Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie

Junior Johnson’s trying to haul his moon to Daytona

Moonshine and NASCAR - now that’s getting back to your roots.

NASCAR legend Junior Johnson is going to drive the pace car at the 2008 Daytona 500. That’s fantastic. I wonder if Tony Stewart will bump draft him during the yellows?

On top of Junior in the Pace Car, Johnson’s Midnight Moon will be sponsoring Jeremy Mayfield’s Chevy for Haas CNC Racing. Piedmont Distillers, the makers of Junior’s legal shine is hoping that the exposure  .....Go to the new home of the Bench Racing Blog for the rest of this post!

Geeked over the Rolex 24

We've moved the home of Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie to the new OnPitRow.com site.  We'll continue to post over here for awhile, but please check out the new site and change your bookmarks. Thanks.

25 Daytona Prototypes will start the 46th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway tomorrow. That should give some comfort to NASCAR fans who are nervous about the future competitiveness of the Racer Formerly Known as CoT.

Daytona Prototypes were introduced to skeptical sportscar racing fans in 2002 by, basically the same folks who are force-feeding you that other car.  The field for the 2002 Rolex included only a handful of DPs - and they weren't very fast - or very pretty. 

The Grand Am Series' new-at-the-time stewards - that would be the Family France - said many of the same things about DPs back then as they have been telling NASCAR fans about CoTs.  They'll save teams money.  It's a safer car.  We won't permit any cheating.  You'll grow to think they're cute.

Whether or not the new NASCAR-car makes for better racing is up in the air.  Way up there, in fact.  But there is really no argument that the DP saved big league sportscar racing in this country.  That field tomorrow is big, competitive and - with the sponsor decal-friendly broad sides, hoods and tops - colorfully NASCAR-like.

And....and.... it will be a real race -  Finally

Picture credit: John Raoux/Associated Press

Brian France the sixth most powerful person in sports

Did you notice this week that Business Week, in collaboration with ESPN the Magazine tackled the problem of ranking the sport's world's top 100 most influential individuals, in what they modestly termed "a mammoth and challenging project".

No doubt it was.

While listening to the mainstream sports media noodle this story over the past few days, I found the same anti-NASCAR bias blathered as is always the case when the stick and ball boobs are forced to act like they know what NASCAR is - and that real people, with full sets of teeth actually pay attention to it.  I know it bothers many of you as well.

Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO, is listed as the sixth most influential or powerful figure in the mega billion dollar sports business game.  Here is the top ten, in case you missed it.

1. Roger Goodell	Commissioner, NFL
2. Tiger Woods	Golfer
3. David Stern	Commissioner, NBA
4. George Bodenheimer	President, ESPN, ABC Sports; co-chairman, Disney Media Networks
5. Bud Selig	Commissioner, MLB
6. Brian France	Chairman, CEO NASCAR
7. Dick Ebersol	Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics
8. Phil Knight	Chairman, Nike
9. Sean McManus	President, CBS News and Sports
10. Rupert Murdoch	Chairman, CEO, News Corp

Not bad company there, Brian.  Other notable representatives of the so-called major leagues follow.

23. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 27. Gary Bettman Commissioner, NHL 30. Roger Federer Tennis player 57. Bernie Ecclestone Head of Formula 1 Fear not, fellow red necks.  There appears to be hope for us after all. Let's go racin' Y'all.