FINAL CLEARANCE Everything Must

Go!!

What’s the difference between stock cars and other race cars? Race cars such as Formula One are built specifically for auto racing, while stock cars are made by auto manufacturers for use on regular roads. In NASCAR’s early days, the cars were strictly stock. But starting in the 1950s certain modifications were allowed to the engines and chassis to make the cars faster and safer.

How fast do stock cars go? It depends on the track. On short tracks, which are less than a mile long, the average speed is about 82 mph. On intermediate tracks, between one and two miles long, the fastest speeds top out at about 150 mph. Tracks over two miles in length are called superspeedways and there are only two: Talladega, in Alabama, and Dayton, Florida, where the season begins each year. These two tracks boast and average speed of 188 mph. It used to be higher…until a horrific wreck at Talladega in 1987 when Bobby Allison’s car nearly flew into the stands. NASCAR now uses restrictor plates at these two tracks–a devise placed over the intake valve to reduce the car’s power.

Why are the cars covered with ads? In 1972, two years after losing the right to advertise tobacco products on television, the R. J. Reynolds Company tried a new marketing tactic by sponsoring the first Winston Cup series (now called the Sprint Cup). In the mid-‘70s, partial races were telecast on ABC’s Wild World of Sports, giving NASCAR a wider audience. But its biggest boost came with the 1979 Daytona 500, the first NASCAR race broadcast live on national television. On a day when the northeastern U.S. was paralyzed by a snowstorm, millions of TV viewers watched the race–which ended in a dramatic wreck on the final lap, followed by a fist fight between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison. After that, more companies jumped on the sponsorship bandwagon, creating a marriage of convenience: Stock cars make perfect blank slates for ads and stock car racing is so expensive that teams can’t do it week after week without the millions they receive from sponsors.

How does the point system work? In each race, a driver receives points for every lap in which he or she leads (there have been 17 female NASCAR drivers). The winner of the race gets an additional 185 points, second place gets 170, third 165, and so on. Because this system rewards consistency over winning, fans complained that the racing was getting too conservative. After Matt Kenseth won the 2003 NASCAR Championship with only one victory (but 25 top10 finishes), NASCAR implemented a playoff system. Now after the first 26 races are completed, the top 12 drivers’ point totals are reset to 5,000, plus an additional 10 points for each race they’ve won. This means that for the final 10 races, now called “The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup,” the top 12 are far ahead of the pack and battle each other for the championship. Adding to the drama: All of the drivers farther down in the rankings can often act as “spoilers.”

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The largest non-migratory land animal in Antarctica is the belgica, a wingless midge (gnat) less than half an inch long. They don’t fly (the winds would blow them away); they hop like fleas and live in penguin colonies.

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Cold, dense air being pulled by gravity down Antarctic mountains create the most extreme katabati (Greek for “go down”) winds on the planet. They have been clocked at 200 mph.

Priceless

I’m a writing this to you, just to tell you, today, Even with me already letting you know, You can believe I’m really missing you and It was just a short time, since to work, I had to go.

I stopped by the bank, wondering what the price Of the love I have for you, would be worth today. The banker said, “There’s no figures go that high!”. So our love was worth more than he would venture to say.

He did tell me no one had ever come in, with that Many feelings for someone in his career, to this date. Said if he had someone like you to go home to, Many times he would not have worked so late.

I too, was telling him how lucky I was to have you, Which gets me back to what I was wanting to say.

I’m a loving you more and more by the minute, With you on my mind, it’s a making this a good day...

From Down Ridgway’s Road

By Robert Lee Ridgway