Motor Racing and Formula One

Fred Peters asked:


Do you have a man who is a NASCAR fan? NASCAR gifts are loved by men. Whether that gift is intended to be a Father’s Day present, a birthday present, or a just because you want to show him how much you love him. He probably already has a Nascar hat and a Nascar t-shirt. If you would like to purchase unique NASCAR gifts for your father, husband or friend, checkout some of these great NASCAR gifts for men.

With spring and summer quickly approaching, racing themed barbeque tool sets make great gifts for men. Get a barbeque tool set with you man’s favorite driver’s number printed on the handles. These specialty racing themed barbeque tool sets often come with matching storage cases or bags. These NASCAR grill tool sets are great, but affordable, gifts for men who like to grill outside.

Did you know that they make NASCAR patio sets? Yes they do. An outdoor patio set with a racing theme is a great, yet unique NASCAR gift idea. Now these aren’t real cheap so this is probably more suited for a very close family member, husband or dad. Make sure that the racing patio set has your loved one’s favorite nascar driver on the seats and table. Some have the names of the drivers and some have the nascar driver’s number. A NASCAR patio set will allow your nascar fan to barbeque in style on race days.

Companies also make racing themed canopy sets. These canopy sets are also really awesome gift ideas for men who love NASCAR. And, you will have to look long and hard to find someone else who has a race car canopy set.

What goes hand and hand with watching a race? That’s right beer or another cold beverage. You man would love to have a NASCAR compact refrigerator with is favorite driver on it. I would love to have a Jeff Gordon compact refrigerator or may a Dale Jr refrigerator. These compact refrigerators would look great in your game room or a dormroom.

If you are looking for a NASCAR gift for a child, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary school aged children love NASCAR diecast cars. NASCAR diecast cars make very affordable gifts. In fact, most grown men that I know love racing diecast cars. My son and I play racing all the time with diecast cars. He always plays with his Jeff Gordon diecast car and I play with my Tony Steweart diecast car. He won’t let me play with the Jeff Gordon diecast car.

I hope that these gift ideas help you to pick out the perfect NASCAR gifts for men.



Gilberto

Robert Riles asked:


Bedding nascar is all the products that fall under the category we would find in a bedroom to decorate the space there. For a child, having a room that is filled with their favorite things would be a dream come true and they would wake up every morning to this bedding nascar. This adds to the joy of every day and so if a child who enjoys racing has bedding nascar and matching pillows and other accessories in his room, it is sure to brighten his life. Similarly, for a child who is crazy about Dale Earnhardt, they can have his picture on their bed linen, pillow covers, and even on the curtains. This way they wake up looking at his face of their idol’s number. Decorating a room this way sure makes it fun for the person using the room and for the family as it takes away the boring element and adds a bit of spice to their lives. This also helps the child stay more focused on his studies if he aspires to become like the racer he dreams about.

If a family is a Greg Biffle supporters, they can have a grand comfortable sofa in the living room with many throw pillows sporting covers that have his name or photo on them. This is a wonderful way to exhibit the interest and enthusiasm they have for the sport. These pillows usually come in sets of four, and will be in the color of the racing team which would create a focal point to the otherwise dull room. There are companies that manufacture and create complete bedding material based on nascar and have them in different styles and colors to suit different tastes. For someone who like black and white, they can have the checkered flag look for their room. The bed sheets, pillows, wardrobe, curtains would all be in the same black and white colors and the pictures hung on the wall could be of a contrasting red frames with racers in them.

A unique way of decorating your office or home creating a space that is truly yours and one that reflects your tastes and personality is what these bedding nascar items do. They allow you to express yourself through these pieces and have something connected with a sport that you love so much. Imagine having a couple of friends over to your house, and your guest room is done up completely in nascar prints and patterns, your guest will be surprised and if he or she is a nascar fan, they will fall in love with the room and would not want to leave your house. Bedding nascar products are not in the least bit considered kiddish or childish and so there are adults who enjoy having a bit of this in their private spaces. There are bachelor pads which are done up completely in a nascar theme right down to the cutlery and bedding nascar items giving the house a lovely racing atmosphere.



Alex

Chris DiCicco asked:


So does NASCAR driver physical conditioning matter? Some would debate that NASCAR drivers are not athletes but one must consider the conditions inside of a NASCAR stock car race vehicle. The interiors of these cars are not designed for driver comfort with air conditioning and surround sound. Everything about a NASCAR stock car is focused on speed—not on comfort. So NASCAR driver physical conditioning must be such that it builds a driver’s endurance to withstand some harsh conditions and G-forces. And, the NASCAR driver physical conditioning is very similar to athletes in other sports except different areas are built up.

The temperatures in the driver’s cockpit of a NASCAR race car can reach around 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine this temperature with a 500-lap race at 200 mph along with lack of air flow and you will see that NASCAR driver physical conditioning to build in endurance is critical. Plus, a NASCAR driver will need to steer and maneuver a 3,400 pound vehicle around curves, other cars, and over bumps. This can cause a lot of impacting against the driver plus just the strain of controlling the steering wheel. Then there are the G-forces that will result from banking turns at speeds close to 200 mph causing pressure on the driver’s torso as it presses against the side of the vehicle.

