God & NASCAR Country

Christianity is being assaulted on a daily basis throughout the world. Just today, several large media outlets tried to tag the evil orchestrator of the Norway massacre a Christian. The left frequently mocks Christianity, and come this Christmas, we will hear the annual cries to take down those offensive nativity scenes.

Against all the negative backdrop, there is a safe haven: The thunderous tracks of NASCAR, where devotion to Christianity and Partiotism is celebrated. If you are offended, please feel welcome to carry you and your britches elsewhere. NASCAR is all about God & Country.

During each race, as part of the pre-race ceremonies, an invocation is presented. While the Sprint Cup Series took the weekend off, the Nationwide series took center stage last Saturday night at the running of the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Speedway.

During the evenings invocation, after thanking God for all the blessings, Pastor Joe Nelms went off on nothing short of a classic tangent. Take a listen:



GM Performance, Goodyear Tires, smokin hot chicks! Throw in a couple of cold ones the rolling thunder of the good ole boys and God Bless America indeed.

See ya at The Brickyard on Sunday!

Shifting Seats For Speedweeks

Speedweeks has returned to the High Banks of Daytona International Speedway after a tumultuous off season. The economic downturn has hit the garage area hard and is also being strongly felt by track owners as ticket sales have plunged. Daytona International Speedway, owned and operated by International Speedway Corporations (ISCA:NASDAQ), has slashed ticket prices up to 50% to bolster sales.

Most notable for me in the garage area was the collapse of Petty Enterprises. Without a sponsor for the famed #43, Bobby Labonte was forced to divorce himself from the team in order to try to secure a quality ride for 2009. Petty Enterprises went on to merge with Gillet Evernham, and the #43 is now part of that group now called Richard Petty Motorsports. It is not the same thing as it once was, and everyone knows it. Kyle Petty, one of my favorite people, is out of a ride. He had Wells Fargo set to sponsor him, but the banking debacle has cancelled that potential deal.

Labonte found a ride with the famed Yates Racing Ford operation and will drive the #96 Ask.com Ford Fusion. At this point, I am glad Bobby found a ride. I am not a Ford guy, but prefer it by far to Toyota, and Yates has always had fast rides. After a season with Toyota, Tony Stewart formed his own team and is now back with General Motors fielding the Office Depot/Old Spice Chevrolets for 2009. This is a bold move for Stewart, forming his own team. If you are a follower of my blog, you know I appreciate the type of entrepreneurial spirit. Good luck to my boys Bobby and Tony this year. Hope to see you boys in victory lane!

NASCAR 2009 Recap

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson for recording his third consecutive Sprint Cup Championship in his Rick Hendrick owned Lowes Chevrolet Impala SS. This is a very impressive feat, for sure.

It was not such a good year for my favorite driver, 2000 Sprint Cup Champion Bobby Labonte, pilot of King Richard Petty's famed #43 Cherrios Dodge Charger. Labonte scored only 1 top ten finish in '08, which is performance they cannot be proud of. Petty Enterprises is underfunded when compared with the mega NASCAR teams from Richard Childress, Jack Roush, Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske. Even so, I had hoped to see some improvement in 2008, but it never materialized. For 2009, Petty has lost Cheerios as it's sponsor and as of now there has been no news of potential new sponsors, and given the current economic climate, the prognosis for one is not good.

In fact, the current economic conditions cast doubt about what the automobile industry, let alone NASCAR, may look like in 2009. At this time (see previous blog entry), the Big 3 automakers are fighting for survival begging for cash assistance on Capitol Hill. One or more of the Big 3 may not survive, and from a NASCAR perspective, this would not be good.

Currently, Dodge, Toyota (TM:NYSE), Ford (F:NYSE) and Chevrolet (division of GM:NYSE) are the manufacturers competing on the circuit. I cannot contemplate NASCAR without Ford and Chevy competing out there on the high banks. Can you? In addition, suppliers to the Big 3 and NASCAR, like Goodyear (GT:NYSE), could be severely impacted to the negative.

NASCAR is doing what it can to lobby for assistance for the Big 3 by seeking public commentary from owners and drivers alike. NASCAR's most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., commented
“All I ever raced is Chevrolet. They’ve been with me throughout my entire career and have supported everything I have done. Now I want to do everything I can to support them. I have awesome fans and I hope they will reach out to our leaders in Washington to help Chevy and our other domestic car makers. There is nothing more American than Chevrolet and we need to make sure it stays that way.” Contrary to public opinion, many of the drivers are politically astute and have a handle on current events taking place in America. Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson were recently guests on CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer.

Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick, all Chevrolet drivers, have all issued public commentary on the subject, and many of the drivers and owners own car dealerships.

As the economic conditions in the country began to deteriorate, one could easily notice empty seats at tracks all along the circuit and television ratings were down significantly as well. International Speedway Corp., (ISCA:NASDAQ), owners of NASCAR, have seen their stock price cut in half over the last year, although they are in good company on the street. Thankfully, for once, I got out before the drop when I noticed the empty seats.

With the economic storm we are facing, there could be big changes in the NASCAR world by the time Speedweeks comes calling in February. I hear a meeting of NASCAR movers and shakers took place in Charlotte this week to discuss what may be on the horizon and how to deal with the changes. I am a stock market investor and I am astonished at the carnage we all are witnessing on Wall Street. This damage is one for the ages, and the unfortunate negative impact on things we all love, like NASCAR, may be lasting. Then again, I have no idea what I am having for lunch tomorrow, so things could turn around by next week.