Gumball 3000 Rally In Charlotte -- Sights and Sounds

The Gumball 3000 Rally is currently making its way from "Miami 2 Ibiza," stopping in several major cities along the way and wowing audiences with its cars. If you're not familiar with Gumball 3000, it's a lifestyle brand, founded by British entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper, highlighted by exotic car culture but also includes fashion and entertainment. The annual Gumball rally has grown in popularity over the last few years, and a lot of the participants, who are coming from all over the globe, are wealthy--they're driving some of the world's most expensive and rare cars--and a growing number of the drivers on the rally are celebrities.

After leaving Atlanta, Gumball stopped in Charlotte last Friday, spending a few hours with several of the cars on display in front of the NASCAR Hall of Fame for the public to view (the drivers were given a private tour inside the HOF and ate lunch there). I actually received a media invite in advance to come out, meet the drivers, and even take a ride in a rare Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 Spyder, but I had to decline because I was going to be out of town (I attended my nephew's high school graduation, so it was worth it). I was curious about what I missed--I knew it would be a great event--so I checked social media to see what kind of photos and videos had been shared.

Credit: @NASCARHall

Here's a two-and-a-half-minute video of the Atlanta and Charlotte stops, posted by Gumball's official YouTube channel.

Here's a seven-minute video by GTBoard.com that shows the display of cars in front of the HOF and includes a quick interview with the Gumball creator.

And there are a lot of great photos on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Among the celebrities spotted in Charlotte were DJ/producer deadmau5, rapper Bun B, acclaimed photographer Estevan Oriol, and rapper/actress Eve. Eve is engaged to Maximillion (they're getting married this Saturday).

Post by GMP Performance.

Post by Versiontwo Laboratory.

After leaving Charlotte, the Gumball drivers headed to New York City. Today, they're in London and Paris. The life! Follow all the action at gumball3000.com, and the official Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts (all are @gumball3000).

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NASCAR Drivers, Family Members, and Fans Turn Out to Support 5Kahne

The Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday may have been a night race that ended around 11 p.m., but that didn't stop several NASCAR drivers and team members, and hundreds of fans from getting up early Sunday morning in support of a great cause. Kasey Kahne and his nonprofit organization hosted the Fourth Annual Kasey Kahne Foundation Five Kahne 5K and Kids Dash at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown.

The 5Kahne (what an awesome name, right) began near the NASCAR Hall and ran a circular route along McDowell, Morehead, Mint, and Stonewall streets. If you were in the vicinity you might've seen NASCAR drivers like Kahne, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, and others. Several of the NASCAR drivers' wives, girlfriends, children, and other family members, as well as journalists who cover the sport, also participated.

Below are photos from the event that were shared on Twitter and Instagram.

Kasey Kahne and ESPN NASCAR reporter Marty Smith address the crowd.

Credit: @KaseyKahneFndn

Registration is now open at the @NASCARHall. #5Kahne @GreatClips pic.twitter.com/wwSbNzGOAE
— KaseyKahneFoundation (@KaseyKahneFndn) October 13, 2013

It may be a little rainy and cold, but the @KaseyKahneFndn #5Kahne is about to get under way! 👏 pic.twitter.com/nkgs0kVHud
— Kirby Johnson Gordon (@kirbyannjohnson) October 13, 2013

Its time for a different kind of Sunday race - @kaseykahne kicks off the #5Kahne in uptown #clt! pic.twitter.com/R24C5NMeXj
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) October 13, 2013

Oh yeah! He's in that crowd too! @kaseykahne @KaseyKahneFndn #itsallaboutthekids! #5Kahne pic.twitter.com/PGMwIjFe7f
— NASCAR Hall of Fame (@NASCARHall) October 13, 2013

Almost start time and of course, #GoHawks. #5Kahne pic.twitter.com/yUlknfkIg6
— KaseyKahneFoundation (@KaseyKahneFndn) October 13, 2013

Do you spot a special supporter on the #5Kahne start/finish line? Hint: He's sporting some @jjfoundation48 gear! pic.twitter.com/6hPXB1g1Uh
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) October 13, 2013

The runners are just about to take off at the #5Kahne ! pic.twitter.com/alvln4Ldk8
— Great Clips Racing (@GREATracing) October 13, 2013

