NASCAR Tickets - NASCAR Makes Racing Debut on Wii

It doesn't matter what time of the year it is for NASCAR fans who have invested in the Nintendo Wii, as racing enthusiasts can now watch their favorite drivers storm the racetrack even outside of racing season. NASCAR's fiercest competitors have been transformed into video game characters in the newest Wii arrival called "NASCAR Kart Racing," allowing racing fans to jump into the driver's seat to maneuver around the league's several tracks such as the Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International. The NASCAR Kart Racing Nintendo game has been in the works for several months and was finally released in the middle of February 2009, granting racing fans an all-access pass both in and out of racing season.

While NASCAR Kart Racing is highly comparable to the dominating Mario Kart Nintendo game of a similar caliber, this virtual automotive delight adds a personal touch to the highly-respected sport of racing, even featuring characters named and resembling 14 drivers, including Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Elliott Sadler and Tony Stewart, with two unlockable mystery drivers including racing legends Richard Petty and Joey Logano. Just like in real life, these characters each have different attributes and strengths that affect how they run races, making this Wii game even more exciting for racing fans. 10 other non-NASCAR drivers called "Outsiders" are also available options for choosing drivers in the Kart Racing game.

In NASCAR's newest Wii endeavor, players select a driver and also choose a teammate, building up added speed bonuses for staying close to teammates in the various races at several different racetracks across the country. NASCAR Kart Racing isn't all about going fast and turning left, however, like it is for these real racecar drivers, as in the Wii game there are several racetracks with varying obstacles blowing through the screen. Just like in Mario Kart, Kart Racing's competitors try to outspeed each other in some high-flying racing action on the track, zooming past dizzying landscapes, rocky cliffs, falling boulders and other hazards on their way to victory.

NASCAR Kart Racing is rated E (for Everyone) by the ESRB and has been given the description "Cartoon Mischief," letting all racing fans with a Nintendo Wii get a slice of the action. The Wii program also offers myriad options when it comes to controls, as the game is drivable by Wii remote, remote and nunchuck, classic controller or Gamecube controller.

While racing enthusiasts are now getting their kicks from the NASCAR Kart Racing Nintendo Wii game via living room televisions and Wii remotes, die-hard racing fans are still lining up to get NASCAR tickets to see Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Co. kick up dust live from racetracks across the country. Racing season is alive and well, so scour the web for tickets to a race and head down to the track to watch everyone's favorite icons zoom past the checkered flag on their way to Victory Lane!

This article is sponsored by StubHub.com. StubHub is a leader in the business of selling NASCAR tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and special events tickets.

Article Source: NASCAR Tickets - NASCAR Makes Racing Debut on Wii

Source: http://www.articlespan.com/article/249502/nascar-tickets-nascar-makes-racing-debut-on-wii

Jim Hurtubise Gus Hutchison Jacky Ickx Yuji Ide

Alonso gives Red Bull pause for thought

The 2011 Formula 1 season is not yet a quarter done but it is already difficult to see past Sebastian Vettel ending a second consecutive season as the world champion.

A third victory in four races has given the Red Bull driver a 34-point lead in the standings and the man in second place, Lewis Hamilton, could finish only fourth in Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.

There is no doubt that the German is now in total control of this season. The word "domination" is being bandied around and it is easy to see why but, in each of the four races so far, the performance gap between Vettel and his pursuers has not been as great as the stark results suggest.

Just as in his wins in Australia and Malaysia, Vettel's afternoon at Istanbul Park was made easier by delays suffered by his rivals.

This time, Nico Rosberg, who started third on the grid behind Vettel and team-mate Mark Webber, was the man responsible for allowing his fellow German to make a break. That ensured he could ease into cruise control as early as lap five, when Webber was finally able to pass the fast-starting Mercedes.

The key to all of Vettel's victories has been his searing pace in qualifying. Turkey was his fourth pole position in a row this season - his seventh in the last eight races if you count the end of last year - and it was one of his most impressive so far.

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Vettel had no dry running on Friday following a hefty crash caused by pushing too hard on intermediate tyres at Turn Eight in the wet conditions on Friday morning. Yet the following day he put his car on pole by nearly half a second from Webber.

Even in the wild and whacky races of 2011, pole position is proving a vital weapon for Vettel. It is allowing him to steer clear of the craziness behind him, and allowing him to run at his own pace, putting him in control of races from very early on.

Would Webber or Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who finished second and third, have been able to challenge him on Sunday had it not been for Rosberg? Neither man sounded very confident of that after the race.

