Monday, September 22, 2008

NASCAR Legend - Dale Jarrett

By Cindy Pischel

Dale Jarrett is one of the most well known and liked drivers in NASCAR. He is famous for driving the #44 UPS Toyota Camry and was a part of Toyota's inaugural season into NASCAR. He has driven for some of the most prestigious car owners like Cale Yarborough, Wood Brothers, Joe Gibbs, Robert Yates, and Michael Waltrip.

A true champion, he has won the Daytona 500 three times. Dale comes from a family that's been very involved in racing and he is the son of two-time Grand National Champion Ned Jarrett. Dale's younger brother Glenn also drove and was a pit commentator for NASCAR and Jason Jarrett is Dale's son who has driven in the Busch Series.

As well as being a talented racecar driver, Dale is very good at golf. After he graduated from high school in 1975 he was offered a full golf scholarship from USC, but he had other plans. He turned it down and headed to the racetrack. His driving career started in 1977 at Hickory Motor Speedway, a track owned by his dad. In his first race, he started in last place and was able to move up and finish in ninth. His driving talent was beginning to show itself. He spent a few years honing his driving skills at Hickory before moving to the Busch Series in 1982. His best finish that first year was third and he finished sixth in the points standings. It didn't take Dale long to be ready to face the big dogs in the Cup Series and he debuted at Martinsville in 1984. He qualified 24th and finished fourteenth.

In 1987 he was in contention for Rookie of the Year honors, but came in second to Davey Allison. Dale was hungry for that first cup win and finally got it at Michigan International Speedway in 1991. He finished a career best 17th that season in the points standings. The 1993 Daytona 500 was a memorable one for many NASCAR fans. That race has been referred to as "The Dale and Dale Show" because Jarrett was able to pass Earnhardt for the win with only one lap remaining. Dale Jarrett's dad cheered from the booth where he had called the race.

Dale is the one who started the tradition of "kissing the bricks" at Indianapolis after his win of the Brickyard 400 in 1996 when he and his entire crew bent down to give the bricks a smooch. Ever since then, every winning NASCAR team has been kissing the bricks. In 2003 the Indy teams caught on and now hold the same tradition. In 1998, Dale began to suffer gallbladder problems and ended up having surgery in the offseason. Undaunted, he returned in 1999 and won his first Cup title by 201 points. This same year he retired from driving in the Busch series and paired up with Brett Farve to become part owner. They fielded the #11 Rayovac Ford, one of it's drivers being Dale's son Jason.

In 2000 Dale hooked up with UPS and they began the "Big Brown Truck" campaign which continued to the end of his career. The 2008 Food City 500 at Bristol was Dale's last race and he passed the torch to David Reutimann who now drives the #44 Toyota. In a driver's meeting before that last race, he spoke to his fellow drivers: "Enjoy this. We all have our time in this, and mine has been fantastic. To me, it has been an honor and a privilege to be able to race in this series and say I raced with and against and sometimes beat the best in the world. Thanks for allowing me to do that. Enjoy it. It's a great sport, and you guys make it what it is." After his retirement, Dale joined the ESPN broadcasting team as their lead racing analyst.

More articles about NASCAR news and auto racing can be found at http://www.speedweekly.net

The best way to watch NASCAR can be found at http://www.watchautoracing.com

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NASCAR Race Schedule

By Robert Grazian

NASCAR is the National Association for Sock Car Auto Racing. As the governing body for stock car racing in America, NASCAR sanctions an enormous number of races during the course of the year. It will cover over 1,500 races all over the United States, Canada and Mexico. As you can imagine, the NASCAR race schedule is quite a complex listing.

There are three main series that NASCAR cover. They the Craftsman Truck Series, the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series. These series are prone to name changes on occasion, depending on the current sponsors. Each of these three series has a full NASCAR race schedule which will include a race in each pretty much every week of the year from February through to November. There will also be some races which are not included in these three main series.

