It happens every year: NASCAR dominates your life every Sunday (and sometimes other days) from February through November. But what do you do when someone you live with is a Race Fan (RF) and you’re not? From coping with the temporarily impaired ability to carry on a coherent conversation (don’t worry – it usually is just temporary) to wondering why a 39 year old suddenly starts to behave like a 12 year old every time a race is on, here are some tips to help you cope with your very own RF, whether they’re 10 or 90 or somewhere in between.

NEVER walk in front of the television if a race is on. If your dog is trying to crawl up the fireplace, let it go. If your arm is falling off, just duct tape it back on for now. Just don’t walk in front of the television. Seriously, this piece of advice could possibly save your life.

Throw the word “drafting” into anything you need so say to your RF while the race is on. Since drafting is a popular racing term, you stand a small chance of actually being heard.

Invest in a drink holder that has a long arm. Why? It makes your RF feel like he’s being handed a drink while sitting in a race car, and more importantly, it keeps you out of harm’s way.

NEVER plan anything on a Sunday during race season ? unless you want to go alone. If you do want to go somewhere alone (or with friends), Sunday is the perfect day.

Refer to all bathroom breaks as “pit stops”. You may actually need to remind your RF to take some pit stops during the race, too.

If you’re going somewhere during the race and you need to make your RF aware that you’re leaving, use the phrase “4-tire change” somewhere in your sentence. You’ll at least get a baffled stare.

If your RF has some rowdy friends over for the race, you might think about implementing a flag system. In racing, a green flag means the race is on and there are no problems. A yellow flag is a caution, which means all drivers must slow down and use – what else – caution. A red flag means the race has been stopped due to debris or an accident. A black flag means that a specific car must leave the race. These same flag colors can be used as a behavioral barometer for a rowdy NASCAR crowd, and it involves symbols they already understand. If they don’t behave, you can always slap ‘em with a fine.

Make sure the food served during a race is only from NASCAR sponsors. You don’t have to serve the food, but unless you want to hear a lot of bellyaching, makes sure the “approved” food is available.

Invest in some good earphones. You can listen to music or books on tape and not have to get sucked into a discussion of who really should have won the 1976 Daytona 500.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And remember: it’s perfectly acceptable to choose a favorite driver based on how cute he is or how cool his car looks.

Jeff Gordon is a famous American race car driver who was born in 1971 in Vallejo, California. He has won the Nascar Winston Cup four times, and he drives car #24 for Hendrick Motorsports. As of this writing, one of his most prominent sponsors is DuPont. Jeff Gordon began racing when he was only five years of age. He loved to race cars, and his family was supportive of him. His family actually relocated primarily because they wanted Jeff to be in a location where he could better harness his racing skills. While he was still a minor, Jeff had already won a number of races and was given the USAC Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year award.

After this, Gordon went on to win the USAC Midget title, and by 1991, he had gained the USAC Silver Crown. He broke a record by being the youngest person to ever capture the title. He went to the Busch Series after this, and had a large number of victories. Gordon crashed his car during the the Hooters 500 race in Atlanta in 1992, and this caused him to be placed in the 31st position. Jeff Gordon was one of many young racers who would be placed on high quality teams early in their careers. The success of Jeff Gordon allowed a younger generation of racers to begin competing in Nascar.

Many critics felt that Gordon was not ready to compete at the professional level because of his habit of racing cars so hard that he crashed them. However, Gordon proved them all wrong during the 1994 season, were he emerged victorious in the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, which was a long and difficult race. Gordon would also go on to win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400. In 1995 he won what would become the first of four Winston Cup Championships. Jeff Gordon is also famous for rising up against the legendary Dale Earnhardt, and he has become a fan favorite.

Many people consider Jeff Gordon to be one of the greatest drivers in Nascar because he achieved so much at a very young age. Even at 35 years of age, Jeff Gordon has successfully won 75 races, which is just one victory behind Dale Earnhardt. Jeff Gordon is also notable for making Nascar a popular sport with mainstream audiences. For a long time, the sport was only regulated to the south, but Jeff Gordon has allowed it to reach a high level of popularity due to advertising and his skills with the media.

