 By: Tom Luttermoser Images By: Daphne Zhu of USC The 25 foot tall, 55 foot long NASCAR Rose Parade float is nearly finished. Adorned with the likeness of Gordon's Rainbow Warrior #24, Earnhardt's Intimidator #3 & the iconic Petty blue #43 along with elements of the L.A. Coliseum. Well race fans, it's ready for Monday's annual Pasadena parade. The float is named "Always Forward" and was made to celebrate NASCAR's 75th anniversary as well as market February's Busch Light Clash a few miles away. Atop the float will sit the King himself, Richard Petty who scored 200 NASCAR victories in his time behind the wheel. Petty represents the "where we came from" and the past. Petty will be joined by Craftsman Truck Series rookie Rajah Caruth who represents NASCAR's "where we are going" and the future. “NASCAR’s 75th anniversary is all about honoring our past, celebrating our present and looking to our future,” said NASCAR's VP of Marketing Services Patrick Rogers. “It’s only fitting that a driver like Rajah, who represents NASCAR’s now and beyond, joins our all-time winningest driver on this historic day for our sport.”
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By: Tom Luttermoser Images Credit to left: SHR Right: Unknown
I think we can all agree that rain delays, rain breaks and rain shortened races drive us all just about nuts. I know I've attended as a fan and covered at least 3 of these such events, but the cool thing is that NASCAR agrees. Back in the day the sanctioning body has tested rain tires at short tracks and road courses only to adopt them to turn both left and right within the last few years in the Cup Series. It appears however, not for much longer. In 2021 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the opening few laps of the race, the leader Kyle Busch & Martin Truex Jr were taken out of the race due to a wet surface causing the duo as well as another car or two to make contact with the outside safer barrier. Since then, the conversation has been continued. In the middle of December however, it has become near public knowledge that NASCAR intends to (at least attempt) to keep rain tires on hand for a small handful of Non-road course tracks for the first time in the history of the sport. They are referring to it as a "wet weather option" consisting of Rain tires, rear rain lights, the wiper, rain guards behind the rear wheels and more for up to 15 different events in 2023. Bozi Tatarevic with Road & Track (I recommend giving him a follow on Twitter) posted the Cup Series packages including the engine, break, aero package and tire for each track (Posted below). It showed that some of the tracks we can possibly expect to see this wet weather package are New Hampshire, Martinsville, Phoenix, LA, Richmond and North Wilkesboro.
Now, this will not be a package for heavier rains like we've seen run in at Road Courses, but more for simply a damp or wet race track with little to no active rain. Standing water will still bring a caution/ red flag or postpone a race due to the danger of hitting it at speed.
These changes could not only help NASCAR keep the races in the allotted broadcast time slots, but also the fans watching or in attendance from having to make changes to schedules or watch at work on Mondays (I've never done that...) or miss the race all together. By: Tom Luttermoser NASCAR released today the format for the 2023 Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Coliseum. For the actual Clash itself, 27 drivers start The Clash main event. 26 lock in through their finishes in the heat races, LCQ 1 and LCQ 2. The line up for The Clash is established as listed. The 27th and final spot is reserved for driver who finished the highest in the 2022 season points standing who did not transfer on finishing position.   By: Tom Luttermoser Image via Joe Gibbs Racing Twitter Think back to 2005 & Jason Leffler. You think FedEx. That white, purple and orange Chevrolet and the start of one of the longest remaining partnerships in NASCAR. FedEx began their first mutli-year deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. That season went horribly for the #11 FedEx Chevrolet and by the 21st race of the season, Leffler was out and both J.J. Yeley and Terry Labonte would fill in netting the car only a single Top-10 in 26 races. That is until Kansas, where a young rookie would get his first ever Cup Series start. A young driver named Denny Hamlin would finish 32nd followed by 3 Top-10 finishes in his first 7 starts in that very same car. The following year, that same rookie would win his first ever full time Cup start in that same car at the Bud Shootout followed by sweeping the races at Pocono and it has been smooth sailing in a partnership that Denny would later refer to as "A blessing." Now, almost 20 years later, that partnership has seen only an absolute minimum of variation as we've seen FedEx as the primary sponsor of the #11 and 3x Daytona 500 Champion Denny Hamlin for all but a handful of events. We have however, seen that partnership shrink a couple races a year in the last couple of seasons. With estimated liabilities in the $12 million a year range way back in 2005, and we can only estimate that pledge at over $20 million at this point. NASCAR is becoming more and more expensive despite driver salaries shrinking and the new "less expensive" Next gen car. But with the multi-year deal penned in 2019 between JGR and FedEx expiring along with the driver contract for Denny himself, we assumed that FedEx may once again shrink it support of the 11 team though we would not have speculated what has happened as of late. FedEx announced Tuesday that it would cut $1 Billion more in costs in 2023adding up to $3.7 Billion in cost savings for the fiscal year. That's likely not good news for Hamlin fans. That savings has to come from somewhere, now I'm not a logistics manager, but I would assume that a chunk of that would have to come from advertisement (sponsorship). "FedEx said Tuesday that its quarterly earnings and sales fell from a year ago and warned of ongoing weakened demand, but said its 'aggressive' cost-cutting measured were softening the blow." - CNBC We all expected Gordon to retire along with Dupont or Axalta, Johnson with Lowe's or Busch with Mars Candy. But we have seen each of these staples of the sport all but vanish from the racetracks, save for a few vintage hats or T-shirts. So, with the news out of FedEx and the upcoming contract ending... As much as it absolutely pains me to say, we will likely see the exit of yet another iconic sponsor in the sport.
