By Jim Peltz  (LA Times, April 9, 2013) – The black NASCAR truck with a white “54″ on the side gleamed on pit road as its driver walked up for the night’s race, prompting three dozen photographers and well-wishers to edge closer.

The attraction was 19-year-old Darrell Wallace Jr. As Wallace posed for the cameras at Daytona International Speedway, the public address announcer called out his name and added: “That’s a driver many people are waiting to see.”

Indeed they are — especially the executives who run NASCAR — because Wallace is an African American.

Despite NASCAR’s growth into one of the nation’s most popular sports and a driver-diversity effort now in its 10th year, stock-car racing lacks a full-time black driver at its top levels. No African American drives in NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup racing series — where such stars as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon compete — and there isn’t a full-time black driver in its second-highest level, the Nationwide Series.

Wallace, who is a rookie driving in NASCAR’s third-highest series, the truck-racing circuit, appears to be the sport’s best black hope to make it to the top.

“If he wins his share of races, does really well, he’ll get an opportunity,” NASCAR Chairman Brian France said of Wallace. Having a black driver among the 43 who race each weekend in the Cup series “is coming, but it can’t come fast enough,” France added.

Wallace hopes that once he succeeds, African American “kids can finally see … a role model to look up to,” he said. “They haven’t had anybody in years.”

He grew up in Concord, N.C., near Charlotte where most NASCAR teams are based. Wallace got the racing bug at age 9 after driving a go-kart. Soon after, he was driving small race cars with 30-horsepower engines, called “bandoleros,” and quickly showed a knack for beating others to the finish line. He won 35 of 48 races.

“He was good out of the box,” his father, Darrell Wallace Sr., recalled. “It’s God-given talent.”

By his mid-teens, Wallace had the look of a racing prodigy when he joined one of NASCAR’s minor league circuits, the K&N Pro Series East. He won six races over three seasons and was named rookie of the year in 2010. Last year, Wallace drove in four of NASCAR’s Nationwide Series races and finished in the top 10 three times, including a seventh-place finish in Iowa, ahead of Danica Patrick and Kurt Busch.

Wallace showed enough talent for Joe Gibbs Racing, a top-flight NASCAR team, to put him in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series this season, featuring highly modified pickup trucks.

In February at Daytona in his Truck Series debut, Wallace escaped a crash and finished 12th in the race.

“Made a mistake early. Learned. Capitalized. Missed the big one. Finished p12. Survived Daytona. That’s a good weekend,” Wallace tweeted his followers.

He did better last Saturday, in his second truck race, finishing fifth at Martinsville, Va., after leading 34 of the 250 laps. “Great, great weekend,” Wallace tweeted. “Led laps, almost had it, ended up p5! That was fun!”

His next race is Sunday at Rockingham, N.C.

To move up to NASCAR’s elite Cup series, however, Wallace not only has to keep racing well, he must attract the corporate sponsors that are essential to cover the costs of NASCAR’s multimillion-dollar teams. That’s a tough challenge for any young driver.

“It’s not black or white, it’s green, that’s the bottom line,” said Brad Daugherty, an African American co-owner of a NASCAR team and a NASCAR analyst on ESPN.

If Wallace does make it, he would integrate the driving ranks of a sport that remains overwhelmingly white 65 years after NASCAR was formed and help widen its audience as stock-car racing’s popularity has flattened.

NASCAR was formed in the South and largely remained a regional sport for its first four decades. Its early stars, such as Richard Petty and Bobby Allison, were Southerners and most of the racetracks were south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

One African American driver, the late Wendell Scott, won a race in 1963 in the equivalent of what is now the Cup series. But Scott battled racism throughout a career that ended in 1973. He was barred from some events and even his 1963 win, in Jacksonville, Fla., wasn’t acknowledged by officials until well after the race ended.

By the late 1990s, when Tiger Woods was becoming the first black star in golf, NASCAR was expanding across the nation. New tracks appeared in Las Vegas, Kansas, Chicago and Texas, with the sport developing a broader geographic reach as its popularity soared.

Most of its current star drivers — including Gordon, Kyle Busch and reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski — grew up outside the South. Even so, NASCAR remained slow to integrate. Drivers and their pit crews remain mostly white males and, as the grandstands plainly show, it’s primarily white fans who attend NASCAR races.