The 2009 Sprint Cup season could be considered the commencement of a new era in NASCAR. Smaller fields, less sponsorship dollars to play with, a testing ban on all NASCAR sanctioned facilities, and of course, no Petty Enterprises all contribute to the new-look NASCAR . A plethora of changes define the upcoming season, but still the show must go on.

Who will win the 2009 Sprint Cup championship? It is difficult to project at this point. Well, not really. Jimmie Johnson is the odds-on favorite in Las Vegas, while Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch are solid picks as well. When most of the preview guides are released to the retailers in late-January, one of those three drivers will be the projected champion. A couple of dark horse picks may include Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, and Jeff Burton, all who performed well towards the tail end of the 2008 season.

How will Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman perform with the newly-formed Stewart Haas Racing? Now that is difficult to project at this point in time, and even after the season begins. It is likely that both drivers will win a race .or two, especially on one of the shorter tracks and possibly a restrictor plate track, but overall, they are in for a taxing transition. Both drivers could easily miss the Chase for the Championship. It could really go either way.

Who will win the 2009 rookie of the year award? It will come down to Joe Gibbs Racing?s teenage driver Joey Logano, and former Formula One driver Scott Speed, who is driving the Red Bull Racing entry. While Logano was the center of hype in 2008, it is time to see if he is the real deal. He inherits the third most winning ride of this decade. Only the 48 and 24 teams have more wins since 2000. Logano looked like a complete amateur in his handful of Sprint Cup starts last fall. Speed may come out on top. He was scrupulously developed at Red Bull Racing, and appears to be more seasoned. He also performed respectably in his handful of Sprint Cup starts.

Will Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth win a race? Both champions are sure to revisit a long lost love- that being victory lane. Gordon and Kenseth are two of the top five drivers in our sport, so expect them to rejoin the fraternity of winners in 2009. Kevin Harvick will also find victory lane in 2009.

Is there a former champion that may not win a race in 2009? Bobby Labonte is now a darkhorse after spending the latter stages of the 1990?s and early years in the 2000?s as a perennial championship contender. The 2000 champion has yet to sign on with another team after leaving Petty Enterprises. Unless Penske Racing resolves their dire performance issues, Kurt Busch may undergo his first winless season since 2001, his rookie season. As mentioned earlier, Tony Stewart could perhaps fail to win a race for the first time in his career, as he is not a car owner as opposed to just a driver.

Who is going to win their first career race in 2009? After no victory lane newbies in 2008, we should see a couple of first-time winners in 2009. David Ragan, A.J. Allmendinger, Joey Logano, and Scott Speed are solid candidates.

Who will emerge as the comeback driver of the year? Last year, it was Greg Biffle. This year, Martin Truex, Jr and Jamie McMurray are possibilities.

Fans, the next month and a half will fly by, so prepare yourself for a different NASCAR in 2009.

This sport is no longer watchable. NASCAR has completely ruined this sport. There’s no competition, the cars aren’t and don’t look like stock cars. They go down the straight aways sideways. And the point system is a joke. And 90% of the caution flags are for debris. This by far is the most boring of NASCAR seasons ever.

I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way, just look at all the empty seats at all of the races. The ticket prices are outrageous and the excitement and thrill of the sport is gone. NASCAR needs to make some serious and drastic changes for next year, to try and make it more competitive as well as put the excitement back in the sport for the fans.

One of my ideas would be to give a quarter point to a driver for every lap he leads, that way you don’t have drivers busting their tail to lead just one lap to get there five bonus points and then drop back. If a driver gets a quarter point for every lap he leads then that gives them some incentive to race for the lead every lap. Then you have the tire situation they had at Indy, that was a joke. Here you have one of the most traditional races on the schedule and they have to throw a caution every 10 or 12 laps to change tires.

NASCAR needs to go back to the old days where they didn’t mandate everything and let these guys set their car up the way they want to and let them go racing. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m done watching this sport until something is done to make it more exciting. And as much as I hated to do it, I gave up my Bristol tickets. It’s no longer worth the time and money to make that trip twice a year.

