Monica Palumbo Primed and Ready for Her Favorite Event NASCAR After The Lap™
For the fifth year in a row, NASCAR After The Lap™ will be back in Las Vegas during champion’s week and at least one of the co-hosts Monica Palumbo is primed and ready for her ‘favorite’ event.
Palumbo, former Miss Sprint Cup and current reporter for NASCAR Race Hub on Fox Sports 1, will be sharing the hosting duties with Marty Smith of ESPN. Palumbo will be handling the fans in the crowd, while Smith will be managing the drivers on stage.
The event this year will take place on Thursday, December 5th at 5:00 PM at the Pearl Palms Concert Theater inside the Palms Casino Hotel.
“I actually worked NASCAR After The Lap™ twice already and it’s my favorite event because the guys are so loose and it’s an intimate setting,” Palumbo said. “You can see it on nascar.com but it’s not televised so I feel like it’s a little bit more special.”
“The drivers are really showing off their personalities that you don’t necessarily get to see throughout the season,” Palumbo continued. “It’s just one of my favorite events.”
Palumbo advised that her role at the event will be one of liaison between the crowd, sponsors and the drivers, however, the emphasis from her perspective is indeed on the fans in this unique event.
“It’s a very fan-friendly event and that’s one thing NASCAR is really big on,” Palumbo said. “It’s about the fans first.”
“They are going to have notecards so the audience can submit their questions in advance,” Palumbo continued. “Then I’ll go through them and pick out the questions to be asked.”
“So, I’ll be out there taking questions from the audience and making sure everybody has a good time.”
Palumbo is also primed and ready for the sweepstakes and giveaways that accompany the NASCAR After The Lap™ event. This year, fans can win an all-inclusive VIP trip to Las Vegas for the event, trips to either the 2014 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte or the 2014 Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, as well as the grand prize, a 2014 Ford F-150 Tremor.
“I’m really excited about the big sweepstakes,” Palumbo said. “They’re giving away a 2014 Ford Tremor, which is pretty awesome.”
“Coca Cola and Ford are both giving away tickets to the Coca Cola 600 and the Ford Champions Week for 2014,” Palumbo continued. “So, the sweepstakes winners will be there and they will also have a shot to win a car.”
“We’ll be doing that in the audience as well, which is pretty cool to get a free car.”
Palumbo is also primed and ready to get to Las Vegas, a place that she assesses as ‘perfect’ for this type of fan-interactive post-season event.
“Vegas itself just equals celebration to me,” Palumbo said. “So, I feel like it is a fun event.”
“Everybody is so relaxed,” Palumbo continued. “The season is over and it’s a time for celebration.”
So, who is Palumbo predicting will be in the champion’s seat for the event and at the head table come banquet time?
“It’s definitely down to Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth now and we know how well they are both running,” Palumbo said. “We know that Jimmie is so great at Phoenix so it’s really a toss-up between the two.”
“I can’t even bet on either one,” Palumbo continued. “I’m ready to put my money down on one but I can’t because I don’t want to lose.”
“Everybody is on pins and needles because we know Jimmie can do it obviously,” Palumbo said. “But Matt Kenseth is really giving him a run for his money.”
“I think the fans love seeing that and the two drivers are definitely keeping it exciting.”
Palumbo is also primed and ready for the NASCAR After The Lap™ event because of where the proceeds go, helping individuals, children and families in need through the NASCAR Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization.
“The tickets are only $20 and all the money, one hundred percent of the proceeds, goes to the NASCAR Foundation, which is unreal,” Palumbo said. “It’s probably one of the best charity events where all of the drivers are together in a relaxed way, cutting up with each other, joking about incidents that have happened during the year, and some have even gotten up and danced.”
“It’s a great event to get the drivers out of their element,” Palumbo continued. “There is not an event like this throughout the whole season.”
“This is a one of a kind,” Palumbo said. “You might have the drivers together for media day but they are so focused on that race.”
“This is the end of the season and they can all breathe,” Palumbo continued. “They’re all ready to have a good time, hang out with the fans and answer their questions.”
“There is just nothing like it.
Palumbo is not alone in her enthusiasm for the NASCAR After The Lap™ event.
“Celebrating its fifth consecutive season, NASCAR After The Lap has evolved into one of the most talked about events of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week™ and provides two long-standing partners, Ford and Coca-Cola, a valuable platform to connect with our brand-loyal fan base,” Norris Scott, NASCAR vice president of marketing, said. “It is an event unlike any other in sports that gives our fans the chance to see the drivers with their helmets off and their guard down.”
“Over the last five years as event sponsor, Ford has enjoyed some remarkable and very unpredictable moments with our NASCAR drivers,” Tim Duerr, motorsports marketing manager for Ford Racing, said. “The NASCAR after the Lap Sweepstakes continues to provide Ford with a great avenue to engage with fans by offering them a chance to not only win a trip out to Las Vegas, but also an opportunity to go home with a brand-new 2014 Ford F150 Tremor.”