And big thanks to @AndrewDoud for the encouragement and @dianneg for being there at the finish line @NASCARHall pic.twitter.com/DoJjCqGCBX
— Alan Cavanna (@CopaCavanna) October 13, 2013

Fun morning. Won my age division with a 22:06. @KaseyKahneFndn #5Kahne pic.twitter.com/tTMZbnvumu
— Alec Fairbaugh (@AlecFairbaugh) October 13, 2013

Awesome morning at the #5Kahne, great to run with #TeamJJF. Negative splits and felt fantastic! pic.twitter.com/8nq9PQ6ACa
— Lauren Murray (@LaurenAMurray1) October 13, 2013

Had such a great day supporting @KaseyKahneFndn at the #5Kahne & the Kids Dash! What an awesome event! pic.twitter.com/Qj1Vvy9wW2
— Mandi Hamlin (@MandiHamlin) October 13, 2013

Awards ceremony about to begin, great turn out and a great run by our competitors. pic.twitter.com/E5nV5Yqfv9
— KaseyKahneFoundation (@KaseyKahneFndn) October 13, 2013

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Discussing Charlotte's Image on '282'

On this week's episode of 282, the weekly TV show in which I serve as a sidekick to host Carlton Hargro and am a producer for, we discussed some great topics that address Charlotte's image--what the city is known for and how good of a job it does branding itself.

The lead off topic was NASCAR's impact in Charlotte, a timely discussion since we're in the middle of race weeks throughout the Charlotte area, Food Lion Speed Street is in Uptown this Thursday through Saturday, the Coca-Cola 600 is Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame turned two years old this month. Not only did we talk about those events and venues, but we also discussed them in the context of how much a part of Charlotte's image is NASCAR. Does a city known for its white-collar professions finally embrace a sport who some still view as a redneck pastime? The motorsports industry has an annual $4 billion economic impact in the Charlotte area, by the way, with more than 80 percent of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams based here and most of the drivers and team owners have million-dollar homes here.

We also discussed local advertising agency BooneOakley's recent appearance on The Pitch on AMC, as well as the Charlotte Video Project, an effort to create 100 short videos that tell the city's story. Those topics helped us further discuss Charlotte's image and the intricacies of branding as a whole.

We were joined by a great panel of guests: Brittney Cason, Charlotte radio personality and entertainment columnist; David Oakley, co-founder and creative director of BooneOakley; and Scott Lazes, co-founder of Bread & Butter Pictures and editor of the Charlotte Video Project.

Follow 282 on Twitter @282tv and become a fan on Facebook at facebook.com/282tv. Also, be sure to tune into our season finale, Monday, May 28, 6:30 p.m. (repeats at 11 p.m.) on WTVI channel 42 (channel 5 Time Warner Cable). We taped a special episode on location at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find, a popular, local comic book store.

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Verizon Commercial Spotlights Charlotte, Energy

I saw a cool new TV commercial tonight in which Charlotte, specifically its Uptown buildings, is the star. Verizon has rolled out a national campaign to promote how its "network of technology, people, and ideas" is benefiting businesses and communities. In the commercial featuring Charlotte, it highlights how the city is using "Verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs, making communities greener."

The creative premise of the commercial shows a series of Uptown buildings being honored as employee of the month inside their respective offices. Those include the new UNC Charlotte Center City Building and NASCAR Hall of Fame, among others. Watch the video below.

If you visit the Verizon website dedicated to this campaign, verizon.com/plus, and click on the "Energy" tab, it takes you to several resources, including white papers and case studies on smart grid and cloud technology. There's also a link to Envision Charlotte, an initiative led by Duke Energy's Smart Energy Now program that uses digital grid technologies to display real-time energy data throughout Uptown, to create awareness and encourage behavioral change. The goal of this initiative is to cut energy use in Uptown by up to 20 percent by 2016. Several major corporations and organizations have partnered with Duke Energy on this, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Verizon, Mecklenburg County, the City of Charlotte, and others.

Plans for Envision Charlotte have been in the works for the past year, and the campaign officially kicked off last Friday (click here to read The Charlotte Observer article). Below is a video from last year, in which former President Bill Clinton announces Envision Charlotte at the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. He's joined on stage by Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Mayor Anthony Foxx, and Charlotte Center City Partners President Michael Smith.

