Jeff Gordon’s On Track Drive to End Hunger Takes Off Track Twists
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[/media-credit]With the partnership between Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon and the AARP Foundation’s Drive to End Hunger initiative heading into its second year on the track, this special promotion has taken some new twists and turns off the track as the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet readies for the 2012 season.
The first twist on one of the most successful cause-related marketing campaigns in the sport is a new partnership with Quaker State, who has joined the Drive to End Hunger effort by pledging portions of its product sales at Walmart. This new fundraising effort will take place from February 1st to March 31st.
“We are proud to initiate this cause-related effort to support the AARP Foundation in its quest to help those in need through Jeff Gordon and the Drive to End Hunger,” Chris Hayek, Quaker State Global Brand Manager, said. “By partnering with Walmart, the promotion is elevated onto the national stage.”
“We’re really thrilled that Quaker State engaged with us,” Jim Nedohon, Interim Vice President for AARP Foundation’s Hunger Initiatives, said. “By allowing us into Walmart, this ensures that we can attract national attention to the need to alleviate hunger for seniors.”
The idea for taking the Drive to End Hunger promotion off the track and into stores was hatched in discussions between the AARP Foundation and Quaker State right at the track. And it all came about in an effort to elevate Drive to End Hunger to another level.
“We were at the track talking,” Nedohon said. “My background is in cause-related marketing and we were brainstorming about how to activate our sponsorship of Jeff Gordon in a brick and mortar store.”
“This is a new opportunity for Quaker State to have a cause related marketing campaign on one of their products,” Nedohon continued. “It developed over a couple of months.”
“We worked through all the details, such as having a bottle flag with Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger car,” Nedohon said. “Jeff is on the bottle and has a relationship with Quaker State as an associate sponsor.”
“So, Jeff was thrilled to be able to extend his brand to support our cause.”
The best part of the new twist in the Drive to End Hunger sponsorship is that it furthers the mission of the AARP Foundation, which is to raise awareness about the issue of older Americans who are facing hunger, as well as fulfilling Quaker State’s social mission.
“Quaker State is very socially oriented and they were totally onboard with helping us execute our mission,” Nedohon said. “It’s one more corporation that embraces the mission that we have to end hunger.”
“Quaker State could have easily written a check for $50,000 but we are focused together on efforts that have long-term, sustainable impact,” Nedohon continued. “This Quaker State promotion is taking us off the track and into Walmart stores.”
“This allows people to really take the time to read the materials and it will mean even more to our work at the Foundation.”
The new sponsorship twist off the track has also permitted the AARP Foundation to make grants to other nonprofit organizations focused on sustainable solutions for ending senior hunger.
“We sent out an RFP to identify organizations that are trying to address stable solutions to hunger,” Nedohon said. “We had over 750 letters of inquiry and 150 completed applications and awarded ten grants throughout the United States for $1.9 million for sustainable solutions to ending hunger.”
“Every time we put this effort in a new place, it reminds people about the hunger issue,” Nedohon continued. “And it may even be occurring for someone they know.”
The second twist on the Drive to End Hunger took place at the recent Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction, where a Corvette donated by team owner Rick Hendrick was auctioned off for $700,000.
“I got to go out with Mr. Hendrick to Phoenix to the Barrett-Jackson auction,” Nedohon said. “It’s incredible because this again is reaching another level of enthusiasts around the automobile industry.”
“This was a special limited edition Corvette and only 60 will be made,” Nedohon continued. “This was the first one to be auctioned to benefit Drive to End Hunger.”
“When the bidding started and Mr. Hendrick sweetened the deal by inviting the new owner to Daytona, it just erupted,’ Nedohon continued. “ It went to $300,000 and kept going.”
“It was just phenomenal,” Nedohon said. “After the auction was finished, another bidder donated an extra $100,000 to the Drive to End Hunger effort.”
“I can’t tell you how amazing it was to see how the cause resonated with thousands of people watching.”
While the AARP Foundation is ecstatic about these twists and turns, as well as their partnership with Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick, they have not been completely surprised about the success of their sponsorship.
