The winners in the BadGroove #Smokin2012 were chosen by random draw on Wednesday.
Aaron won the Tony Stewart/ SHR Sweatshirt.
Gina won the Smoke Brand T-shirt.
Mary Ann won the mystery “runner up” prize.
All prizes have been mailed (usps) as of yesterday! Congratulations winners!
It’s Depot Time! You know you are missing your NASCAR fix hardcore when you get excited by a sponsor commercial. Of course this one happens to star my* our* favorite 3-time Cup Champion TONY STEWART:
So you know I had to show it to you. I have long thought Office Depot needed some advertisements with Tony in them! Finally we have one. Hopefully more are in store for us (I don’t know why but “in store” just cracked me up- I think it has been a long day). If they need some ideas for some funny commercials I have a few ideas in my back pocket!
Of course now in my head I keep hearing “DEPOT TIME” as in “Hammer Time” as in MC Hammer and envisioning my dad dancing around the house in these crazy (embarrassing) parachute pants he use to wear on occasion when I was a teenager. Oh the mortification is still fresh.
So how do you know you are missing your NASCAR fix? And what do you do to fix it because we still have several weeks and football just isn’t doing it for me.
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* Have you ever noticed that Tony Stewart uses the terms “we” or “ours” when he means me or mine? I am so taking that up.
THREE TIME Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart (that whole three time thing never gets old) will be doing an autograph session as part of the NASCAR ACCELERATION weekend this Saturday January 21st, 2012 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Tony’s session takes place on SATURDAY in the Ballroom at the Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC starting at 3:15 local time (just a hint but I think you will want to get there at about 7:00am if you want to get a wristband). Tickets for the event are $10.00 and available for purchase here.
This actually looks like a really cool event- there will be many drivers there. For a complete listing of drivers and to buy tickets for the event (they are only $10.00) visit the NASCAR Acceleration Weekend page.
So, I have been waiting for something to arrive so that I could give it away here on Badgroove and have this mega contest with FOUR Tony Stewart items to give away but that ONE item is still not here and I am getting impatient. I just can’t wait any longer to give away some goodies to you (don’t worry- when the wayward item comes in I will still have the give away for it). (more…)
I was so excited to hear about this partnership I couldn’t wait to tell you. Back in 2010 I was lucky enough to get to preview the documentary Racing Dreams by filmmaker Marshall Curry. It was awesome and I gave it a glowing review here. The documentary follows the lives of two boys (Josh Hobson and Brandon Warren) and a girl (Annabeth Barnes) through the five race World Karting Association (WKA) championship season. It is really AWESOME to see and hear the story of the young fresh talent who dream of going into NASCAR someday. I found the movie to be very compelling, engaging and interesting.
Since I watched it, Racing Dreams has won a bunch of film festival awards (Tribeca Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Indianapolis International Film Festival- the list could go on and on) AND had a premiere at the NASCAR HALL OF FAME even.
Well I am now pleased to say that Racing Dreams will be featured on POV on PBS. POV is in it’s 25th season on PBS and features the work of today’s best independent film makers (Marshall Curry, Racing Dreams Director and Producer, was also featured on POV in 2005 for Oscar nominated Street Fight). The national broadcast premiere for Racing Dreams is on Thursday February 23rd 2012 at 9:00 pm (check your local listings though- because I know my PBS is a timezone off sometimes). It will also stream online in its entirety from Feb 24th to March 24th on the POV website at: www.pbs.org/pov/racingdreams. If you can at all watch it, DVR it or check it out in the internet I HIGHLY recommend it…especially for my race fan readers!
Racing Dreams follows the lives of three young racers (Annabeth Barnes, Josh Hobson and Brandon Warren) through the pavement series WKA national championship.
The release for this announcement also mentioned that DreamWorks Studios is developing the documentary into a dramatic feature film. I can only hope that this actually happens because it will rock if it’s half as good as the documentary is.
You only have 9 more days to win an autographed Tony Stewart Championship poster! I know that because the deadline to enter is Jan. 14th (which just so happens to be SOMEONES birthday but I am not naming ANY names– ME).
So anyway, as I was saying, Office Depot Racing is giving away 14 of the autographed Championship posters they made last month celebrating Tony’s third Championship (and first one with Stewart Haas). You can enter here.
While you are there maybe do what I just did and download one of their cool new wallpapers for your computer. Speaking of wallpapers- I was checking my phone’s sprint cup mobile for Tony Stewart wallpaper for my phone but they didn’t have one! Urg.
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Also- stay tuned for news on a Tony Stewart contest coming very soon right here at Badgroove.com.
Happy 2012 everyone! I hope your holidays were wonderful! Mine were. I have to tell you the story of the Christmas Standee.