All of this strengthens the momentum Charlotte has been building over the last few years to grow its energy sector. Several local leaders want the city to be known as an energy hub as much as it is known for banking, and the motivation behind energy is propelled by the possibility of job creation, in addition to environmental sustainability.

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'Museums on Us' this Weekend

I think a lot of people are unaware of Bank of America's great Museums on Us program. Here's how it works: By presenting your Bank of America or Merrill Lynch debit or credit card, you're admitted for free into more than 150 participating museums nationwide during the first full weekend of every month. So the next one is this Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7.

There are six museums in Charlotte where you'll be admitted for free (each one below links to that museum's website):

• Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
• Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
• Levine Museum of the New South
• Mint Museum Randolph
• Mint Museum Uptown
• NASCAR Hall of Fame

All of these museums, except for the Mint Museum Randolph, are in Uptown so you can easily visit more than one of them in an afternoon. Make a day of it! Charlotte has such a rich offering of museums and cultural arts venues, and more people should visit them. If you're a BofA customer, take advantage of this free weekend and go see Niki de Saint Phalle: Creation of a New Mythology at Bechtler; Live and In Stereo(type) at Gantt; COURAGE at Levine Museum; Attitude and Alchemy: The Metalwork of Gary Lee Noffke at Mint Uptown; and The Great Hall at NASCAR HOF.

The remaining Museums on Us weekends for 2011 are: September 3 and 4, October 1 and 2, November 5 and 6, and December 3 and 4. For more details, visit museums.bankofamerica.com.

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NASCAR Charlotte Race Weeks Begin

With back-to-back weekend races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR events are dominating the city's calendar from now until the end of the month. Known as Charlotte Race Weeks, there are dozens of fan events, driver and celebrity appearances, concerts, parties, and more. And they're taking place from Uptown--NASCAR Hall of Fame, Speed Street, EpiCentre, etc.--to Concord and Mooresville--Charlotte Motor Speedway, race team shops, etc.--and several stops in between.

I've compiled event lists of the action for Charlotte magazine, and you can find it at www.charlottemagazine.com/nascar2011. More content will be added, so be sure to check back over the next several days.

Highlights over the next two weeks include: the NASCAR Rev'd Up festival (May 18), NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge (May 19), NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (May 23), Food Lion Speed Street (May 26-28), Red Bull Racing Team’s Fan Day (May 27), and more. And new this year, Walmart is hosting NASCAR fan events at several of its Charlotte-area stores (May 17-28) with several drivers making appearances. And you can't forget the reason all of these related events are taking place: the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race is this Saturday, May 21, and the Coca-Cola 600 is next Sunday, May 29 (Memorial Day weekend).

Instead of having to bounce around from website to site trying to plan your days and nights out, we've put all the NASCAR May events in one place, including descriptions and ticket info, at www.charlottemagazine.com/nascar2011.

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Black History Tribute: Max Siegel

Each day this week, I'm spotlighting a Charlotte-area person or organization that is making black history.

I got to know Max Siegel in 2008 while writing a story about him for Charlotte magazine. At the time, he was president of Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI), the famed NASCAR franchise founded by the racing legend it's named after. Max allowed me to follow him around his office and the race shop as well as sit in on meetings. After this close interaction over a couple of days, I walked away impressed--just as most people are--by the man who has for much of his career been a pioneer.

Today, Max runs The 909 Group, a sports, entertainment, and lifestyle marketing firm he founded, and through it he oversees several ventures. He spent most of his career as an executive and attorney in the entertainment industry, but once he ventured into NASCAR a few years ago, he's seized the opportunity to bring his experience with leading successful brands to help NASCAR's ongoing effort to improve diversity in the sport. Max oversees NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, which works to develop minority and female drivers and crew members. He's also CEO of his own race team, Revolution Racing.

Max has helped make NASCAR's diversity efforts more visible. The reality show he created, Changing Lanes, aired last fall on BET, showcasing minority and female drivers competing for a spot on his race team. A great deal of the footage in the eight one-hour episodes was shot in Charlotte and Concord.

The 2011 Revolution Racing team, which competes in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.

