Not much blogosphere interest in NASCAR outside of Raz and a couple of others but I've followed the sport for about 30 years. I'm not as big a fan as I used to be but I still track a couple of drivers including my favorite, Jeff Gordon.
If the rain stops today in Miami Gordon will attempt to go out with a bang as he tries to win his fifth NASCAR championship in his final race before retirement.
Here are a handful of my not-too-substantial Gordon collection.
When it comes to racing I've always been more interested in items other than cards. Like this signed 8x10. I used to join drivers' fan clubs (it's a racing thing) and things like this came along in the fan pack package.
In the meantime I will be watching Gordon with his hands up on the wheel today (hopefully) and maybe he'll pull off what will surely be a very emotional title run.
----------------UPDATE---------------
Gordon finished third among the championship contenders, sixth overall today. He jumped out front early and had some fans pumped up but after about the 1/3 mark of the race he wasn't really a threat. Not the way I'd have scripted it but that's racing. Next stop for JG, the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
I grew up in a town with a 1/4-mile oval paved racetrack in Wisconsin. Our local boys who've done well are, 25 years ago, Alan Kulwicki, and more currently, Matt Kenseth. I can't say that I pay that much attention, but I do notice when Kenseth wins a race or gets suspended.
ReplyDeleteI do have a Tony Stewart story. My father-in-law got my 2 brothers-in-law and me and himself tickets through a charity auction for the Indy 500 in Tony's suite at Indy. The older of my two brothers-in-law is a big Tony Stewart fan, and he recognized a lot of the faces from Tony's book as being in the suite that day. So, that was pretty cool.
Good stuff Tony, Thanks.
DeleteI was huge into NASCAR for much of the 1990's, but the rampant B.S. that is NASCAR turned me off for good in 2001.
ReplyDeleteI always think of Jeff Gordon in association with that "Rainbow Warriors" DuPont paint scheme... either that or the very early look with the Baby Ruth sponsorship and the unfortunate mustache.
It's very odd to think of "Wonder Boy" retiring. Now that Jeff has retired I think that leaves Dale Jr. as the only active driver who was behind the wheel when I told NASCAR to "take this sport and shove it".
The one thing I will say about NASCAR is that it is very fan-friendly. I was a bit late to the fan club party, but I was in the Steve Park fan club for a couple of years... Steve is from a town near where I grew up, so he was my favorite driver for a couple of years. I got some pretty cool stuff from being in the fan club... I would share some of it some time if I thought that anybody would be interested.
I'm anybody and I'd love to see some Park stuff. I remember when he drove the 1 car for DE. Pennzoil car I think. He had some serious wrecks that put him out of Cup but last I knew he was still running modified cars.
DeleteWhen the archaeologists working in my house reach the "NASCAR Era", I'll be sure to share my Steve Park fan club stuff... Now that I know that "somebody" would be interested.
DeleteShameless plug: I'm getting ready to start a series of posts on another archaeological find from within my Man Cave...
You know what's depressing? Your comments are more entertaining than my posts.
DeleteNever really dove into NASCAR, although I collected Rusty Wallace back in his Genuine Draft commercial days. But as a collector, I enjoy owning a piece of sports history... so I might need to track down a certified on-card autograph of Gordon at some point.
ReplyDeleteRusty was one of my guys back in the day. The Anti-Earnhardt! Typical Wallace vs DE stories here.
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