Sports Then and Now

Many familiar names in stock racing history, including Petty, Earnhardt, Waltrip, Johnson, Gordon and Yarborough have reached victory lane at the Daytona 500, but there have also been a number of surprising victors in the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing.

Below is a look at some victorious Daytona 500 drivers who did not parlay their Daytona victory into memorable NASCAR careers.

DeWayne “Tiny” Lund – 1963 Daytona 500 Champion; 5 career NASCAR wins

At 6-foot-5 and 270 pounds, DeWayne Lund’s nickname of “Tiny” was a bit of an oxy-moron, but the journeyman race car driver somehow managed to fit his large frame into a stock car and achieve notable success.

A part-time driver in NASCAR’s highest series, Lund came to the 1963 Daytona 500 looking for a ride. Not only did he leave as the Daytona 500 champion, but also as a hero. When his friend and 1961 Daytona 500 Champion Mavin Panch suffered an accident driving an experimental Ford in the Daytona Continental three-hour sportscar race (a precursor to the 24-hours of Daytona), the car burst into flames. Lund ran into the fire and pulled Panch from the wreckage. The act earned him the Carnegie Hero’s Medal and also a ride as Panch’s replacement in the Daytona 500.

Driving for the Wood Brothers, the plan was for Lund to maneuver the 500 miles on one less fuel stop than the rest of the field. Lund led late in the race before being passed with 10 laps left by Fred Lorenzen. However, he soon ran out of gas to give the lead back to Lund. Ned Jarratt soon passed Lund and looked poised for victory. However, with three laps left he too ran out of gas. Lund ran out of gas on the final lap, but was able to coast home for victory.

Make no mistake about it … online gambling and bingo have become huge business. Billions of dollars in revenue is now being generated online, and it’s not just with basic apps that rely on advertising; it’s in direct wagers and betting from players. There’s a massive market for companies and merchants to tap into, as long as you hit the right market.

Knowing the Market

Anyone worth their weight understands how important it is to know the market. A football league isn’t going to be targeting a general audience who has no interest in this or other sports.

The online gambling world is massive and it draws in a wide range of people from all walks of life and from around the world and that can make it seem as though marketing to such a wide audience would be difficult, but think about this: they love games, they love competition, and they’re a captive audience. What’s not to love about that?

Sponsorship Deals

When you have a sports league, like football (soccer to those fans across the pond), you drive business by sponsorship deals. When you have the name of your league, team, or even a favorite player front and centre, it gets people thinking about that sporting event.

Nothing really goes together better than sports and online gaming and bingo. That’s because many of the people who love these online games also have a thrill for either watching and cheering on a favorite team or placing some well thought out wagers on an upcoming game.

Sky Bingo is one of those online gaming sites that draws in thousands of fans every day. These men and women are riveted to their computer screen, tablet, or even their smartphones while engaged in some heated bingo. They wait almost impatiently for the next number to be called, checking their cards, and waiting for that precious word ‘bingo’ to be highlighted on the screen.

But a person isn’t going to just be staring at the numbers … they’re going to be looking around that screen and that’s where these sponsorship/advertising opportunities are so powerful. Read the rest of this entry →

One of the most iconic aspects of a NASCAR race is the nonstop, top-speed action of the pit crew on the sidelines. These amazing individuals are in charge of high-speed maintenance and repairs for the cars that are tearing their way around the track. We’ve all probably watched them change a tire in a few seconds, but did you ever wonder how these pit crews got their start?

The Time Before

Races didn’t always need the skills of a pit crew. When racing became a mainstream sport back in the 1950s, most of the races were less than 100 miles, total. The only race that really needed the assistance of pit stop engineers was the Southern 500, which was arguably ahead of its time.

That didn’t mean the shorter NASCAR races didn’t have their own version of the pit crew. Cars would blow tires, bump fenders or destroy engine parts that required replacement in order to keep racing. Until the mid-1950s, all these changes were done by hand. The pneumatic air guns that we’re so used to seeing didn’t make a debut until later in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Back then, the fastest recorded time for a tire change was about 55 seconds utilizing manual tools.

Choreography and Timing

After the pneumatic air gun hit the mainstream and pit technicians were able to change tires and remove faulty parts faster than before, the focus switched to speed and efficiency. By using impact wrenches and much faster floor jacks, pit crews could reduce the time it took to change a tire by 17 seconds.

Adding choreography and practicing the motions that each pit crew position needed to do brought the overall pit stop time down to 33 seconds.

Specialized Pit Crew Roles

Until now, the idea of pit crews included the concept that everyone was interchangeable. The guy handling the fuel one pit stop could be slinging a tire at the next. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the idea of specialized pit crew roles began to emerge.

By creating these specialized roles, pit crews were able to practice and perfect the nuances of their specific role rather than trying to do everything.