The usually outstanding NASCAR pilot Jeff Gordon has been suffering of a bad luck streak lately and this Sunday he got caught in an eleven car crash halfway through the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Super Speedway. Gordon has won four times the NASCAR Championship but this time he ended up 36th. This is his second consecutive ending near the bottom of the field.

Gordon and his team handled to put his damaged Chevrolet #24 again on track to at least make up a few places and earn a few additional points in the race. But according to Gordon “…it just doesn’t seem meant to be for the DuPont Chevrolet”.

Last Sunday Gordon was leading a race-high 27 laps before the crash on lap 138 of 188. The famous pilot fell from the 6th position to the 7th with six races remaining for the Nextel Cup Championship. At the end he only lost 27 points to the series leader.

Jeff Burton was fifth before he had to pit with a flat tire just 11 laps from the end. He finished in the 27th place.

Brian Vickers was the eventual winner of the race. He knocked Jimmie Johnson into leader Dale Earnhardt on the last lap and both pilots spun off the track. Earnhardt, whose current position in the points is sixth ended up in the 23rd place and Johnson in the 24th and eight in the points.

The pilot Matt Kenseth finished second. Batesville’s Mark Martin finished eighth and Kevin Harvick finished sixth.

Denny Hamlin started the day in second place but he earned 18 points on Burton although he fell all the way to fifth place after being involved in two crashes and at the end he finished in the 21st place.

After Hamilton found out about his condition he competed in the first three truck races of the season, with a top finish of 14th spot in the Atlanta Motor Speedway, before handing over the wheel to his son, Bobby Hamilton Jr. He then started chemotherapy and radiation treatment. In August he decided to return to work, after the doctors got good results back from his CAT scans, at the Bobby Hamilton Racing unit in Mount Juliet. However, minuscule cancer cells lingered on the right side of his neck.

He was very passionate and grateful towards his career in general and especially to Nascar. A few words from Hamilton regarding his condition were the following, “Cancer is an ongoing battle, and once you are diagnosed you always live with the thought of the disease in your body?, “It is the worst thing you could ever imagine.? “I love what I do; I love this business,” “NASCAR has been good to me, and I just don’t feel comfortable when I am not around it.”

Hamilton participated in all top three divisions of Nascar and made 371 starts and won four times in what is the current Nextel Cup Series. Some of his wins include the 2001 Talladega 500 and the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series Champion. His greatest year was in 1996 when he ranked in the ninth spot for in the point?s rankings and also by winning his first race Cup that same year in Phoenix.

During the years between 1989 thru 2005 he drove in the top-level of the NASCAR series producing winnings of $14.3 million and racing within the 20 top-five finishes. He developed into a full-time driver-owner in the truck series in 2003.

Hamilton was a very well appreciated and loved person not only by his family and friends but also by fellow members of Nascar.

The popularity of NASCAR has skyrocketed, making it one of the most watched televised sports in the U.S. today. For fans and spectators, the thrill of watching drivers maneuver the track at speeds that often exceed 200 miles per hour offers excitement beyond compare. For those in the industry itself, the ?behind the scenes? action is also fraught with victory and defeat, which makes for a thrilling ride.

Few who enjoy the sport from the outside realize just how much preparation, innovation and time is spent preparing engines, transmissions and the car bodies themselves for the long racing season. Technicians work tirelessly to adjust, refine and perfect every aspect of a car?s performance while maintaining strict adherence to NASCAR regulations. Pit crews train together in order to maximize their speed and accuracy while minimizing the risk for serious injury to both themselves and the driver they will assist. All in all, their combined efforts are more likely to determine who will finish the season with the most points than anyone behind the wheel.

These are no ordinary mechanics by any standard. Most diagnostics and pit crew personnel receive specialty training at facilities designed for those interested in working within the sport. These facilities, such as the NASCAR Technical Institute run by the Universal Technical Institute in a joint partnership with NASCAR, cater to both the industry itself and those who wish to be a part of it. Additionally, most graduates undergo extensive training developed by the respective racing teams they become a part of.

For pit crew personnel in particular, the physically demanding aspects of the position require a great deal of stamina. Every active racing team on the circuit today incorporates physical conditioning as part of their training in order to increase stamina. Long periods of inactivity are intermittently infused with moments where the crew must work as a cohesive unit, and with not a moment to spare. Additionally, they must be at the ready through every lap, from the first to the last.

