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ARCA Angels is Driven to Help

Sometimes things just feel right.  Today, ARCA and  our company, Bench Racing Productions are announcing the launch of a cause marketing effort to be known as ARCA Angels. 

The program will run for eight weeks in conjunction with ON PIT ROW and INSIDE ARCA sponsored by Team Glock Racing, the two radio programs that are co hosted by Steve Wronkowicz and Charlie Turner from the Toledo Speedway Bar & Grill each week. 

“We are just trying to help,” said Mark Gundrum, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for ARCA. “There are people who are associated with ARCA and the sport of auto racing who need help, and we have formed a small group of people who are willing to help if they
can.”

You can read the entire ARCA press release here. 

We’re proud to be a part of the ARCA Angels effort and we hope to help continue the good work far beyond the initial eight week promotion.  We presently have plans for several different fund raising activities, many of which will center around the live broadcasts of the radio shows.  But we want to include the internet community in the program too.  If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

We have wanted to get ON PIT ROW and OnPitRow.com involved in some kind of charitable program for some time now.  As NASCAR observers, there is a tendency to immediately think of Victory Junction Gang Camp or one of the many driver foundations.  They all support great causes.  ARCA Angels is a start-up.  Something to help build from the beginning.  We are directing the help towards three specific situations.  It will be great to see, from close up, how the efforts benefit those who need it.  As I said, this just felt right, right from the beginning.

Try our “Rattles from the Catch Can” Quiz and Win Stuff

Do you think you are up on the latest from the NASCAR internet?  Take a shot at our first ever quiz.  We’re calling it Rattles from the Catch Can.  The plan is to take the names of all those who get perfect scores - seven for seven - and that would be 7 correct answers for you contest lawyers out there, and we will pick a winner.  The big winner will get, let’s see…

• DVD “The Daytona 500 - 50 years of the Great American Race”
• ARCA RE/MAX Series official hat
• Crown Royal-Dan Lowry 400 # 26 Jamie McMurray hat
• Boris Said - No Fear Racing T-shirt - great shirt!
• 1 set of “ON PIT ROW”/ “INSIDE ARCA” Mardi Gras beads

All you have to do is play - and keep playing ’till you get it right! Make sure that you enter your email address at the end.  It’s how we validate your score.

If you want to feature this contest on your blog or site by all means be our guest.  And let us know what you think of our first “Rattles from the Catch Can”.

Larry McReynolds Belongs ON PIT ROW

The ON PIT ROW guest line-up today is headed by a guy who belongs.  Fox Sports NASCAR analyst and veteran crew chief Larry McReynolds returns to talk about last week at Richmond and the up coming Darington and Charlotte weekends.

Speaking of Richmond, we’ll talk to Dan Lowry, winner of the Crown Royal contest that made him the title sponsor of the Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Kerry Tharp, NASCAR’s Director of Competition Communications will join us as well.

Listen live starting at 5 pm EDT right here at OnPitRow.com.

Starting at 7pm, INSIDE ARCA is loaded too.  Carolina 500 winner Joey Logano will tell us about his dominating victory at The Rock.  This is our first chance to talk to Joey and we have plenty of questions.

Our ARCA Insider Phil Parsons will be here as will regular guest Patrick Donahue, crew chief for Eddie Sharp Racing.  It was a tough weekend for ESR.  We’ll ask Patrick what happened.

We get a preview of the ARCA RE/MAX Series’ race at Kentucky Speedway next Saturday with Tim Bray, Director of Communications for the Speedway.

The night of ON PIT RADIO will wind up with the ARCA Short Track Report and  a visit from ARCA Lincoln Welders Truck Series’ Nick Gullatta, winner at Winchester last weekend

Join us at the Toledo Speedway Bar & Grill or tune your radio to Fox Sports Radio 1230 am in Toledo or on the net at OnPitRow.com.

