Pit Road Post

Dick Cheney To Attend Pepsi 400

Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to attend Saturday's Pepsi 400 in Daytona. We wonder if the local hotels are aware of the vice presidential requirements as disclosed by The Smoking Gun?  "The document is provided to hotels where Cheney will be bunking and lists how the Republican pol's "Downtime Suite" needs to be outfitted. While the vice president's requests are pretty modest (no extract-the-brown-M&M demands here), Cheney does like his suite at a comfy 68 degrees. And, of course, all the televisions need to be preset to the Fox News Channel (what, you thought he was a Lifetime devotee?). Decaf coffee should be ready upon his arrival along with four cans of caffeine-free Diet Sprite. And when Cheney is traveling with his wife Lynne, the second family's suite needs an additional two bottles of sparkling water. Mrs. Cheney's H2O should be either Calistoga or, curiously, Perrier, a favored beverage of French terrorism appeasers... "

The Pit Road Post also wonders whether the standard Nascar "Leave Your Guns At Home" rule will apply this weekend.

Moonshine Company Sponsoring Shelmerdine

I couldn't be happier for Kirk Shelmerdine, former Dale Earnhardt Sr. crew chief, who lived his dream of racing in the Daytona 500 earlier this year.  I hope he got some big bucks from Catdaddy Moonshine (talk about getting the sport back to it's roots) so we can see him in a few more shows.

Jeff Gordon Engaged

Not that I care, but I hope, for his sake, that he's getting a pre-nup.

Lesa France Kennedy Helps Christen Goodyear Blimp

In a spectacular event held today at its Wingfoot Lake Airship hangar, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company christened its newest blimp. After more than a year of construction and testing, as well as two months of operational flights bearing only its FAA designation N2A, the new blimp finally received its name - - Spirit of Innovation - - during a gala christening event attended by more than 6,000 spectators, dignitaries and Goodyear employees. Lesa France Kennedy, president of International Speedway Corporation and a member of NASCAR’s Board of Directors, christened the Spirit of Innovation along with Lynn Keegan, wife of Goodyear Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Keegan, during the official ceremony. More

The Pit Road Post would like to apologize for running the incorrect photo with this story.

Rusty Wallace hosting new reality TV show

SceneDaily reports that Rusty Wallace will host "Nascar Angels," a reality TV show that will begin airing this fall.

The show, which will feature top NASCAR competitors showing deserving families a look behind the scenes of NASCAR, is scheduled to debut Sept. 12 on various networks, including ABC.

NASCAR: What You Should Know

From YouTube

Will Ferrell named Chicagoland's grand marshal

SCENEDAILY

Chicagoland Speedway officials have announced that actor Will Ferrell will serve as grand marshal for the July 9 USG Sheetrock 400 Nextel Cup Series race at the Joliet, Ill., track.

Ferrell stars as fictional NASCAR driver Ricky Bobby in the Columbia Pictures film "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which opens Aug. 4.

News from The Smoking Gun

We're huge NASCAR fans here at TSG--stock car racing just appeals to our outlaw, anti-authoritarian nature. So imagine our dismay when we discovered that late NASCAR founder William France, Sr. was in bed with the man, specifically the FBI. Despite a 1946 bust for conspiring to violate wartime rationing laws, the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the bureau's Jacksonville field office once sought to have FBI headquarters approve France as a confidential "SAC contact" since his business connections were of great value to Florida agents. While these FBI memos, released pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request, do not record HQ's final decision, it's unlikely that France's prized "higher echelon" contacts went untapped. See more here

Microsoft's Nascar approach to security

When you're hot, you're hot - seems as though everyone wants to get on the Nascar bandwagon.  This story comes from Silicon Valley Sleuth.

Computers aren't exactly known for their appliance-like characteristics, and the ability to customize them is probably on of the device's main strengths. But customization and openness is a curse when it comes to security.

Microsoft on Wednesday is launching its OneCare performance suite in the US, and has come up with the perfect analogy: that of the race car driver. He too needs optimal performance and control, but doesn't want to be bothered with changing tires, refuelling and fine-tuning the engine.

The company therefore has "borrowed" a Nascar vehicle from the BestBuy retail chain and will have it compete in OneCare colours on Sunday 4 June at the Dover Speedway in Delaware.

Now let's hope that it doesn’t crash.

It Takes 1 Min 20 Seconds to Change a Tire at Office Depot

In what has to be the longest recorded  pit stop in history, the crew  for the 99 Office Depot car took 1 minute  and 21 seconds to change  a tire at todays race in Pocono.
In another NASCAR first, Carl Edwards exited his car during the stop and in a blatant attempt to entertain the fans, began doing flips across pit road.