There are many websites where you can find information regarding the NASCAR race schedule. If you are interested in attending some of the races then you are probably best to consult NASCAR themselves. They have a very good website at nascar.com which will give you details of each and every race meeting across the country. If you wish to buy tickets online, you will be able to click onto the appropriate meeting and you will then be transferred to an online ticket company who specialises in race tickets.

On the NASCAR website, not only will you get detailed information regarding the location of the races in each of the series, but you will also be able to get details regarding the location of the venues. In fact, you will find pretty much all the information that you could need regarding the circuit where each race will be held. You will have information regarding the length of the track and the banking and turns etc. Everything you need to know. The NASCAR race schedule on their website really has got it all covered.

Another useful aspect of the site is the information that is given regarding the NASCAR race schedule of broadcasting. For each race, they give you details regarding the television scheduling, including the channel and start time and also the station and the time of broadcast on radio. This means that even if you are unable to be there in person to see you favourite races of the series, at least you can either watch or listen. It would seem that NASCAR have thought of everything and the schedule that they produce on their website will keep you well informed of all their events across all the series. If you are unable to access the internet, you will soon be able to find the schedule of races by visiting your local store or newsstand. Here you will be able to find many magazines which will give you the full schedule for all the series. Most magazines will print a schedule at the start of the year listing all races. If you have a listing such as this it is wise to check the information as some may have changed since being printed.

Robert Grazian is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about NASCAR visit
NASCAR Schedule Online for
current articles and discussions.

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What is Drifting?

By Chip Szalewski

When I tell someone that I race and drift or that I'm a drifter, I usually get a confused look. People ask me, what is drifting? So let me start by explaining the sport of drifting!

Drifting as a sport originally started in the hills of Japan. Kids would race up and down the mountain roads or touges. Soon they would start to slide the car sideways around the corners to show off and to keep their engines rpms up. This technique of controlling the cars over-steer (over-steer is a handling issue that results when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle) soon started to catch on and it's popularity grew. The artistry displayed by these early drifter and those to follow helped coin the term "Corner Artists" for the amazing way they could attack a corner and turn movement and tire smoke into an art form.

As a result of the excitement and growing fan base of this new sport D1 Gran Prix was formed in Japan as an organized form of racing that's sole purpose was to challenge the drivers to one on one heats on a technical section of a track. The driver are scored on speed of entry into the corners, angle of attack, racing line, distance between your opponent, and style.

The success of D1GP has lead to several other circuits starting around the world such as NOPI Drift, Formula Drift, and several other country specific circuits.

Drifting as a sport truly is a fan based sport. In no other motor sport can the winner be determined by the crowd. This aspect of the sport really drew me to this form of racing. Drifting can almost be compared to gladiatorial games in a sense that the crowd has such an impact on the outcome.

During a drift competition only two cars will compete during a run or race. The race is set up like this: two cars will line up side to side to each other on a section of the track known as the scoring section. One car will be the leader and the other will be the follower and they will compete against each other in the the five points categories, speed of entry, angle of attack, racing line, distance between opponent, and style. After the two cars have made their drift run through the scoring section they will repeat this same thing, only the leader and follower will switch roles.

Now if the two drivers were so closely matched in their skills of slide the crowd can call for a "One more time". Which is a sort of sudden death round in which if either driver makes a mistake they will automatically loose (more on how a competition is ran in my upcoming post "Drift Competitions, How They Work").

So to sum up drifting as a motorsport: it's tire smoke and cars on the razor's edge of control, mixed with a nonstop adrenalin rush and a crowd on the edges of their seats, garnished with some of the most skilled corner artist in the world. http://Drift-Diaries.com is a chronicle where I show you my rise in the drifting community. I will teach you how you can compete, get exposure and eventually make it big as a drifter.

Hi My name is Chip, or Speed as a lot of people know me and I am a soon to be professional drifter, interested in helping you learn to drift and build your skills.

