RaceFanz Network

By Cindy Pischel

NASCAR’s “Ironman”, also known as Ricky Rudd, hails from Norfolk County, Virginia. From 1981 to 2005 he climbed to the pinnacle of NASCAR and during that time he made 788 consecutive starts, a record he alone holds. He also went to victory lane at least once each year for a period of 16 years, a record he shares with Rusty Wallace. Throughout his racing career Rudd drove for Richard Childress, Bud Moore, Hendrick Motorsports, Robert Yates Racing and the Wood Brothers just to name a few. Ricky Rudd started out as many drivers did-driving go-karts at an early age. As a teen, he took a shot at Motocross and eventually ended up in NASCAR at the age of 18.

In 1975 he made his debut in the # 10 Ford at North Carolina Speedway driving for Bill Champion, a family friend. By 1977, Rudd had wrapped up “Rookie of the Year” honors along with a top-5 and ten top-10 finishes out of 25 starts that year. Early in his career, Ricky Rudd was involved in a terrible crash in the Busch Clash at Daytona. His car became airborne and he suffered a concussion in the impact. He was determined to race in the following Daytona 500, but his eyes were so swollen that he had to tape them open in order to see. He did race, with his eyes taped open and finished 7th. NASCAR didn’t find out about it until after the fact and now they have a policy of examining any driver involved in a wreck to make sure they’re safe to drive in the next race.

In 1988 Rudd had only one win. He fought hard for it though-all through the race he had trouble with high air pressure and smothering hot temperatures because of a faulty cooling system. He crossed the finish line with burns and blisters over most of his body and gave his victory lane interview lying on the ground with oxygen to help him breathe.

In 1994, Rudd decided to start his own team, driving the #10 Ford sponsored by Tide. He became the first owner/driver to win the Brickyard 400 in 1997. When Tide left his team, he chose to sell his equipment and close up shop. It didn’t take long for Ricky Rudd to find a ride. He hooked up with Robert Yates Racing to drive the #28 Texaco/Havoline Ford Taurus. From there he moved to Wood Brothers Racing in the #21 Ford, then back to Yates in 2007 in his final ride, the #88 Snickers Ford.

Ricky Rudd’s resume’ shows over 900 starts. He was also named Virginian of the Year in his home state and one of NASCAR’s “50 All-Time Great” drivers. In his retirement, Ricky enjoys 4-wheeling, water sports, flying and being with his family.

More articles about NASCAR news and auto racing can be found at http://www.speedweekly.net

The best way to watch NASCAR can be found at http://www.watchautoracing.com

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http://EzineArticles.com/?NASCAR-Race-Legend—Ricky-Rudd&id=1435896

By Rick Bradham

Marcos Ambrose had his first win in the Nationwide series at the historical road course, Watkins Glen International.

The win was brought to Ambrose by the misfortunes of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton. Both Johnson and Burton ran out of gas on successive laps giving Ambrose the lead with three laps to go. Those misfortunes may have given Ambrose the lead and eventually the win, but he had previously proven that he is worthy with impressive drives on road courses In April Ambrose had a second place finish in Mexico and last week he had a third place finish in Montreal. Johnson seemed to have the car to beat but finished in 29th place sitting in the garage after running out of gas.

Ambrose drove his #59 Ford to his first victory in his 59th start in the Nationwide series. Second place was Kyle Busch in his Toyota. Third place went to Matt Kenseth in a Ford. Kevin Harvick was fourth in a Chevrolet and the pole sitter Dario Franchitti was fifth in a Dodge. This was Franchitti’s first start in over a month in a NASCAR event after losing his cup ride due to lack of sponsorship.

Clint Bowyer finished 23rd but retains his lead in the Nationwide series. Brad Keselowski moved up one spot to second and is now 128 points behind Bowyer in the series. Carl Edwards had been in second place in the series but fell to third behind Keselowski. Edwards got into Bowyer on lap 54 ending the race for both of them. Edwards, took full responsibility for the event and finished in 25th place for the day. David Reutimann remains in fourth and David Ragan holds onto fifth in the series.

The next race will be the Carfax 250 at the Michigan International Speedway on August 16.

More articles about NASCAR can be found at http://www.speedweekly.net

The best way to watch NASCAR on television can be found at http://www.watchautoracing.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rick_Bradham
http://EzineArticles.com/?Ambrose-Gets-His-First-Nationwide-Win&id=1435810

If you watched the Cup race tonight from Richmond then you learned everything you ever needed to know about Kyle Busch.

Final laps, Busch is racing Earnhardt for the lead. Busch goes to the inside and gets loose under Dale Jr. … and wipes him out.

During the after race interviews, Kyle Busch claims Jr. came down on him in the turn … even when the tape clearly shows Busch getting loose.

Kyle Busch is the same spoiled brat his big brother is … they never do anything wrong, everything is always the fault of others. Smells like a family thing to me … over indulged by Mommy and Daddy to grow up with a seriously bullcrap sense of entitlement.

What I really don’t understand is the love affair Darrell Waltrip and Fox Sports has with Kyle Busch. Waltrip gets positively giddy with talking about his favorite boy, Kyle.

I guess Kyle will have to keep his head down for a while because the rednecks from Jr. Nation are going to be looking for him.

By Mel Kizzidek

Major League Baseball could have a permanent black eye after widespread use of performance enhancing drugs became common knowledge. Substance abusers have already tarnished the sport of professional football. The international Olympics will be under a microscope this summer after decades of drug scandals. And the PGA is discussing whether to test pro golfers as the world notes the sudden bulk of a once wiry Tiger Woods, who is evasive on his private workout regimen.