More recently, Max partnered with NASCAR Media Group and ESPN Films to produce Wendell Scott: A Race Story, which premiered on ESPN last Sunday right after the Daytona 500. The documentary tells the story of Scott, who remains to this day the only black driver to have won a race in NASCAR's top series (today known as the Sprint Cup), which he won in 1963. A Race Story combines historical footage with re-creations and interviews from members of Scott's family and racing legends. NASCAR Hall of Fame is showing the film Saturday, March 5 at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

You can learn more about Max Siegel, his accomplishments, and business ventures by visiting www.maxsiegel.com.

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Recap: Charlotte Chamber 2010 Annual Meeting at NASCAR Hall of Fame

The Charlotte Chamber held its 2010 Annual Meeting last night at NASCAR Hall of Fame. I attended the event for the first time in 2008 (when Michael Jordan was honored), so I knew to look forward to a great evening. You wouldn't necessarily think that a business event such as this would be entertaining, but there's a reason 1,800 people showed up (at $75 a ticket). The Charlotte Chamber and the teams of creative people they hire to put on the event, once again gave a top-notch performance.

With the theme "Brand New Day," including an opening performance by the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (I can still hear the catchy tune in my head), the annual meeting was a celebratory event after a worrisome last couple of years for people in all levels of business. The Chamber touted the number of companies it helped relocate to, expand, or open new offices in Charlotte during the past year, and the number of new jobs created as a result--4,400--reminding us of the big announcements that came in 2010 from Husqvarna, Electrolux, Siemens, Fifth/Third, and others.

And there was another big announcement, saved especially for the event. Shaw Power Group's CEO took the stage and announced that his company would be adding 225 jobs in Charlotte, 80 percent of those being engineering jobs with an average salary of $95,000. The audience was instructed to ring the little gold bells that were placed in our seats. The ringing of the bells was to mirror a practice that has become a tradition at the Chamber whenever a new business announcement is made.

The evening also featured the passing of the gavel from the 2010 Chamber chair, David Darnell of Bank of America, to 2011 chair Pat Rodgers of Rodgers Builders. Carolinas HealthCare System was given the Belk Innovation in Diversity Award. And Leon and Sandra Levine were honored with the Citizen of the Carolinas Award. As the founder of Family Dollar, Leon Levine has amassed a fortune, and he and his wife have given a lot of it away to charities, the arts, and education.

Perhaps the best thing about the program is that it only lasted an hour. So the crowd quickly got to the food. If you've ever been to the Annual Meeting, you know the food offerings are always spectacular. I was actually a little embarrassed as I walked through the crowd with a plate that looked like I didn't want to have to get up for seconds. Complimentary drinks made the cycle complete.

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Great Place to Watch Monday Night Football

Football season is officially underway and tonight is the first Monday Night Football game of the 2010 NFL season. There will actually be two games tonight: Baltimore Ravens vs. New York Jets at 7 p.m. and San Diego Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs at 10:15 p.m. Both games will be televised on ESPN and if you're looking for a great place to watch them in Charlotte, I recommend you attend Mainstream Mondays at Buffalo Wild Wings at NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Mainstream Mondays is a weekly event put on by Eddietainment each Monday night during the NFL season. Last year, the event was held at Therapy Cafe and drew great crowds with its offerings of food and drink specials and music. Expect the same with this go-round of the series and it'll probably be your first time visiting Buffalo Wild Wings' Uptown location, which opened in April at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Buffalo Wild Wings (400 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) has plenty of TVs and a large outdoor patio, not to mention that wings is their specialty. There's no cover charge for this event.

Click on flyer for larger view.

Mainstream Mondays is hosted by SG and her NFL "Inside Wire" crew and also features a great blend of hip-hop and R&B music by DJ Shogun. Fellas will be pleasantly surprised to see the number of women in attendance. And the crowd changes a little each week depending on which teams are playing. Fans of the Cowboys (week 7, October 25) and Steelers (week 9, November 8) definitely come out to represent, and you won't want to miss week 10's match-up of the Eagles versus the Redskins on November 15 (when Donovan McNabb plays his former team). The Carolina Panthers don't have a Monday Night game this year, which is probably a good thing--no need to shine that prime-time spotlight on a struggling offense.

