NASCAR BECAME A WHOLE NEW WORLD WHEN GORDON/DUPONT ENTERED THE RACE
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (January 21, 2012) “A Whole New World” appropriately was the No. 1 song on the pop charts the year Jeff Gordon came on the NASCAR Cup Series scene in the rainbow-colored Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet and took the motorsports world by storm.
But the irony goes beyond the song title. Gordon’s first Cup Series start was seven-time champion “King” Richard Petty’s final Cup Series start at the season finale in Atlanta in 1992. The torch seemed to be passed that day as Gordon went on to accumulate four championships in his first nine full seasons and now is third on the all-time win list with 85 career victories. David Pearson is second with 105, and Petty reigns with a record 200 wins.
Thirty-five weeks a year, one of the most fun and challenging things about this column is the fact that it can often be quite speculative in nature.
Based on what happened the previous week or month in NASCAR, we have the luxury of utilizing what has gone before in order to predict what might happen next. Each week is an important link in a chain that begins when the season is tossed overboard in February, and ends in November when a champion lands to anchor it for the next 12 months.
But this is Week 36. As of this writing, mere hours separate us from the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and NASCAR’s championship anchor is dangling so close to the ocean floor that the sand is already swirling. After the closest and most exciting year in recent memory, all that stands between this moment and the end of the 2012 season is the simplest of toddler math, countable on a single hand: one race, two drivers and three points.
Sprint to Celebrate Monica Palumbo’s Four-Year Reign as Miss Sprint Cup
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – Sept. 12, 2011 – After four years in the Miss Sprint Cup program, Monica Palumbo has notified Sprint that 2011 will be her last in the role that has made her one of the most recognizable faces in NASCAR.
Listen to our interview with Monica from last year.
“I’ve been Miss Sprint Cup for four years, experienced everything under the sun, and I am forever grateful to have held on to this role for so long,” said Palumbo. “It has been a dream job, but you just know when it’s time to close one chapter and begin a new one, so I recently let Sprint know this will be my final season. I am looking forward to the next challenge and the next opportunity. I always knew my job as Miss Sprint Cup wouldn’t last forever, but it will forever be a part of me.”
Fans will have the opportunity to meet Palumbo at a number of races during the 2011 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, including Chicagoland Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. Fans are encouraged to stop by the Sprint Experience, located in the display area at every NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event, for photos and autographs with Palumbo as she closes out her final season as Miss Sprint Cup.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (January 21, 2012) “A Whole New World” appropriately was the No. 1 song on the pop charts the year Jeff Gordon came on the NASCAR Cup Series scene in the rainbow-colored Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet and took the motorsports world by storm.
Guest Column By Cathy Elliott
