Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation and Kick-It Partner to Kick Cancer out of Every Child
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[/media-credit]CHARLOTTE, N.C. (June 13, 2012) – Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation and Kick-It will be teaming up on the kickball field by challenging supporters to kick cancer out of every childhood once and for all.
Kick-It is a national grassroots fundraising game that was started by Quinn Clarke, a cancer survivor who wanted to make a difference in every child diagnosed with cancer. Kick-It brings community, family, friends and co-workers together to raise money for childhood cancer research. The concept is easy — kick the ball, run the bases and score big in the fight against pediatric cancer.
“I am really excited about this new partnership,” said Jeff Gordon.
“We are confident this will take childhood cancer to the forefront and bring it the awareness and funding it deserves. I can’t wait to Kick-It in September when I host my own game in Atlanta.
“And, in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month I will be personally matching all funds raised for games played on behalf of the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation during the month of September.”
Additionally, Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation has launched a new social media campaign centered on the Kick-It program called “I’m Kicking It”. To participate, download the Kick-It sign, write your reason to support the initiative and upload it to the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation facebook page (www.facebook.com/jgchildrensfoundation). “I’m Kicking It” campaign will feature people from all walks of life who support the cause, from pediatric cancer patients to professional athletes. Then each week, Gordon will pick his favorite “I’m Kicking It” reason.
“We truly admire Jeff Gordon’s commitment to children with cancer. Our son, Quinn Clarke, founded Kick-it with the dream to raise enough money to find a cure. He is beyond excited that Jeff Gordon is kicking it with him and the 13,500 children diagnosed with cancer every year,” said Allison Clarke, Founder of Flashes of Hope and mother of Quinn Clarke.
Join the fight against the devastating disease and create your team today. For more information visit www.jeffgordonchildrensfoundation.org or www.kick-it.org/jeffgordon.
About Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation:
The Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation was established as a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization in 1999 by the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. The Foundation supports children battling pediatric cancer by funding programs that improve patients’ quality of life, treatment programs that increase survivorship and pediatric medical research dedicated to finding a cure. In addition, the foundation also supports the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital in Concord, NC. For more information visit www.jeffgordonchildrensfoundation.org or www.youtube.com/jeffgordon4cure.
About Kick-It:
Kick-it is a national fundraising program with one simple goal: to accelerate a cure for children with cancer. In 2009, Kick-It was founded by 10-year old cancer patient Quinn Clarke who had a big dream – to cure cancer by playing kickball. In a few short years, Kick-It has raised over $850,000 for children’s cancer research. Kick-It utilizes national medical advisory boards to identify the most promising research studies and projects including clinical research of the Children’s Oncology Group.
The Final Word – I liked Pocono, but Hamlin loves Michigan
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[/media-credit]What a beautiful track. What greenery. What a nice day. What good announcers, who were both informative and entertaining even when the race on TNT might not have always been. I’m not a die hard fan of Pocono, but I enjoyed my Sunday. Maybe I’m just getting soft in my old age. Come to think of it, when I touch my belly it is soft, but that is a tale for another time.
Joey Logano, the 22-year old kid some think should be better than he is, won the thing for Joe Gibbs Racing. His second victory of his career moves him to a 14th place tie with Ryan Newman in the standings, and just one win or 26 points out of a Chase place with a dozen races to go before the reset. It might be a tad early to cast Logano aside just yet.
No win for Dale Earnhardt Jr, but he had a dominating car for much of the event. Eighth on the track, second in the standings, but a win or two would be helpful going into the Chase with the rejigged points. Mark Martin’s part time schedule means he won’t be in the running, but he was a solid number two when they came to the checkered flag last weekend. Jeff Gordon was 19th, leaving him 22nd in the standings and 90 points out of tenth. Maybe Sunday in Michigan will be kinder.
That was not the case last June, with Gordon finishing 17th. He has won twice there, but none in the past decade. Denny Hamlin has gotten the win the past two spring events, so he might be a bit more pumped up. I would expect a great day for Carl Edwards, who comes in with a record of 2 wins, nine Top Fives, and a dozen Top Tens in just 15 tries. That could be good enough to move him back into the Top Ten overall and possibly sending Clint Bowyer back down. Brad Keselowski does not do well there either, but those two wins this season keeps him safe for another week.
As for Junior, he won his last race in this event four years ago, but his average finish is 15th. Twenty-five races at Michigan, four Top Fives. Did I mention he is currently second overall? Enjoy the week.
HOORAHS AND WAZZUPS: A FRESH LOAF OF SLICED BREAD
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[/media-credit]It wasn’t that many years ago when the arrival of driver Joey Logano to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and Joe Gibbs Racing, was being heralded as “the best thing since sliced bread.” However, in recent years,there were reports that said the racing marriage between Joe Gibbs Racing and Logano may be coming to an end. There were persistent reports that the driver’s contract, which ends this year, might not get renewed. In other words: the sliced bread was developing mold. Logano effectively dispelled those reports with a badly needed outstanding performance that led to winning last Sunday’s Pocono 400 at a point in his career when he really needed to make something happen.
