Baldwin Racing, Inc. is proud to announce a new partnership with Woman 2 Woman Breast Cancer Foundation in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour at the Inaugural UNOH Battle at the Beach during Budweiser Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway.
Type 1 Diabetic Ryan Reed to run at least five Nationwide Series races
After being told two years ago that he would never be able to race again, Type 1 diabetic Ryan Reed announced that he will run at least five races for Roush Fenway Racing driving the No. 16 American Diabetes Association Mustang. His first race is scheduled for Richmond International Raceway in May.
“Roush Fenway Racing has always been in the business of helping to facilitate the career of young drivers,” Eric Peterson, Operations Manager at Roush Fenway Racing said. “We have a robust driver development program and have identified Ryan as a potential young talent and we are looking forward to seeing how he performs on the track. If you look back over the past couple of years, we have been fortunate to have the opportunity to evaluate quite a few drivers behind the wheel of our cars and we are anxious to see what Ryan can do with this opportunity.”
Reed raced last year full-time in the ARCA Racing Series for Venturini Motorsports, before making his NASCAR debut late in the season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
“I see this as an opportunity to show my ability,” Ryan Reed stated. “Obviously my goal is to follow in the progression of many drivers that have started inside the Nationwide Series ranks and worked their way up to contend for the Sprint Cup. It will be a great opportunity and I intend to make the most of it.”
Reed got started at a young age in racing, racing go-karts at the age of four. He continued moving his way up the racing ladder, winning the Legends Division Track Championship at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale in 2009. The following season, he became the Super Late Model Division Rookie of the Year while becoming the youngest winner in the division when he scored one win. In 2011, Reed raced a variety of cars, including the Pro Allstars Series, NASCAR Whelen All American and NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.
However, a pause was brought in the process up the ranks as two years ago at the age of 17, Reed was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes and was told that he would never be able to race again.
“When I was diagnosed, I was really humbled, especially when they told me I wasn’t going to be able to race again,” he told me last March. “I was devastated and really just, I thought I was invincible and then to learn that my dream was going to be taken away.”
Reed added it was heartbreaking at the time and caused him to grow up quickly.
“I thought I could sit there, pout and throw a tantrum till I got my way,” he continues. “Then I realized that’s not going to beat this. I need to – I got to take a step back and think about it. I just decided that if there was anything I could do to put myself back behind the wheel of a race car, then that’s what I was going to do.”
However after getting in contact with Dr. Ann Peters, Reed was told that it was possible, just some hard work was required along the way.
Last year, Reed made his ARCA Racing Series debut at Daytona International Speedway and never looked back. Through the course of his rookie season, he wrapped up one top five and six top 10s, delivering him the chance of a lifetime with Roush Fenway.
While continuing to grow his racing program, Reed created Ryan’s Mission as a way to promote diabetes awareness and educating people while racing. As a National Spokesperson for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), Reed’s story has touched the hearts of many.
“The American Diabetes Association is thrilled to collaborate with Roush Fenway Racing and Ryan’s Mission on the Drive to Stop Diabetes awareness campaign,” said Larry Hausner, Chief Executive Officer, American Diabetes Association. “As one of the nearly 26 million people living in the U.S. with diabetes, Ryan Reed is an inspiring individual and his voice is critical to spreading awareness and educating communities across the country about this disease.”
Fundly will be an associate sponsor on the No. 16 Drive to Stop Diabetes Ford Mustang and will fully support the crowd-funding mission.
“Fundly is proud to partner with Ryan Reed on the Drive to Stop Diabetes campaign,” Tom Kramer, CMO, Fundly explained. “This man and this campaign are emblematic of everything Fundly stands for: coming together and unleashing our individual power to do good in our world. Go Ryan! The entire Fundly team is with you all the way to the finish! Ryan is another example of inspiring individuals using Fundly for Social Good. Ryan turned his diabetes diagnosis into an opportunity to raise awareness and raise money for a cure. As far as we know, he is one of the first NASCAR drivers to embrace crowdfunding for a cause. That puts him miles ahead in our book!”
