Notes from the NASCAR Nation week 3: A band named Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

 

The man now has a band.

 

A band from Detroit Michigan is capitalizing on the popularity of NASCAR and one of its biggest names.

 

The duo calls itself Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. which just happens to play on the name of one of NASCAR most popular drivers of all time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Consisting of Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott the band has been touring small clubs around the country and weave NASCAR into their performances on stage and in their videos by wearing NASCAR themed fire suits and using props and backdrops associated with racing. The connection to the NASCAR driver has helped get the band press from around the country.

 

The group plans to release a full length album in the spring of 2011.

 

 

 

Only days after Goodyear completed a tire test at Daytona International Speedway, officials are already in discussions with Kentucky Speedway to hold a test there.

 

Kentucky Speedway will host its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in July and track officials and Goodyear are talking about staging a tire test prior to the event. While Daytona hosted 18 teams, the test at Kentucky is expected to have less than five.

 

While it isn’t certain who will be invited to the test, one driver who will be racing at the first NASCAR Sprint Cup event will be Kentucky native Michael Waltrip. Waltrip, from Owensboro, will be starting his second season of ‘semi-retirement’ running only limited events in 2011.Waltrip said this week that one of those events will be the July 9th inaugural event at Kentucky.

 

 

An event popular with fans and NASCAR drivers has been cancelled, at least for a year.

 

The Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge brought drivers from NASCAR and the NHRA together each January for the last five years in Lake Placid New York to try their hand at vehicles much different than those that race on pavement.

 

Geoff Bodine, a former NASCAR driver himself, began supporting the US Olympic bobsled team in 1992 after the team was forced to use European designed sleds in the Winter Olympics. Bodine founded the Bo-Dyn Bobsled project that designs sleds for the US team. As an offshoot, and in order to raise money for the project, Bodine began gathering drivers for a weekend of competition in bobsleds.

 

This season however, the team has cancelled the event, normally held in January, as it moves its facilities to North Carolina.  A team official said that future events are a possibility under a new format.

 

Since 2002, the US bobsled team has won six Olympic medals, including two gold, using sleds designed by Bo-Dyn.

 

One of the most popular drivers in NASCAR signed a deal this week to compete in the full NASCAR Nationwide Series for 2011.

Wallace will team with RAB Racing and make his debut in the No. 9 Toyota at the season opening Nationwide race at Daytona in February.

 

Wallace has over 800 career starts in NASCAR’s top-three divisions, including 488 Nationwide Series races with nine wins, 10 poles, 63 top-five and 159 top-10 finishes. He has also been voted NASCAR Nationwide Series Most Popular Driver three times, in 1991, 1994 and 2006.

 

 

International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR officials gave the United Way of Volusia-Flagler Counties a donation of just under $220,000 last Friday.

 

ISC is headquartered in Daytona Beach which is in Volusia County.  The ceremony was held at Daytona International Speedway with ISC CEO Lesa France Kennedy, ISC President John Saunders and NASCAR President Mike Helton in attendance.