Full Throttle

As January rolls on various NASCAR venues are rolling out ticket pricing incentives intended to motivate you from acute “couch-stagnation” to active participation via attendance at one of the 38 sanctioned Sprint Cup events in 2009.

SuperCarDirect.com CEO John Sweeney, who runs the nation’s largest free car classified website, has taken a novel approach to eliminating executive perks. He sold the company’s jet and now drives a NASCAR race car to work.

Go Daddy is announcing its return to NASCAR for the 2009 season with another sponsorship deal featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr.

For the first time in history, a mixed martial arts event will be held in conjunction with a major motorsports event.

Auto racing requires speed. That takes money to keep the cars in top condition. Race teams spend a lot of their own money — prize money if they’re good — but also turn to selling sponsorships on the cars and driver uniforms to fund the expensive sport. Sponsors want success on the track and a marketable personality for their investment.

It would be a tall order, but what if NASCAR in one swift move could win back the hearts and minds of some members of NASCAR Nation that lament the passing of the so-called “Good Old Days” of the sport?

Jeff Gordon has sold most of nearly 2,000 acres he owned in the high country above Missouri Heights to a development group headed by the man who created the Dallas National Golf Club in Texas a few years ago.

Sam McQuagg, the 1965 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, died Saturday, his son McQuagg Jr. said. He was 73. McQuagg died at St. Francis Hospital, Sam McQuagg Jr. told the Associated Press. Preliminary medical reports show McQuagg died from cancer.

The first day of practice for the fourth annual Whelan Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge ended with 2008 Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. on top of the timing sheet. Coughlin drove his brand-new JEGS.com bobsled down legendary Mount Van Hoevenberg in 48.99 seconds from the No. 4 (practice) start gate to lead a group of 12 professional racers from NASCAR and NHRA.

The climax to the 2008 F1 World Championship could represent the peak for a sport that appears to be on the brink of fundamental change. But one thing will endure regardless of how the sport changes in the future, the spectacular images captured during 2008.

Note to Danica Patrick, that tall skinny peddle on the right is the Go Peddle. The larger rectangle one in the center is the Woe Peddle.

Ok boys and girls, and all those in-between (to include visiting aliens), we may be on the cusp of a New Year but my trivial mind is on the past. The very far past, in fact I was a pre pre-teen and four years from attending my first Daytona 500 when this image was taken.

Plans for a NASCAR-style race track in Tulare, a project I once called the Turkey in Tulare, are one step closer to reality.

Robby Gordon interviewed in Homestead Fl. previews the 2009 Dakar Rally. The 2009 event will cross the continent of South America from January 3 - 18.

FoxSports is reporting (via Yahoo, the story went “missing” at Fox) 2008 Raybestos Rookie of the Year winner Regan Smith will drive for Furniture Row Racing in 2009.

For the second straight year, McMurray, who drives for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is competing in Daytona KartWeek By Cometic Gasket World Karting Association races.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has rescued the Honda Formula One team, an Italian newspaper reported on Saturday.

Mitchell Dumesny was involved in one of the most spectacular finishes ever witnessed at Parramatta City Raceway as he and arch rival Robbie Farr raced to the checkered flag when the two cars touched and Dumesny’s car embarked on a wild series of flips across the finish line.

The following is a public service announcement from the Half-Vast Staff of Full Throttle for those who haven’t been granted the “privilege” of access to NASCAR’s vaunted Media Website.