ON PIT ROW & INSIDE ARCA Doubleheader Dynomite Today at 5

Bobby Allison is a tough act to follow. Add to the Hall of Famer a roster of Boris Said, ARCA Insider and former Talladega winner, Phil Parsons, ARCA Iowa winner Matt Hawkins and Red Bull crew chief Patrick Donahue….. Well Steve had a big show to live up to. And he did!

Today - with prayers to the live radio gods - ON PIT ROW will have David Ragan to talk about a week that included a road course in Mexico, plate races in Talladega and short track testing in Toledo.

Later we’ll have Yates Racing driver David Gilliland and one other surprise guest. You’ll have to tune in or come on out to the Toledo Speedway Bar & Grill for that one.

INSIDE ARCA will feature ARCA RE/MAX Series points leader Matt Carter, a return visit from Patrick Donahue - this time as the crew chief of the Kansas 150 Grand winning #2 driven by Scott Speed.

Our ARCA Insider Phil Parsons will be here for his weekly look into the ARCA RE/MAX Series and Kansas Race winner Scott Speed will join us as well.

Rounding out the night of ON PIT RADIO is the ARCA Short Track Report with guests Michigan Motorsports Hall of Famer, Gary Lindahl and ARCA Lincoln Welders Truck Series points leader Steve Christman to talk about his win at Anderson Speedway.

So what are ya’ gonna do next week Steve?

UPDATE:  The surprise guest was Andy Hillenburg, owner of The Rock - Rockingham Speedway -  and is Andy ever pumped for this week’s Carolina 500!  Did you know that they are going to start 50 ARCA RE/MAX  cars in that race?  Can’t wait.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Scott Riggs ON PIT ROW Today!

Scott Riggs, driver of the #66 State Water Heaters Chevy for Haas CNC Racing will be one of many guests tonight as ON PIT ROW helps to kick off the race season at historic Toledo Speedway.

Scott is fresh off his 27th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway and he and crew chief Bootie Barker have the #66 solidly in the critical top thirty five of owner’s points. Riggs is a veteran - and race former winner - of the ARCA RE/MAX Series so he’s a great guest for our first ever hour of ON PIT RADIO night from the Speedway.

Joining Scott today and starting off hour number two will be Fox Sports own Jeff Hammond, with his usual insight and a big announcement too.

David Poole of The Charlotte Observer and Sirius’ “The Morning Drive” will be around for the 6:30 pm slot to talk about what - if anything - NASCAR needs to do to the new car.

ARCA star Justin Allgaier will be the first guest ever “Inside the ARCA RE/MAX Series” live from the Speedway Bar and Grill. Justin is one of the favorites this weekend at Salem Speedway after winning the fall 2007 race there.

Ron Varney, head man with the ASA will stop by to talk about the big Glass Breaker 125 for ASA Late Models and USPRO Cup Series races that will be hosted by Toledo Speedway this weekend.

And there’s more, including the strong possibility of a special surprise guest. But that’s the beauty of live radio. You just never know for sure what you’ll get. So stop by the Toledo Speedway Bar and Grill if you can. If not tune in to ON PIT ROW on any On pit Radio Network station or listen to the live streaming broadcast right here at OnPitRow.com.

Inside the ARCA RE/MAX Series can be heard on live stream at ArcaRacing.com and Wednesday nights at midnight on Fox Sports Radio WCWA 1230 am in NW Ohio.

Listen to the best of the NASCAR web today ON PIT ROW

Join Steve and me for the live steaming broadcast of ON PIT ROW today at 5:00 pm EDT and hear the voices of some of your favorite NASCAR bloggers live. We’re bringing together seven of the most influential, knowledgeable and opinionated writers from the NASCAR Internet community to kick around a few issues of importance to NASCAR Nation in early 2008.

