IN THE MONEY — We all know the economy is wretched right now and NASCAR is certainly not immune. On Wednesday, however, there was a little bit of good news on two fronts. First, Talladega Superspeedway announced that it is cutting ticket prices from $70 or $75 to $40 on more than 20,000 seats in its Gadsden and Lincoln grandstands for both the April 26 Aaron’s 499 and the Nov.1 AMP Energy 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.
Now let’s not kid ourselves: If Talladega could still sell out at $75 a ticket, the track wouldn’t have slashed prices. But in these times, you have to applaud anything that saves race fans money. For far too long, race fans have been an underappreciated treasure and it’s high time that the hard-working men and women who support this sport get a break, so I’m glad to see Talladega slash prices. Look for lots of tracks to be offering deals this year in an attempt to woo back fans.
Good news No. 2 came in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, where it was announced Wednesday that GoDaddy.com will be the primary sponsor of Brad Keselowski’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in 18 races next season, which along with Unilever (11 races) and Delphi (six races), fills up Keselowski’s hood and quarter-panels for all 35 NNS races. This young man is definitely fun to watch race and it’s encouraging to see GoDaddy.com step up to the plate. The Internet company also will sponsor Keselowski in seven Sprint Cup races in the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and be an associate sponsor of Mark Martin’s No. 5.
ROAD TRIP — On Saturday morning, I’m heading to Nashville for the Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust Fan Festival at Municipal Auditorium.
There will be a ton of current and former NASCAR personalities there, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kyle Petty, Darrell and Michael Waltrip, Ray Evernham, Reed Sorensen, David Stremme, Ernie Irvan, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., Brad Keselowski and Burney Lamar.
On the music side, artists already announced for the Saturday Festival include Jason Michael Carroll, Richie McDonald, Josh Turner, members of Diamond Rio and Rick Huckaby. Also scheduled to appear are Dierks Bentley, Randy Houser, Kate and Kacey, Josh Osborne, Charlie Louvin and Connie Smith.
This is a great event that benefits the Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. There are way too many details to list here, but do yourself a favor and check out the website at www.soundandspeed.org for all the details.
And I’ll be sure and bring back some good gossip from Nashville.
No comments:
Post a Comment