The Official Everything Of NASCAR

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