Welcome to “Fuel It Up”! The racing world is chock full of intriguing stories, but sifting through them to get a good general sense of the landscape can be challenging. In Fuel It Up, I take the biggest, more interesting storylines and present them to you in a quick, compact 300-words-or-less format.
Heading to the 2 mile track at Fontana, California where Tony Stewart was last year’s race winner…………… Speaking of Stewart wins, the winner of this week’s coolest paint scheme award goes to the #14 car driven by Tony Stewart…………… There are 43 cars entered in the Auto Club 400. No go or go homers…………… Jeremy Mayfield, suspended by NASCAR in 2009 for a failed drug test, has had several burglary charges dropped against him. Mayfield still faces several charges that if convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 27 years. He still hopes to resume his racing career.…………… The California Speedway was built on the site of an old Steel Mill. The track has been hosting NASCAR races since 1997 and has a seating capacity of 91,200. Roger Penske was one of the original owners of the track……………. Clint Boyer has purchased an Auto Dealership in Emporia Kansas where he used to work. Clint was a dent specialist while employed there. I wonder if Clint uses that talent in his NASCAR garage…………… In the “same as it ever was department”, Brad Keselowski leads the Sprint Cup Driver Points heading into Fontana. He’s chased by Dale Jr. and Jimmy Johnson. Danica Patrick sits 28th.…………… The propaganda machine also known as NASCAR does not provide attendance figures for its races. Some attendance figures for last week’s Bristol race were estimated at 80,000 fans at one of NASCAR’s usually better attended races. Surely the poor weather, economy and less then thrilling races had something to do with that. As usual, NASCAR is not talking about attendance or anything else detrimental to its image for that matter…………… Scheduled to serve as Grand Marshalls for the Auto Club 400 are the stars of the upcoming film, G.I.: Joe Retaliation, D.J. Cotrona and Adrianne Palicki…………….. Night Ranger will perform the National Anthem prior to Sunday’s race which is scheduled to start at 3:16 pm ET…………… The weather forecast for Sunday is Sunny with a high of 77 degrees.
And there you have it, the headlines people are talking about as compact as possible. Feel free to give me a follow on Twitter – @JimLaPlante, as well as the site – @LastWordOnSport.
