The Official Everything Of NASCAR
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I bid
you welcome gentle readers, with a sincere hope that you all arrived safely
home on New Year’s Eve, or better yet, never left home. I’ve never liked the
odds of being out on that night, so it’s always been a stay-at-home night for
my family. Oh, and lest I forget, a warm welcome also to our assigned reader of
all things NASCAR related. It’s been a mite damp in Charlotte of late. I hope
the Fan and Media Espionage Center hasn’t floated down to relocate in Columbia
or Charleston.
And so,
we begin a brand new year… 2016… and the first thing I must tell you is that I
love my gentle readers. How cool is it when one of you comes and requests an
update on a subject? I think it’s great, and today’s column, which concerns the
“Official Everything” of NASCAR came about in just that way.
First,
we must remind NASCAR that it is indeed 2016, because on both their nascar.com
site and the site given to those in the media for information purposes, the
listings are all for 2015. OK, we’ll give them some time. I’m probably the only
one actually beginning a column on New Year’s Day instead of involving my silly
self in parades and college football. So sue me, but I prefer racing, even when
there isn’t any.
Gentle
readers, the gal that asked for a breakdown on the current “partnerships”
really knew of what she spoke. I’ve done several columns on NASCAR sponsors,
partners or whatever they care to call them, but this time, when I went to
retrieve a list, I ran into a couple of problems. They are all there at
nascar.com, but not in any printable way. Instead, they are neatly laid out
with corporate icons that serve as hyper-links to pages that tell more about
each company, what they make or what service they perform and what other brand
names they represent. For instance, Pedigree dog food is owned by M&M’s,
which is why we occasionally see that brand on Kyle Busch’s car even though no
chocolate was involved in the making of the dog food.
Next, I
travelled to the NASCAR media site and did find a Pdf file that I downloaded
containing all of the designations delineated on the earlier page I’d visited…
“Series Entitlement Sponsors”
“Official Sponsors”
“NASCAR Performance Partners”
“NASCAR Green
Partners”
When I
reprinted the Pdf into Microsoft Word, it took all of 6 full pages, using a
small type face. That alone, without another word, would easily be the length
of some of my “windier” columns, and we don’t want you to give up reading
halfway through an article due to fatigue. Please allow me to assume that
everyone knows most of the Series Sponsors, Sprint, (Cup) Xfinity, (2nd
Tier) Camping World, (Trucks) K&N, (K & N Series) Whelen (Modifieds)
and Pinty’s Series. Pinty’s replaces Canadian Tire
as sponsor of the series formerly known as CASCAR. This series is roughly on
par with U.S. K&N Series (Immediately I wonder who sponsors Euro-NASCAR and
NASCAR Mexico and why they are not on the list, since Canada is.)
Moving
on to the “Official Sponsors”, we find 3M, 5.11, Bank of America, Camping
World, Canadian Tire, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Coors Lite, Exide, FDP,
Featherlite, Ford, Freescale, Freightliner, Goodyear, Growth Energy, HP, IR,
Janssen,
K&N, M&Ms, McLaren, Mobil 1, Nabisco, Nationwide, NCGA, New Holland
Agriculture, Prevost, Safety-Kleen, Sherwin Williams, Sirius XM, Sprint,
Sunoco, Toyota, NASCAR Technical Institute, Visa, Whelen, Xfinity and ZAK.
What’s
that you say? You don’t know who all of them are? I didn’t either, which is why
I’m going to share the link to all of them in just a few minutes. All of those
have links explaining who they are and what their designation is, partner,
sponsor, supplier, etc.
The
next category is NASCAR Performance Partners, and there are no links to these,
so I’ll try to give a very brief justification for their existence on the list.
(All are easily found through Google, Bing, etc. if you desire a more complete
description of their purpose)
Autometer (gauges), Autolite (sparkplugs) Bosch
(auto parts and technology) BWD (ignition components), Cometic
(gaskets), COMP (cams), Edelbrock (aftermarket performance
parts), Flowmaster (exhaust technology), Good Sam
(roadside assistance), Holley (fuel system specialists), JEGS (performance
parts), Lincoln Electric (welding supply store), MAHLE (pistons), Mechanix Wear (specialized work and safety wear), Midtronics (battery & electrical systems), MOOG
(steering & suspension), Schumacher (battery chargers), U Coat It (epoxy
flooring), ZAK ( vehicle maintenance fluids)
The
final category is “NASCAR Green” and here
the links magically reappeared, so you can read all about them your own self. Oops!
Better rethink that one. A few of the links work, but most merely return you to
the Home Page, which has nothing to do with our subject du jour, which is
sponsors. For the “Green Partners”, they do have a much better link, which I’m
sure provides the intended destination, not the Home Page.
http://green.nascar.com/partners
That
link will tell you more about each individual partner. (Note to our assigned
reader: Feel free to pass along the correct link to nascar.com; no charge ~ our
services are free, as we’re all about the fans) As promised, here is the link
to the page containing all of the sponsors/partners in all of the categories.
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/sponsors.html
This
information is offered without comment at this time, but all questions and
comments are welcome in the “Comments” section below. Do browse through some of
the company descriptions and their designations as “Official Whatevers.” I promise you’ll find some amusement there, or
perhaps amazement is the proper word. It’s your decision.
Love
that little green Telecaster, and it means that it’s time now for our first
Classic Country Closeout of 2016. The first song up was brought to mind when
seeing “Freightliner” on the Green Partners list. Doesn’t that just scream for
a song called “Diesel Smoke?” Well, there was one, and it was a big hit for Red
Simpson “back in the day” don’t you know.
Next,
this song makes the list by request… from our Marine turned motorsports
journalist, Jeremiah Thalheimer. I wouldn’t call the song a Classic, but the
singer certainly is. Here is Charlie Daniels with a song called “High Speed
Heroes.”
Next is
one from Jay Sellers and the Crew called “Ghost Drivers” The last one pictured
newer drivers, but this one tells a tale of the old guard right up through
those you might know better. Very sad subject, but really worth the listen.
Next up
is the theme song from the audio book version of a fantastic book on stock car
racing history called “Driving with the Devil.” The book was written by Neal
Thompson, and the song is done by Brasher Brogue. For any race fan, this is one
of tomorrow’s classics. Please enjoy!
We’ll
close today with another from Jay Sellers and the Crew, with footage from the
2009 Mountain Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville Georgia, just one mountain over
from where I’m typing. Please enjoy one called “Back Roads and Moonshine”, a
tribute to Raymond Parks, who should have been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of
Fame on the very first ballot. Without Raymond Parks, there would be no NASCAR
today, and that is just fact.
Watch
our site for updates on the DAKAR Rally, Barrett-Jackson Auctions later in the
month and don’t forget the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona. We’re all about the fans
and we do it all for you!
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay