My son Jeff took me to the Chicagoland speedway yesterday for Richard Petty Nascar ride along. What a rush and I highly recommend this to any Nascar fan.
Unbelievable the doing this for 500 miles and I was along for just 3 laps.
The first picture is Jeff
The second is of myself
The last is Jeff and I after a nice morning I will never forget.
Stan
Upgrading the footings and columns that support a girder beam is an opportunity to level out the floor above.
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I gotta admit, the jealousy factor is up. Now you pretty much have everything I dream of owning. Especially the gyrocopter. I used to dream up all sorts of flying machines as a child. That was like 40 years ago.
And I was a Richard petty fan in the days of black and white TV (well at my house anyway). Coincidentally, I'm a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan too, and was a great fan of the intimidator Dale senior. He sure gotter done, he didn't get that nickname for no reason..
Type A personality, eh. Use it, and shake life like a dog with a rag doll.
I recall a journalist relating his experiences on a racetrack - how he'd cautiously driven around it at 55 mph...and then driven home along the freeway at 70mph! Hope you did better than that.
All the best...
To those who know - this may be obvious. To those who don't - I hope I've helped.
I have a buddy whose wife gave him a ride for a Christmas present. He went to the Texas speedwaay track near Dallas. He said he drove 3 laps with a bunch of other civilians, then he sat in the right seat while a qualified driver drove him in a demonstration with 5-6 other cars at seriuous speed. He said he watches the races on tv with a different perspective now.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I have always wondered...they say so and so drives a Chevy or Ford at the NASCAR events. From what I see on TV, the only thing that's either Chevy or Ford is the bow tie or blue oval while the rest of the car is fabricated in a shop unrelated to either Ford or Chevy. Motor is by Hendrix, body and frame are made somewhere else, drive train and rear end ?? and the only actual OEM part is ??? So you've gotten up close and personal, what did you see that was really Ford or Chevy beside the name? Were the lug nuts from the OEM?
aren't hoods, roofs and deck lids factory on nascar rides?
I'm not that familiar with roofs and lids on Nascar but correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't each competitor's car have to fit a certain prerace profile before they're alloyed to race? I've seen this big template that each car was suppose to fit before they allowed them to race, what's with that? How can they have stock parts from OEM if all the lids and roofs are required to fit the same profile? Personally I favor TOYOTA and guess what...Toyota is making it's entry into NASCAR in the next few years and if OEM parts are used, then GM and Ford can get set to really race or get out of the way. Oh that hurts!
There are actually a bunch of templates that the car is required to match, I think it's around two dozen. When a manufacturer like Toyota wants to enter a car they get with NASCAR and build a race car per the NASCAR rule book and using whatever stock parts are needed. They add front air dams, rear spoilers, side air dams, etc. and build a race car. NASCAR works with them in the wind tunnel to make sure the car is competitive in terms of aerodynamics with the other makes. Then a machine shop in Daytona starts making up sets of templates that all the cars have to match which are doled out to the NASCAR inspectors and individual teams. At the track all the cars go through tech inspection and the templates are used to make sure everyone's cars are the "approved" shape.Steve.
actually very little is "stock" only thing GM on a chevy is the block & heads same goes for ford... and they aren't production parts...(and toyota had to build a pushrod V8 that they don't and never will use in production so that they could race nascar) .... all brands use a rear end based on a 9" ford... but none of the parts came from a ford factory... some sheet metal skin is kinda factory... roofs hoods decklids... there are very strict templates for each manufacturer... but starting next year nascar is going to a "COT" car of tomorrow... where all sheet metal and bodywork for all cars will be the same... the decal trim grills & headlights might look like a ford, dodge, chevy or toyota... but they will all be the exact same...
in a former life I did the sports marketing and sponsor deals in nascar... i owed the showcar trailers & trucks...and put sponsor dollars and race teamstogether... worked on a pit crew in winston cup and busch... never with a huge team but we/they won some races and i got to live the life for a few years... met some of my childhood heros, AJ Foyt at the first brickyard 400, rode harleys across part of the country with richard & kyle petty when adam was just a kid in a sidecar...
p
It's been a while since I've watched a Nascar race, when exactly did Toyota get involved?
ya know why redneck couples do it doggie style???
so they both can watch NASCAR
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Edited 8/14/2006 2:16 am by IMERC
in the trucks i think this is the 3rd full season... next year they go cup...
they don't do it like ford gm and dodge... alot more factory tech and it's all a lease motor program... I don't follow it like i once did and I'm a little removed except for a few friends... but in the 7 or so years i've been gone the price to race is worse than what we see in copper here... in what was a 1mil program is now 5mil to show up and 10mil if you expect to win maybe once... and if a sponsor (marketing partner) spends 10mil with a team they need to spend another10-15mil in support marketing
p
that there is a lot of money to drive a fast car around a track
Stanley tools was involved in nascar and quit.. their sales dropped and brand name dropped as far as being "known" ... now back in nascar their sales have more than doubled and brand awareness has climbed... they now devote somewhere around 80% of their marketing dollars to racing...
Lance snake foods, porter cable, are a few whose sales have dropped since they left racing...
it's kinda like have'n an NFL team named after your company or product and having "FANS" of your company...
Once i got to the marketing people of a company it was never a hard sell, as far as nascar... selling that they should go to the team/driver i wanted them to, was the hard part... at the time I'd have a 1.5mil dollar package and i'd hate to toss that number out... don't know how i'd do toss'n out a number now like 15mil...
p
woodway...I dont know all the answers....except that Ford sponsors Ford cars..Chevy etc...
Ever since they started tearing the factory rims apart going through the corners in the early 50s and requiring rollbars, the cars haven't been completely stock. At least in the 80s you could still recognize most of the factory sheet metal. I "think" the top sheet metal is still "stock" as are the block and heads in the engine. But I agree, except for the grill it's impossible to tell them apart. The grill will mostly disappear over the next couple of years as the teams transition to the "Car of Tomorrow".I've been to the Fast Track school in Charlotte and drove 10 laps following their pace car at about 135 and did the ride along at the Richard Petty school at Daytona. You can't appreciate just how bumpy Daytona is until you are going around at 155 mph.Steve.