Today, the average pit crew is made up of 12 people, each trained to perfect their specific role, including:

• Front and Rear Tire Carriers: As their name suggests, these are the people who carry the replacement tires into the pit and the worn tires away.
• Fire and Rear Tire Changers: Changes the tires, handling the impact gun to remove and replace the lug nuts.
• Jack Man: Operates the hydraulic jack that lifts and lowers the car.
• Gas Man: As the name suggest, he refuels the car usually using two 12-gallon cans.
• Support Crew: They pick up any slack and help the crew with little tasks.
• Car and Crew Chiefs: The car chief figures out the best adjustments to make on the car itself. The crew chief is in charge of the crew.
• Engineer: Works with the car chief to figure out the exact build for each race car.

There will also be a NASCAR official in the pit to make sure all rules are followed, as well as an extra man that may handle tasks like assisting the driver or cleaning the windshield.

By relying on these specialized roles, pit crews can pull off a four-tire change in an astonishing 12 seconds, getting their drivers back on the track that much faster.

The history of the NASCAR pit crew is an exciting and varied one, and every change and invention has helped it become the efficient machine that keeps races going. NASCAR wouldn’t be the same thing that it is today without the smooth motions and choreographed movements of the pit crew.

It starts off with excitement and anticipation as you make your way to the big game, but there are worse things that can happen there than your favorite team losing.

Sports events injuries don’t just happen on the field of play, as Manhattan personal injury and accident lawyer injuryclaimnyclaw.com will confirm, as people can and do get hurt in a variety of ways while watching the game.

Who’s fault is it?

Anything can happen. A puck hits you on the head or maybe you slip and fall while grabbing a hot dog, the question is, whose fault is it that you have been injured

The important phrase to bear in mind is assumed risk. What this means in basic terms is that when you attend a sporting event as a spectator, you do so on the understanding that a flying object like a ball or a puck might enter the seating area, so it is your responsibility to takes steps to avoid them when that happens.

You will often find a clear definition of your assumed responsibilities printed on the back of your ticket, in the form of a carefully worded statement warning the ticketholder of the potential risks they should accept when entering the stadium.

Where things get more complicated is if you sustain an injury that is not inherently associated with the nature of the game.

Examples of potential negligence

If parts of the stadium are in a poor state of repair and a crumbling or worn walkway causes you to suffer a fall, that is an example where it may be possible to prove that the stadium owner was negligent and could be found guilty of not properly maintaining the grounds.

Another example which perhaps might surprise you, concerns a patron getting intoxicated.

If a patron is served alcohol where it is clear that they are already intoxicated and should be refused a drink, the bar or restaurant concession could potentially be liable for over-serving intoxicated patrons, if they subsequently get injured as a result of being drunk and injuring themselves in some way, like falling. Read the rest of this entry →

Stock car racing got its name from the early days of the sport, when racecars were strictly stock cars from the factory that had a few performance and safety tweaks. The stock cars we watch today have come a long way from their ancestors, constantly improving and resetting the standards of racing.

How do today’s stock cars differ from what you can buy from the factory? There are several major differences:

The Engine

For comparison, we’ll use a NASCAR engine. NASCAR engine blocks are custom-made, not modified from the original engine block. They do, however, share some similarities with the original. They have the same number of cylinders, the same base displacement and the same cylinder bore centerlines. Where NASCAR engines stand in stark contrast to regular engines is in the power – they’re consistently modified so they can produce the maximum.

One main difference comes in the NASCAR engine’s cam profile. It’s designed to keep the intake valves open longer, which means more air can be packed into the cylinders. More air and fuel is let in through the use of carburetors, unlike street cars, which mostly use fuel injection. Read the rest of this entry →

NASCAR has quickly grown into a multi-billion dollar franchise with more things than wins and championships at stake. The sports league has become a nationally-televised battleground where manufacturer bragging rights, team titles, and sponsorship superiority are settled. Sprawling organizations like Stewart-Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports field race cars into which millions of dollars are spent, and thousands of hours of manpower are invested. The following five advancements have helped buoy and sustain the burgeoning sport and made it uniquely dependent on auto and technological advancements.

Advanced Pit Road Monitoring
With the aid of cameras, motion detectors, and software tracking, NASCAR officials can keep a closer eye on pit stops without having to stand alongside crewmen at all times. This software picks up potential violations and forwards them to NASCAR race control, who will then decide if an infraction has been committed.

Clean, Efficient Technology
For a sport that thrives on high-octane excitement and the smell of fuel and burnt rubber, NASCAR has surprisingly begun to go greener. Fuel cell units are replacing the gasoline-powered generators that provide power for broadcast cameras, lights, and various other functions around the track. In addition, these fuel cell units are not only efficient but safe and only have to be changed once every weekend. Read the rest of this entry →