April 24, 2002
- Pit Awards: The first quarter finalist for the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew of the Year Award is the #40 Coors Light Crew. The #40 Coors Light Crew led the first quarter points standings with a total of 83 points to become the first of four final crews who will compete for the Mechanix Wear Pit Crew of the Year Award and the $75,000 in prize money. Others include the #17 DeWalt crew at 76; #8 Budweiser crew at 64; #20 Home Depot crew at 63l and the #48 Lowes crew at 62. The #40 Coors Light Crew becomes a year-end nominee and is no longer eligible for points. At the completion of the fourth quarter there will be four NASCAR Winston Cup Series teams eligible for the final voting. (National Association of Pit Crew Members PR)
AND Sawing Through Adversity, #36 Crew Chief Newt Moore Takes Home IRWIN Crew Chief of the Week Honors.(Irwin Tool PR)(4-25-2002) - Craven in the Breeze: PPI Motorsports’ Tide Racing Team is set to unveil the Tide “Clean Breeze” car this weekend at California Speedway. The team plans to run the “Clean Breeze” car at California, Richmond and both upcoming events at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the month of May. “The special paint scheme represents the launch of Tide Clean Breeze laundry detergent,” said Brian McNamara, Brand Manager of Tide for Procter & Gamble. “The new Tide Clean Breeze is a clean and natural fresh scent. For the first time, the fresh scent of laundry dried outdoors comes to you indoors,” he added. The look is a departure of the traditional #32 Tide paint scheme as it combines elements of clouds and sky on the right front quarter panel and the entire TV panel.(PPI Motorsports PR), see an image of the car on my Paint Scheme Gallery(4-24-2002)
- Fox Wins Emmy’s: “Boogety, boogety, boogety” must be the refrain around Fox Sports headquarters this morning as the network celebrates being the big winner at the Sports Emmy Awards last night in New York. Fox pulled in 11 awards, the highest number of any network. The three awards won by “NASCAR on Fox” were more than any other sports program. In fact, a Dick Schaap special on ESPN was the only other program to pull in even two awards. The big prize for NASCAR was its win as the “Outstanding Live Sports Series.” Other victories were as “Outstanding Technical Team Remote” and “Outstanding Graphic Design.”(MotorsportsTV)(4-24-2002)
- NASCAR Opens “Speediatrics”: On Tuesday, they held the grand opening of the Betty Jane France Pediatric Center called “Speediatrics” at Homestead Hospital. The 14-bed pediatrics unit received a $600,000 renovation with a motorsports theme. It has colorful racing cartoon characters, cars, tracks and checkered flags painted on the walls. It also has miniature replica NASCAR cars in many of the rooms. France, the wife of NASCAR chairman and CEO Bill France, founded Speediatrics in 1999 when the first racing-themed pediatric center opened at the Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach. The one at Homestead Hospital is the second. Renovations began last September and were completed earlier this month. Homestead-Miami Speedway has agreed to raise $300,000 for the project. Speediatrics is designed to make children feel as comfortable as possible during a hospital stay. Officials hope the cheerful atmosphere will make a difference in the spirit and recovery of sick children. Jeff Gordon stopped at each hospital room, signing autographs, posing for pictures and leaving smiles on dozens of children’s faces Tuesday. “You see firsthand kids that are sick, kids that need good care and need a smile put on their face,” Gordon said. “You see that enough and you realize that there’s too much of that going on, and then it’s like how can you help? How can you contribute? I grew up healthy and strong and became very successful — all my dreams have come true. I want to see these kids’ dreams come true. These kids are going through an awful lot: doctors are poking and prodding on them and it’s not a lot of fun,” Gordon said. “The goal is to get them out of the hospital, so they can go back home and have fun and be normal kids. But while they’re here, it helps to be able to look at things and take their thoughts off of what’s going on with the doctors. It brings a fun atmosphere to the pediatrics center.” Gordon, helping unveil the new center because of his past work with kids through the Jeff Gordon Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, headed a tour of the facility with dozens of NASCAR officials, community leaders and journalists. Ryan Winter, 5, had no idea Gordon was stopping by his room to chat. When Gordon walked in, Winter’s eyes widened as he recognized his favorite NASCAR driver. Winter, who has had several operations to remove a tumor from his kidney and had countless radiation and chemotherapy treatments to send his bone marrow cancer into remission, had little to say to Gordon. All he did was smile as the NASCAR star gave him an autograph.(Daytona Beach News Journal)(4-24-2002)
- Be an Original? UPDATE: hearing that #40-Sterling Marlin will run an original Coor’s scheme for ten races in 2002(1-22-2002)
UPDATE: Coors Chip Ganassi Racing withFelix Sabates has announced a Coors Original paint scheme for the #40 Dodge Intrepid R/T for 10 races during the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. The #40 Coors Original Dodge paint scheme will kick off at Fontana and will also been seen at Dover, Michigan, Sonoma, Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, Martinsville, Atlanta and Phoenix. Coors Brewing Company has been a committed sponsor of NASCAR Winston Cup racing for nearly two decades and is looking forward the high profile exposure that the Coors Original paint scheme will provide with the 21+ male NASCAR enthusiast market. Coors Original, Coors Brewing Company’s flagship beer, is currently aligned with several other partnerships including Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and musicians Kid Rock and Toby Keith. Coors Original will leverage its relationship with Toby Keith by incorporating Keith elements onto the Coors Original car.(Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates PR)(4-22-2002)
UPDATE 2: see images of the car on my Paint Scheme Gallery.(4-24-2002) - Kenseth fastest at Sears Point on Tuesday: #17-Matt Kenseth posted the top time during the first day of a NASCAR Winston Cup test session on Tuesday at Sears Point Raceway. Kenseth, one of six drivers testing the 10-turn, 2-mile road course in preparation for June’s Dodge/Save Mart 350, toured the circuit in 1 minute, 18.42 seconds (91.813mph). He was followed by rookie #48-Jimmie Johnson (1:18.98 – 91.162) and #28-Ricky Rudd (low 1:19s – 91.139), a four-time pole-sitter at Sears Point. Other testers included #87-Ron Fellows (1:19.50 – 90.566), #97-Kurt Busch (1:19.70 – 90.339) and rookie #12-Ryan Newman (1:19.80 – 90.226). One change drivers encountered Tuesday was a tighter transition between Turns 12-1 because of the permanent separation of the road course from the drag strip, which has been a long-time criticism of Sears Point Raceway. Portions of the track have also been repaved. The facility is in the final stages of $50 million Modernization Plan. Busch, who won a NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series event at Sears Point in 1999, was pleased that the Winston Cup cars will no longer have to use the drag strip. Other improvements drivers will find for race weekend (June 20-23) include increased runoff at almost every turn on the road course, as well as a full 43 stalls on pit road, thus eliminating the need for the infamous “Gilligan’s Island” on the inside of Turn 11. The entire circuit will be repaved in September.(Sears Point PR)(4-24-2002)
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