“I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to not only be able to drive for the most winning NASCAR team as a development driver for Roush Fenway Racing,” Ryan said. “But I also have the opportunity to help other people by educating them and letting them know – life has no limits!”
Right now the schedule is set to at least five races. However, if more funding can be acquired, they are looking to run more.
“A perfect world would be about 10-15, well, a perfect world would be a full schedule but we’re optimistic for about 10-15 races and we’re going really hard for a full schedule in 2014,” Reed said.
Three Bold Predictions for the Cup Series in 2013
With the new Gen 6 car in 2013, anything can happen on the race track. We could see things happen that we haven’t seen happen in years. We may also see new and never before seen things occur. That’s what makes predicting the upcoming season so fun. Anything could happen, right? So why not throw out the possibility of my three bold predictions coming true? These three bold predictions for this year could create some interesting racing if they were to come true. Anything and everything will occur this season and maybe even the guesses I take now will come true by November.
Bold Prediction 1: Jeff Burton makes the Chase
After disappointing year after disappointing year, Jeff Burton seems ready to go all out this season and potentially compete for the championship. The new car has been working in Burton’s favor and he is one of the most optimistic drivers regarding the Gen 6 car. Being optimistic has its advantages and Burton’s advantage may be getting into the Chase.
I believe Burton will have a great season and find himself in the Chase once September comes. Consistency will be on Burton’s side this season and the No.31 team will start out the year consistent and never look back. Burton will be in the top twelve in points for most of the season and wins will help his cause to stay in the Chase. However, I don’t believe Burton will fare well in the Chase but, I see him getting in. Bold prediction, right? Well it has the same chance that everything else does of coming true.
Bold Prediction 2: JGR wins at least 8 races as an organization.
A second power-team has emerged in NASCAR for 2013 and that team is Joe Gibbs Racing. With the signing of Matt Kenseth, JGR’s talent level shot up to the level of Hendrick Motorsports. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth make for a deadly combo and they have a great chance of visiting victory lane on multiple occasions. All three drivers know how to win multiple races in a season and 2013 could be the year where they put all their success together to make for a deadly combo on the track.
Take 2008 as an example. It was Kyle Busch’s first year at JGR and it was the first year with the COT car running a majority of the schedule. That made for a successful combo for Busch and he won eight races that season. He can easily do that again with a new car this season and prove my bold prediction right without any help from his teammates. JGR has done this before in 2008 when as a team, they won ten races. The only difference between now and then is, driver wise, they have Matt Kenseth instead of Tony Stewart. Kenseth has been known to be a little more successful than Stewart though which is another bonus. Eight wins will come for JGR this season and they will have lots of reasons to celebrate once the season concludes.
Bold Prediction 3: The Daytona 500 will feature the most cautions in a single race this season.
Daytona, restrictor-plate racing and a new car with very little time on the track will make the yellow-flag be displayed numerous times throughout the Daytona 500. All of those factors will create an exciting race but, cautions will fly frequently due to the fact that drivers aren’t used to these cars yet. Drivers basically wiped clean their knowledge of the Sprint Cup car after last season because the new car is almost completely different. With Daytona being the first race of the season and with the new car, the drivers will be making lots of rookie mistakes which will result in the most amount of cautions in a single race in the upcoming season.
Bold predictions mean a lot, especially since they can come true in a matter of time and make the once crazy predictions, become realistic. Out of all years, 2013 is the one when we really don’t know what the season will bring. The new cars have created so many questions that we just have to wait and watch the races to find the answer. Anything could happen this season which means any prediction can come true. Everyone will re-visit their predictions once the checkered flag falls at Homestead but, the only way to find out if their true or not is just to take a swing at it and make some crazy and wild predictions.