Oxygen is a problem too. Since the cars are very aerodynamic so as to increase speed, the air is guided around the car but does not reach the inside. The driver’s cockpit is not pressurized like an aircraft. So, the driver has to be able to process what oxygen he gets very efficiently. Therefore, NASCAR driver physical conditioning will include aerobic exercises so as to optimize the processing of oxygen by the body.

Part of any good physical athletic training is the proper amount of nutrition and rest and NASCAR driver physical conditioning is no exception to this. By including the proper amount of nutrition and rest in NASCAR driver physical conditioning, the driver can maintaining alertness and quick reflexes which are crucial to a safe drive. Not getting the proper amount of rest can cause a driver to make mistakes which at 200 mph could be dangerous and even fatal.

Without the proper nutrition and rest in NASCAR driver physical conditioning, a driver can become confused and disoriented during the race. This is especially true when combining the lack of air in the cockpit mixed with carbon monoxide fumes and tremendous G-forces (which cause disorientation as well). G-forces can also affect vision but proper nutrition and vitamins combat against their effects.

NASCAR driver physical conditioning also includes weight training but not in order to build mass. The weight training performed by a NASCAR driver is to build up strength for steering and breaking. It is also so that the driver’s body can withstand the abuse from bouncing around and getting slammed from excessive G-forces.

NASCAR driver physical conditioning separates those who can make it for an entire racing event and those who would wear out during the qualification races. It is very important and the sport should be taken just as serious as any other professional sport.



Zoe

David Stargel asked:


NASCAR drivers give up time with their families, a lot of money, and potentially their lives to have a career in racing. What kind of passion motivates them?

Imagine what family time is like for a NASCAR driver. Testing begins in January and races don’t end until mid-November. That’s racing or practicing almost every weekend and the week is the time for race preparation. Lack of time together strains even the strongest of marriages. That’s why Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has chosen to stay single for now. He says he has seen half a dozen marriages fail and expects to see another half dozen end because of racing. The long and brutal schedule doesn’t leave much time for family life.

NASCAR racing is an expensive sport. Someone has to pay for entry fees, travel expenses, and racing gear. It’s not uncommon to hear of parents taking out a second mortgage to get their kids to the track so they can be discovered. Being a big name in the NASCAR news is the ultimate goal for these families. For some families, like Denny Hamlin’s, it has really paid off. Denny has been able to give back to his parents everything that they gave up for him to succeed and them some. Not everyone is so lucky.

Although NASCAR is cracking down on safety, racing is still a dangerous sport with the death toll at a startling 32 since the inception of NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt, Sr. left not only a nameless faceless nation of NASCAR fans in mourning on the fateful day of this death but people who loved him and called him friend. Drivers crave the speed and the thrill of racing. Do they ever feel fear when they strap into their seats and get ready to travel at speeds close to 200 mph? If they do, they’re not telling.

What kind of passion compels NASCAR drivers to take the risk every time they get on the track? Does the possibility that they might lose their life ever cause them to rethink their decision to be a driver? Is it worth it? To be able to do something every day that they love and have a passion for is enough for these guys. The fever that drives these NASCAR stars is something that causes them to make sacrifices and never look back. And the millions of NASCAR fans are grateful.



Ian

Jim Johnson asked:


One of the biggest events on America’s sporting calendar and the most important of NASACAR’s racing series is the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. Nextel took over sponsorship of the NASACAR Cup Series back in 2004. The series was previously called the Grand National and later, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. After taking over sponsorship, the Cup Series was changed to give new NASACAR drivers a better chance and also to make it more competitive. The NASCAR Nextel Cup “Race to the Chase” was established which added more excitement, much like a “playoff” system. After 26 races the top ten drivers in points are eligible to compete for the Cup in the last 10 races of the season. As with other NASCAR series, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series rewards drivers can for wins and for laps led. Five bonus points are awarded to drivers who lead a whole lap during a race.

A separate Chase for the Championship is operated by the Nextel Cup Owner’s Championship and the Nextel Cup Driver’s Championship. Over the course of a cup series it is quite common for driver’s points to differ from owner’s points. It is rare for drivers and owners to be the same people in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. This fact is due to the structure of the modern NASCAR Nextel Cup Series races tending to favour racing teams that own multiple cars.

The NASCAR Cup Series began in 1950, when it was won by Bill Rexford, still the youngest person ever to have won it. The most successful driver ever in the NASCAR Cup Series was Richard Petty, who won twenty seven races back in 1967. He was the son of previous NASCAR Cup Series champion Lee Petty. The NASCAR Cup Series has been vital in promoting the sport of racing, which started out on dirt tracks with little reward. Richard Petty was the first driver to earn over $100,000 in a NASCAR Cup Series.

Winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series depends not only on the skills of the drivers but also on designers who work year round on improving cars for participation in the series, and on the dedicated crews who support cars as they race for the cup. These days, NASCAR crew chiefs use computer simulations, to help them judge how cars are likely to perform in the series. Most agree that the most important thing is a strong, durable engine, which can make all the difference when it comes to winning the NASCAR cup.

