger Penske, who fields the only Dodges in the Sprint Cup series, said he would welcome "other investments or other manufacturing opportunities," in the IICS, where he fields a three-car team. Dodge's parent company, Chrysler Group, is run by Fiat, which also controls long-time Formula One participant Ferrari.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-48764100339953271762010-08-09T12:53:00.002-04:002010-08-09T12:54:25.365-04:00NASCAR met with radio silence<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>BYLINE: <span style="color: #cc0033;">BRANT JAMES</span></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: x-small;">St. Petersburg Times (2005)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Line 1 wants to talk about how much Jason Schmidt could help the White Sox.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Line 2 has the Cubs on his mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Line 3: Bears.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Line 4: Bulls.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Line 5: Blackhawks. Slow day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Line 6: Anyone want to kick around whether Tony Stewart can win three in a row Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway? Anyone? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The phone banks at WMVP-AM didn't align exactly that way Thursday, three days before NASCAR makes its annual stop in its eighth-biggest television market, but they might as well have, said Jim Pastor, the general manager of the ESPN affiliate and Chicago's largest sports-talk outlet. Though NASCAR has made a push into larger, nontraditional markets and has done well on television, it has failed to make progress in the daily drone of sports-talk radio.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"We will bring it up more around the big races or when they are at the speedway, but we play the hits," Pastor said. "And ultimately, the listeners determine what the hits are."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">That indicates to NASCAR CEO Brian France that although viewership and interest continue to increase, stock car racing has failed to leach into the fabric of America's sporting consciousness. That's the last realm, it would appear, for NASCAR to conquer, and until it does, France seems bothered by what he hears. Or doesn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"That's one of the hot topics that occurs in my office every day," France said in a national teleconference. "Because, in fact, we are very undercovered for the size audience we have, not just in sports-talk radio."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">There is no disputing NASCAR's popularity on television. According to statistics provided by NASCAR, an average of 6.6-million households, a 9 percent increase from 2004, have tuned in to each race this season. Of the top five cities by households watching - Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Dallas and New York - only Atlanta is a traditional market. In Chicago it has 131,000 households per event (an 11 percent increase), but racing struggles to inspire commuters on the Dan Ryan Expressway and fans in South Wacker Drive cubicles to make the call.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"NASCAR has all sorts of statistics that show it does well on television in major markets, and the interest level is higher than it has ever been before, which is all legit," Pastor said. "But as far as creating a buzz and a presence on sports-talk radio, at least on this station, the thing I would need to remind NASCAR of is in major markets, it's not like in middle markets where if you are not the only game in town, you are the biggest game in town, and here you are competing with two baseball teams, the NFL and the NBA, with a fan base that has been in place a lot longer than NASCAR has. So it's not so much that the buzz is not there, it's just more that the collective buzz that surrounds Chicago, especially during the summer, is divided among any number of things."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">France understands that stock car racing is a new taste compared with baseball, football, basketball and hockey. NASCAR was first broadcast on national television in 1979 and was not a fixture until the 1990s.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"In fairness, relatively we've been at it for 50 years but America really discovered us just 10 years ago in a prolific way," France said. "That's going to take an awful lot of time for those not used to covering NASCAR to go, "Gee, this is an important thing.'</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"The other thing is, we have a big plus in that all of our races are national events, mega events. That's one other issue: We don't have home teams. So there is a tendency for publications and newspapers and radio affiliates to want to cover just what they think the hometown fan base wants to hear, which is the hometown teams."