 How many of these did you guys get???
 I ordered 3 of them! (I ordered more than that, but 3 off the list)
By: Tom Luttermoser  By: Tom Luttermoser Images Via: BLC official Twitter Thursday marked the groundbreaking for the 2023 Busch Light Clash at the L.A. Coliseum. California native and 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson joined in the groundbreaking ceremony for the February 5th event. This will be the second annual Busch Light Clash at the famous L.A. Venue, one that last year broke recent records for attendance for the "Pre-Season" event with over 55,000 in attendance. That figure more than doubled the attendance to the race at Daytona in 2020 Pre-Covid. LA is a massively market for NASCAR that has pretty much been untapped. NASCAR seems expectant to match if not beat the attendance numbers for 2023.  By: Tom Luttermoser
With TRICON Garage (formerly David Gilliland Racing) moving over to Toyota, Ford Performance development driver Hailie Deegan has been the biggest name in the Craftsman Truck Series Silly Season in a LONG time. Lots of speculation came from every angle on social media and with my peers in the media where she would end up. Back on Dec. 5th a source of mine came out and stated she would join Matt Crafton, Ty Majeski and Ben Rhodes over at ThorSport with a move from the team back to Ford. Many people said I was nuts, but as we just learned on Thursday Hailie would be driving the #13 Ford F-150 for ThorSport. Deegan comes off of her sophomore season in Trucks with David Gilliland Racing in the #1 F-150 and will be joining the rebranded 98 team over to the #13 which became ThorSport's part time truck driven by Johnny Sauter last season.  By: Tom Luttermoser Image Via: Front Row Motorsports Twitter
Front Row Motorsports confirmed this morning their 2023 lineup, Michael McDowell will return to the #34 Ford Mustang following his career best season let by Travis Peterson on the pit box. Todd Gilliland will start his sophomore season in the #38 Ford Mustang with a new crew chief, Ryan Bergenty. Also coming to the Cup Series in 2023 will be 2022 Truck Series champion, Zane Smith. Smith will field (likely the 36 car) for select races in the Cup Series in 2023 and if what we heard in the past is correct, that will start with an attempt at the Daytona 500. Of course in the Craftsman Truck Series full time in the #38 Ford F-150 will once again be defending champion Zane Smith.  By: Tom Luttermoser After a series of 4 meetings at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona, Florida, Bill France gathered a group of 35 distinguished representatives from including some of the most influential names in the racing for the period. The list included drivers, mechanics, promoters, car owners, journalists, businessmen, and a recording secretary. On December 14th 1947, the National Association for Stock Car Racing or "NASCAR" was born. “Stock car racing has got distinct possibilities for Sunday shows and we do not know how big it can be if it’s handled properly… It can go the same way as big car racing (Indianapolis), I believe stock car racing can become a nationally recognized sport by having a National Point Standing. Stock car racing as we’ve been running it is not, in my opinion, the answer… We must try to get track owners and promoters interested in building stock car racing up. We are all interested in one thing — that is improving the present conditions. The answer lies in our group right here today to do it.” – Bill France Sr. on December 14, 1947 speaking at NASCAR’s organizational meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida. In the 75 years since 1947, we have seen NASCAR grow to include 3 major touring series, to include many feeder series across the country and grow to become an international racing organization. So, on this day we honor those 35 men who brought us the greatest racing organization in the world. All images used from Media.Nascar |