See you at the track!

http://Drift-Diaries.com

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Motor Sports Helmet Cameras For in Car Racing

By Nicole Douglas

If you're a hard core motor sports racer, and feel the need for speed, you probably want to own a video recorder system to record your time at the track. If you're looking to make professional DVD quality video or simple short clips for the web from your race at the track , this article can help point you in the right direction and set you up with a quality in car camera system to suit your requirements. You can easily record what has up to now been unavailable to you. Many in car video camera systems offer a quick viewing feature. The Suv Cams are equipped with a 2.2 inch TFT high resolution LCD screen display. Suv Cams have the options of many lengths of the camera cable, so you can extend your recording space accordingly. Using helmet cameras that use secured digital high capacity card will ensure you will record the highest quality resolution and receive extended recording. The higher quality Suv Cams produce continuous recording so you can loop your time at the track and never miss a moment.

A compact video camera system can be used on on board vehicles of any kind, mounted anywhere, and even on the outside of a race car. These systems are so compact, they are comparable to the size of a cellular phone. With the LCD screen you will be able to select a file to play and press a button to play the recorded file. With frame by frame playback, you never miss the exact moment in the video you want to see.

The SD card recording media protects your data from loss in body worn or highly actively uses. The recorded data can be played on Windows Media Player or other software without the need for dedicated software. These systems will use up to 4 GB SD cards, and have with the 4 GB card a recording time up to two hours with low resolution. To get the best DVD quality footage, you will want to use a DVR or camcorder based helmet camera, which are high resolution. You can Record at any moment with a touch of a button using a DVR helmet cam system. DVR style helmet camera systems offer DVD quality recording and features such as, remote control recording.

Useful links: Helmet Cam Videos on www.video.google.com

Author Nicole Douglas

Nicole is an avid sports enthusiast who enjoys recording all the great times she has with her helmet cameras. Save your time and energy searching the internet looking for bullet cameras and take a look at my recommendations.

https://www.actionvideocams.com/ELMO_SUV-Cam_II.html

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The Indianapolis 500

By Brenda Williams

One of the largest single-day sporting event in history is the Indy 500. The running of the Indy 500 has been going on since 1911. The 93rd running of the race will take place in May of 2009, making it the 64th consecutive year without interruption. Other names of the race throughout history have been the International 500-Mile Sweepstakes (twice), the International 300-Mile Sweepstakes and the Liberty Sweepstakes. The race has been carried on television and radio. It debuted on radio in 1952 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. The firs time the race was televised from start to finish was in 1986 by ABC.

The race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was built in 1909. Its first track was a gravel and tar track which was then changed to all brick and then pavement. The first Indy 500 took place on May 30, 1911. The venue currently holds approximately 400,000 people. The first race was seen by just over 80,000 people who paid $1 for admission. The first race included Ray Harroun, the inventor of the rear view mirror. The race was originally an open event which meant that anyone could race in the event if they wished to do so. Now the race is by invitation only. Drivers must qualify for participating in the event.
By Brenda Williams

When the race was an open event the qualifying procedure entailed the admission fee and maintained a certain speed was allowed to join the field. The order of start was determined at random, by determining who handed in their signup forms first. Now the qualifying, since it is by invitation only, is a little tougher. The current speed-based qualifying was started in 1915 and the field was limited to 33 entries, which is still the case for today's race. The qualifying process today consists of a four-lap distance and it was introduced in the year 1933.

With each race comes traditions at the Indy 500 from year to year. The most popular tradition, and most popular words in sports aside from "Play Ball," is "Gentlemen, start your engines!" Other traditions include the detonation of an explosive to signal the opening of the arena's gates at 6am on the day of the race, "Taps" is played to symbolize the remembrance of Memorial Day along with a flyover, "God Bless America" is performed by Florence Henderson and "The Star-Spangled Banner" is performed by a different popular artist each year.

There have been a multitude of accidents during the running of the Indy 500 and a handful of deaths involving drivers, crew, spectators and driving mechanics (which haven't been used since the early years of the race). The last death during the Indy 500 was in 1973 when Swede Savage died on July 2nd in a hospital from injuries suffered in the race. Some believe that Savage might have died do to contaminated blood from a transfusion. Savage was the 14th driver to die either at the race or after the race to due injuries from an accident or from heat exhaustion.

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