“This sponsorship delivers results to Ford on many levels.”
“As a long-time partner, Coca-Cola is proud to celebrate the 2013 season with the stars of NASCAR at this year’s NASCAR After The Lap,” Ben Reiling, director of motorsports for Coca-Cola North America Group, said. “In our fifth year as an event sponsor, we are offering fans a stellar experience to interact directly with members of our Coca-Cola Racing Family and a chance to win a trip to our marquee event, the Coca-Cola 600.”
“We’re looking forward to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week and it’s definitely going to be a wild ride.”
For more information or to purchase tickets, fans can visit www.NASCARafterthelap.com.
For fans unable to attend in person, NASCAR.com will offer a live stream of the event.
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Texas
Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson led 255 of 334 laps in a dominant win at Texas, his sixth win of the year. Johnson now leads Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth, by seven points in the Sprint Cup points standings.
“I had the same seven-point lead after Texas last November,” Johnson said, “and didn’t win the championship. I’m hoping this is one time when I don’t repeat.”
2. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished fourth in the AAA Texas 500, slowed by a pit road speeding penalty midway through the race. Jimmie Johnson won and took a seven-point lead in the points standings.
“I’m neither throwing in the towel,” Kenseth said, “nor am I waving the white flag. Ask anyone, except Carl Edwards, and they’ll tell you there’s no surrender in me.”
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt took the runner-up spot at Texas, following Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson across the line. It was Earnhardt’s third second-place finish of the Chase.
“There have been a lot of great drivers who have never won a Cup,” Earnhardt said. “Hopefully, I can put myself in that category some day.”
4. Jeff Gordon: One week after victory at Martinsville, disaster struck for Gordon at Texas, as a blown tire on lap 74 sent him into the wall. He eventually finished 38th, 187 laps down, and tumbled to sixth in the points, 69 out of first.
“Are you sure this is the AAA 500 and not the NRA 500?” Gordon said. “Because my championship hopes are ‘shot.’”
5 .Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished eighth at Texas and is now third in the points standings, 40 out of first.
“Will I be happier at Stewart-Haas Racing?” Harvick said. “Well, as Richard Childress has clearly stated, it’s all relative.”
6. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer came home tenth in the AAA Texas 500, posting his 18th top 10 of the year. He is seventh in the Sprint Cup points standings, 69 out of first.
“This race in Texas wasn’t sponsored by the NRA,” Bowyer said. “In hindsight, maybe the race in Richmond should have been sponsored by the NRA, because there was a second amendment made to the Chase field afterwards.”
7. Kyle Busch: Busch, who won at Texas in April, finished 13th on Sunday in the AAA 500. Like many drivers, Busch’s day was hindered by a blown tire suffered early in the race.
“The blown tire put me in a hole early,” Busch said. “I felt much like a North Carolina state trooper chasing me, because I was playing catch up.”
8. Greg Biffle: Biffle finished 12th at Texas, leading one lap after starting 18th. He is eighth in the points standings, 73 behind Jimmie Johnson.
“I apologized to Johnson for my actions at Martinsville,” Biffle said. “It was only the second most controversial ‘spin’ move in NASCAR this year. Maybe I shouldn’t have grabbed Jimmie from behind, but that’s where I always seem to find myself.”
9. Joey Logano: Logano finished third in the AAA Texas 500, posting his first top-5 result since a fourth at Kansas in early October.
“It felt good to run with the big dogs,” Logano said, “instead of from them.”
10. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski led 30 laps and finished sixth in the AAA Texas 500 at Texas, one day after winning the Nationwide Series race.
“I may not repeat as champion,” Keselowski said, “but the future is bright for this 29-year-old. I see nothing but clear, sunny skies ahead, because the ‘reign’ is over.”
Battle At The Beach to continue
Despite rumors that suggested the races would be cancelled or moved to another NASCAR-affiliated short track, the “Battle at the Beach” will return to Daytona International Speedway in 2014 as part of Speedweeks.
Debuting last year, the Battle was a way to generate some excitement at the track during the normally dormant Monday and Tuesday after the Daytona 500 qualifying weekend.
NASCAR set up a temporary course on the back straight using part of the track and part of the apron, outlined by stacked tires and pylons that delineated a roughly .4-mile oval that required drivers to nearly stop for the turns, making for a lot of crashes and caution-flag laps. If it is run on the same days next year as this year, that Monday and Tuesday would be February 17 and 18.
Though it hasn’t been announced, the format is expected to be the same as in 2013, when three non-points races featured the NASCAR K&N Pro Series, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tours, and the Late Model division of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.
Top finishers in the regular season in those divisions earned spots in the Battle, with remaining slots filled by time trials and heat races. The University of Northwest Ohio sponsored the races, and is expected to return.