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New Tour Takes You to NASCAR Hall Followed by Visits to Race Shops

The NASCAR Hall of Fame, which opened last month in Uptown Charlotte, yesterday launched the Ultimate Fan Experience Tour. The daylong tour begins with admittance to the hall then takes guests to several Charlotte-area NASCAR race shops and attractions.

During the tour, you're given three hours to explore the 40,000 square feet of exhibit space of the $200 million NASCAR Hall of Fame, which includes more than 50 interactive stations, iRacing simulators, authentic artifacts, historic stock cars, and more. This portion of the tour concludes with a catered lunch served in a souvenir lunch bag.

You'll continue the tour with an afternoon of behind-the-scenes visits to a variety of local race attractions. Tour itineraries vary but include stops such as Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sam Bass Gallery, Hendrick Motorsports, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Curb Motorsports Museum, MacDonald Racing, and Michael Waltrip Racing. Guests are treated to tours of race shops including areas not generally viewed by the public, access to personal work spaces, opportunities to view collections of selected celebrities, live pit stops, and discounts on race merchandise.

The Ultimate Fan Experience Tour is all-inclusive and costs $99 for adults, $89 for children ages five-12; children four and younger are free. Tours pick up Monday through Thursday at 8:45 a.m. at Concord Mills Mall or 9:15 a.m. at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Seats are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Click here to book a tour.

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'A Day in the Life of Charlotte'

One minute and 40 seconds is all it takes to show what that the Charlotte area has to offer. But there's a lot.

Visit Charlotte and its marketing division, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA), have created a new video for its "Charlotte's got a lot" campaign. Titled "Welcome to Charlotte," this is one of the best visual portrayals of the city I've ever seen. If you've never visited Charlotte, it'll make you want to plan a trip ASAP. If you live here, it should remind you how lucky you are.

While the video starts off with an alarm clock going off at 7 a.m.--something we all dread--it rapidly takes you through dozens of passing scenes of attractions in Charlotte and the surrounding area: the airport, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte Convention Center, light rail, restaurants, several theaters and museums, Billy Graham Library, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Lake Norman, Carowinds, U.S. National Whitewater Center, The Golf Club at Ballantyne, Carolina Panthers fans inside Bank of America Stadium, and nightlife at both the EpiCentre and NC Music Factory. Plus, there are formal greetings from Winston Kelley (NASCAR Hall), Mayor Anthony Foxx, Tim Newman (CRVA), Richard Childress, and Michael Jordan.

See the video below.

For more, visit www.charlottesgotalot.com.

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NASCAR Announces Hall of Fame Class

Fresh off the wire (that's old-school journalist talk), below is an excerpt of a press release I received this afternoon announcing the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame Class. I got three out of five of the selections right--Earnhardt, France Sr., and Petty--from when I blogged about the nominees in August ("NASCAR Hall of Fame: Class and Race").

There was never any doubt that The King and The Intimidator would get in.

INAUGURAL NASCAR HALL OF FAME CLASS ANNOUNCED

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Oct. 14, 2009) – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) announced the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame today that includes: Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson and Richard Petty.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel, consisting of members of the Nominating Committee along with 29 others representing NASCAR, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, major race track ownership groups, retired drivers, owners and crew chiefs along with motorsports media representatives, met in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C. to vote on the induction class of 2010.

The class was determined by the 51 votes cast by the panel and the nationwide fan vote conducted through NASCAR.COM. The accounting firm of Ernst & Young presided over the tabulation of the votes.

The Class of 2010 will be officially inducted in a ceremony on May 23, 2010 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.

The results of the voting for the final five chosen in this inaugural class proved competitive. Also receiving votes were David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison.

As part of the inclusive voting process, more than 670,000 NASCAR fans submitted votes online at NASCAR.COM as part of the fan voting process. This remarkable fan feedback once again demonstrates fans’ passion and knowledge of the sport and its heritage. The fans voted Petty, Earnhardt, Bill France Sr., Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison as their top five.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame broke ground in Charlotte on Jan. 25, 2007 and will open May 11, 2010. The facility honors the history and heritage of NASCAR and the many who have contributed to the success of NASCAR.

To read the full press release, which details the five drivers' accomplishments, click here. For more info on the NASCAR Hall of Fame, visit www.nascarhall.com.