“It’s not completely surprising,” Nedohon said of the sponsorship. “It’s amazing to see how many NASCAR fans care.”
“We’ve found that the NASCAR fans want to know how they can help,” Nedohon continued. “That’s why we’ve been so pleased to support our local food banks at track and now with this new initiative off-track.”
“It helps when you have partners like Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick,” Nedohon said. “We couldn’t really think of any better partners to help fight this good fight.”
And for his part, the Drive to End Hunger driver could not agree more.
“Honestly, I don’t know if 10 years ago I would have gotten behind something like this but with just the experience of life and the things that become more important to you, I’ve gotten into it,” Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger, said. “I feel like it did come at the right time in my career.”
“We’ve sort of set a trend in NASCAR that will be catching on.”
RAB Racing Suspends John Wes Townley: Outrageoous!
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[/media-credit]Early Friday morning 22 year old John Wes Townley was arrested for DUI for the second time in his career. Townley, who just inked a deal to drive in the Camping World Truck Series with RAB Racing, crashed his car into a telephone pole while apparently being under the influence of alcohol. RAB Racing, Townley’s new Camping World Truck Series team, suspended the driver until they feel he can return.
Don’t misunderstand me. RAB Racing and team owner Robby Benton should be commended for their actions after the incident with Townley. They made the proper decision in this deal, especially since Zaxby’s, Townley’s sponsor, is owned by John Wes Townley’s father. It was a risky move by RAB Racing.
While RAB Racing was suspending Townley and the NASCAR world was learning about the horrible incident with the 22 year old, NASCAR themselves were……well. Nobody really knows.
If you went on NASCAR’s website, you could read an article about Juan Pablo Montoya’s new crew chief, Chris Heroy or you could read about Jeff Gordon being “Fired up.” And the article about John Wes Townley? There isn’t any.
It’s absolutely obscured that NASCAR, a sport which has a no tolerance with drugs, doesn’t even make a comment, or put an article on their website or make a comment saying they were disappointed in the situation or anything.
NASCAR does nothing.
It reminds me of a situation in the early 1990’s when another young racecar driver got in trouble with the law several times and had several DUI’s including incidents that NASCAR did nothing about.
That driver, whose name is I shall not say, had another accident one night where he lost his life after a race at Rockingham in 1990.
Do the right thing for John Wes Townley NASCAR! Do the right thing! God forbid we have another incident like we did in 1990. Nobody ever wants to see that again.
Quit pretending like this stuff is not happening and put your foot down.
Brian France, Mike Helton and everyone involved, you should be ashamed!
USAC Amsoil Sprint Cars Start Season in High Gear
The first points race of the USAC Amsoil Sprint Car series is in the books. Tonight was the first race of the season and the first of a 3 night show at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala Florida. The USAC stars were out in force with names like Bryan Clausson and series champion Levi Jones in the field.
The qualifying of the 30 car field was smooth and uneventful save for one accident involving Jake Simmons who hit the wall and over turned following his second lap of qualifying. Simmons crawled from the car under his own power and walked away. He was however, unable to make call for his heat race and was done for the evening.
Fast time went to Bryan Clauson with a lap of 14.409 seconds around the 3/8ths mile track. Clauson broke team mate Levi Jones record set last year with his run.
The 30 car field ran 4 heat races with the top 4 transferring to the A main and a B main with the top 6 transferring to the A main.
The heat races were hotly contested races with three and four wide competition through out the pack. Heat race winners included Brady Bacon, Jon Stanbrough, Damien Gardner, and Casey Schuman.
The B Main was action packed event that was won by Justin Grant with a hard charging Chris Stockon coming home 2nd. The B main would set up an interesting scenario when Chris Windom would spin out of the final transfer spot with just 5 laps to go. Unable to climb any further than 7th, Windom would be forced to take a provisional to get into the A Main and start next to last.
The A main was a fast paced event that ran with only one caution until lap 25 of the 30 posted laps. The hot dry track had begun to take rubber out of four and passing became difficult. On lap one Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones spun coming out 4 and collected two other cars. All cars were able to continue but it forced a complete restart with the three cars involved going to the back of the field.