NASCAR has had a written drug policy for over 20 years that has never been enforced. No driver-unless it was done in secret-has been given a random drug test, but calls for change are getting louder and more frequent.

Craftsman Truck Series driver Aaron Fike was suspended indefinitely after making claims to a national magazine that he used heroin on race days. His condition was unknown until his arrest in 2007, and drivers are now demanding a stiffer policy. Fike, who has also run in over 50 Busch Series events, competed in a truck event at Memphis the day of his arrest, admittedly while under the influence.

Former NASCAR driver Shane Hmiel was banned for life after failing his third drug test in ‘06, and now races late models on dirt tracks. Hmiel recently won a USAC Sprint Car Series race in California but is still banned from NASCAR events. A failed test in 1988 by driver Tim Richmond, who died from AIDS a year later, still haunts the sport.

The sanctioning body’s official policy calls for testing anytime, anywhere, but only on “reasonable suspicion,” and leading drivers say they have never been tested for drugs. They want a tougher stance in place and loudly call for a random drug test at least twice a year. NASCAR president Mike Helton sidesteps the call by commending his drivers for speaking out-allegedly “proving” they’re clean. Moreover, Helton says the sport’s teams have their own drug policies in effect, which NASCAR does not override.

It was Richmond’s death at age 34 that persuaded NASCAR to put a drug policy on paper, though the rules aren’t enforced and random testing is not mandatory. Drivers sign a contract with NASCAR agreeing to certain conditions when applying for a competitor’s license, but unless “reasonable suspicion” is evident, nothing more is done. Many drivers who raised suspicions, such as Fike, were arrested first before NASCAR got wise and took action.

Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman claims that Fike’s situation was neither the first nor the last of its kind, while long-time veteran Mark Martin was thunderstruck by Fike’s arrest. Dale Earnhardt Jr. calmly says that if enough people speak out on NASCAR’s guiding principle-one of ‘hear-no-evil, see no evil’-changes will come.

NASCAR drivers are not part of a union, and participants are employed by teams that are largely independent of the sanctioning body. Thus, mandatory testing for drugs or screening for alcohol is harder to implement and enforce.

NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France says his sport has the most effective drug policy already in place, one that promises swift and sure punishment-purely reactive rather than proactive. France avoided a DUI arrest in ‘06 by leaving the scene of an accident before police arrived. He continues to turn a blind eye unless evidence is shown after the fact.

More articles about NASCAR news and auto racing can be found at http://www.speedweekly.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mel_Kizzidek
http://EzineArticles.com/?Is-NASCAR-Drug-Free?&id=1122362

WOW … Ashley Force is the first woman in history to lead the NHRA Funny Car points.

She missed the win today in Las Vegas but a second place put her in the points lead and that is a milestone worth noting.

It sure doesn’t hurt that she is so easy on the eyes and her Daddy is John Force …. umpteen-millionth time winner of the Funny Car championship.

Go Ashley!!!!

So, once again, I feel like I have to explain my long absence from posting. Well … I could give you a lot of excuses … but they wouldn’t be true. The fact of the matter is I spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME playing World Of Warcraft.

Okay, now you know. I’m a cyber junkie that enjoys killing digital monsters.

I just kinda burned out on posting and had to take some time to recharge.

There’s a bunch of stuff that I could be ranting about, like the rumor of a fight between Jack Rousch and Michael Waltrip. I just don’t have the steam today.

Just stay tuned … I’ll get fired up again soon.

As you can tell, I’ve been otherwise occupied and not posting to this blog. There is a reason for my absence. I’ve been working on a few ideas to make this site more interactive. First, I found a free script to set up a forum, but I decided that I didn’t really care for the admin tools. It required more work for me than I really have time. So, I looked around for something a bit different. I know a bunch of people who have MySpace pages or Facebook. This started to sink in for me as a cool idea for this place.

Why not build an area where RaceFanz could create their own profile and have their own space to post their thoughts, pictures and vids?

I found a cool, free script that I could install and operate my own social network. But, I started to think about that and I came to the same conclusions as I had with the forum. Too much admin time, plus if this thing gets really popular I don’t want to have to keep scaling up my website. That starts to get expensive and I’m not doing this to make money … that’s why it is free to sign up.

I do eventually hope to make a little bit of revenue through ads, but that is a ways down the road.

I decided to go with a company called Ning. They offer a totally free social network set up. They host it and do all the tech maintenance and they can handle large amounts of members.

Click here to get your totally free, RaceFanz Network web page and start creating your online, racing website. Did I mention it is FREE?.

I’m going to continue to think up other things to add here, to make this a more attractive space for RaceFanz.

A friend of my made a comment to me the other day concerning this site. He said, “There’s not much to it …”

I thought about this for a while, not really sure if I should be bummed out by his comment.

So, it’s time to clear a few things up …

I’m not a journalist. I don’t know everything about motorsports … and I never wanted to be that kind of person. This website isn’t my job. This website is just two of my interests coming together - racing and web development. I’m not trying to make money here, that isn’t what this is about.

So I decided not to be bummed … this is what it is, a place for RaceFanz.

Is Robby Gordon the victim of a witch hunt? Read this article and leave your opinion in the comments section.

It took twelve years, but Tony George has finally won the American Open Wheel battle. It was announced today that Champ Car ceased operation at mid-day bringing the series under the umbrella of the IRL.

Whether you liked Tony George or not, this is a good day for Open Wheel fans … the unification of the two racing leagues will benefit the competition and the fans.