Webber said it would have been "difficult to beat Sebastian today", while Alonso - the race's big surprise - described Vettel as a "99% favourite".

However, Alonso added that "this 1% (is what) we had lost in the first five laps with Nico because more or less the seven seconds distance to Sebastian was consistent all through the race. Without those five seconds, maybe we could have raced in the pit stop and forced something".

And that's the point. Vettel, as he said himself, is not unbeatable. But his life is being made easier by the frenetic battle behind him, which he is surveying from above for now.

Heading into the Turkey race, few would have predicted that it would be Alonso taking the fight to the Red Bulls - and certainly not the man himself.

The Spaniard arrived in Istanbul talking about Ferrari having taken a "small step". But new front and rear wings and brake ducts added up to a lot more than that.

Alonso has qualified fifth for all four races so far this season, but he and Ferrari reduced their deficit to Vettel from 1.4secs in China three weeks ago to 0.8secs in Turkey. And in the race he went toe-to-toe with Webber and very nearly came out on top.

Alonso drove a superb race, taking advantage of Hamilton's lap one error to slip into fourth place, following Webber past Rosberg and then slugging it out with the Red Bulls for the rest of the afternoon.

He was, then, the deserved winner of our new BBC F1 driver of the day vote, in which he took 18.5% of the support, just ahead of Vettel (17.9%) and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who fought from the back of the grid to 10th place (17.2%).

It was a remarkable turnaround by Ferrari and there is more to come from them after some soul-searching and intense analysis at Maranello following their disappointing start to the season.

It immediately revived memories of last year. Leaving the British Grand Prix last July, nearly two clear wins off the championship lead on points, Alonso famously declared that he was more confident than ever that he could win the championship. And had it not been for some bungled Ferrari strategy in the final race of the season, he would have done.

Alonso might be 52 points - more than two wins - behind Vettel right now, but he has 15 races, or possibly 16 depending on what happens to Bahrain, to recover it and it would be a fool who wrote off now such a formidable fighter. After last year's experience, Red Bull certainly won't be making that mistake.

"Ferrari," said team principal Christian Horner, "they're back. They pushed us very hard today with Fernando."

Alonso felt confident enough after his third place in Turkey to talk about winning races. For now, though, the only person to do so this year apart from Vettel is Hamilton, for whose McLaren team Sunday was a chastening experience after their driver's breathtaking win in China.

That error on the first lap, running wide at Turn Four challenging Webber, put him on the back foot and a fumbled pit stop, caused by a sticking wheel nut, dropped him down still further. In typical style, Hamilton stuck with the task and he fought back to finish fourth.

Jenson Button was sixth after he and the team erroneously chose a three-stop strategy when four was the way to go.

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh rightly described it as a "fairly average day at the office" but Hamilton talked about battling for second without his problems, and there is no reason to suppose McLaren have lost the ability they have showed in the first three races to keep pace with Red Bull.

The next phase of the season, then, promises to be fascinating, with Mercedes, too, in the mix - even if Rosberg's race pace did not match his superb qualifying performance.

For his team-mate, though, the future looks less bright. Sunday was another difficult day in Michael Schumacher's ill-starred comeback.

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Trounced by Rosberg in qualifying, when he was - just like for much of last year - guilty of over-driving, Schumacher had another poor race, wrecking any hopes of a recovery by completely misjudging his defence against Renault's Vitaly Petrov in the early laps and ripping off his own front wing.

"I don't know why he doesn't know when to give up," David Coulthard said in the commentary. "On the track or in his career?" replied Martin Brundle, sharp as ever.

BBC pundit Eddie Jordan's post-race analogy with an aging and punch-drunk Muhammad Ali when he fought Larry Holmes in 1980 was perhaps a touch harsh, but you could see where he was coming from.

Fascinatingly, Schumacher's mask slipped a little for the first time since making his comeback. He had always insisted that he was enjoying himself, and that the pace and touch would come back. On Sunday, though, he admitted "the big joy is not there right now".

I've known Schumacher for a long time, and he looked and sounded like a man beginning, as Coulthard put it, "to ask himself some questions".

Perhaps it was the immediate post-race emotion talking, perhaps not. But, not for the first time, many in F1 will be asking whether his second career will last the three years for which he signed up.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/05/the_2011_formula_1_season.html

Oscar Alfredo Gálvez Fred Gamble Howden Ganley Frank Gardner

Freebies A NASCAR Fan Can Get

A NASCAR fan will cherish many items that represent NASCAR throughout the year but the items they cherish the most will be ones that did not cost them anything. A fan enjoys the freebies offered by NASCAR because they are provided as a token of appreciation and not centered on making a profit in any way. Most fans are unaware that freebies exist until they visit a friend's house and see them for themselves.