Picture if you will- Christmas Eve with family starting to arrive for dinner and the festivities to follow. My uncle comes in and asks me if I wouldn’t mind wrapping up a couple of his last minute presents that he didn’t have time to wrap. This is nothing new to me- I tend to do most of the wrapping in my family that isn’t a present FOR me. He gives them to me- one is for my dad and one for my brother. I proceed to grab some wrapping paper and go wrap them in a back room. Little did I know that the present wrapping request was a ruse to distract me away from the main part of the house. I finish up and return to the main part of the house and put the newly wrapped presents under the tree, project accomplished. I then go to the kitchen where most people have assembled. My dad, who is in the middle of cooking a turkey on the barbecue pit, asks me to go into the garage and get him a specific beer (that would be oatmeal stout for you keeping track at home- my dad likes the weird beers) to put in the fridge to cool down for later. I walk out into the garage, over to where the beverages are stored, bend down and start rummaging through the bag of specialty beers looking for the oatmeal one- not even noticing that the bag had been placed at the feet of a lifesize Tony Stewart Standee (or more accurately the Tony Stewart standee had been placed right behind the bag o’ beer- which was in it’s usual place). Yeah…I was that unobservant.
Yes I rummaged at the feet of this standee and didn't even notice it (shake my head). And NO the Santa Hat was NOT on it. I added that later.(photo credit: Ralph Marbach)
I then stood up and was about to walk back to the kitchen when I FINALLY caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye. Big laugh on my account.Tony then proceeded to stay in the garage the rest of the evening (mostly because I didn’t want to take the chance of one of the nephews deciding to try to climb him, use him as a surfboard, or whatever else young nephews might do to a lifesize (or darn near) Tony Stewart standee). He later scared the crap out of my mom who forgot he was out there. That made ME laugh.
What rocks about my new (to me) Tony Stewart standee? Is that my uncle managed to recognize Tony Stewart enough to recognize that the standee in the shop where he buys welding supplies for work was my Tony Stewart. My uncle is not into racing at all and has often said that he doesn’t understand how I can manage to watch cars drive in circles for hours on end. That, to me is really COOL. Plus he’s holding a Nextel cup so that is kind of cool too- (so yeah he’s like 6 years old…and a little faded…but I still think he rocks) considering that he managed to win the Sprint cup this year.
So that is the story of the great Christmas Standee.
So it’s probably pretty obvious that I am a big NASCAR fan- even to the most casual observer. I have a Tony Stewart vanity plate for goodness sake. My office at work has a life size Standee of Tony in the corner and several favorite pictures, tons of Tony’s cars (including the Tony Stewart Burger King Kid’s Meal Toys) and well obviously this BLOG is a huge indication right? It just screams A NASCAR FAN LIVES HERE!
So anyway a couple weeks ago I got a NASCAR.COM Store catalog in the mail- I usually do this time of year. This year the cover was Christmas themed- complete with stockings hung on a hearth with the names of several drivers. On the mantle of the hearth were Christmas card featuring the specific likeness of a couple of the most popular drivers. However don’t expect to find NASCAR Christmas cards in the catalog- they aren’t there nor are they in the online store:
No Christmas Cards found when doing a search at the NASCAR.COM online store (screen capture by Amy Marbach- That's me!)
I am not saying that they should only feature items that they have on the cover of the catalog. Just simply that I have LONG thought that NASCAR should consider some products such as Christmas cards, birthday cards (now I have found JR and Jimmie Johnson birthday cards at the store on occasion…but they are a rare find that is for certain), and most especially some officially licensed wrapping paper both for the holidays and not. I would stock up!
I even had a cute idea for a Tony Stewart themed Christmas card that could feature a picture of Tony with the championship confetti- kind of like this picture:
Tony Stewart, driver of the #14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, celebrates with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford 400 and the 2011 Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 20, 2011 in Homestead, Florida. Stewart wins his third NASCAR Championship. (Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images North America)
And on the inside it could say something like Wishing you a magical Christmas and A New Year Worthy of A Championship (or something like that).* Plus the idea could be easily modified for a birthday card (I would LOVE to get this as a birthday card…wouldn’t you?) You could do something playful like that with a lot of the cards for other drivers too…by picking out something relevant from that year and coming up with a witty saying about it. But mostly? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have NASCAR themed (or even more specific driver themed) wrapping paper (holiday paper would be awesome- but even just generic paper that could be used for birthdays or whatever. I can’t be the only one thinking this…or maybe I am because I have a love of wrapping paper (and a love of wrapping gifts in general).
So yeah…I think NASCAR might be missing out on a money making product…what do you think?
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*If you think that is a good idea for a card you should hear some of the ideas I have for Office Depot and Mobil 1 commercials featuring Tony Stewart…I tell you I am an untapped resource. I should have been in marketing or something.
