I'm doing a report or a study on why do people like Nascar?

I like nascar because you can tell a friend by the driver they cheer.

So i want to hear why you like nascar.

Thanks,

Amanda

P.S Race Fans are the greatest people ever.

Red Bull's Best Weekend

Not-so-fresh rubber was all that separated the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota from victory. A late caution was all that kept the No. 84 from its first top-10 finish. But second place isn't bad, and neither is 12th.

Statistically, the Pocono 500 weekend was Red Bull Racing Team's best in the Sprint Cup Series. Brian Vickers earned the team's best finish in its brief existence when the No. 83 led 18 laps before finishing second to Kasey Kahne. Teammate AJ Allmendinger, who qualified eighth in the No. 84, ran a career-best 12th and gained significant ground on the top 35.

"I felt like we had the best car on the race track at the end of the race," Brian said. "We just didn't have any tires."

Brian pitted on lap 165 for four tires and fuel and stayed on the track when the yellow flag waved 12 laps later. Kahne, riding on Goodyear Eagles with a slightly longer lifespan, took the lead on lap 184, while Brian fought off Denny Hamlin the rest of the way to hold second.

With his second top five of the season and fourth at Pocono, Brian moved up two spots in points to 17th. He's 112 points out of the Chase's 12th and final berth.

"I'm pleased, but not satisfied," Brian said. "I had a really good car there at the end and good strategy — and a good finish."

AJ held a spot in the top 10 for the most of the day and kept flirting with the top five. The No. 84 took four tires during a green-flag stop on lap 174, but the caution quickly waved a few laps later and AJ got stuck back in 23rd. Still, he rallied for the best points finish of his career and moved to 37th in the car owner standings. He's 140 points out of the top 35.

"The 84 guys have been on their 'A' game for qualifying," AJ said. "I feel a lot more comfortable in running in qualifying, going and getting a lap and still making the race and not overdoing it. But, we've just been missing that good race to go out there. So, it's good to finally just put everything together."

Daddy's Little Girl

The newest member of the Allmendinger family made the trip to Richmond to cheer on the No. 84 and keep dad company. Her name is Misty, a 10-week-old yellow Labrador.

"I'm still way too immature to have a kid, so we're testing out the dog first and see how that goes," AJ said.

The Richmond weekend is Misty's first taste of life on the NASCAR trail. While AJ was testing with Red Bull Racing Team on Monday at Iowa Speedway, Lynne Allmendinger picked up Misty in Daytona Beach, Fla. Misty was recently filming the K-9 comedy "Marley & Me," starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson, in Miami.

"We've talked about a dog ever since the middle of last year," AJ said. "We've thought about what we'll do on the weekends we can't take her, but we've got friends that stay here and they have doggie spas and stuff.

"I'm thinking Jay (Frye, general manager and VP) won't be cool about a dog barking on the plane."

AJ and teammate Brian Vickers have two hours of practice (11 a.m. ET) before today's qualifying session at 5:40 p.m. The Dan Lowry 400 is an impound race, so it's straight into Saturday night's green flag (7:30 p.m., Fox).

posted by Bull Rider at 8:33 AM

Wednesday continued to look like we might finally be clear of the dark cloud of 2007! AJ and the 84 crew finished three days of testing in preparation for the Daytona 500 next month and the last day was just as solid.

In the morning session, Allmendinger turned in the second-fastest lap of 48.032-seconds (187.375-mph), just behind Kyle Busch.  For the afternoon session, the 84 worked on drafting and finished 6th on the timesheets with a lap of 47.922-seconds (187.805-mph).

"I'm just happy with the whole team's performance," said AJ. "Everybody back at the Red Bull shop worked so hard to get us prepared to come test down here, and all the guys here that put a lot of effort into these three days.  I don't think anybody has shown their best hand.  Everybody is going to come back with a little bit more, but so are we.  Toyota has shown us that they stepped up their program.  We just need to go back to the shop and not let up at all.  We're pretty good, but we have to get better."

The three-day test put AJ and the 84 in the 5th spot overall for cumulative drafting speeds. Allmendinger was 6th overall in single car speeds from the first two days, not accounting for the improved times on Day Three.

The next test for the Cup teams will be in Las Vegas, immediately following the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona for AJ.

The Color Purple

Last weekend in Richmond, AJ debuted his new Memorex Busch firesuit for Chip Ganassi Racing. The suit did not actually arrive at the track until Friday afternoon - just a few hours before the Busch race. Having not been able to wash (or fade) it yet, let's just say it was bright purple. His crew guys from the No. 42 had their fun with AJ saying he looked like a superhero, a power ranger, Barney, etc - he definately heard it all! As you can see from the photo, Brian made a point to come "admire" AJ's new suit first-hand during driver intros. AJ finished the Richmond Busch race in the 14th spot, having ran most of the race in the top 10 before being spun by the No. 03 at the very end. We think purple is starting to agree with you AJ!

RICK VIERS
CREW CHIEF - NO. 84
TEAM RED BULL

Birthdate: 11/22/63
Birthplace: Darlington, MD
Resides: Thomasville, NC
Background: NASCAR Cup Series crew chief, car chief, pit stop coordinator, tire changer and mechanic; NASCAR Busch Series crew chief; NASCAR Truck Series crew chief; limited stock and late model racer.