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NASCAR Hall of Fame: Class and Race

There's a lot of excitement and momentum building as the NASCAR Hall of Fame nears completion in Uptown Charlotte. The $146 million hall, which will feature exhibits, a theater, racing simulators, restaurants, and more, is scheduled to hold its grand opening in May (leading up to the two big races at Lowe's Motor Speedway). Part of the enthusiasm for the hall of fame is the inaugural class of retired NASCAR drivers (and non-drivers that have contributed to the sport) that are going to be inducted. Twenty-five candidates have been announced, of which five will be chosen for the inaugural class.


While NASCAR plans to induct five people each year, I think they should be inducting more than five the first year since the process is essentially backlogged. Other sports like the NBA and NFL can induct a small number each year--though they still do more than five--because their hall of fames have existed for decades. But since this is NASCAR's first ever hall of fame, a league that was founded more than 60 years ago, there are dozens of former drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners that would have been eligible years ago had the hall of fame previously existed.

So what we have now is a situation in which some very notable people aren't going to make it into the inaugural 2010 class, simply because there are so many big names on the list. If I had to choose five from the 25 nominated (fans can vote online), I would select: Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Bill France Sr., and Rick Hendrick. While that's certainly an amazing group, that still leaves out NASCAR legends like Darrell Waltrip, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Richard Childress, and others who are among the 25 nominees.

But you know who isn't even nominated this year: Wendell Scott, NASCAR's pioneering black driver. Scott raced professionally from 1952 to 1973, winning races while experiencing plenty of racism and segregation along the way. The 1977 movie Greased Lightning, which starred Richard Pryor, was loosely based on his life. And now Scott's omission from the hall of fame's list of nominees is the subject of an interesting New York Times article that questions NASCAR's commitment to diversity and chronicles incidents of racism.


The article states: "Since Scott broke the racial barrier more than half a century ago, several minority and female drivers have competed in some events. Despite a nine-year diversity program, all but one of the 125 regular drivers in Nascar’s three national racing series are white males. The sole ethnic minority is Juan Pablo Montoya, who is Hispanic."

I think the article is reaching a little by singling out the hall of fame--as I said, it would be difficult to choose so few people for the inaugural class of such an established sport--but the article makes some valid points. And I'm sure this is a debate that will only strengthen as the opening of the hall of fame nears, as well as when nominees are announced in future years. Click here to read The New York Times article: "Omission of a Nascar Pioneer Stirs a Debate."

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'NASCAR Wives' Airs Saturday

UPDATE: NASCAR Wives didn't air on January 24 as originally scheduled. It was reported by a few NASCAR "insiders" websites that the debut of the show was delayed so that footage from February's Daytona 500 could be included. Websites were reporting a March or April premiere date for the show but even that didn't happen. TLC hasn't released any further details on the status of the show, so it looks likely that NASCAR Wives may have been cancelled.

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TLC is debuting a new reality show called NASCAR Wives that will chronicle the lives of women who stand by their race-car driving husbands. TLC will air a one-hour episode this Saturday, January 24, 10 p.m., after the Miss America pageant. The show is being billed as a docusoap, following in the success of similar "wives" shows The Real Housewives of Orange County and Army Wives.

The stars of the show are DeLana Harvick (Kevin's wife), Shana Mayfield (Jeremy's wife), Angie Skinner (Mike's wife), and Kelley Earnhardt (Dale Jr.'s sister; hey, you gotta respect the last name). All of these women live in the Charlotte area, so imagine it will show them relaxing on Lake Norman, shopping at Birkdale Village, and flying in helicopters to races--you know, their typical lifestyles.

Jeremy Mayfield's wife Shana will star in the show. Presumably he'll make appearances as well.

I have the DVR set to record it. This is sort of an introductory episode, with the full series set to air in the spring. I'm just mad that I'm not in on this deal. I had the idea for a reality show like this two years ago, when my infatuation with NASCAR drivers' wives began. I used to refer to Lake Norman as our version of the OC, after my first time visiting the lake and seeing all of the ridiculous mansions, many of which are owned by NASCAR drivers and executives.

The show is produced by NASCAR Media Group, which is based in Charlotte and will soon be moving into the new office building that's part of the NASCAR Hall of Fame under construction uptown.

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