NOTEBOOK: BUSCH SERIES RACE SEEING RED.Byline: LOUIS BREWSTER Staff Writer FONTANA -- The Red Rocker may not drive 55, and he can't stick to the time line, either. Sammy Hagar Samuel Roy Hagar (born October 13 1947 in Monterey, California, USA), better known as Sammy Hagar (aka "The Red Rocker"), is an American rock guitarist, singer, and composer. Hagar was the singer of Van Halen, and of the early 70s rock band Montrose. , Fontana's leading rocker, was the grand marshal Grand Marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "Marshal" with the first usage of the term "Grand Marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. of Saturday's Busch Series The NASCAR Busch Series is a stock car racing series owned and operated by NASCAR. It is NASCAR's "minor league" circuit (often compared to Triple-A baseball), and is a proving ground for drivers who wish to step up to the organization's "big league" circuit, the Nextel Cup. Stater stat·er 1 n. A resident of a particular state or type of state. Often used in combination: Lone Star staters; farm staters; the struggle between slave staters and free staters. Noun 1. Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . 300, and oneof his duties was to give the three-word command to start the engines. Hagar went off script and asked the crowd if they were ready for a race and if they were having fun. Before he could finish, the 41-car field started their engines. ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network showed Hagar voicing the "Gentlemen, start your engines. Light 'em up" tape-delayed after the race already had started. Hagar will perform before today's Nextel Cup The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series is NASCAR's top racing series. It was formerly known as the Strictly Stock Series (1949), Grand National Series (1950-1971), and the Winston Cup Series (1972-2003). race, hopefully under better weather conditions than Thursday night, when he was the featured performer at the Fontana Racefest and sang five songs, including his famous "I Can't Drive 55," during a rainstorm. Mental stress: Rookie Paul Menard Paul Menard (born August 21, 1980) is a NASCAR driver currently competing in the NEXTEL Cup Series driving the #15 Menards Chevrolet Monte Carlo for Dale Earnhardt, Inc.. He is the son of Menards founder John Menard, Jr., whose company is his sponsor. qualified 22nd for today's Auto Club 500, which only relieved some of the stress on crew chief Tony Eury. "By the time you get in the race on Friday afternoon (during qualifying), you're too wore out to get your car ready to race," said Eury, once Dale Earnhardt Jr's crew chief. "It's just so tough. There are so many good teams here. It ain't like it was last year, (or the) year before, where there was a lot of guys that you knew you were automatically going to beat. "Now, there's so many of us over here with no points, it's pretty mind boggling on Friday just to get in." Circus pick: Did Sake the sea lion pick Tony Raines to win today's race or did he select Scott Riggs? In a promotional stunt at the Speedway's Fan Zone, the sea lion flicked a ball with Raines' number out of the pool first. It was followed by Dale Jarrett's number then Riggs. The event was televised, with Speed Channel's John Roberts served as the host. Balls with the number of the 43 drivers were placed in the pool as part of an exhibit of the California State Monterey's marine biology "Sea Lions Encounters" project. Pit stops: Matt Kenseth was inducted into the Speedway's Walk of Fame for his 2006 Auto Club 500 victory. In addition to placing his hand and foot in cement, along with his signature, Kenseth was presented the customary speedway gift: a unique surfboard created by Ohana Kemp Surfboards, a surfboard shaping company based in Orange County. louis.brewster@sbsun.com (909) 386-3935 |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion