Ultimate Race Day

We are revved up to kick off another season of NASCAR fantasy racing on Yahoo! Sports. You are cordially invited to join the competition with the Ultimate Race Day Community!

We’ll be starting weekly conversations on the Message Boards, on Twitter, on Facebook and sending the league members updates on who’s trading paint. We’ll also be giving away prizes to members throughout the season and a grand prize to the champion! It’s FREE and easy to SIGN UP – so click here to start your engines!

REMEMBER:

Group ID# 13731

Password: nascar2010

Please feel free to forward along to your friends and colleagues.  You need to be logged in with your Yahoo! ID and ready to roll before the Daytona 500. (Deadline to select your drivers is Feb 14 1:14pm EST). We look forward to an awesome season and sharing a great experience with everyone.

Good Luck!!!

Stephanie & Chris
www.ultimateraceday.com
ultimateraceday@gmail.com

Hey NASCAR fans. The Daytona 500 is almost here and we are gearing up. UltimateRaceDay is excited to attend the Social Media Motorports Summit (#SMMSummit) this Thursday in Charlotte, NC.  The event will be attended by motorsports executives, sponsors, social media providers, and  media professionals — united by their interest in learning more about about social media and its impact on the sport.

We’ll be live tweeting and blogging from the event.  Stay tuned for updates.

Thursday, January 28, 2010 from 7:30 AM – 4:30 PM (EST)

Westin Charlotte
601 S. College Street
Charlotte, NC 28202

Guest Blogger: Katey Dietz

Cruise ships are a lot like Vegas. What happens at sea, stays at sea. That is, unless someone rats you out, and that is exactly what I’m about to do, rat myself out.

Sunday, while aboard the Carnival Destiny for Social Fresh Cruise, I, on purpose, skipped the blogging roundtable. That’s right! This lil blogger passed up the opportunity to openly discuss blogging with the likes of Chris Brogan, Amber Naslund, Greg Cangialosi, Lucretia Pruitt, Steve Hall, Emily Gerson, and so many more!

Photo Credit: adrants

Now what could possibly drag me away from such an opportunity? NASCAR baby!

While watching the race sipping Mojitos as Cuba passed by was pretty awesome, the race itself was pretty unremarkable, as evidenced by the fact that NASCAR.com had the time to post the following in their Lap-by-Lap feed:

“Lap 213 — Denny Hamlin’s crew is eating pizza, gearing up for the final pit stop of the day.”

Though I miss the days of hard won battles for position, unexpected slingshot moves through traffic, I have to admit that there is a bit of magic to watching history be made. I have no real love for the Hendrick team, but can’t help rooting for them. They are the Manchester United of NASCAR. They have deep pockets, spend wisely & get results. Whether you love or hate them, one can’t help but respect what Rick Hendrick has built.

I’m hoping Homestead breaks the streak of dull races we’ve had this Fall. It’s gonna take a lot to stop a 1-2-3 Chase finish for Hendrick, but amid all the chatter we’ll endure Sunday about the history books here’s hoping we get a surprise leader/winner to rally around (I’m looking at you Joey Logano).

After conferences, everyone likes to talk about “takeaways”. My takeaway from Phoenix is this quote from Jeff Burton:

“We’re building on something. We’re working hard on our equipment, on our communication and I’m working hard on paying attention to how I drive. Everybody’s looking at themselves in the mirror and the results are showing.”

Guest Blogger: Katey Dietz

I had hoped to write this sooner, but my fingers just thawed from last week’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Tour

Since my last post, I’ve visited a whopping 1 NASCAR site (LMS). Between work & a swine flu outbreak in the family, there hasn’t been much free time or energy the past few weeks. At this point, I’m really going to have to leave some rubber on the road to get a respectable tour completed in the next 5 weeks. Clearly, I’m going to have to ink in my stops.

Homecoming

Just like race week here in May, it was rainy. Rainy & cold to be exact, all week long. I was born and raised in Rochester, NY, so it takes a lot for me to be bothered by the cold, but I’d hazard to guess that the NASCAR Banking 500 was cold even by Alaskan standards. Though temps didn’t drop below the 40s during the race, the wind chill was not to be trifled with. I thought I was prepared; wool socks, corduroys, 2 shirts, a sweater, hooded fleece-lined jacket, ball cap, scarf & gloves. I was so very very wrong. The wind penetrated every layer I had packed on. By the time race was over my feet were leaden, hands arthritic, and my belief I could ever be warm again was nearly extinguished. The one thing that kept me going was the knowledge that a crockpot full of homemade chicken soup was waiting for me when I got home.

I had planned to tweet during the race. I even warned folks earlier in the day that from 3pm on, unless they were interested in NASCAR, they might want to tune me out, but it was too cold to tweet! I wanted to tweet. I was tweeting non-stop in my mind, but the idea for pulling off a glove for even a moment was more than I could handle. I even stopped at one funnel cake (normally I have 2 or 3) for fear that further exposure would prevent me from ever tweeting again. Needless to say, no one complained about the volume of my NASCAR tweets that night.

After every race, we all talk about those 1 or 2 drivers that just fell apart during the race (psychologically, mechanically, intellectually). Contrary to popular belief, the biggest mistake of the race was not Sam Hornish, Jr. spinning out in Lap 3, or even Juan Pablo Montoya losing his “grip”. It was me deciding that taking the stairs back up to the Jewel Box after getting the funnel cake was a better plan then the elevator. My thought was that the effort would warm my muscles up. I was warmed up a bit when I reached the top, but was out of breath and a bit, no a lot fatigued.

Sure it was “brrr brrr cold outside”, and Hamlin & Gilliland didn’t have the races I’d hoped, but I loved every bone chilling moment of the day!

Pro Tailgating Tip

Invest in an AC converter and a decent crockpot. Great for chili during the tailgate. Added bonus: Even unplugged, the crockpot will keep things warm until after the race allowing for a nice post-race snack while waiting for the traffic to clear out.

Ultimate Race Day is building a network of top NASCAR bloggers. We look forward to introducing you to our contributors over the coming weeks!

Guest Blogger:

By Katey Dietz

Dover Post Race Thought: We as fans so often forget the level of risk drivers face each time they take to the track. Sunday’s big one reminds us that without innovations such as the COT and HANS devices, wrecks would still be season/career/life ending. Whatever you think of the COT, everyone loves a happy ending.

My NASCAR Tour

View NASCAR in a larger map

It occurred to me that though I live in the capital of NASCAR-nation, I’ve only been to one raceshop. So my goal between now and the end of the Chase, is to visit as many as possible. I won’t have to travel far, just further than the 3 miles from my front door to JGR’s.

To help track my efforts, I’ve put together a map. I have started to build my list of teams to visit, and will update the icons as I visit them.

Since Ultimate Race Day is about community, tell me where you would like to ride-along to. I’ll be taking pics, video, talking to whomever I can and sharing it all with you here. Since I came up with this plan about 5 minutes into writing this post, I’m not sure who I will be visiting this week, but I will tweet it out in advance & live tweet my adventure.

Tailgate Recipe – Salt Potatoes

These gems are good hot, cold, even 1 day old & great with burgers, brats or BBQ.

1. Visit a local farmer/ farm market & enough buy small (2 bite size) potatoes for your crowd to snack on. Any variety will do, but well textured skin works best.
2. Fill a large pot of water with twice as much salt, I you think necessary to make the water salty. I like kosher, but table salt will do.
3. Add potatoes and boil until your spuds float.
4. Remove from heat and drain in a colander. Do not rinse.
5. Allow to cool. A salt film will appear on the skin.
6. Enjoy!

By: Chris McCaffrey

Photo Credit:  DailyPress

Just two races into the Chase for the Sprint Cup and the Hendrick Motorsports dynamic duo of  Jimmie “Superman” Johnson and Mark “The  Kid” Martin raise the bar again and emerge as the two teams to beat for the 2009  championship.  Jimmie Johnson took the pole for the start of the AAA 400 at The Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway and dominated 271 of the 400 laps for his 4th checkered flag this season.  If the #48 teams past performance winning four of the last eight races of the 2008 season is any indicator, you can bet that this NASCAR dynasty has its sights on a 4-peat for 2009.   If there is anyone that can unseat this championship team, it will be from the same stable of racers and the #5 of Mark Martin and his Crew Chief Alan Gustafson.  With a second place finish at Dover and a win at Louden, New Hampshire last week, Mark remains in the top points position for the Chase with Johnson, Montoya,  and Bush trailing -10, -65, and -75 points respectively.  Jimmie will be the one to beat at the next stop on the calendar for the Price Chopper 400 in Kansas City.  I wonder if Carl Edwards has perfected the Banzai move he unsuccessfully tried to pull off last year to pass Jimmie Johnson for the win.

Chad Knaus nailed the set up off the hauler at Dover and made no changes during the first pit stop during the competition caution at lap 25.  Jimmie was dialed in.  Shortly thereafter on lap 31  after a double file restart the #20 of Joey Logano got caught up in a monster wreck after checking up and getting hit from behind by Tony Stewart. Logano spun to the lower part of the track, then slid up and hit the wall before the #43 of Reed Sorensen broadsided the #20 sending it into a series of 7-8 slow motion rolls down the track.  Thankfully Logano emerged from the car shaken, though unscathed… a true testament to the safety of the COT.  Robby Gordon and Martin Truex also got caught up in the wreck that brought out the red flag.

Kurt Bush pushed the blue duece out front for 99 laps midway through the race to finish in the top 5.  Bush was the only other dominating leader all day other than Johnson.   It would appear that the #42  – Juan Pablo Montoya had the fastest car at times and was the one to challange the #48 for the win.  After qualifying second and running in the same position for the majority of the race, Monotya and Brian Pattie could not match the mastery of Johnson and Knaus.

Smoke, Hamlin and Newman are still in the hunt for the Championship, though with 8 to go and at lease 100 points behind the leaders, they just don’t seem to have enough juice to surpass the class of the field,  Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson.  Be assured Juan Pablo will not go down without a fight, especially after getting pinched down on the bottom of the track at Louden by Martin in the final laps.

On to Kanas City.

By Stephanie Agresta

I never thought I would be in a fantasy sports league.  Football and baseball leagues always seemed so hard – participating in a draft, building your own team, etc. I’m sure some people find that the best part — personalizing your own NFL or MLB organization.  For the NASCAR league I’m in (my first ever, as I’m a NASCAR newbie), it’s a little more straightforward: Just pick the winners! My competitive nature likes this a lot. Of course, there is some strategy to it – you can only use each driver a certain number of times, and all drivers are put into 3 categories (A, B or C). I am learning.  So here’s the most exciting part – last week I moved into first place. I’m not bragging b/c you can drop and rise quickly – depending on how your drivers do each week. I’m just really proud of myself. GEEK GIRL RACING FTW!

Thanks to @awesomewreckage for inviting us into his world! I find it so much more enjoying watching the race when I’ve got skin in the game.

@chrismccaffrey and I (and our family members that joined as well) even made a side bet and the winner will be getting a trophy and the cash purse at our Thanksgiving celebration.

Things in this league are heating up. As we inch into the Chase, the competition is getting tighter. Stay tuned b/c Geek Girl racing is planning on winning.

Ultimate Race Day is building a network of top NASCAR bloggers. We look forward to introducing you to our contributors over the coming weeks!

Guest Blogger:

By Katey Dietz

Fall is my favorite season! The smell of leaves, fresh apple cider & fry cakes, football, crisp air, and best of all – The Chase!

Autumn weekends find me cheering on the local high school football team on Fridays, helping my parents clear leaves from their yard and catching the ACC match ups on Saturday, and routing for my Bills and cheering like crazy for every left turn on Sundays.

(Photo credit: Bleacher Report.com)

This season I’m finding it hard to pick a fave to take the Cup. I’m not a strategic fan, a sentimental fan, or some waffle-belly who only roots for single drivers with big bank accounts. I like good people and good stories. I’ve got my team, Joe Gibbs Racing, because they’re the “hometown” team and I’m a proud Huntersville resident, but more significantly it’s Joe Gibbs! It’s impossible not to admirer him and how he runs his business & manages his teams.

Then I have my drivers. Yes, plural. I’ve been a fan of Denny Hamlin since his rookie year and enjoyed his consistency and solid no flash racing. So many young drivers become reckless and wreck prone searching for points and wins. When Hamlin has the car, he’s got her out front. When it’s not his day, he drives it as hard as he can, but doesn’t risk what car he does have. My second driver? David Gilliland. This is only my second season following him, but I’m sure there are many more too come. I enjoyed him last year with Yates, but have been blown away by his determination and professionalism as a journeyman and with TRG this season. It takes more than media training to handle being dropped, having multiple start & parks, lack of sponsorship, and being bumped by a veteran with the class and decorum Gilliland has showed. Adding to his appeal for this Gibbs Girl is the news that he’ll be piloting the fourth JGR car for a few races.

While I always pull for Hamlin and Gilliland over everyone else, this year’s Chase offers several compelling drivers to back. It would be Hamlin’s first Cup, and is there a fan alive that wouldn’t be thrilled to see Mark Martin finally take one home? A Tony Stewart or Ryan Newman win would make a great bookend to a stellar first season for Stewart-Haas Racing. Part of me even wants to see Kyle Busch play spoiler a rack up a bunch of late season wins (can you imagine Stewart’s in-car if that happens!?).

So Sunday, before I watch my Bills rout the Bucs to make up for Monday night’s heartbreak, I’ll be cheering for the first chapter of a great story. You?

By Steph Agresta

It’s been a busy summer but we are back.  This season, we’ve spent a lot of time building relationships on Twitter and being extremely competitive in our NASCAR fantasy league (Awesome Wreckage on Yahoo!). I’m particularly proud that as a newbie race fan, I’m in 4th place.

This is quite the community.  The passion of the online fans and the ability to share information real time has enhanced the experience of this sport.  Using #nascar on Twitter, we have been able to have a dialouge – sharing real-time persectives and emotions, not only during the race, but about NASCAR news that happens everyday.

With just two races to go before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, we gearing up for the excitement that comes from the conversation with this incredible community.  Make sure you are following us on Twitter: @ultimateraceday (and we will follow you back)! Who are your picks from week to week?  Who do you think will capture the championship?

By Chris McCaffrey

Like a shaken bottle of Napa Valley’s finest sparkling wine, Marcos Ambrose, “All Fizzed Up”, sprayed from dead last  in his #47 Toyota through a field of 42 other drivers to finish 3rd at Infineon.   This would be the second time that the Tasmanian native would defy odds coming from the 43rd spot to finish third at a road course.  Ambrose accomplished the same task as a rookie one year earlier at Watkins Glenn.

When asked in a TNT post race interview about his career best finish in a NASCAR  Sprint Cup race and elevation to the #18th spot in points, Marcos replied, “I don’t care about points, I just want to look good.”

He sure looked good rolling off the hauler in Sonoma.  It appeared Ambrose had struck gold in the rolling hills of Northern California with a third place qualifying run, putting  him on the second row for the start of the Toyota/SaveMart 350, behind Kyle Bush and pole sitter Brian Vickers, until it all went up in smoke when his engine failed in practice on Saturday.   This marked just the beginning of challenges Ambrose would face out on the track.  After rallying to get the car back on the track after a blown engine,  Marcos slammed into the back of Jimmie Johnson coming into turn 11 in the final practice session, leaving damage on the bumpers of both cars.  And surely, the contact would not end there for the former Australian V8 Supercar Series Champion.   It would be an all out door banging day of aggressive, yet finesse filled driving that would take  Michael Watrip Racing’s #47  to the front of the field.  At moments it seemed Ambrose might not survive to finish.  Lap 75 during green flag pit stops, Abrose roared off pit road, tagged Bobby Labonte, sending the #96 into a tailspin…Ambrose drove through.  More dramatically, on lap 89 coming in hot to turn 11, Hamlin (on the inside) forces Ambrose wide and head on into the pit wall.  The #47 nosed in against Denny’s driver side door, barely scraping by and leaving some yellow and red paint behing on the pit road wall.   He may even have offered Hamlin the internationally recognized hand gesture of displesure.  We’ll have to go back to the tapes on that one.

The 115 lap race, which showcased seven yellow flag double file restarts, would conlcude with it’s final restart on lap 112 for a green, white, all out sprint for the checkered flag.  As fierce as Ambrose battled all day, he simply was not fast enough to pass Tony Stewart (2nd place)  and race winner Kasey Kayne who were both dominant and near flawless all day.

For Marcos Ambrose, it would be day of 3rd’s.  For Kasey Kayne, a day of 1st’s.  Kayne scored his first win of the 2009 season, his first career win on a road course, and the King’s first win for the newly formed Richard Petty Motorsports.

Congratulations to Kasey Kayne, Richard Petty and all our Fathers on this special day!!!