Indeed, whites account for 78% of NASCAR’s fan base, while 9% are Latinos and 8% are African Americans, according to Scarborough Research in New York. When the rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson arrived for the Daytona 500 last month, he tweeted: “Damn I don’t see no black people lol.”

Danica Patrick made headlines this year by becoming the first woman to win the pole position at the Daytona 500. Also, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and Cuban American Aric Almirola are full-time Cup drivers. But there have been only a handful of blacks among the 2,866 drivers who have competed in the history of NASCAR’s Cup series.

NASCAR realized its lack of diversity was a problem. So in 2004 the organization started its “Drive for Diversity” program to promote minorities and women. The program picks several drivers each year to race in NASCAR’s lower levels for a team called Rev Racing that’s mostly funded by NASCAR.

Wallace, who’s nicknamed Bubba, is one of the program’s top graduates. He also had substantial help before that from his father, the owner of an industrial cleaning business, who estimated he has spent about $1 million on his son’s career.

When his son started racing in the minors, the elder Wallace bought race cars plus premium engine bearings, tires and other costly parts. There also were hefty transportation costs as Wallace Jr. raced three or four times a week, often in different states. “As he moved up, it just got more and more expensive,” Wallace Sr. said. At one point “I had to borrow money to pay the employees at work” to have the cash for his son’s career.

The investment paid off in 2009 when Wallace, then 15, was signed as a so-called “development driver” with Joe Gibbs Racing, led by Hall of Fame NFL coach Joe Gibbs. J.D. Gibbs, Joe’s son and the team’s president, said they were impressed by how Wallace was “mature beyond his years.”

The Gibbs team had started its own NASCAR diversity effort a decade ago with NFL Hall of Famer Reggie White, who said at the time, “Maybe we’ll find the next Tiger Woods in NASCAR.” Although White died in 2004, Gibbs kept looking for minority drivers with talent.

But Wallace signed with Gibbs just as the economy was tanking and “their sponsors were cutting their funding, so we were able to go to the Drive for Diversity program and spend two years with them,” Wallace Sr. said, though his son stayed attached to Gibbs’ team as well.

Last fall there was speculation Gibbs might put Wallace into a full-time Nationwide ride this year. But J.D. Gibbs said the team didn’t have enough sponsorship for a full season on that circuit, so they opted to put Wallace in the less expensive, 22-race truck series.

Even that’s not cheap. A NASCAR truck team costs $2 million or more to operate each year; a Nationwide team can cost $5 million or more and a top-flight Cup team costs upward of $20 million.

And since the economic recession of 2008, selling those corporate sponsorships has been much tougher. “Every rookie driver is having a hard time finding somebody to take a chance on them,” France said.

Toyota and Coca-Cola are among Wallace’s truck sponsors.

Wallace, who has a polite self-assuredness, knows the pressure is on him to race well this year if he hopes to lure the added corporate backing that eventually would place him alongside Earnhardt, Gordon and the others in NASCAR’s major leagues.

“It’s not really their call,” Wallace said of his sponsors. “It’s really my call because I’ve got to go out there and perform. If I don’t, they’re not going to [provide sponsorships]. I’ll be done after this year.”

For full story, visit LATimes.com.

By Seth Livingstone (NASCAR News Service, March 17, 2013).  BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kasey Kahne checked Bristol Motor Speedway off his bucket list, winning for the first time in 19 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series attempts after a heated duel with Brad Keselowski.

“This is one of those tracks that, as a driver, you feel like you really need to win at,” said Kahne, who snagged the lead on a final restart with 40 laps left and held off both Kyle Busch and Keselowski in Sunday’s Food City 500.

“We’ve been trying for a long time. To pull it off, I feel is a big accomplishment for our guys and myself. There are so many things that are thrown at you when you come to this place. We’d been fast here other times and not able to finish the deal.”

Kahne, now seventh in the points standings, had finished no better than fifth in any of his previous 10 Cup races at Bristol.

The final restart came after Kahne’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson blew a tire, bringing out the race’s 10th caution.

Prior to the final green-flag run, Kahne and Keselowski had staged a furious short-track duel that rekindled memories of the door-to-door racing that made Bristol famous.

“I’m (thinking) how can I get by and he’s (thinking) how can I hold this guy off,” Kahne said. “I reeled him in, but he was driving into the corners so hard, I really couldn’t do anything on the bottom. I bumped him a few times. He was sideways a few times trying to hold us back.

“I felt like we got a really good restart, got the lead and, from there, it was just momentum and trying to drive away.”

Keselowski knew he was in trouble after spinning wheels on the final restart and watching Kahne set sail.

“I don’t think I had anything for Kasey. I don’t know if anyone did,” said Keselowski, the defending race champion who finished third. “He was so good through the middle, really everywhere. He was kind of in a league of his own.”

Kahne credited his team, led by crew chief Kenny Francis.

“It’s fun to come to pit road and break even or gain spots,” he said. “The guys have just been nailing it on pit road.”

Not everyone made up ground in the pits.

Busch, who won the pole in track record time on Friday, posted the fastest laps in both of Saturday’s practice sessions and then won Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event, led the first 55 laps before a pit-road speeding violation under caution shuffled him back to 32nd. He was undaunted in his recovery, clawing his way back to 16th in the next 40 laps and moving to second behind teammate Denny Hamlin on Lap 155 after the race’s fourth caution.

“We battled back. I wish I could have kept up with the 5 (Kahne), but he took off and left us all,” Busch said.

Hamlin led 117 of the first 189 laps before surrendering the lead in the pits to teammate Matt Kenseth, who suffered his own misfortune when race leader Jeff Gordon blew a right front tire on Lap 391. Gordon climbed the track with his tire going down and Kenseth had nowhere to go, slamming into the rear of Gordon.

“Not a lot either one of us could do about that,” said Kenseth, resigned to a 35th-place finish.

Keselowski’s third-place finish vaulted him to the lead in the Sprint Cup point standings, nine points ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished sixth after qualifying 32nd.

Johnson, who entered as the points leader, finished 22nd after running in the top 10 most of the day and fell to third in the standings. Kurt Busch finished fourth, his best showing for Furniture Row Racing, and Clint Bowyer was fifth.

Full story at NASCAR.com.

By Jackson Sveen (The Herald Weekly, Nov. 1, 2012).

DAVIDSON – For help, join IGNITE.

The new Davidson-based program hopes to support young adults with High Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome in the Lake Norman and Charlotte region.

Founded by the Evernham Family Racing for a Reason, the nonprofit started by NASCAR crew chief legend and ESPN analyst Ray Evernham, is partnering with the Autism Society of North Carolina.

Evernham’s child Ray J, who lives with Asperger Syndrome, is the group’s first member.

“Asperger Syndrome is something that has directly impacted the Evernham family and it wasn’t until my son Ray J reached adult age that we realized there isn’t a place he can go to for daily support and interaction with his peers,” said Evernham.

According to its website, IGNITE’s mission is to help its members “enjoy a better quality of life as valued members of the community in which they live and work.”

An estimated one in every 88 children born in the United States today has some form of disorder that falls under the autism spectrum.

In North Carolina, the numbers are worse with an estimated one in 70 children affected. There are more than 60,000 people in the state living with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The program is membership-based and will use small-groups to enhance the social skills of its members. If accepted, members are placed within a group of their peers who will go out to restaurants, watch movies or other activities where they will get to practice their social skills in a safe but real environment.

To join, perspective members fill out a questionnaire and are interviewed to gauge where they fall on the spectrum for autism disorders.

“Just because you’re on the spectrum doesn’t mean you’re all alike,” said Stacy Hultgren, IGNITE’s program director.

“They are vastly different from each other, so we want to make sure that it’s a good match of a group. To make sure they are going to be willing to go out in the community with this group and interact with them.”

She said IGNITE will invoke a more creative approach than many of the “cookie cutter” state services. “They teach you skills, get you in the job and then they get out.”

Instead of strictly focusing on vocational rehabilitation, the program will teach social skills that members can use at a job or college.

“Every (member) is going to be different and we are going to target what they need to learn for where they want to go.” Hultgren said. “We don’t want to tell them where they should go or what they want to do. They’ve already had enough of that in school. So it’s really helping them to move along their own path,” .

Because of the age group that IGNITE hopes to serve, the program is looking for volunteers in their 20s to be mentors. For information, visit www.IGNITE-Davidson.org.

Story at huntersvilleherald.com

]]> http://fuelsmg.com/2012/11/02/nascar-legend-creates-program-for-autistic-young-adults/feed/ 0 http://fuelsmg.com/2012/11/02/ray-evernhams-modern-nascar-belvedere-at-sema/ http://fuelsmg.com/2012/11/02/ray-evernhams-modern-nascar-belvedere-at-sema/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:51:16 +0000 Editor http://fuelsmg.com/?p=1655

By Jen Dunnaway (Hotrod.com, Oct. 31, 2012).