Most fans have established a haven in their home that is totally devoted to their favorite NASCAR team. They might make it a point to visit a certain retailer each year because they know that company is a NASCAR sponsor and is willing to provide fans with free tee shirts that bear the NASCAR emblem or the emblem of the sponsor. In one visit to these sponsors, fans know that they can walk out with tee shirts for the entire family.

Fans relish finding information about their favorite driver and racing team. NASCAR has put out a lot of effort to produce photo quality biographies of drivers that fans can print out on the home computer or transfer to a disk and take to a printer where it is printed out in full color. The cost of the printing is considerably less than if the fan had purchased the driver's history from a retailer at the racetrack. Some fans keep this information handy so that they can use it as backdrops for a shadow box that holds tickets to all the races the fan attended.

Fans do not have to rely on luck to get a photograph of their favorite NASCAR racing star. The internet is filled with numerous photographs that capture the racing action performed during a certain race and they come complete with captions already in place. A fan can select which photographs they want for their collection and save them to the appropriate file on their home computer. Of course, these photographs can never be sold but a true NASCAR fans will cherish having them to look at.

Many fans have been entertained for hours by the free games offered at the NASCAR website. Fans have the chance to become a part of the action by playing games, at no charge, that allow them to track their celebrity racing teams through sponsor events, and become a team owner by buying low priced teams and selling them for a profit. Some games allow fans to see what they can do with a racing team that they designed themselves. This type of fun is suitable for anyone that is a NASCAR fan.

Fans can also find a wide assortment of NASCAR freebie items that are centered on home entertainment but must own a home computer to obtain them all. There are many related screensavers that can be downloaded to the personal computer and changed out regularly throughout the racing season. Fans can get quite inspired by the scenes they view throughout the day and some might even help them to remember when the next race will be so that they can buy tickets before they are sold out.

James Brown writes about Mitchell & Ness bargains, Fathead deals and Final Score key code

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Phoenix Construction Chevrolet Jeremy Clements Boudreaux s Butt Paste Chevrolet Justin Allgaier

Lotus F1 row takes new twist

A new twist in the long-running row over the use of the Lotus name in Formula 1 has emerged with the announcement that the owners of Team Lotus have bought niche sportscar manufacturer Caterham.

Tony Fernandes and his partners see Caterham, which makes replicas of the old Lotus Seven two-seater open-top sportscar, as a company with historic links and "synergies" with Team Lotus that allows them to realise their ambition of diversifying into making road cars.

Their original plan was to do that with Group Lotus, the company that markets Lotus sportscars, but as Fernandes puts it: "That obviously didn't turn out very well."

What the Malaysian businessman, and owner of budget airline Air Asia, is referring to is the increasingly bitter dispute between him and Group Lotus that has ended up in the High Court.

When Fernandes and his partners first set up what was then called the Lotus Racing F1 team last year, it was with the blessing of Group Lotus, which licensed them the name. But in the course of 2010 Group Lotus's new chairman Dany Bahar decided he wanted to go his own way in F1.

He terminated Fernandes' licence, and switched instead to a sponsorship deal with the Renault team. Fernandes, seeing this coming, bought the rights to the historic Team Lotus name as a fall-back.

Both issues - the termination of the licence and the ownership of the Team Lotus name - are wrapped up in a court case that was heard last month, with a verdict expected early in May.

Fernandes is widely expected to win the rights to continue to use Team Lotus. He bought it legitimately from its previous owner, David Hunt, brother of the late world champion James, and Group Lotus has always acted in the past as if it knew it did not own the name.

Nevertheless, buying Caterham does provide Fernandes with an interesting fall-back option should the court case go against him. Now he owns his own car company, he could re-name the F1 team after it should he want to.

Lotus F1 cars and the Caterham Seven

Team Lotus owner Tony Fernandes now has Caterham in his business portfolio

For now, though, he says that is not an option. Fernandes told BBC Sport that he is "absolutely not" going to change the name of Team Lotus. Although he does add: "Obviously we have to wait for the verdict to see exactly what has been decided. But we see a very natural link between Team Lotus and Caterham, and they can be synergistic and promote each other, and there is some DNA between the two anyway. It's not like we've bought a brand that has no association with Team Lotus at all. It's just the opposite."