Damien Gardner lead for nearly the whole race only giving up the lead briefly on lap 25 when the caution flew for another series of spins out of turn 4. After 4 attempts the field finally went green and Gardner took the point for the final time. Brady Bacon ended up 3rd but paced Gardner for most of the race fading in the last 3 laps.
Gardner whose A main victory is his 5th out of 6 attempts in Florida, made the victory seem effortless with the exception of the restart when he briefly lost the lead to Bacon.
The final finishing order for the opening night of the season was: 1) Damion Gardner 2) Jon Stanbrough 3) Brady Bacon 4) Darren Hagen 5) Bryan Clauson 6) Bud Kaeding 7) Dave Darland 8) Casey Shuman 9) Kevin Thomas 10) Justin Grant 11) Chris Windom 12) Levi Jones 13) Tracey Hines 14) Robert Ballou.
Silver Crown Champion Levi Jones made a courageous recovery after his 1st lap spin finishing 12th.
Also on the card tonight was the unvieling of an electric midget built in Columbus Indiana. The car was driven around the track by Casey Shuman. The car which made almost no noise at all, seemed to have enough power to slide it sideways and get it’s front wheel off the ground out of four. The midget is the only car of it’s kind and Shuman seemed pleased with it’s performance. “If they can build a few more of them we can take them out and see how they stand up.” He stated.
Tomorrow nights action begins at 6 PM EST and can be viewed via live stream pay for view at
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Signs Takumo Sato for 2012 IZOD IndyCar Season
Rahal Letterman Lanigan recently announced that they had signed Takumo Sato to drive for them in 2012.
“I think we all look forward to having him with us because, as I said earlier, he’s shown his pace over the last couple years in IndyCars,” co-owner Bobby Rahal says of the announcement. “As I said in the beginning when we reentered IndyCar racing, it was important for us to do so with someone who was going to be competitive. I had no real interest in just being here. Taku certainly fits that bill.
“I think we are quite excited for the start of the year. We have testing to do yet. We’ve done a little bit already in December which went I think pretty well. So I think everybody’s just anxious to get going.”
Rahal adds that he’s excited about working with Sato due to their friendship. The relationship between Rahal and Sato began back in 2001 when Sato was running Formula 3.
“I had a chance to see Taku not when he first started racing but when he was Europe in England in Formula 3 in 2001 when I was over there with Jaguar Formula One,” Rahal says. “I managed to watch Takuma win a lot of Formula 3 races. I think Formula 3 has always been considered a very good judge of talent.
“Of course, you know, I kept an eye on him when he was in Formula One. So I’ve known his competitiveness, his speed. I’ve seen that many times over the years.”
Sato says he made the move as Rahal offered him a good offer and the team has a great history.
“The numbers in racing is very impressive winning record,” Sato says. “It’s just great success. Okay, the IndyCar Series wasn’t entering full-time in a couple years, but they showing great speed last year every single time they were entering IndyCar. So I was very confident.”
Sato says he has high expectations for this year and excited about the new operation. The addition of Sato to the team isn’t the only change as Rahal moved the team to Brownsburg, Indiana over the off-season.
“It’s really become the center of IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis area,” Rahal says of the move. “You look at the resource that exists here within the area, both the human resource, but the subcontractors, what have you, that can provide services for an IndyCar team.
“It just seemed to me that we needed to be in sort of the epicenter of IndyCar racing now that we were going to come back into it on a full-time basis. So we managed to lease the space that Gil de Ferran used to be in from my friend Don Prudhomme. It’s a nice shop up here in Brownsburg. This is a start for us. But the IndyCar team will certainly be headquartered here for many years to come because we think this is the place to be both for now and in the future.”
Rahal added earlier this week that the team is looking into options of adding a second car to make the team better for 2012. Though if another team is not put together, it is okay.
“While a single-car team may not be ideal, I think your ability to be competitive is just as good there as anywhere else,” he says. “You’re able to focus all your efforts on one driver, one car, a small group of people tightly knit. That can do a lot of good things.
“In the end, if we have our options, we want to be a two-car team. We’re working hard for that. I think we will be. So that’s how we’re going forward at this stage.”