Three Questions for the Cup Series in 2013
Never before have we had as many questions as we do in 2013 regarding the racing we’ll see in the upcoming season. The Gen 6 car has changed everything around and those changes bring many questions as we head into the upcoming season. Questions that we still don’t have answers to. By mid-season, the Gen 6 car should show its true potential and we should be in knowledge of what kind of racing the car will bring. Even though we like this state of wonder that we’re in regarding the new car, we are as much eager as patient and want the 2013 season to get under way. Below, I propose three of the biggest wonders as we dive into a new season.
What will the Gen 6 Car Bring?
The biggest question of the off-season has been what will the Gen 6 car bring? Currently, we don’t know much except for the car looks amazing. The race cars representing street cars is a brilliant idea that will make all fans happy and these cars look absolutely amazing on the track. That’s about all we know regarding the car on the track heading into Daytona but, as time passes we should learn what else this car will bring.
Daytona testing gave us a tease of racing during the off-season and once the test concluded, we wanted to know more. A new draft style was introduced during testing but, is it really new? It’s about the same style as NASCAR had in the early 2000s and that style of drafting, brought many fans into the sport. Questions still float around regarding the racing on the restrictor plate tracks but, not as many due to the testing we witnessed in the off-season.
Short track racing is another big question with the Gen 6 car. What kind of racing will we see on the short-tracks? Will it be the same or possibly different? It will be interesting to see what kind of short track racing we’ll see this season.
Intermediate tracks also raise questions about the type of racing we’ll see. NASCAR said that the racing should be better on those tracks with the new cars. But, will it? It will be hard to make racing competitive on intermediate tracks because, frankly, the racing way of those tracks isn’t competitive all the time and to make it competitive, it could take major adjustments. By April, we will have seen racing on most of the different types of tracks and could have the answer to our question but, the first few weeks of the season will be quite interesting as we see what this new car has in store.
Can Penske Racing keep up their performance now with a new manufacturer in Ford?
2012 was a magical year for Penske Racing. Their first Cup championship and a bunch of reasons to celebrate made 2012 a phenomenal year. Going into 2013, a lot is changing at Penske Racing. Why change what has worked before? Penske Racing won the championship last season but, the major changes were schedule prior to the championship. Penske will be switching manufacturers from Dodge to Ford for 2013, in hopes that Ford will bring the team even more success. Ford has proven strong before but, they haven’t won a Cup championship since 2004.
Penske Racing also brought Joey Logano over to join Brad Keselowski as the two Cup drivers out of the Penske stable. Logano and Keselowski have one thing in common, they’re young. Both drivers are under thirty years of age (Logano being 22, Keselowski being 28) but, they are two of the greatest young talents in NASCAR. Success is bound to come again for Team Penske in 2013 because they’re locked and reloaded for another winning season. The question still is whether they will have success with all the changes or not and once Daytona rolls around, that question is sure to be answered rather quickly.
Which drivers will be successful this season?
The third and final question I have regarding the Cup Series this season is pretty simple. With all the different aspects of the Cup Series this season, which drivers will have success? The question may seem simple but, its answer is quite complicated.
As of right now, we don’t know who will have success. From testing, Matt Kenseth and most of the Toyota’s were fast but, that doesn’t mean they’ll be running up front and contending for wins all year long. Drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski are drivers that come to mind when you think who will be successful this season and only time will tell if they will be on top in 2013. By November, we’ll have the answer to this question but, which drivers may seem right for the answer now, may not come Homestead. The journey of this season is sure to be a great one.
Fear can be easily confused with the unknown factor. We aren’t fearing what’s to come, we just don’t know what’s to come and that is exciting rather than fearful. 2013 is sure to be a special season, no matter what the season brings. This new car will bring a bunch of new things that we hope are amazing but, they could not be special. Finding the answers to these questions will take most of the season but, by the time we are in South Beach come November, these answers will be simply, quite amazing.
