Brownsburg, Ind. - First off, I want to apologize for not having a prompt “minute” after the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season opener at Pomona last weekend. It has been a whirlwind of work, and snow, the past week!
I arrived back into Indianapolis on Monday evening, along with Michelle (the new Ringers girl on the new Road Show trailer), Diana, Joanne, Ted (all from David Powers Motorsports) and Kelly (formerly “Kelly Impact,” now team manager for Tuttle Motorsports). We consider ourselves very lucky for getting home that night because during the course of late Monday night and Tuesday morning, the Indianapolis area was bombarded with snow, actually more like a blizzard. Some of the outer-lying areas received up to a foot, whereas in my yard on the Westside of Indy, accumulated eight inches, which was enough to hold me captive in my house a couple days. There was not only snow, but ice on top of the show, which always makes for fun driving conditions.
I heard there was some great racing during the first NHRA race at Pomona. While I was there, I was only able to watch two Top Fuel passes. Reason being, the Ringers Gloves and Chicago Pneumatic Road Show debuted a new trailer with a new marketing company. Polished Marketing Group (aka: PMG), an Indianapolis-based firm, will provide our mobile marketing services this year at all the POWERade Drag Racing Series events, as well as a couple other series’ events throughout the season. A new trailer was picked up the week prior to the event from UltraComp Trailers out of Highland, Ill. Rich Evans of Huntington Beach Bodyworks and Ringers’ own Josh Baltimore built some killer new displays to showcase CP’s air tools and our gloves. If anyone makes it out to a race this year, be sure to stop by and check it out!
Only one Ringers racer landed in the Winner’s Circle for the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals and that was Greg Anderson and his KB Racing Pontiac GTO Pro Stocker. Anderson defeated Greg Stanfield, 6.651 to 7.001-seconds.
Ringers’ supporter and No. 1 qualifier, Brandon Bernstein made an appearance in the Top Fuel finals, only to have some break right off the line.
Over the past weekend, the three elite NASCAR series’ took to the 2.5-mile tri-oval of Daytona International Speedway for the Chevy Silverado HD 250 (Trucks), Orbitz 300 (Busch) and the Daytona 500 for the Cup stars.
Daytona was not too friendly to any Ringers supporting racer or team throughout the course of the weekend. The only two racers who were able to produce top-20 finishes were that of Green Light Racing’s Chad McCumbee and his No. 08 The GPS Store/Garmin truck, finishing 13th on Friday night and Todd Kluever, piloting his No. 16 3M Ford Fusion to a 15th place finish with his DriverX by Ringers driving gloves in Saturday’s Busch race.
Brendan Gaughan steered his No. 77 South Point Racing Chevrolet toward the checkered flag, but was unable to make it. Gaughan was scored in 21st after being involved in two separate wrecks during the race. McCumbee’s Green Light Racing teammate Tim Sauter was involved in a wreck as well, giving him a 28th-place finish.
Sam Hornish Jr. made his restrictor plate debut at Daytona on Saturday in his No. 12 Mobil 1 Dodge, only to encounter a couple brushes with the wall and an accident he couldn’t avoid. Even though his car was battered, he wrestled it across the finish line to record his first Busch Series finish, six laps down in 32nd.
His Penske Racing teammates and their Ringers’ supporting teams didn’t fair much better in Sunday’s Daytona 500. While both Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman’s Dodge Chargers were strong in the beginning, Busch was being passed for the lead by Tony Stewart on lap 166, when Stewart got below the yellow line and got loose. Busch tapped his right rear and they both went spinning. While Busch led the most laps of the race with 95, his No. 2 Miller Lite team wasn’t able to repair the severe damage to his car, relegating him to a 41st place finish.
Only ten laps later, teammate Newman was forced behind the wall with a broken radiator, scoring him 38th.
All Ringers supporting teams and drivers will take this week to recuperate and prepare of the NASCAR events at California Speedway and the NHRA event and Firebird International Raceway just outside of Phoenix.
About Ringers Gloves
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 ‘07 by logging onto www.ringersgloves.com for photos and highlights