Here’s the line up:

• Jay Adamski - better known as Jayski, the guy who kicked this NASCAR net thing off
• Luke Poland - webmaster of the Thunder Lounge - the best community in NASCAR
• Darren Fauth - of One Bad Wheel and developer of Champs, Chumps and Sleepers
• Tall Glass of Milk - Drink This, Answer This and the NASCAR Fanhouse at AOL
• Bob Ellis - NASCAR Ranting and Raving’s author and north of the border standout
• Marc Boland - The head of Full Throttle’s Half Vast staff calls from the Phillipines
• Bram Hume -Still the Scottish Racer and author of the great Backstretch Motorsports site

So if all connections go as planned, today will be our first “spanning the NASCAR net” special, brought to you by “Seven Post Magazine” and Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie. We hope you have as much fun with it as we will.

Racing music for Racing fans

If somehow you’ve never heard any of the music from the ON PIT ROW house band - The Backstretch Boys, tune in to today’s show and listen to the best racing music ever played. You know how it is - many have tried to do music specifically for you race fans, but few have pulled it off. I know because I’m constantly looking for really good, relevant music for our show and there just isn’t very much out there.

But there is the Backstretch Boys. Songs like “Talladega Shuffle”, “Daytona”, “Lady in Black” are great songs, not just great racing songs. “Rockin’ the Rock”, “Fields of Thunder” and “We Dig Dirt” are all on the band’s CD “Rookie Season”.

My favorite, though, is “Checkered Past (A Tribute to Dale)”. Our producer Tony has been playing that song during our pre-show time for a couple months now and I have a hard time getting it out of my head. I hope today’s ON PIT ROW guest, Robert Allred and the Boys don’t mind me calling them our house band because they’ve certainly been featured on bigger stages than ours.

The Backstretch Boys’ music has been featured on “NASCAR Raceday On Speed”, “Fox Sports” and NBC’s “Today Show”. Now we just have to figure a way to get them to do a live gig at the “Thunder Lounge” when that whole party fires up at Texas Motor Speedway, someday.

Check out the Backstretch Boys. Better yet, buy the CD. Buy a bunch of CD’s and spread the music around. This is real “Racing Music for Racing Fans”.

Fantasy NASCAR is alive at ON PIT ROW

Fantasy racing is huge and getting huger.  So are the sales of spell checkers and grammar lessons you say?  Well this is a racing site so let’s talk fantasy NASCAR, shall we?

ON PIT ROW - the fastest two hours on radio - sponsored a little NASCAR fantasy game in 2007 that we called the NASCAR Chain Game.  Not much of a name, I know, but a helluva fun game by all accounts.  With all of our changes to, and launch of, the new OnPitRow.com sites (thanks again Luke), we ran out of time to have a new version of that game ready for the start of 2008.

But OnPitRow.com will be very involved with a very cool  new NASCAR fantasy game called Champs Chumps and Sleepers.  This fantasy racing game was developed by Darren Fauth of One Bad Wheel -#3 on the Sports Media Challenge list of “Most influential NASCAR blogs”.  Here’s an explanation of the rules:

Each week you will pick a new team of 6 drivers.

Champs

Pick two Champs. These are two drivers that you think will do good in the race. But, it’s not a pick Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon every week thing. Your two Champ drivers will be outside of the top 12 in driver points.

Chumps

Pick two Chumps. These are two drivers that you think will not do good in the race. Once again, it’s not the two drivers that squeaked in the race with a good enough qualifying lap. Your two Chump drivers are all within the top 12 in driver points.

Sleepers

Pick two Sleepers. These are two driver that you think will do good in the race. Your two Sleeper drivers are outside the top 20 in driver points.

Definitely a unique concept and it ought to be a real challenge. Here’s an example of how the points will work:

Each week you will receive the same amount of points as your Champ & Sleeper driver’s. The points that your Chump driver’s receive will be deducted from your score.

Example (from the 2007 Daytona 500):

Let’s say you picked Tony Stewart & Dale Earnhardt Jr for your Champs. You picked Michael Waltrip & Juan Pablo Montoya for your Chumps. You picked David Ragan & David Gilliland for your Sleepers.

• CHAMP Drivers Scores: 106 points
  • Tony Stewart: 39
  • Dale Earnhardt Jr: 67
• CHUMP Drivers Scores: 179 points
  • Michael Waltrip: 73
  • Juan Pablo Montoya: 106
• SLEEPER Driver Scores: 302 points
  • David Ragan: 155
  • David Gilliland: 147

Your total score for the week: 106 - 179 + 302 = 229 points

To keep the scoring simpler, any penalty points against a driver do not affect your score. For the first race of 2008, drivers will be categorized by their 2007 NASCAR driver points standings.

ON PIT ROW and OnPitRow.com are sponsoring Champs, Chumps and Sleepers for the 2008 season.  There are some terrific prizes up for grabs and you can even set up your own leagues and play against a group of your own friends.

Sign up today and set up your team.  Steve and I will be playing, so you know you won’t finish last.

New NASCAR Sports Blog Index Fuels Fans Insight

The Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog has been recognized as the fourth most influential NASCAR blog by the folks at Sports Media Challenge in their all new NASCAR Sports Blog Index™ (SBI).   The full press release follows. Pretty cool stuff.

Rounding the turn to the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500, and recognizing the legendary strength of NASCAR communities, Sports Media Challenge launches the first ever NASCAR Sports Blog Index™ (SBI). The NASCAR SBI guides fans and brands to blogs where they can listen to and engage in the most influential online NASCAR fan conversations throughout the season.

Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) February 6, 2008 — It’s the start of a new season and you can almost hear fan sentiment revving along with the engines. Just over one year since Sports Media Challenge (SMC) launched its first Sports Blog Index™, SMC announced the addition of its NASCAR Sports Blog Index to guide fans to some of the most influential racing-focused venues on the web. The Index is intended to fuel interest and engagement of the sport’s most avid as well as newest followers. The Index points fans to blogs where they can reap perspective and share their own insights on their favorite sport, teams, and sponsors. Recent posts range from car technology and how good the new Toyotas are to Kyle Busch’s ideal woman. Even in the off season, NASCAR’s famed sense of community is alive and well as demonstrated by a single blog post generating as many as 200 comments.

“NASCAR blogs are among the most informed and intelligent across all sports. Bloggers who focus their efforts on team sports generally have an inside track, yet they limit analysis to their favorite competitors. However, the best NASCAR blogs illuminate their favorites and also showcase a particularly well-honed general knowledge and analysis of the sport,” says Kathleen Hessert President of Charlotte, NC based Sports Media Challenge.

From the brand perspective we’re looking for the blogs that have the most influence to help organizations understand their customers better than ever. By intensely and consistently listening to online word-of-mouth, properties and sponsors can better understand and harness invaluable insight

With the help of its proprietary Buzz Manager™ software, Sports Media Challenge analysts monitor millions of sports, entertainment and lifestyle blogs and other social media daily. SMC now publishes a Sports Blog Index for NASCAR, the NFL, NHL, Baseball, College Football, and more.

“From the brand perspective we’re looking for the blogs that have the most influence to help organizations understand their customers better than ever. By intensely and consistently listening to online word-of-mouth, properties and sponsors can better understand and harness invaluable insight,” according to Hessert.

Fans Drive Discussion on 50th Anniversary:
This year, NASCAR will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500, and today’s fans want to showcase their knowledge like never before. In addition to mainstream media coverage of NASCAR events, bloggers are covering NASCAR on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. Blogs are gaining legitimacy in the eyes of the public and are now posting unique, influential content to which fans can relate. A lack of editorial restriction, original content, and ability to comment directly on a post make blogs particularly attractive to fans.