Former Sprint Cup Championship crew chief and team owner Ray Evernham had dreamed of building a classic stock car on a 21st-century NASCAR chassis, and he knew the ’64 Plymouth Belvedere was the perfect candidate. Richard Petty won the 1964 Daytona 500 in one of these during a spectacular 1-2-3 finish for Plymouth, and looking back through old racing photos, Evernham felt that these big Mopars were the meanest-looking rides on the track.

ForPly makes Hot Rod’s Top Ten Trends List

Fittingly, the “ForPly” Belvedere is built on a superspeedway COT chassis that has actually run at Daytona. It’s got the standard Dodge Racing R5-P7 358 cubic-inch V8 with the new NASCAR EFI, this one from the No. 9 car raced by Kasey Kahne. It’s de-tuned to about 750 HP at the flywheel so that the car is both streetable and race-ready. Everything else underneath is pure NASCAR, from the fully-adjustable suspension with unequal-length lower control arms and a Panhard rod out back, to the 18-gal fuel cell salvaged from the Daytona 500 donor car. Chief builder Dan Baker said that a few mods were necessary to make the car compatible with the civilian world, like a revised filler neck designed to work with modern gas pumps (yep, it runs on pump gas) and 18-inch NASCAR-style steelies in place of the race car’s 15′s to give it more of an aggressive street look with lower-profile tires. The paint is a Sherwin-Williams satin called Radiant Red, with Graphite accents. I was really glad to see in person how beautifully the concept came out: the pre-SEMA teaser press release had some Hot Rod staff thinking it might even be a truck, which wouldn’t have been nearly as cool as the period-perfect but brilliantly modernized Belvedere.

Still, the best thing about ForPly is that it’s not designed to be just a parade queen. The aero pieces are all functional, and Evernham said the car is “fully capable of 200 mph.” Maybe it’ll get a chance to run at Daytona one last time before it goes across the block at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale next year!

Story at hotrod.com

Watch video of ForPly at YouTube.com

NASCAR DRIVER DENNY HAMLIN AND MUSICIAN MARK BRYAN OF HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH TEAM UP FOR THE INAUGURAL DENNY & MARK’S PRO-AM JAM HOSTED BY THE STUDENT TRANSPORTATION OF AMERICA EDUCATION FOUNDATION ON DANIEL ISLAND

Two-day event hosted October 29-30 on Daniel Island in Charleston, SC to feature a celebrity music concert and celebrity golf event to benefit three charitable foundations focused on children and education.

CHARLESTON, SC (October 1, 2012) – Denny Hamlin and Mark Bryan are combining the worlds of racing and music to team up for the inaugural Denny & Mark’s Pro-Am Jam hosted by the Student Transportation of America Education Foundation taking place October 29th and 30th on Daniel Island.  The two-day event will be composed of a celebrity Jam concert presented by SunTrust on Monday, October 29th on the lawn at the Family Circle Tennis Center followed by a fun day of golf with the Celebrity Pro-Am at the Daniel Island Club’s Beresford Creek Course on Tuesday, October 30th.

General admission tickets for the Jam concert presented by SunTrust are currently on sale.  The ticket price is $25 and can be ordered via all Ticketmaster locations or by calling the Family Circle Tennis Center box office at 800.677.2293. The Celebrity Pro-Am golf event is closed to the public but there are sponsorship opportunities still available for interested parties.

The current group of celebrities scheduled to participate in the two-day event is comprised of some of the greats in the worlds of golf, music, racing, entertainment and sports.  Co-host of the event, Denny Hamlin, will represent the world of NASCAR along with racing legends Dale Jarrett, Darrell and Michael Waltrip and many others.

Scheduled to join co-host Mark Bryan from the music industry are fellow band members from Hootie & the Blowfish along with singer/songwriter Steve Azar, country legend Johnny Lee, Collective Soul’s Ed Roland, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and 14-time Grammy winner, Dan Tyminski.

Among the sports legends scheduled to attend are Major League Baseball sensation Johnny Damon, Hall of Fame and Super Bowl Champion NFL Coach and NASCAR Championship Team Owner Joe Gibbs, NBA legend Rick Barry, NHL Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr, Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl champion George Rogers and former NFL standout and actor Ed Marinaro.  Local favorite PGA professional Tommy Gainey and South Carolina’s own PGA professionals Kyle Thompson and Tommy Biershenk are expected to attend to represent the world of professional golf.

Celebrities will continue to be added and announced up until the date of the event and we anticipate several surprise guests to add to the already impressive list of participants.

Bryan, Hamlin and the Student Transportation of America Education Foundation (STAEF), the philanthropic arm of Student Transportation, Inc., North America’s third largest school bus transportation company, formed a partnership and combined resources to host the event and raise valuable funds for their corresponding foundations.  This year’s event is designed to build upon the success of the 2011 Celebrity Pro-Am Jam, which was part of the Nationwide Tour Championship on Daniel Island in October 2011 and hosted by Mark Bryan’s Carolina Studios and STAEF.  The 2011 Celebrity Pro-Am Jam featured appearances by Colt Ford, Edwin McCain, Branford Marsalis, Pat Green and members of Hootie & the Blowfish.

All proceeds from this year’s two-day event will go to the charitable organizations represented by hosts Denny Hamlin, Mark Bryan and STAEF, which have a common mission in creating better opportunities for children.

The Student Transportation of America Education Foundation focuses on advancing the educational opportunities available to deserving high school seniors enrolled in the school districts it serves.  Denis Gallagher, Chairman and CEO of Student Transportation Inc., states, “Our STA Education Foundation is all about helping kids in education.  Denny Hamlin and Mark Bryan join in that dedication and support of children with their sponsored Foundations.  It’s a thrill to combine our collective efforts to make a difference in so many lives.”

The Denny Hamlin Foundation is committed to raising awareness and funds for the specific needs of children with cystic fibrosis. Therefore, the Denny Hamlin Foundation is earmarking its share of charitable proceeds to the MUSC Children’s Hospital for Cystic Fibrosis research.

“It’s exciting to see the line-up we’ll have on the stage and on the golf course,” said Hamlin, who is coming off another top ten finish and recent NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory and is currently a leading contender for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship.  “The support has been unbelievable and we hope to make this a special annual event that helps children in several different ways.”

Mark Bryan and his Carolina Studios Foundation provide students a safe environment that fosters creative, educational, and career-focused initiatives through music technology and media arts.  Bryan adds, “When I think of how many kids will benefit from this event, and how much fun it will be raising the money alongside Denny Hamlin and Denis Gallagher, I can’t think of a better scenario.”

The Denny Hamlin Foundation, Carolina Studios Foundation and STAEF are grateful for the support of the following sponsors: Toyota, FedEx, Piggly Wiggly, Navistar/IC Bus and Thomas Bus.

To purchase tickets to the Celebrity Jam concert presented by SunTrust please call the Family Circle Tennis Center box office at 800.677.2293. For corporate team sponsorship information for the Celebrity Pro-Am golf event please contact Alexa Devine Harnig at 843.343.7451 or alexa@empiresportssc.com.  For updates on the event please visit www.facebook.com/TheProAmJam.

By Reid Spencer (NASCAR Wire Service, Sept. 23, 2012).

LOUDON, N.H. — Denny Hamlin called his shot — and gave the rest of the field a handicap before he fulfilled his own prophecy.

After running out of fuel in the first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race last Sunday at Chicagoland, Hamlin promised via his Twitter feed that he would win Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It was no contest. Though he started deep in the field, Hamlin drove his vastly superior car to a 2.675-second victory over runner-up Jimmie Johnson. The victory was Hamlin’s fifth of the season and the 22nd of his Cup career.

After taking the checkered flag, Hamlin parked his car beneath the flag stand, climbed out, raised his arm and pointed to the grandstand in a gesture designed to recall Babe Ruth’s called shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series.

An avid fan of sports other than racing, Hamlin claimed the 100th Cup victory for Joe Gibbs Racing, a team owned and named for the former Washington Redskins coach who won 248 NFL games and three Super Bowls. JGR is the sixth team to achieve that milestone.

Pole-sitter Jeff Gordon ran third to keep his faint championship hopes alive. Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski and Tony Stewart ran fourth through seventh, as Chase drivers swept the top seven spots.

Hamlin said he used the promise to win more as a way to reassure his fans that New Hampshire would provide a comeback from Chicagoland. Early in the race, however, he knew he had a car capable of fulfilling the promise.

“I knew, once we got to about lap 50 and started working our way to the sixth or seventh position — I knew that we had the winning car,” Hamlin said. “It’s all those other things that you can’t control that can keep you out of Victory Lane. It’s the untimely caution, things like that.

