MINDY’S MINUTE

Source: Ringers Gloves/Mindy Stephens
Date: 10/24/2007

BROWNSBURG, Indiana -- Greetings from the Indianapolis International Airport! I am sitting at Gate C-9 awaiting my Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas for the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. This race is highly anticipated because it is the first of the last two races in the Countdown to One in the POWERade Drag Racing Series points heading into the season finale at Pomona. NHRA hasn’t had an event for two weeks, but plenty of other racing still happened over the weekend.

The Dirt Track World Championship specialty late model race took place at K-C Raceway in Chillicothe, Oh. Ringers’ racer Chub Frank, more affectionately known as Chubzilla, picked up the $50,000 oversized paycheck. The car Chubzilla drove to the win hasn’t seen the best of days since it debuted at the World 100, but it seems the specialty green “monster” paint scheme redeemed itself with a huge payday on Saturday night.

Other Ringers’ notables in the field were Josh Richards, second; Steve Francis, third; Darrell Lanigan, seventh and Brian Birkhofer, 26th.

While the late models were slingin’ dirt in Ohio the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and Nextel Cup Series’ were racing around the paper-clipped shaped track of Martinsville Speedway down in Virginia.

On Saturday afternoon, Brendan Gaughan led the Ringers’ supporting teams and racers to the finish line of the Kroger 200 in 11th place. Gaughan piloted his No. 77 South Point Racing Chevrolet through two big wrecks in the last seven laps from 28th to the 11th place finish. The only other Ringers’ team racers to finish on the lead lap and not sidelined from an accident was Billy Ballew Motorsports’ Denny Hamlin in the No. 15 Flanders Beef Patties truck in 19th and Green Light Racing’s Chris Jones 21st in the No. 08. GLR’s Tim Sauter finished 27th, while Hamlin’s BBM teammate finished 31st.

On Sunday, Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman competed in the Subway 500, with a win eluding one of them with the a caution on the green-white-checkered restart on lap 497. Newman saw the green flag wave on lap 505, he started to challenge eventual race winner Jimmie Johnson for the lead, but a lap car spun, resulting in the yellow and checkered flags to be waved simultaneously. Newman had to settle for second place. His teammate Busch started off the day on a good note until lap 167 when he brushed the wall in his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, after the heat from his brake system melted a bead on one of his four tires. Busch never bounced back from the incident and finished 31st.

The Craftsman Truck and Nextel Cup Series head to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for their respective races, while the Busch Series heads to the land of Elvis and the Memphis Motorsports Park in Millington, Tenn.

The Championship Off-Road Racing (CORR) Series visited Texas Motor Speedway over the weekend for Rounds 9 & 10 on the season. In Pro-4, Scott Douglas steered his No. 7 AMSOIL Kumho Tire F-150 to a flag to flag victory on Friday in Round 9, but had a run-in with Curt LeDuc in Round 10 on Sunday.

Ringers’ supporter Johnny Greaves had better luck than Douglas in the Pro-4 class. Greaves picked up a podium finish in his Monster Energy Drink Potawatomi Toyota Tundra on Friday and then a win on Saturday after an all-night motor switch.

Transmission problems plagued Scott Taylor and his No. 8 Skyjacker/BFGoodrich Tires Ford on Friday night in the Pro-2 class and Saturday wasn’t much better when he attempted to steer his F-150 out of the path of another truck when another competitor got into him ending his run.

The CORR Series heads to Primm, Nev., just outside of Las Vegas for the season finale November 3-4.

About Ringers Gloves

Ringers Gloves, Official Gloves of NHRA and title sponsor for the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle, is a full-line manufacturer of high-end, task specific gloves, SFI 3.3/1, 3.3/10, 3.3/20 racing gloves, UnderX protective undergarments and rdigs pit boots.

Keep up with your favorite Ringers racers in ‘07 by logging onto the newly redesigned www.ringersgloves.com for photos and highlights!

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