The race was the first on the newly repaved, and reconfigured, Pocono International Raceway’s 2.5 triangle shaped track. There were speed records set in qualifying, during the race and, unfortunately, on pit road. With those thoughts in mind, let’s begin with:
HOORAH to Joey Logano for winning the Pocono 400 during an outstanding weekend in Pennsylvania. He started by winning the Coors Light Pole with a record speed of 179.598 MPH. He led a race high 49 laps and, in the final laps, this 22 year old driver pulled off a veteran move against Mark Martin to claim his second Sprint Cup win.
HOORAH to crew chief Jason Ratcliff for scoring his first ever Cup win. After a lengthy measure of success in the Nationwide Series for Joe Gibbs Racing, Ratcliff is now on his way to joining the elite ranks of superstar Sprint Cup crew chiefs.
HOORAH to this race winner screaming “finally, I won one the right way” on his radio. This is in reference to his first Cup win, at New Hampshire in 2009, that was shortened due to rain.
WAZZUP with this race being Logano’s first top five finish since the Watkins Glen race from August of last year? Frankly, these are the type of stats that fueled all of the contract rumors.
WAZZUP with Logano being asked if he felt the win would allow him to keep his job in the middle of the victory lane celebration? Granted, it was a valid question and a storyline that will be followed during the days to come, but the timing was terrible. This is an issue that would have been better suited for the traditional post race interview in the media center. Logano and his team should have been allowed to enjoy the victory moment without drama being injected into it. You could tell Logano was not too thrilled with the question and responded with: “I hope it shuts them all up.”
HOORAH to Mark Martin for showing a great deal of class during his post race interview. It was a slight bobble in turn three, from Martin’s Toyota, that allowed Logano to catch him and take the lead. Martin acknowledged that the late race bump and run from Logano is accepted in the sport and admitted that if he could have caught up with him he might have been tempted to return the favor. Ironically, it was Martin, many years ago, who got on the Logano bandwagon and told NASCAR team owners they needed to take a look him. Mark Martin has always been, and always will be, a class act.
WAZZUP with Logano’s team not being able to return to North Carolina after the race to launch a victory celebration? It seems their plane has some mechanical issues so they held a celebration dinner in Long Pond, PA instead. ************* HOORAH to the excellent repaving job at Pocono that produced some very high speeds. During qualifying for the Pocono 400, 36 drivers broke the old track record.
Unfortunately, there was another speed record that was shattered at Pocono. WAZZUP with 22 cars getting busted for speeding on pit road? It completely shattered the previous record of 14 that dates back to 2006 at the Kansas Speedway. Driver Travis Kvapil led the speed fest with four penalties, followed by David Reutimann with three while Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and A J Allmendinger has two each.
It seems that, according to NASCAR, the recent repaving and reconfiguration of this race track also included pit road which meant the timing zones on pit road has changed from the previous race. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President of Competition, said “it’s a brand new pit road, all brand new (timing) loops, positions have been changed from last year. The sections were smaller than they were last year throughout pit road and, actually, the last section is a little bigger,” (changed from 56 to 83 feet). It was this last section that seemed to cause most of the problems. 20 of the 22 penalties occurred while drivers were exiting pit road.
Maps detailing the pit road timing zones were available to the teams at the NASCAR hauler. WAZZUP with a report that said that only an approximate 50 percent of the teams took the time to study the map? WAZZUP with that crew chiefs?
Needless to say, there was a lot of driver frustration regarding these speeding penalties. HOORAH to Kevin Harvick for coming up with one of the better comments when he said: “thank you NASCAR, you can’t even figure your f*****g miles per hour out.”
That leads to the HOORAH for making chicken salad out of chicken do do which absolutely belongs to Jimmie Johnson. First he suffered the embarrassment of coming down pit road, after serving his first stop and go penalty, only to find out that he had just collected his second penalty for speeding. He worked his way back to ninth. During a yellow flag restart, with only 17 laps remaining in the race, Johnson’s car got really loose in turn one. By the time he got the car gathered up, he was now in 22nd place. He drove his way through the field again and wound up with a fourth place finish. Refusing to bow to adversity is what championship teams do best. *********** In some final thoughts, a combined WAZZUP and HOORAH goes to the Pocono International Raceway for putting on one of best races of the 2012 Sprint Cup season so far. The story lines of this race were loaded with action, drama and humor. Taking past Pocono races into consideration, no one could have seen this coming.
HOORAH for the decision to reduce the length of this race from 500 to 400 miles. The race was completed in three hours and three minutes. In the past you practically needed a mini bottle of that Five Hour Energy Drink to get through a Pocono race.
During the Pocono weekend there was a sad report of a woodchuck getting hit by race car. WAZZUP with me raising the following questions regarding that situation?
How many cars can a woodchuck chuck if, indeed, a woodchuck can chuck a car?
Is the animal rights group, PETA, aware of this incident?
Is PETA aware that I truly believe their names stands for People Eating Tasty Animals?
I’m Dave, and I approve this message.