“For me, that was the most nerve-wracking part — let’s not find a way to lose — because I knew we had the fastest car today, and I’ve obviously got a great knack for this racetrack.”

Hamlin led 193 of 300 laps at the 1.058-mile track. Clearly, Hamlin was the class of the field, but it wasn’t obvious to Johnson where he was getting beaten.

“It was hard to tell,” said Johnson, who snagged the Chase lead by one point over Keselowski. “He had a lot of speed in his car and seemed to be able to go when he needed to and wanted to. It was just a great job on their behalf. We were the next best car, finished second and passed a lot of cars ourselves today (from the 20th starting position).

“We knew based on the (July) race that those guys were going to be tough, and they certainly were. . . . I kept waiting for him to make a mistake. He did a good job.

Added Gordon: “I don’t think that thing bobbled all day.”

Hamlin, who climbed to third in the standings (seven points behind Johnson) started 32nd because of a mistake with tire pressures during Friday’s time trials, but before the race had reached Lap 100, the driver of the No. 11 Toyota had the lead. Hamlin passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch on Lap 94 and proceeded to dust the field the rest of the way.

Hamlin held a lead of more than seven seconds over Johnson when NASCAR called the third debris caution of the race, and fourth overall, on Lap 272. The yellow bunched the field, but it didn’t matter, as Hamlin sped away after a restart on Lap 278 and easily held off Johnson, who finished second for the second straight race.

RACE RESULTS
1. (32) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 300, $273,166.
2. (20) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 300, $204,796.
3.  (1) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 300, $179,171.
4. (12) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, 300, $141,074.
5.  (6) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 300, $113,135.
6. (15) Brad Keselowski, Dodge, 300, $135,780.
7.  (3) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 300, $149,360.
8. (18) Joey Logano, Toyota, 300, $98,185.
9.  (4) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 300, $94,985.
10.  (8) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 300, $128,968.

RACE STATISTICS
Average Speed of Race Winner: 116.81 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 43 Mins, 02 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 2.675 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 17 laps.
Lead Changes: 17 among 10 drivers.

Lap Leaders: J. Gordon 1-3; T. Stewart 4-41; J. Gordon 42; C. Mears 43; J. Gordon 44-45; Kyle Busch 46-93; D. Hamlin 94-107; K. Kahne 108; J. Johnson 109; M. Kenseth 110; B. Keselowski 111-112; D. Hamlin 113-179; B. Vickers 180-184; D. Hamlin 185-244; J. Johnson 245; J. Gordon 246; B. Keselowski 247-248; D. Hamlin 249-300.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin 4 times for 193 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 48 laps; T. Stewart 1 time for 38 laps; J. Gordon 4 times for 7 laps; B. Vickers 1 time for 5 laps; B. Keselowski 2 times for 4 laps; J. Johnson 2 times for 2 laps; K. Kahne 1 time for 1 lap; M. Kenseth 1 time for 1 lap; C. Mears 1 time for 1 lap.

Top 12 in Points: J. Johnson – 2,096; B. Keselowski – 2,095; D. Hamlin – 2,089; T. Stewart – 2,086; K. Kahne – 2,081; C. Bowyer – 2,081; D. Earnhardt Jr. – 2,070; K. Harvick – 2,065; G. Biffle – 2,063; M. Truex Jr. – 2,062; M. Kenseth – 2,061; J. Gordon – 2,051.

By Lance Madden (Forbes.com, Sept. 11, 2012).

When you think of Michael Jordan, many things might come to mind. Legend. Greatness. Gravity defiance. Basketball in general is an obvious one. NASCAR, however, isn’t usually at the top of the list. But Nike’s Jordan Brand and motorsports are becoming more and more congruous.

Driver Denny Hamlin, currently No. 1 in the NASCAR power rankings, signed with Jordan Brand in 2011. This week he hopped behind the wheel of NBA.com’s Monday morning column, The Morning Tip, to give a little bit of insight to his relationship with the mega athletic apparel brand. Hamlin is a big-time basketball fan who has a full court with lights and a scoreboard at his house. He has had courtside seats at Charlotte Bobcats games dating back to 2007. In 2010, Jordan, the owner of the team, recognized the driver at a game and the two struck up a friendship. Jordan, who founded Michael Jordan Motorsports (MJM) in 2004, agreed to let Hamlin rep his brand, marking the first sneaker brand sponsorship in the NASCAR circuit since Adidas sponsored Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in 2007.