The Caterham name will, though, soon appear on the Team Lotus F1 cars - although exactly when and how has yet to be decided - and the company will eventually contribute to the Lotus budget as a sponsor.

Assuming he retains the rights to Team Lotus, that still leaves Fernandes in the sticky position of providing free promotion to a company with which he is in dispute and has no links.

Unsurprisingly, he did not want to get into that on the day of his big announcement, but he could not resist a little snipe or two at Bahar.

Fernandes says he sees Caterham as very much following the legacy of the late Lotus founder Colin Chapman. "In some ways," he says, "we have reunited the Chapman history. Lotus is all about lightweight, more is less. That is all the terminology we like, and it fits with F1. We feel there is a huge opportunity for Caterham in a market no one is really looking at right now."

By that, he means lightweight, affordable sportscars that are within reach of ordinary people. This was Chapman's approach, and one which, Fernandes says, "certain people have abandoned". That is a reference to Bahar's plans to take Lotus upmarket and challenge Porsche and Ferrari with his mooted five new Lotus models by 2015.

So far, the dispute between the two Lotuses has not reached the race tracks of F1.

Team Lotus started this season with chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne setting ambitious targets of catching Renault by the end of the season, but that looks out of reach for now - Renault have started the season strongly enough to set their own difficult goal, of beating Ferrari to third place in the constructors' championship.

But Team Lotus have also started the season well. The car has had reliability problems, but it also has underlying pace, and in the last race in China they beat established teams for the first time since entering F1 at the beginning of last year, with Heikki Kovalainen finishing ahead of a Sauber and a Williams.

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Kovalainen's performance is a clear indicator that Lotus's more realistic target, of scoring points and mixing it with the established teams, is achievable.

Fernandes himself has his feet firmly on the ground. "You build things properly and with the right structure and things will fall into place," he says. "My target this year was to maintain 10th, and hopefully sneak a few points along the way. That is still my target.

"It is beginning to feel more realistic now, but one can't build a challenging F1 team in two years. We are competing against guys who have been there for 30 years but obviously the team smell big steps of improvement. They smell points.

"I never want to kill confidence, I encourage it, but I am also a realist and we are competing against nine guys who have been doing it for years and are very good at it.

"But if you'd asked me do I think at Turkey (the next race on 8 May) you'd be where you are, I wouldn't have believed it.

"We've got a good package and good people, we have put all the infrastructure in place.

"We're working on a new wind tunnel; that's the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle, and I think if you put all the pieces of the puzzle together then the results will come in good time."

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2011/04/lotus_f1_row_takes_new_twist.html

José Froilán González Oscar González Aldo Gordini Horace Gould

My preview of the next few grands prix

There is so much to look forward to over the next few races. First there is the Turkish Grand Prix, on a track very popular with the drivers. After that it's on to the true start of the European season in Spain. Then the incomparable Monaco Grand Prix and unique Canada, which always seems to produce a fantastic race, before I am back on this blog after the European Grand Prix in Valencia, which to be brutally honest has a track that does not live up to what is a great city.

I'm sure we're in for some fascinating action. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy my preview of the next five races.

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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/murraywalker/2011/05/there_is_so_much_to.html

Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire

NASCAR Tracks the Atlanta Motor Speedway

The Atlanta Motor Speedway is in Hampton, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) and has a 1.54-mile oval track with turns banking at 24 degrees. Because these banks and their smooth surface, car speeds have been known to reach 190 mph on occasion. However these sustained high-throttle speeds make it hard on engines at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. You will see a variety of action here as cars will race closely side-by-side along with a lot of pushing and cutting off. All this action at the Atlanta Motor Speedway is made even more exciting by the high speeds.

The Atlanta Speedway offers a variety of options to see the races from premier seating to facilities for camping. The raceways premier seating is the Club One option. Fans purchasing this seating option sit in a location with a great view on top of the Winners Grandstand. It has 65 video screens along with a first-class bar and menu. Probably one of the most exciting features of Club One is the fans get a pre-race pit stop pass.

The Speedway can be rented for all sorts of group occasions too. They have custom packages for weddings, wedding receptions, theme parties, birthday parties, group meetings, and other special gatherings.

You can bring your recreational vehicle or popup tent and camp at the Atlanta Motor Speedway too. Shower facilities are available.

The Speedways website is excellent and has all the information you need. It even has a frequently-asked questions link where you can see the answers on subjects such as getting drivers autographs to bringing your cooler inside the track.

