I hope the whole episode is as funny as the preview!

One thing I am going to admit to you is that as much as I love and look forward to the beginning of the season- there is also the struggle of having to pick out new driver/numbers/crew chiefs etc. There is always having to get use to all the new dynamics out there on top of the new nuances of things like the EFI and how that will effect the cars on the track and whatnot.  Plus did I mention the new numbers/new sponsors thing that ALWAYS throws me for a loop?

Stewart Haas Racing is not immune to changes- especially this season. Probably one of the most profound changes, everyone knows about. That is that Steve Addington will be Tony’s new crew chief this season. It’s not necessarily a change that I understand the reasoning behind but then again I am not a behind the scenes person so I am sure there is a reason for it. Right?

SHR was also able to finally fill the long empty (since May of 2011 if I am not mistaken) Director of Competition position with Greg Zipadelli. This does not surprise me in the least. I had a feeling back when Tony started Stewart-Haas Racing that Greg would end up over at SHR eventually in some capacity. It also seemed to me that there was increasing friction between Joey Logano and Greg Zipadelli towards the end of last season so it seemed like a natural move for everybody involved.

Stewart-Haas Racing also announced at the end of last season that Danica Patrick would be running the 10 car for 10 races (ha 10 for 10) in the cup series under the Stewart-Haas racing banner. But wait? Now it sounds like technically Danica will be running the 10 car for TBR (Tommy Baldwin Racing) and David Ruetimann will be running the rest of the season in the 10 car. Whot? I thought the 10 car was a SHR car? I am unclear as to what exactly this means…but the way I understand it (and this is just me…so it might NOT actually be happening this way): TBR is in a “partnership” with SHR in that SHR will provide the 10 car and the 10 crew chief (Greg Zipadelli) to TBR who will provide the 10 car with their owner points so that Danica is guarenteed to make it into the Daytona 500 without Tony having to give her his points and resting on his Championship provisional to get it.  When Danica isn’t in the 10 car, the car will be totally a TBR car and Ruitimann will have his own (a different) crew chief.  It kind of makes sense because if Tony were to give Danica his points and take the championship provisional, he wouldn’t be locked in the top 35 for the first five races.  That would be wasted on Danica who isn’t running a full schedule.  All I know is that the PR folks in charge of the Stewart-Haas Racing twitter account tells us that it’s a “win-win” for everyone. So there you have it. It’s “Winwin” just deal with it?!  (I am still kind of unclear if this means Danica is still a Stewart-Haas Racing driver).

Other changes including the adding of Quicken Loans and Aspen Dental to the list of sponsors signing up to sponsor Ryan Newman.  Add that to the Outback that was added in Phoenix (I was in the media center for the announcement).

So…what are Stewart-Haas’s chances of fielding two cars in the chase again next season? I don’t know.  The die-hard fan in me wants Tony to go out there and take names next season and win another championship.  GO TONY GO! I’M WITH SMOKE! You know the drill.  I always want Tony to win EVERY race- every single one.  I hope that Tony and team always go out there with that same attitude- the same one we saw at Homestead-Miami.  But we do have to take into consideration there are changes within the organization- the least of which means that Tony will have a new crew chief to build a rapport with.  Plus there is the third car for 10 races (or is there? I am still kind of confused…is it really considered a Stewart-Haas Racing team?).  So there is a 3 car dynamic for nearly a third of the races this coming season.  Can I just say though that I really REALLY want Tony to go out there and get that Daytona 500 win finally? Because I so do!

And just to add this picture from last month from Stewart-Haas Racing Twitter’s account that CRACKS me up:

This photo cracks me up! Photo Credit: Stewart-Haas Racing Twitter Account

Which reminds me- be sure to watch for Tony to be on The Last Man Standing with Tim Allen- it should air sometime around Speed Weeks (I think it comes on Valentines Day- but I will update when I know for sure).

I’m With Tony! Are you?  Let’s go 2012!

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!

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.

___

* 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.

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.

ITEM 1: I am giving away one SMOKE t-shirt

Size XL shirt

ITEM 2: One gray STEWART sweatshirt (size 3x- but it’s chase authentics so it runs a little small just as a warning) that I don’t have a picture of.  It’s uber cute though and says STEWART in red across the chest and says EST. Since 2008 in dark gray.

Best of all it’s free and easy to enter but there are a couple of catches:

1. To enter leave a comment on this entry with the item you want to win….something like: Hi I want to win the Tshirt or Hi I want to win the Sweatshirt will work. YOU MUST STATE WHICH ITEM YOU WANT TO WIN IN YOUR COMMENT. You can only enter to win one or the other. You can only comment ONCE .  Your comment must include a valid email address so that I can contact you if you win.

2. You can get a second entry for the item of your choice by tweeting about this contest- including a link to this post and the hashtag #Smokin2012. Be sure to leave a comment here with a link to your tweet! It doesn’t matter what the tweet says as long as it mentions the hashtag above AND includes a link to this post.

3. Wait didn’t I say I had THREE things to give away? Well I certainly do. The third item is a surprise “runner up” item.  You are automatically entered to win this “runner up item” by entering to win either the TShirt or the Sweatshirt.  The only hint I will give is that it is Tony Stewart related.

(All items are given away are new with tags and supplied by me).

This contest starts the minute the post is published and ends at noon pacific time on Jan 25th 2012.

Good Luck!

CONTEST CLOSED

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.