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Tampa, the fifth-best NASCAR television market last year, has slipped to sixth behind Dallas but has experienced a 10 percent increase to 138,000 households per race. This market's standing is impressive considering its metropolitan area population (2.4-million) is roughly half that of the smallest market (Atlanta, 4.2-million) in the top five.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">But even here, it's hard to strike up a NASCAR debate on radio, mostly, WDAE vice president of programming Brad Hardin said, because on-air personalities such as Steve Duemig, Dan Sileo, Ron Diaz and Ian Beckles are "not big NASCAR fans in general and it drives the topics and the direction they go in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I think that's why you don't hear a lot of those calls on the air, people are conditioned to thinking, "Steve Duemig isn't going to talk NASCAR, so I'm not going to call and ask him about it.' I think in WDAE that's something we need to beef up. I'm not happy with the amount of coverage of NASCAR we have now."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">WDAE airs a weekly NASCAR show syndicated to about 140 affiliates. Rob D'Amico, who produces the show in Tampa, said on-air talent in emerging markets is not "training the listeners."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"I think that's what Brian might have meant. A lot of guys in the business may not know enough about it to talk about it," he said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The chatter on MVP sways again to the White Sox as Nextel Cup drivers prepare to qualify an hour southwest in Joliet. It's tough to get a NASCAR word in edgewise with a first-place White Sox team, the beloved Cubs and Bears and playoff-qualifying Bulls soaking up the airwaves. Even the lowly Blackhawks hold sway.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">"It's below all of them," Pastor said of NASCAR. "It's at the bottom of all of them."</span>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-91604913828589046652010-07-27T14:12:00.002-04:002010-07-27T14:13:46.662-04:002007 story I wrote about snake oil salesmen and the lure of new money in motorsportsBYLINE: BRANT JAMES, Times Staff Writer<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">St. Petersburg Times (Florida)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">October 21, 2007 Sunday</span> <br />
<br />
<br />
The banner slowly circled Lowe's Motor Speedway behind a small plane, at first lost among the usual visual clutter of buy-this-support-that commercialism. It was free speech at low altitude.<br />
<br />
"How much does Bobby Ginn owe you?"<br />
<br />
NASCAR teams chase sponsorship dollars in an increasingly expensive sport and court outside investment to remain competitive. But the banner, flown last weekend, and the story behind it make for a cautionary tale. <br />
<br />
Well-funded businessmen such as George Gillett Jr. and John Henry, who bought majority stakes in Evernham Motorsports and Roush Racing, respectively, could be a lifeline. But owners or sponsors who replicate Ginn's experience could have a destabilizing effect on the core group of teams.<br />
<br />
"Even in this day of sanitized corporate involvement, there's still the wild card that comes in and self-destructs in 18 months," Peter De Lorenzo, an industry analyst and consultant who publishes Autoextremist.com, said of Ginn. "(NASCAR) doesn't do due diligence in that regard - certainly not enough."<br />
<br />
The citizens of Hilton Head, S.C., sported bumper stickers that read "Honk if Bobby Owes You" in 1987 after the home builder's leveraged buyout of vast holdings failed, laying waste not only to the real-estate market but service industry of the vacation playland.<br />
<br />
Now the 58-year-old head of a sprawling Celebration-based resort firm, Ginn re-created that maelstrom in microcosm after buying an 80 percent stake in MB2 Motorsports in 2006. He hired scores of employees, invested in expensive equipment, said all the right things about the long haul. But as debts mounted and he was unable to replace his resort empire as a rotating sponsor on his three-car Nextel Cup team, he laid off almost 100 employees and sold out to Dale Earnhardt Inc. in July, becoming a minority partner rarely seen at the track.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, his maneuver had the look of an investor buying a house on the cheap and flipping it, as DEI moved into Ginn Racing's larger shop as part of the transaction. Former drivers Sterling Marlin and Joe Nemechek have since sued for unpaid wages.<br />
<br />
Ginn representatives did not respond to requests for an interview.<br />
<br />
He wasn't the first to overestimate his wealth and potential. J.D. Stacy, a Kentucky coal baron who entered the sport in 1977, owned/sponsored a record seven cars in the 1982 Daytona 500. A year later he fled, with lawsuits and vitriolic debtors and owners in his wake.<br />
<br />
While bodies such as Major League Baseball and the National Football League control franchise sales and investigate ownership groups, NASCAR claims to yield to the free market.<br />
<br />
"NASCAR is open to any team that can show up to the track and get in the show," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. "Throughout our history some owners have succeeded and some have failed. Like most businesses, probably more have failed than succeeded"<br />
<br />
The new batch of owners appears sound. Besides Gillett and Henry, who according to the Boston Globe paid more than $50-million for 50 percent of Roush's outfit, British billionaire Robert Kauffman recently bought half of Michael Waltrip Racing, and Arizona Diamondbacks managing partner Jeff Moorad and chief operating officer Tom Garfinkel secured a controlling interest in Hall of Fame Racing. Richard Childress quietly began the trend when he added unnamed investors two years ago.<br />
<br />
Each investor has his reasons. Gillett and Henry were longtime fans, but even the most avid hobbyist likely wouldn't venture on a dalliance this expensive without the prospect of profit. Gillett, owner of the Montreal Canadiens and co-owner of Liverpool Football Club, sold the Harlem Globetrotters and a share of the Miami Dolphins when other opportunities interested him. The consolidation of teams and influx of outside investment make this a volatile time, De Lorenzo said, though he noted Gillett has the "deep pockets" to last.<br />
<br />
"It's great to have this infusion of money," De Lorenzo said. "But now it's $20-million to run a single front-line car for the season. ... Eventually there is going to be only a handful of teams and I think some of these people who come in, they're going to get over their head and they're going to spike salaries again and they're going to take a lot of people from their current situations and then implode."<br />
<br />
Veteran driver Kyle Petty, whose family team has raced in NASCAR since its inception, said "how race people are" has for years made owners vulnerable to snake oil salesmen and the traveling preacher show. Petty said a stranger with an ubiquitous old briefcase began showing up at races in 1988, boasting that he represented a company that wanted to invest $15-million to $20-million in a team.<br />
<br />
"A sponsorship was $2-million," Petty said. "Along the road (at Talladega) ... he had a motorhome parked there. You could sit there - I think (team owner) Eddie (Wood) and them went and talked to him - and he invited people out. Darrell (Waltrip) went out there. Everyone went out and talked to them. He came to about 10-12 races right in a row. You'd see him out to dinner with (team owner Robert) Yates, all kinds of people. The guy called the racetrack and got garage tickets and just happened to walk through there and tell people these stories and everybody bought it.<br />
<br />
"That's the way race people are. If they think anybody's got money, we're all hookers."<br />
<br />
Brant James can be reached at <a href="mailto:brantjameslives@gmail">brantjameslives@gmail</a>.Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1446438043065809748.post-2364618020043174282010-07-27T10:19:00.002-04:002010-07-27T13:11:00.046-04:00Still confirming if these are being posted in the garage at Pocono ... probably not<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEdunv7Aixabp79zNhyphenhyphenbx2Bb0VvNsIdgB6K-WCXZAEohtfih8SAlH_uMnYJ-8_KVnAAYNYAX419LQgF0KVC19LNmw4JNj26wKPwa8VuW9CQUJwUzwGLLtepwmjSZHcYDJ2GO1huSmLCZn/s1600/poster-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEdunv7Aixabp79zNhyphenhyphenbx2Bb0VvNsIdgB6K-WCXZAEohtfih8SAlH_uMnYJ-8_KVnAAYNYAX419LQgF0KVC19LNmw4JNj26wKPwa8VuW9CQUJwUzwGLLtepwmjSZHcYDJ2GO1huSmLCZn/s320/poster-01.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"You don't want to end up at the black site under North Wilkesboro Speedway, do you?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1938-GBw_OoOD-kXIvoTY2Tk337NKy012ljjtQhIGaL6hBXKMlreq4POFk1MWt7hJ53I6QAezXDaJXJIHRZst5W5VebIgHN3RED93n4Hl_eRPefSar-aJFne8CuQBmFFcQltvixV6hEn/s1600/propaganda_wwiii_00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1938-GBw_OoOD-kXIvoTY2Tk337NKy012ljjtQhIGaL6hBXKMlreq4POFk1MWt7hJ53I6QAezXDaJXJIHRZst5W5VebIgHN3RED93n4Hl_eRPefSar-aJFne8CuQBmFFcQltvixV6hEn/s320/propaganda_wwiii_00.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuxuES2Hv-D7nGlvvHgYphSCdHiylF9jhx9QjwxW5Rmu4_g3fA_JyALRavT5dXVhfoc59BSUiVPFlJ8WdPTVelT8a3_FcQGQqS2956Y1fdUm3rC4-BR3BWbZVJ5DlXZLfSitpOV1sftio/s1600/propaganda_quiet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuxuES2Hv-D7nGlvvHgYphSCdHiylF9jhx9QjwxW5Rmu4_g3fA_JyALRavT5dXVhfoc59BSUiVPFlJ8WdPTVelT8a3_FcQGQqS2956Y1fdUm3rC4-BR3BWbZVJ5DlXZLfSitpOV1sftio/s320/propaganda_quiet.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzG-EqphExNGyuo2zY1SnsIxTl3CVdbPdPG6m5vm7efDT31rjyEGo3F7PzPe3Rhy092V8D4DHCdKM8WHRTqqDl-0ZorJBVcadBoeZKE9VWEF7Cof8XHAZvuEeteOJZ074hrGuE_fhF4pil/s1600/vintage-war-propaganda-posters04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzG-EqphExNGyuo2zY1SnsIxTl3CVdbPdPG6m5vm7efDT31rjyEGo3F7PzPe3Rhy092V8D4DHCdKM8WHRTqqDl-0ZorJBVcadBoeZKE9VWEF7Cof8XHAZvuEeteOJZ074hrGuE_fhF4pil/s320/vintage-war-propaganda-posters04.jpg" /></a></div>Brant Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08633629382747044831noreply@blogger.com1