Sports Media Challenge’s Sports Blog Index is the first ever standard measurement tool to identify the most influential sports and entertainment blogs and is derived from an in-depth analysis of all blogs related to the industry. A blog is rated on three main criteria: influence, fan engagement and quality. These factors are measured through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data, which allows the Sports Blog Index to more accurately rate the true “worth” of a given blog. Influence, which is a measure of the impact a blog has on fan opinion and perceptions, is a key factor in determining a blog’s ranking. Fan engagement is based on quantitative data such as page visits, number of posts, etc. The quality of a given blog’s content is determined by the SMC team, who analyze the humor, sentiment and sarcasm of a blog more effectively than a computer. The inclusion of both quantitative and qualitative data in the rating is what makes the Sports Blog Index unique.

Based on the rating of each blog in the areas of influence, fan engagement and quality, the top ten NASCAR sports blogs are:
1. The Daly Planet (http://dalyplanet.blogspot.com)
2. From the Marbles (http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog/nascar_marbles)
3. One Bad Wheel (http://www.onebadwheel.com/blog/)
4. Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie (http://benchracing.typepad.com/)
5. Restrictor Plate This (http://www.restrictorplatethis.com/)
6. Answer This… (http://drinkthis.typepad.com/answer_this/ )
7. NASCAR Ranting and Raving (http://4ever3canadianeh.blogspot.com )
8. Kathy’s Pit Stop (http://blogs.thatsracin.com/kathyspitstop/ )
9. Life in the Turn Lane (http://turn-lane.blogspot.com/ )
10. Full Throttle (http://www.cranialcavity.net/fullthrottle/wp/index.php )

About Buzz Manager
Buzz Manager, a staple service of SMC, is the proprietary search engine focusing explicitly on the sports, entertainment and lifestyle markets. It mines, monitors and analyzes online content and helps identify the most influential blogs in the Sports Blog Index. Buzz Manager tracks and measures the online word-of-mouth and mainstream media exposure of brands within the sports market. A combination of technology and human analysis is used to determine a brand’s awareness and perception. The Sports Blog Index uses the Buzz Manager tracking software to determine ratings for tens of thousands of sports blogs being tracked. Beyond blogs, Buzz Manager also monitors trends on other forms of Fan-generated media, including message boards, Facebook and other social media.

About Sports Media Challenge (www.sportsmediachallenge.com) Since 1988, Sports Media Challenge has helped more than 100 leading university athletic departments, professional leagues, teams and world-class sports personalities protect and enhance their brands through strategic communications, consulting and training. Some of the clients to use its PR and marketing tools include The Universities of Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas, THE PGA TOUR, The NFL, MLB and NBA teams as well as NFL MVP Peyton Manning, and NBA great Shaquille O’Neal. Sports Media Challenge has become the industry leader in online word-of-mouth marketing and reputation management.

On Pit Row: New and Improved for 2008

As you can see, if you’re reading this, On Pit Row has been given quite an extensive facelift in the off-season. As the 2008 season looms on the horizon, the switch has been flipped and the new face of On Pit Row is alive and well.

This brings several things into play. First and foremost it brings all of the content that had been scattered across the web under a single roof, and under the domain it should be under. Now listeners and readers can find all the content in the same location, and check a single page at On Pit Row.com for updates.

For those readers who have subscribed to our RSS feed from the old Bench Racing blog, hang tight and there is no need to adjust your feed links as long as you are using our FeedBurner link. All content from the On Pit Row family of sites will be incorporated into our feed through FeedBurner, without any need for intervention on your part.

Along with improvements in content and distribution you easily noticed the fresh new look. While the Bench Racing blog and The Fast Lap have slightly altered versions of the main On Pit Row website, you will find common elements between them that should keep you feeling comfy as you transverse each site.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank Charlie and Steve for giving the nod and allowing me to work on this project for them. It’s been a blast putting all of this together, and the future bodes well for the new features and additions in the works. I’d also like to thank the listeners and readers of On Pit Row. If it weren’t for you folks, they wouldn’t have a show, and I wouldn’t have had the pleasure working with, and getting to know these characters over the past year. It’s been a great experience thus far, and continues to be on a daily basis.

Thanks for listening, reading and supporting On Pit Row.

Enjoy the site!

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Content may not be duplicated, or redistributed without express written permission.

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