Merry Christmas to All

Hello Nascar fans! Well it’s Christmas Eve and in a week another year will be ending as well. Let’s hope the new year has some good things in store for us instead of all this bad stuff going on lately.

Bill Davis has sold off majority interest in his team and his engine company. The buy was made by Mike Held, a California businessman and Marty Gaunt, an executive with Bill Davis Racing. The move comes after Davis had been unable to find a sponsor for 2009.  Held and Gaunt also purchased Triad Racing Development which supplied all three of Nascar’s series with chassis, bodies, and engines.

Ron Hornaday Sr., who won the Nascar west coast championship 2 times, passed away on Sunday December 21st after losing his battle with cancer. He was 77 years old. Ron Hornaday Jr. posted a message on his website stating that they will miss their father but that they are comforted knowing that he is now with his beloved wife who passed away in 2001.  My thoughts and prayers go out to the Hornaday family.

It was announced way back in August that things were going to be changing for the lineup for the 2009 Budweiser shootout. Previously the lineup for the race consisted of drivers who had won a pole the season prior and past champions who finished within the top 50 drivers.  Now only the top 6 teams in owner points from each manufacturer will be allowed a chance to enter the lineup for the race. so who is making the grade and entering the race??   Well the usual Sunday crowd Hendrick, RCR, and Roush-Fenway.  Beyond all that is what has happened with the new rule change, it leaves some of the best known out of the running to be in the race. Those falling victim to the rule change and finding themselves outside the lineup for this coming seasons Shootout are Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman, Martin Truex, Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya, and Clint Bowyer.  Although some drivers with the rule change are not eligible to race based on their 2008 pole qualifying win, those four are Ryan Newman, Joe Nemechek, Patrick Carpentier, and Paul Menard.

Well with all that said, I think it’s time to say Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday to all. Before I go I would like to share this Christmas story with you, hope you enjoy it. Until next time Nascar fans, Merry Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the shop
Not a motor was stirring, not even a dodge.
The stockings were hung by the garage with care,
In hopes that Santa France  soon would be there.

The drivers were nestled all snug in their cars,
While visions of victory lane raced round like rollbars.
And all of the crew chiefs and the one on my lap,
Had just settled their brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the garage  to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a souped up chevy with a big v8 and manual gears.

With a little driver who was pouring it on,
I knew in a moment it must be Jeff Gordon.
More rapid than Petty’s his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Now Gordon! now, Earnhardt! now, Johnson and Kahne!
On, Edwards! On, Kenseth! on, on Newman and Burton!
To the top of the speedway! to the top of turn 4!
Now drive away! Drive away! Drive away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Drivers, and Santa France  too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St France  came with a bound.

He was dressed all in kevlar, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Parts he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a crew man just using his jack.

His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his Chevy , to his team gave a whistle,
And away those drivers flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”