For those who develop and diagnose performance standards for the cars, minute adjustments and constant testing are commonplace. From the timing belt and air intake to the aerodynamics measured in wind tunnel testing, their mission is to give their car, and consequently their driver, every possible advantage. The efforts they make can mean the difference between a pole position or starting the race at a disadvantage.

So while fans of NASCAR are familiar with the victory lap and hoisting of the trophy, there is a quiet celebration among the unknown faces that comprise the racing team which spectators will likely never see. Without question, a win for the driver is also a win for the combined efforts of those who helped make a trip through victory lane possible.

Charley Strickland moves his former American NASCAR team to Mexico?s own NASCAR Mexico (formerly Desafio Corona) racing league. His move is one of revolutionary impact for the second most popular sport in Latin America. Falling just a few million behind soccer, the DC already has over 4 million viewers- an impressive number that promises to nearly double with the addition of an American team.

Having used the last few races of the 2006 season to break in his crew and get accustomed to racing in Mexico, Strickland intends to place his former NASCAR driver, Blake Mallory behind the wheel and start with the September 24th, 2006 race in Puebla, Mexico. Leasing a car from the existing team of Rafael Vallina, (www.spartac.com) Strickland intends to participate in most of the remaining races of the year, while ultimately preparing for a promising 2007 season.

As for NASCAR Mexico itself, they are preparing for their newfound popularity amongst the English speaking countries, starting with the immediate translation of their website (www.desafiocorona.com) into English and preparations for American media inquiries. They?re also enjoying a new wave of interest from both American and Latin sponsors who recognize the difference between a $5 million dollar NASCAR sponsorship and the few hundred thousand required to sponsor a DC team. ?Not a bad price tag for a spot next to FedEx and Sky Satellite on international television,? explains Miguel Garcia, partner in the luxury real estate agency, La Punta Realty and potential sponsor for Strickland.

Even more promising to sponsors, Strickland has been approached by a well known production company from Guadalajara and is considering their proposed reality TV pilot to be broadcast in the U.S. and Latin America. While Strickland hasn?t signed anything yet, he explains that he?s intrigued by the project where he and his team would be followed religiously while they prepare for their first racing season, negotiate with sponsors, and deal with all the challenges of racing in a third world country.

Preparations are beginning for the 50th running of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 17. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway catalogued as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR Calendar is around the corner and the annual season opening is already in action.

The Budweiser Shootout, a non-points All-Star race featuring the previous season’s pole winners and past Budweiser Shootout champions which kicked off a week before the big day of the season shows a record of 23 racers this year. The shootout is very famous in the United States; however, nothing is more important than the NASCAR?s Superbowl or Daytona 500 usually held the second Sunday of February and always associated with the Presidents Day weekend.

Winning Daytona 500 is the perfect chance to shine on the sport’s biggest day. It’s also the biggest payday each year. The winner’s share this year likely will top $1.5 million. But the drivers aren’t thinking about the money because it is all about a place in history since winning this event makes you the most valuable player in NASCAR since fans remember Daytona 500 winners more than Cup champions.

In fact, Daytona 500 TV audience has been the highest for any auto race of the year. Actually, the 2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers. People who normally don’t watch NASCAR will tune in and watch the Daytona 500, just like people watch the Kentucky Derby or the Masters.

There are already three drivers leading the pack as early favorites to win the 2008 Daytona 500. Defending Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports Teammates Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are all listed as favorites to win the 50th running of the Great American Race.

As yet, Jimmie Johnson has the fastest speed in the first Daytona 500 practice; he posted it this morning going 186.285 miles per hour while rookie Carpenter was the fastest in the afternoon going 186.150. Patrick Carpentier was the quickest driver in the second practice session for the 50th Daytona 500. The Valvoline Dodge driver lapped the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway tri-oval in 48.348/186.150 mph.

For the second consecutive time, Greg Biffle managed to advance in the final section of the Camping World RV 400 Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway taking the victory and overcoming the leaders and favorites to win this particular competition. Biffle certainly surprised many of us with his brief running to grasp the title.