SPORTS SHORTS

  5 Awesome, but lesser-known Racing stories (Part 5) By: Brian Cotnoir Here we are again:  I’ve somehow managed to find 5 MORE awesome, but lesser-known racing stories.  If you’re a hardcore racing fan, like I am you may have already known some of these, but to the casual racing fan these may be more surprising. 1.) Charlie Glotzbach shot by a disgruntled employee Wow, 1969 was a terrible year for NASCAR Journeyman Charlie Glotzbach.   It started with him losing that years Daytona 500 by 0.1 seconds to LeeRoy Yarbrough on a last lap pass.  Later that year while working at his race shop back in Indiana, Glotzbach was shot twice by a disgruntled employee he had fired the day before.  Miraculously, Glotzbach survived his injuries suffering only broken ribs.  Interestingly enough, doctors left one of the bullets in Glotzbach’s shoulder, so he raced for the rest of his career with a bullet in his shoulder.   In the first televised NA...

  10 Awesome Tribute, Number Swaps, and Copycat Paint Schemes in Racing By: Brian Cotnoir I wish I could come up with a better intro to this article, but I am really struggling to think of a way to do it.   A lot of times a teams paintscheme (or livery) depends on the sponsor.   You will see corporations and companies sponsor teams across mutliple racing series.  In the past companies like Martini, Valvoline, Miller, Marlboro, Budweiser, NAPA, and Bass Pro Shop ran almost idential liveries across mutltiple forms of racing.   Other times a sponsor will follow a driver to a new team, and while the paint scheme may remain the same but the numbers will swap, and finally sometime's a car fails to qualify for a race so a team opts to buy a ride from a different team to feature their sponsor, but they have to run with the number of the other team on it for that one race.  Whatever the reason here are 10 Awesome Tribute, Number Swaps, and Copy Cat Pa...

  Top 5 Best Lap Passes at the Daytona 500 By Brian Cotnoir The Daytona 500 is a little over a month away!   There is no doubt in my mind that the Daytona 500 is my favorite race of the entire year!   No other NASCAR race has as much excitement and memorable finishes as NASCAR Biggest race of the season.   It’s not just a race, it’s an event!     Now personally, I love last lap passes, but those last lap passes take on a whole new meaning during the Daytona 500.    To me a last lap pass at the Daytona 500 is like a buzzer beater in basketball or an overtime goal in hockey, or a walk-off homerun in baseball!   It just gives the race more excitement, and fortunately for me, most of the best Daytona 500’s with a last lap pass have happened in my lifetime!    So without further ado,    here are my picks for the 5 Best Last Lap finishes at the Daytona 500! 5.)   Dale Jarrett, 1993 As a kid watching NASCAR in t...

  5 Celebrities who had careers in Auto Racing By Brian Cotnoir Auto Racing is a sport driven (no pun intended) by two things: Passion and Money!    To make it in Auto Racing you have to have a passion for driving.   Many drivers like Tony Stewart, Lewis Hamilton, and Jeff Gordon started out as young kids racing go-karts and quarter midgets.    By the time they were 25-years-old, they had almost 2 decades of experience driving behind the wheel of various forms of racing, however, passion & talent alone unfortunately aren’t enough: in many cases your seat and team you drive for depend on how much money you bring in sponsorship. Celebrities and Pro-Athletes have a lot of disposable income.    Michael Jordan recently teamed up with NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin to launch 23XI Motorsports which will debut in the 2021 season.   Coach Joe Gibbs won 3 Super Bowls as head coach of the Washington Red Skins, and is now a 5-Time Cup Series Champi...

  5 of the Most Important Crashes in Racing History By Brian Cotnoir In 2020, we’ve seen a lot of scary accidents: Ryan Newman’s flip at the end of the Daytona 500, Maverick Vinales having a motorcycle fly over his head at over 200KM/h and losing his brakes the following race, and most recently Romain Grosjean’s fiery crash at the Bahrain Grand Prix.   The fact that all three of these men walked away with only minor injuries is a testament to the safety and improvements racing his endured over the years.    A decade ago we probably would have been mourning Ryan Newman and Romain Grosjean this year because of those horrendous accidents, but due to safety improvements in racing over many decades and good grace of God, they are still here with us today. All three of these accidents are sobering reminders of how dangerous motorsports truly is, and it’s because of previous accidents that we’ve seen these improvements made, and that got me thinking that some of these...

  5 NASCAR drivers who don’t get enough credit By Brian Cotnoir I’ll be honest; I don’t really know how to start this article off.   Throughout its history NASCAR has never been short on star power.  They’ve always had several drivers who compete week in and week out for wins and titles.   NASCAR has also had many drivers who showed potential early on, but then fizzled out (think Casey Atwood and Dylan Kwazneski).  Then there are the drivers, who made ripples in the sport, but did not make big splashes.  Some of them were quite successful in the lower-tier series, but as far as the Cup Series they had few accomplishments to show.   Some drivers made big careers out of being big fish in small ponds , others had everything going for them, but then it all got taken away from them.    Let’s look at 5 NASCAR drivers who don’t get enough credit. 1.) David Green David Green’s most notable accomplishments in racing were wi...

  5 of the Most Iconic Sponsors in Auto Racing By Brian Cotnoir Without sponsorship, racing would probably not be as recognized globally as it is today.    From Tobacco to Petroleum, Big box stores and energy drinks & sodas, all have made some impact in racing or another.   Some have been around for decades, while others are relatively new to the sport.   Some sponsor one driver or team, others sponsor multiple drivers, teams and even whole racing series, but no matter how much or how little they choose to sponsor, they have been integral to the sports.   Now just a disclaimer, I am NOT being paid by any of these companies or brands to promote them, this all just merely my own personal opinion. 1.)   Marlboro Auto Racing wouldn’t be where it is today without sponsorship from Big Tobacco.    Tobacco brands like Camel, Gitanes, Copenhagen, and Rothman’s sponsored teams in Formula 1 & IndyCar/CART.    NASCAR was sponso...