NAPA, NASCAR and Truex, Jr., Team up with Susan G. Komen

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Barrett Jackson



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From now to Oct. 11, consumers can submit the names of loved ones affected by breast cancer to appear on the No. 56 NAPA Toyota!









NAPA AUTO PARTS and NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Martin Truex, Jr., are teaming up with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to honor breast cancer victims, survivors and supporters via a special, one-of-a-kind fan-generated paint scheme featuring the names of individuals affected by breast cancer.
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1967 ? Johnny Carson with Mario Andretti, Rodger Ward, Parnelli Jones

1967 – Johnny Carson with Mario Andretti, Rodger Ward, Parnelli Jones





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Jim Hunter was impossible to dislike

 

Jim Hunter, NASCAR Vice President of Corporate Communications, answers questions from media in June 2008 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. Hunter died of cancer yesterday at age 71. (photo: Getty Images)

Jim Hunter often frustrated me, and vice-versa.

If there is a positive to be derived from death — and this was richly true of my father’s demise — it is that the passage of time obscures much of the negative and enhances much of the positive. Or that’s been my experience.

For instance, these days I often find myself missing Dale Earnhardt, and it would have been something I’d never even have considered back in the mid-1990s, when Earnhardt was a force of nature that I compared more often to a hurricane than a gorgeous autumn day. I never could have imagined Earnhardt dead, even past the moment that he was.

Here’s what I think will come to mind more often than any other characteristic of Hunter: He could separate the personal from the professional, and that’s increasingly rare in the public-relations business.

From most of whose clients I’ve been critical, I get the cold shoulder. They don’t initiate contact, and if I say hello, they just look at the ground and mutter something. Most of them get over it, but some never do. Ah, well. It’s the price one pays for being honest in a politically correct world.

Crossing horns with Hunter was almost a pleasure. He might get a little mad for a while, or so would I, but in a day or two, I’d get an email that ran along these lines:

“You sure keep me in hot water, but, between you and me, I can’t help but chuckle at some of the things you write. Regards, Jim.”

Jim Hunter, NASCAR’s Vice President of Corporate Communications, died Friday night at age 71. One year ago, I came to this track, Talladega Superspeedway, hobbled by a fall I’d taken while loading speakers in the dark after a music gig. The pain got so fierce that I finally went to the Talladega infield hospital for treatment and advice. When I walked in, Hunter was standing outside. Apparently, that’s when he found out he had cancer.

A few months back, Hunter and I exchanged emails. In his reply, he wrote that he was about to go back in for more treatment but that the doctors had told him he still had a shot and he was keeping his spirits up.

I’m satisfied he was optimistic until the very end. He laughed easily and was impossible to dislike. He often frustrated me, and part of the frustration came from being unable to marshal much bitterness toward such a genial man.

When we did lock horns, Hunter would make his case that, in some fashion, I had been unfair. Then, when I would vigorously defend myself, invariably Hunter would listen and, almost every time, reply at some point by saying, “That’s fair.”

I can imagine Hunter saying those two words while strolling the streets of heaven, tipping his yellow NASCAR cap to passers-by.

The bell has been tolling much too rapidly. In three weeks, four familiar acquaintances have passed on: first the gruff, curmudgeonly writer, Jack Flowers, then Jeff Byrd, the courtly president of Bristol Motor Speedway, then Ed Shull, who represented Gatorade more in my mind than the company logo.

And now Hunter, whom I won’t miss for his ability to sell NASCAR sand to sportswriting nomads.

I’ll miss him for the laugh that was never far away, for his refusal to burn any bridges and his frantic ability to move with punches and think on the fly. I seldom bought his explanations, by the way, but they sure were fun to hear and amusing to observe.

Mainly I’ll miss Jim Hunter for his humanity.

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After decades of being spurned by Mother Russia, Uncle Bernaughty, nee Mr. Bernard Ecclestone has finally seen his desires come true with today?s announcement that his Bosom Buddy Vladimir has signed on the dotted line...As reportedly Mister B and Rooskie Supremo Vladimir Putin were in Sochi to announce the formal signing of a contract for the Sochi Grand Prix, which will be held from 2014-2020. And defacto circuit designer Herman Tilke has already laid out another ?Tilkie? cookie-cutter venue to pound ?round the 2014 Winter Olympics grounds, as hopes are to see the resort town ?Morph into another Monaco...Russia to join F1 calendar in 2014

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All is ridiculously well

MARTINSVILLE, Va. – What has changed about NASCAR in 20 years? There’s a Chase. The cars look alike. Some old tracks have been eliminated and new ones added. Dale Earnhardt’s gone, and his son isn’t feeling so great, either.
 
But here’s the main change: Everything is so convoluted and interconnected. A fairly common term in life, “conflict of interest,” doesn’t seem to exist in NASCAR. More accurately, it’s so prevalent that it has become acceptable. The phrase doesn’t exist in a negative sense, at least not here in “bizarre world.”
 
The principal owner of the Boston Red Sox owns a stake in a NASCAR team, hence the name Roush Fenway Racing. John Henry and his partners have now acquired their very own soccer team, the one in Liverpool, England, that was formerly owned by a partnership that included another NASCAR owner, George Gillett.
 
But wait. It gets better.
 
The man who owns one team, Richard Petty (in name only) Motorsports, apparently owes another team lots of money. The figure being quoted in the garage area at Martinsville on Friday was $10-15 million, but that’s probably exaggerated because, well, nothing is publicly disclosed in this sport so, generally, every monetary figure winds up getting doubled and tripled in the scuttlebutt that inevitably spreads in any setting where secrecy is perpetuated.
 
So call it $5 million, tops. Still a lot of money.
 
The team to which the money is allegedly owed has the name Roush Fenway Racing, which is quite the coincidence.
 
Almost every press conference regarding these all-too-common coincidences can be summed up in three words: “All is well.”
 
RPM’s most valuable property, one Kasey Kahne, jumped ship this week. He is being replaced by Aric Almirola, who isn’t a very valuable property, for the remaining five races, beginning with Sunday’s Tums Fast Relief 500. One would think the team’s sponsor, Budweiser, would be concerned.
 
Don’t be ridiculous. All is well.
 
Asked about the financial situation at the team he just left, Kahne said he had been paid and, regarding rumors that others haven’t, ““I’ve been able to stay out of it and start working on the Red Bull (new team) side.”
 
Don’t be ridiculous. All is well.
 
Asked about the interests of Budweiser, Kahne said that contract was with RPM, not him. Asked if he had any personal-services commitments, Kahne said he would continue to make appearances in the (former?) sponsor’s behalf until year’s end.
           
Don’t be ridiculous. All is well.
 
Team Red Bull general manager Jay Frye said Team Red Bull didn’t have any business with Budweiser, so he didn’t’ know about any of that.
 
Don’t be ridiculous. All is well.

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