If you ever wanted to get into racing marketing, NASCARs Atlanta Motor Speedway gives you the opportunity through its internship program. This is an unpaid internship program but it gives you the experience needed to get into the career of NASCAR marketing by allowing you to gain working experience at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Plus, with this experience, one can be competitive in the market for the paid NASCAR marketing positions. The qualifications are that the person must be a college-level student (B.A. or B.S.) and a marketing communications major. You will help with the public relations, advertising, and event duties at the track.

The Atlanta Speedway is also the venue for numerous NASCAR driver schools where one can purchase a fantasy racing package and experience the thrill of being a driver for a short time. Now these are not schools to train you to be a professional driver. There is no career path like that. These are schools for the amateurs who just want to do something different and experience the thrill of the drive. There are different levels and of course price ranges. It is patterned a somewhat after the Major League Baseball fantasy camps where you get to play games and train alongside Major League Baseball players.

Richard Petty, the King of NASCAR, runs a driving experience school along with others who have their schools and use the Atlanta Motor Speedway track.

For the largest selection of Nascar Merchandise along with up to the minute News, NASCARsupershop offers this and more. We carry everything NASCAR including NASCAR Helmets and NASCAR Hats s all at the best prices everyday! I'm not only the owner of NASCARsupershop.com I'm also the senior editor, website developer and a HUGE fan of NASCAR!

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Tayler Malsam Iron Horse Jeans Toyota Mike Bliss Shelby Howard

Why the NASCAR Foundation Organization Supports Charity

A good organization supports charity and NASCAR does just that through its NASCAR foundation. The foundation has a program where for a 30 dollar donation you can join in on the NASCAR track walk. The Home Depot, one of the nations largest retail home improvement centers, is a major sponsor of the promotions and holds charitable events with proceeds going to the Foundation. But who does the Foundation support and what kinds of events do they hold to raise funds?

One thing they do is sponsor auctions where the proceeds go to one of the foundations supported by the foundation. For example, on September 17, 2007, they announced bidding on Jeff Gordon full-sized and autographed fiberglass auto body. The proceeds from this auction go to the Jeff Gordon Foundation which supports pediatric medical care of children with serious and life-threatening disease.

The NASCAR foundation holds the Blood and Marrow Drives at different tracks each year. The donations help out the Jimmie Johnson Foundation and the Hendrick Marrow Program. Other charities of the Foundation are:

The Dale Earnhardt Foundation,This is a foundation run by the wife of the racing great who died in a race car crash in 2001. Dale Earnhardt was concerned about education, children, and wildlife and his commitment lives on through this foundation.

The Kyle Petty Charity Ride,Kyle Petty is the son of the King of NASCAR Richard Petty and he sponsors a motorcycle ride across the USA for the Victory Junction Gang Camp as well as other childrens charities.

Victory Junction Gang Camp,This is an organization with the mission of helping to enrich the lives of children with serious illnesses by providing them a camping experience in a medically-safe environment. It was founded by Kyle Petty and his wife Pattie in June 2004. The couple also donated the land that the camp stands on today. The camp is interesting because it was built with a racing theme and all the look of a race track. The camp takes cash donations and there are volunteer opportunities. It is also gives a quilt and a teddy bear to each child who stays there so they are always looking for donations of these two items to replenish their supply.

There are many ways to donate to the foundation. One way is through the NASCARs Auto Donation program. Here, you can donate a vehicle and then any of the proceeds that the Auto Donation program gets from the proceeds in an auction are given to charity. All donations are fully tax deductible.

The Day Telethon,This was a telethon held on May 18, 2007 across from Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Speed Channel, NASCAR, and Sirius radio broadcasted this telethon event through the end of the Craftsman Truck Series Race.

There are many other charitable organizations supported by the Foundation but it is obvious that they care about contributing to the community which is probably one of the reasons why this sport is becoming increasingly popular.

For the largest selection of Nascar Merchandise along with up to the minute News, NASCARsupershop offers this and more. We carry everything NASCAR including NASCAR Shorts and NASCAR Sunglasses all at the best prices everyday! I'm not only the owner of NASCARsupershop.com I'm also the senior editor, website developer and a HUGE fan of NASCAR!

Article Source: Why the NASCAR Foundation Organization Supports Charity

Source: http://www.articlespan.com/article/103677/why-the-nascar-foundation-organization-supports-charity

Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton Lewis Hamilton David Hampshire