Moorpark, Calif. - (October 10, 2006) I have a very good reason why I am posting my weekend wrap-up on Tuesday. I had the opportunity to visit Penske Racing South’s new shop in Mooresville and wanted to include my guided tour in my wrap.
Well, it was another wet weekend for the the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, but this time it was at Virginia Motorsports Park in Petersburg, Va., at the Torco Fuels NHRA Nationals. Like Reading, not one professional pass was run due to heavy rain both on Friday and Saturday. At about 1 p.m. on Saturday, the NHRA officials were forced to postpone the event until this coming weekend.
With the early cancellation of the event, that allowed me to start my annual Charlotte trip a couple days early. Each year I travel to the Charlotte area for the NASCAR Busch Series and Nextel Cup Series races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. I also get a chance to catch up with friends that have moved to the area to either race or work in NASCARland and I also get to visit the teams who we work with. I love it down here and would eventually like to live down here permanently.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series raced for the first time ever at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, while the Nextel Cuppers ran on Sunday.
Brendan Gaughan kept his No. 77 South Point Resort Dodge running in the top 10, even top five, most of the day, but unfortunately wasn’t able to keep it up there when the checkered flew. Gaughan crossed the line in 14th.
The Ringers supporting team of Penske Racing South had a much better weekend in Talladega than they have had the past few races. Both Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman scored top-15 finishes.
They both avoided the melee coming to the checkered flag between Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers. Busch brought his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge home in third, while Newman brought the No. 12 Alltel Dodge home in 13th.
Jonathan Allard notched another win on his already great 2006 season. Allard smoked the competition at the IQ Motorsports Chowchilla 410 Shootout at Chowchilla Speedway (Calif.) on Saturday night, picking up his 11th win of his season.
Today I toured Penske Racing South’s racing headquarters. The NASCAR teams used to be the only teams based out of the Charlotte area, but now all Penske-owned teams will be based out of the shop, including the IndyCar teams and the ALMS teams. I had a personally guided tour from Corey Tucker, the car chief on the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge driven by Kurt Busch. This shop I absolutely immaculate! Corey believes the shop is around 400,000 square feet and I would believe it! I cannot even begin to describe how well the shop is laid out and how clean it is for being a working race shop. If you are ever down in the Charlotte area, I highly recommend taking some time to tour the Penske Racing South facility. I will post pictures on the website later this week.
Everyone at Ringers Gloves would like to send extended “Get Well Wishes” to a couple of NHRA competitors that were injured in two separate events. Danny Townsend was injured in a final round accident at the Columbus divisional event a couple weeks ago, while Mark Albert was severely burned at the makeup Reading event. We
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Ringers Gloves, Official Gloves of NHRA and title sponsor for the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle, is a full-line manufacturer of high-end, task specific gloves, SFI 3.3/1, 3.3/10, 3.3/20 racing gloves, UnderX protective undergarments and rdigs pit boots.
Keep up with your favorite Ringers racers in ‘06 by logging onto www.ringersgloves.com for photos and highlights!