WORKING THE RANKS

Your average 21-year-old is still living on his parents' dime and shirking away from responsibility, but that wasn't the case with Rick Viers at that age - he was too busy raising the bar on ordinary. He wore his first of many racing hats to come as a team owner and driver in the 1984 NASCAR Mid Atlantic Region Series. Competition Director Elton Sawyer also sang Viers praises from past experience working together as driver and crew chief. "I knew Ricky back when he had black hair - I gave him the gray ones." On a serious note Sawyer said, "I know Ricky is 100 percent dedicated to getting the car better for the driver. I never once felt like he was questioning my ability as a driver, and that's an important understanding to have, especially with a rookie in the car."

TAKING A YOUNG GUN UNDER HIS WING
Viers doesn't balk at the challenge to help a former open-wheel superstar integrate into stock car racing - he takes it head on. "There's no doubt in my mind that AJ will one day be a Cup Series champion."

Viers is confident in the dynamics of the driver lineup saying, "Having a veteran teammate like Brian Vickers is a great match for AJ. Brian will be an instrumental player in helping AJ grow in the sport, just as he himself has grown in the Cup series over the past three years."After three years perfecting his on-track performance, Viers went on to win four races and the crown of Old Dominion Speedway Track Champion.

Viers had been bit by the racing bug. He jumped ship to the NASCAR Cup Series in 1988, following his heart to a tin-top racing career that's spanned almost two decades. His move to NASCARolina fueled stints with seven top Cup and Busch teams and led to work alongside two of the sports greatest racers - Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon.

KNOCK KNOCK

In 2006, while working for Bill Davis Racing, Viers got the opportunity to crew chief for an open-wheel transfer - AJ Allmendinger - in his NASCAR Truck Series debut. The duo sparked instant chemistry and impressive on-track results. A strong thumbs up from the rookie and a racing history with two of Team Red Bull's big wigs led to an opportunity too good to refuse.

"The team had a well laid out plan for how they wanted to structure their organization - engineering driven and team-oriented," Rick says in describing why Team Red Bull's call was loud and clear enough to convince him to leave his current Cup position and move to a fledgling Cup team. "AJ and I had instant chemistry working together and I knew this kid was the real deal. I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip away."

Competition Director Elton Sawyer also sang Viers praises from past experience working together as driver and crew chief. "I knew Ricky back when he had black hair - I gave him the gray ones." On a serious note Sawyer said, "I know Ricky is 100 percent dedicated to getting the car better for the driver. I never once felt like he was questioning my ability as a driver, and that's an important understanding to have, especially with a rookie in the car."

TAKING A YOUNG GUN UNDER HIS WING
Viers doesn't balk at the challenge to help a former open-wheel superstar integrate into stock car racing - he takes it head on. "There's no doubt in my mind that AJ will one day be a Cup Series champion."

Viers is confident in the dynamics of the driver lineup saying, "Having a veteran teammate like Brian Vickers is a great match for AJ. Brian will be an instrumental player in helping AJ grow in the sport, just as he himself has grown in the Cup series over the past three years."

Let's see … Is it possible to rank the significance of a Nextel Cup race? The Daytona 500, NASCAR's annual Super Bowl of stock-car racing, clearly is No. 1. Teams spend an entire winter prepping for the greatest of all American races. Even a United States president, Ronald Reagan, thought the 500 was worthy of his presence in 1984.

The pecking order after that, however, is open for debate. Anyone who is involved in making a 3,400-pound, full-bodied race car go fast will tell you the Brickyard 400 — err, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard — is right up there. The 600-mile race at Charlotte deserves a podium finish, as does the old Southern 500 at Darlington, which had been on every driver's to-do list.

But the Brickyard is the Brickyard. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a gargantuan facility steeped in motorsports history that deserves its own zip code, is a race every driver — Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger included — is gunning for. So big is Indy that a winning driver, his team and entourage kneel down to smooch a three-foot-wide stretch of dust-covered bricks at the start-finish line. That public show of affection is displayed nowhere else on the Nextel Cup circuit.

Does that make Indy No. 2 on the list of biggest NASCAR races? Whatever your opinion might be, BV loves the place. In three starts, twice he has rolled off from the fifth position, and he finished third in 2005.

posted by racing bull

Outside Looking In

As everyone knows, the past month has been a tough one at the race track for Red Bull Racing. It is definitely not from a lack of effort. We know our cars are capable of being competitive week in and week out - however each week we must first overcome the obstacle of qualifying just to have the chance to race on Sundays. Just how hard is it outside of the coveted Top-35? Well an interesting stat was brought up in our team meeting today. The current points leader Jeff Gordon would have missed 3 races already this season, had he started the year outside of the Top-35 in points and remained there, like AJ and Brian have. This season in the garage area you hear a lot of talk about the Top-35 rule. Many see pro's to the rule, and many others see con's. This is the first season where so many competitive teams, carrying big-named sponsors, have been trying to make the field each week - and the first time so many competitive drivers and teams have gone home (and some on a regular basis). NASCAR is currently evaluating the rule, but has yet to make a decision for the 2008 season. What do you think? Should the Top-35 rule be changed?

posted by racing bull

                                                      Over-the-Wall Pit Crew

Fueler: Aaron Pieratt

Jack: Andrew Turner

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Langley

Front Tire Carrier: Ryan Crellin

Rear Tire Changer: Danny Kincaid

Rear Tire Carrier: Andy Shahan

Catch Can: Brian Dheel