Unlike Moon, NASCAR Cares About Fans
Twitter Updates Shed NASCAR Light

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following release is a lighter side look at statistics. NASCAR doesn’t really think it’s better than the moon.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 22, 2009) – While the moon caused the longest solar eclipse of this century, NASCAR continues giving fans what they want: the best racing on the planet.

This week, a solar eclipse lasting over six and a half minutes occurred on the other side of the planet. You’ll have to wait another 123 years for another eclipse that long; a similar one is scheduled for June 13, 2132. By then, four-time champion Jeff Gordon will have 642 wins – if he keeps up the pace he’s on now.

Last night’s eclipse was a cruelly long one. Six and a half minutes? The brutal wait was a ridiculous 388.996 seconds longer than the average margin of victory for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (which is a mere 1.004 seconds).

But fear not. While the moon and the sun toyed with the Earth, NASCAR stayed busy keeping its fans up-to-date on all the sport’s action heading into the 16th running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Need to see the light? Log onto http://www.twitter.com/NASCARSays to get the latest NASCAR news. There you’ll find driver quotes, NASCAR news and pretty interesting statistics – 140 characters at a time. And by following NASCARSays, you’ll be part of cool, HUGE, group. NASCARSays has 6,735 followers. The Moon only has 310. Take that @themoon!

Astronaut Doug Hurley should’ve given the moon a good old, “Down in front!”

Lt. Col. Hurley was 250 miles – or 100 Indy laps – above the earth during the eclipse. He’s docking the Space Shuttle Endeavor to the International Space Station. Hurley, a huge NASCAR fan, will be getting race updates through his secure NASA e-mail address during Sunday’s event.

But, maybe we should cut the moon some slack. The Moon vs. NASCAR isn’t really a fair fight. On the final lap of last season’s Indianapolis race, Carl Edwards was the fastest driver, going 172.036 mph. Do you know how fast the moon is? It travels around the earth at 10.350 mph.

In other words, Carl Edwards is faster than the moon.