smoke

on

At Daytona … There Will Be ‘Smoke’
After sitting out the final 15 races of the 2013 season following a sprint car accident on Aug. 5, three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart returns to action in Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited at Daytona. Although the driver commonly referred to as “Smoke” by his legions of fans didn’t win a Coors Light Pole Award last year, he qualifies as a past winner of the race. Stewart has won the event three times, most recently in 2007.

on

UPDATE: TONY WON FOR BEST DRIVER – CLICK HERE

2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart has been nominated in two categories for the 2012 ESPY Awards: “Best Championship Performance” and “Best Driver.” Voting in all categories ends tonight, Monday, July 9 at 11:59 p.m. ET, so fans still have a chance to cast their votes for Stewart. The ESPYs airs live on Wednesday, July 11 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN with host Rob Riggle.

VOTE FOR SMOKE (Be sure to click through, there are 2 categories for Tony)

Joining Stewart in the “Best Championship Performance” category are LeBron James, NBA Finals MVP; Eli Manning, NFL Super Bowl MVP; Jonathan Quick, NHL Conn Smythe winner in the Stanley Cup; and David Freese, MLB World Series MVP. Stewart’s company in the “Best Driver” category are four-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti, Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel and NHRA champion Del Worsham.

on
Smoke was all smiles during the first practice session of the weekend on Thursday, but in final practice he was forced to a backup car. Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

By: Toby Christie – Follow on Twitter @Tobalical

The final practice session of the week is in the books for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Trevor Bayne – who’s hopes of taking home the 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series championship were dashed when sponsorship couldn’t be found this weekend – paced the session with a lap of 184.641 mph in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team Ford.

Bayne has a lot to prove, and he has plenty of incentive to want to do well this weekend – outside of the fact that he is a racecar driver.

Greg Biffle was second-quick in this session, and he was followed by Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-five fastest.

One of the shockers of the session was Kurt Busch who wheeled his No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet to the eighth-fastest time in the session, and Casey Mears also displayed some speed in his No. 13 GEICO Ford with the 12th fastest lap time.

The only incident of the practice session came when Tony Stewart – who won at Texas last November – slammed into the wall early in the session. The contact was severe enough to force “Smoke” – who posted the 35th-fastest time before the crash – to go to a backup car for Saturday’s race. It’ll be interesting to see how finely Steve Addington can tune Stewart’s backup car before Sprint Cup Series qualifying starts at 5:40 pm local time.

Continue reading “Trevor Bayne Paces Final Sprint Cup Practice In Texas — Tony Stewart Crashes, Will Go To Backup Car”

on

Greg Zipadelli Named Competition Director for Stewart-Haas Racing

KANNAPOLIS, N.C., (Dec. 16, 2011) – Greg Zipadelli, winner of two championships and 34 victories as a crew chief in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, has been named competition director at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). He will work with Vice President of Competition Matt Borland and oversee the Nos. 14 and 39 teams, while also building the No. 10 team for which Danica Patrick will run a 10-race Sprint Cup schedule with in 2012.

Zipadelli comes to SHR from Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) where he served as crew chief for the No. 20 team since 1999. It’s where the 44-year-old from Berlin, Conn., began a 10-year tenure with Tony Stewart, the co-owner of SHR along with Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation.

Continue reading “Zippy and Smoke Together again, Greg is new Competition Director at SHR”

on

World Renowned Recording Artist To Perform ‘Born Free’ On Dec. 2 At Wynn Las Vegas

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 9, 2011) – The house will be rockin’ – literally – when Kid Rock takes the stage to open the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony on Dec. 2 at Wynn Las Vegas.

NASCAR announced today that the renowned singer-songwriter and musician will perform the title track and lead single “Born Free” from his latest platinum-selling album, which was released last November. Kid Rock joins multimedia superstar and event host, Reba, on the list of top name celebrities performing at the year-end awards ceremony.

Much like Reba, Kid Rock is a natural fit for NASCAR as a mainstream artist who appeals to a wide fan base, as his past hits have ranged from country to hard rock to rap. Kid Rock also aligns nicely with NASCAR through his sense of pride for America. He performed live for U.S. troops during an MTV USO Special at Ramstein Air Base in Germany in 2002, recorded “Warrior” for a National Guard advertising campaign in 2008 and regularly makes charitable contributions to “Operation Homefront”, which provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of service members and wounded warriors.

Continue reading “Kid Rock joins list of Sprint Cup Series Awards performers in Las Vegas”