Hamlin, who has racked up more than $5.3 million in winnings this year and whose main sponsor is FedEx, now sports the Jumpman logo on his uniform belt, back, shoulders and racing gloves. It’s a unique relationship that has helped the Jordan Brand expand not only from the basketball court but from America’s mainstream bat and ball sports. Baseball players Derrick Jeter and Andruw Jones, football players Marvin Harrison and Terrell Owens, and even boxer Andre Ward — among many other athetles — rep the Jordan Brand. But this is the, ahem, fastest Jordan sponsorship ever.

This relationship between Hamlin and Jordan is very significant not only for the Jordan Brand, but for sports endorsements in general. First of all it shines light on the Jordan Brand as more than just a sneaker brand. Also, it could be a stretch, but the sponsorship might actually help mesh the fan base of more urban sports, like basketball, and racing, which would be a big leap racially. Only six black drivers have raced in NASCAR’s 64-year history coming into 2012. Darrell Wallace Jr. made a name for himself this summer as a Drive for Diversity Program participant and is vying to become just the second African American Sprint Cup driver since 1986. The 18-year-old Wallace is also helping with another category of fan demographics, as the median age of NASCAR fans, according to Nielsen, is currently 51.6.

In 2009, 8.6 percent of NASCAR fans were African American, up from 7.6 percent in 2005. Meanwhile, 83 percent of NBA players were non-white athletes in 2011, including 78 percent African American, according to human rights activist and scholar Richard Lapchick.

From an entrepreneurial standpoint, the multi-sport branding is very telling of the Jordan Brand’s overall dominance. It is a large reason why Nike is No. 352 on the Forbes Global 2000 list, marking the world’s largest public companies. From a social standpoint, the sky is the limit. When will a professional bull rider or pro fisherman be sponsored by a major athletic apparel brand next? Who will be the next Hamlin to expand a historically urban brand into a predominately white sport, or vice versa?

All it takes is one friendly relationship. And maybe courtside seats.

Story at Forbes.com.

2012 Chase field points prior to Chicagoland:

1. Denny Hamlin 2,012 (—)

2. Jimmie Johnson 2,009 (-3)

3. Tony Stewart 2,009 (-3)

4. Brad Keselowski 2,009 (-3)

5. Greg Biffle 2,006 (-6)

6. Clint Bowyer 2,006 (-6)

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr.  2,003 (-9)

8. Matt Kenseth 2,003 (-9)

9. Kevin Harvick 2,000 (-12)

10. Martin Truex Jr.  2,000 (-12)

11. Kasey Kahne* 2,000 (-12)

12. Jeff Gordon* 2,000 (-12)

*-made field as wild cards

By Reid Spencer (NASCAR Wire Service, Sept. 2, 2012).

HAMPTON, Ga. — Denny Hamlin did himself a favor — and one for Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch in the process.

Outrunning Jeff Gordon on a two-lap dash to the finish in Sunday night’s AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hamlin scored his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, his series-best fourth of the season and the 21st of his career.

Hamlin also preserved Busch’s status as the second provisional wild card in the Chase for the Sprint Cup by keeping Gordon out of Victory Lane.

Hamlin beat Gordon to the finish line by .378 seconds after a caution spoiled a probable victory for Martin Truex Jr., who was leading by two seconds when Jamie McMurray wrecked on the frontstretch on Lap 320 of 327.

Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Truex and Kevin Harvick.

Matt Kenseth (ninth Sunday), Truex, Keselowski, Hamlin, Clint Bowyer (27th) and Harvick all clinched top-10 spots in the Chase, joining series leader Greg Biffle, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson. Defending Cup champion and pole-sitter Tony Stewart fought an ill-handling car all night and finished 22nd but clinched at least a wild-card spot.

“This is one I wanted real bad,” Hamlin said. “Last week was a big one (at Bristol) — no doubt about it — but I’ve been really good here the last few years and not won.”

Hamlin’s crew got him off pit road in the lead when all the contending cars stopped under the final caution, which extended the race two laps past its scheduled lap count of 325.

“The pit crew won me the race,” Hamlin said. “That’s what a championship team is all about, to have all the pieces of the puzzle put together, and this year I think we have it all.”

Gordon, who celebrated his 41st birthday last month, allowed that he must be getting soft in his old age.