Nextel’s sponsorship of the NASCAR Cup Series has helped to revive corporate interest in the telecommunications company. Nextel was recently purchased by the Sprint corporation to become Sprint Nextel. It is expected that this will result in next year’s premiere racing competition being renamed from the NASCAR Cup Series to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. NASCAR continues to reinvent itself to appeal to the masses, to provide increased value to it’s sponsors and to provide more safety to the drivers.

Sources:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Nextel_Corporation

http://www.nascar.com



Gabrielle

sergio d asked:


I’m from another country, been living in Johnson City for 1 year and got hooked on NASCAR. Which terrace is the best to watch a race at Bristol Motor Speedway that is not so expensive. Of course i’m excluding suites and the very pricy seats.

Would also like to know what is the best way to get there, because I know it’s so crowded that it’s impossible to drive or to find a parking space. Are there any “buses” or transportation that may take you to and from the race?

Alexus

Fred Morris asked:


to understand the culture of the redneck man, it is necessary to understand the most Southern of sports: NASCAR. It’s more than just cars driving in circles at high speed, punctuated by the occasional crash; it is an integral part of the modern South. In order to really understand both, you must know where NASCAR came from and why it exists.

History of NASCAR

NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) really started back just before Prohibition, when hillbilly moonshiners up in the Appalachians found out that the revenuers’ cars were fast enough to get the jump on them. Illegal stills started getting busted, and shine makers started going to jail. Instead of buckling, moonshiners moved their stills further back into the woods and down in the hollers, and they started using cars.

When Prohibition came into effect in 1920, moonshiners started looking beyond outwitting the tax-collecting revenuers and toward shipping ’shine to the cities for real profit. Gangsters - Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Capone - started making contact with these good ol’ boys to see if they could get a steady supply of alcohol for their speakeasies and other businesses. And young men, usually the sons or nephews of established moonshiners, started working with stock cars to get the ’shine to town as fast as possible.

These, our redneck forefathers, modified the cars they ordered from magazines or purchased from fledgling dealers in towns to run faster, harder, on rough and smooth surfaces. They experimented with using ’shine as a fuel for a boost in speed, and invented many of the tricks used today in NASCAR. Junior Johnson, one of NASCAR’s earliest legends, spent years running ’shine for his father using scampish tricks later mimicked by Burt Reynolds characters and the Dukes of Hazzard. He invented the famous bootleg turn, the 180-degree spinout sending you careening in the opposite direction, that is used in nearly every movie car chase today, and later as a NASCAR champ discovered how to “draft” another driver to increase his own speed and reduce fuel consumption.

NASCAR was officially born in 1948, a merging of this wild redneck tradition with the more upscale Grand Prix racing imported from Europe, in which mostly concept cars and special sports cars were raced. William France, a racing mechanic, had a notion that stock cars would draw crowds in America, and he incorporated NASCAR in Daytona, from which it quickly grew to the giant it is today.

Today’s NASCAR, industrialized and streamlined and watered down for general consumption, is only a pale imitation of the free-for-all madness our bootlegging ancestors first drove.

NASCAR Rules

While the first NASCAR stock cars were completely unmodified stock cars, the same ones you’d buy off the lot, today’s cars are modified according to strict safety and performance rules.

The rules in NASCAR are both simple and complex. Drivers in the top 43 of each race accumulate points according to a set system. Cups are awarded according to who has accumulated the most points in a set group of races. The Sprint Cup (usually just called the Cup, as it was previously the R.J. Reynolds and the Nextel Cup) is the big prize, and is awarded after a set of 36 races. Other smaller cups are awarded for other groups of races, and each major race has around $4 million total in prize money awarded for that race alone.

Points in the major races (but not all NASCAR races) are awarded not only to the race winner but to each lap leader. If you’ve led at least one lap, you automatically get five bonus points; if you lead the most laps, you get an extra five, for ten bonus points total. Points go to the driver who started the race (replacement drivers get nothing) and to the car owner. Races are generally prefaced either by qualifying trials or by heats, small races that get the crowd warmed up but don’t count toward prizes. Starting order is determined by qualifying time.

The track, once started, is slowed down by yellow caution flags for fender benders, spills, etc.; if something catastrophic happens, the red flag will come down to stop the race until wreckage can be cleared. Green flag means everything is fine. And in most NASCAR races, you’ll see drivers pull off for at least one pit stop; the pit crew works fast to fuel, check, condition, and change tires because the time in pit counts against your time on the track.

A NASCAR Date

So now you have that redneck sweetheart and you really want to impress him? Set up a date for one of the smaller NASCAR races, with barbecue and and chips for your refreshments. Beer is a must, and for that special touch, ask your liquor store for some ’shine, which should be drunk straight but in moderation. Dress any old way you want, park him on the couch, and let him explain all the finer points of the race to you while you both enjoy the race.



Jasmine

Wesley asked:


I think this could be a worthwhile place for anyone interested in motor racing.

Aimee