January 2009

Hello Nascar fans.   I only have an hour and a half so let’s get to it before math class!   Hope you are all having a good week by the way, now on to racing.

Guess who’s going to try and qualify for the Daytona 5o0 race?   Two time champ Terry Labonte is going to attempt to qualify for the race in a car owned by former Nascar great Phil Parsons.   The company Prism Sports is co-owned by Parsons and a guy named  Randy Humphrey.  Good luck to Terry and hope to see you in the race!

In some unfortunate news, Nascar known for protecting their drivers on the track with such improvements as the HANS device, is being sited as being responsible for a deadly plane crash that took place outside of Orlando in 2007.  In that crash 5 people were killed.   The National Transportation and Safety Board says that Nascar’s aviation division was responsible and that they violated federal regulations when they allowed that plane to take off without repair or maintenance after it was reported that there was an electrical problem with the aircraft that was found by the pilot the day before.    An NTSB member said that Nascar enabled this tragic crash and avoidable crash.  Since the time of the crash in July 2007, the Nascar aviation division has made strides to improve their maintenance records and facilitate a smoother operation so that this doesnt happen again in the future. 

Well the economy is finally having an effect on the biggest of Nascar sponsors.  The main sponsor for Nascar, Sprint Nextel Corp. is cutting some  8,000 positions within their organization.  I hope it doesnt effect the people that I have come to know and love during my time attending the races.   Sprint says that labor reductions are always among the hardest decisions to make, but in this tough economy and with a loss of over 1 billion dollars last year alone, they feel they have no alternative.  Sprint did say though that their commitment to quality will not change and they will continue to provide the best service possible to their customers.  

Reed Sorenson is flying high these days.  His new sponsor the Air Force, gave him the ride of his life this week when they strapped him in for a ride in an F-15.  The Air Force says that they want Reed to gain a first hand understanding of what it means to be an airman.  They said they want him to spend 2 days after this in San Antonio, Texas so he can meet with some recruits who are going through military training.   Way to go Reed.  I’ll bet that is the experience of a lifetime flying with the Air Force. 

Well that’s about all for now.   I hope this finds you having a great week and an even better weekend.  The start of the season is only a week and a half away, I can hardly wait to get to Daytona!   Have a great week, I’ll be back on Sunday.

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