“He (Hamlin) made a mistake off of (Turn) 2 (after the final restart), and I got a run on him, and I made a bad decision,” Gordon said. “All night I was able to get to guys’ quarter panels and get to the outside and stay there. I should have just run into the back of him going into (Turn) 3 and moved him up the race track.

“We’d be sitting in Victory lane right now counting another win. This Chase is too important to be in it for me not to make a move like that. I wouldn’t have wanted to wreck him, but I would have liked to have that one over again.”

Gordon trails Busch by 12 points with one race left before the Chase field is set next Saturday night at Richmond. A race win there would guarantee either driver a wild-card berth.

After the midpoint of the race, Harvick and Hamlin established themselves as the class of the field, running away from the pack after a restart on Lap 135. Hamlin’s team opted to stretch fuel mileage, intending to finish the race on one more stop after coming to pit road under green on Lap 221.

Harvick had pitted for fuel and four tires on Lap 216 and would have needed two more stops to make it to the end of the race. The tradeoff was that the extra five laps on new tires had given Harvick an 8.4-second lead over Hamlin after the cycle of stops.

Hamlin, however, trimmed a second per lap from Harvick’s advantage and had pulled up to the bumper of the No. 29 Chevrolet when caution for Juan Pablo Montoya’s brush with the outside wall on Lap 241 made all the fuel calculations moot.

Hamlin beat Harvick off pit road under the yellow and held the top spot after a restart on Lap 248. Truex moved past Harvick into the second position one lap later and kept Hamlin in his sights during the ensuing green flag run.

Running a higher line than Hamlin, Truex was moments away from taking the lead when the engine in Carl Edwards’ No. 99 Ford blew on Lap 264, causing the fourth caution of the night. The early end to Edwards’ night forces last year’s Chase runner-up, who finished 36th, to win next Saturday at Richmond to have even a remote chance at a wild-card spot in the Chase.

Pit stops on Lap 266 put fuel strategy back into play. Hamlin, for instance, left pit road needing to save four laps worth of fuel to get to the checkered flag. On the restart on Lap 270, though, the entire tenor of the race changed when Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman and Sam Hornish Jr. wrecked on the backstretch.

His car destroyed, Newman was credited with a 35th-place finish. His only realistic avenue into the Chase is a victory at Richmond.

Video recap of Final Laps.

Watch Denny in Victory Lane.

Denny answers media questions in post-race Press Conference.

By Reid Spencer (NASCAR Wire Service, Aug. 25, 2012).

BRISTOL, Tenn. — It wasn’t the old Bristol, but it was definitely a better Bristol.

Denny Hamlin saved his best effort for the stretch run in Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and his persistence paid off with the No. 11 team’s third win of the season in 24 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

“It’s Bristol — I don’t know what to say, man,” Hamlin said as he crossed the finish line. “I’m so damn happy.”

But it wasn’t the same Bristol that played to half-empty grandstands in March. On the contrary, grinding two degrees of banking off the outside lane — a project orchestrated after the March race — helped produce an abundance of action, but perhaps not in the way track owner Bruton Smith intended.

After a heated battle, Hamlin passed Carl Edwards for the lead on Lap 462 but didn’t clear the No. 99 Ford until both drivers traded shots. As Edwards faded, Hamlin pulled away to beat Jimmie Johnson to the checkered flag by 1.103 seconds.

Jeff Gordon ran third, followed by Brian Vickers and Marcos Ambrose.

On the newly ground surface at the .533-mile short track, the race featured 13 cautions and plenty of emotion, as drivers began to rubber-in the outside groove and discovered it was the fastest way around.

To Hamlin, the racing was similar to the old Bristol — just that cars ran single-file in the top groove instead of on the bottom of the track.

“It’s just a different kind of racing,” said Hamlin, who won the 20th Cup race of his career and the record 200th for the No. 11. “There’s nothing (Smith is) going to do that’s going to make us run the bottom, if that’s not the fastest way around the track. But it was the same thing — we were all running in a line. You’re just waiting for the next guy to screw up to get around (him).

“That’s what we had to do with the old Bristol, and that’s exactly how we had to race today. The slide job was an option to pass, which won us the race. I don’t think we saw as much side-by-side racing, but you didn’t see side-by-side racing with the old Bristol. You just saw a bunch of cars in line, waiting for someone to get knocked out of the way or to mess up.”

Video recap of Final Laps.

Watch Denny in Victory Lane.

Denny answers media questions in post-race Press Conference.