(NBC) CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As NASCAR celebrates its 75th
anniversary season, its Hall of Fame inducted three men
whose careers collectively spanned from the sport’s
beginnings to recent times.
Matt Kenseth, Hershel McGriff and Kirk Shelmerdine (above)
were inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Friday night,
becoming the Hall’s 13th class.
(Fox News/ AP) – NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson (above) pulled a
Tom Brady on the racing world. After announcing his retirement
back in 2020, he will be making his comeback as part-owner and
driver of Petty GMS in 2023. He expects to enter about five races — including the Daytona 500.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson is retiring from full-time racing and will
turn his focus toward spending time with family.
He figures his future schedule will include no more than
10 bucket-list events, but the 47-year-old had no idea
Monday what that schedule will look like. He turned
47 September 17th.
On August 19, 1909, the first race was held at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous
motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.
Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a
testing facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry. The
idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from
different manufacturers against each other. After seeing what
these cars could do, spectators would presumably head down
to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look.
The rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each
exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short
straight sections. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909,
12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer
win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track’s
surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up
in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers,
two mechanics and two spectators.
The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks,
laid in a bed of sand and fixed with mortar. Dubbed “The
Brickyard,” the speedway reopened in December 1909.
Louis Schwitzer (center) with his team.
(Fox News) – It is a piece of Hollywood memorabilia that has new meaning.
One of the famous cars from the film "Grease" is coming up for
auction at the Mecum Auctions event in Monterey, California, on
August 20.
The black custom 1949 Mercury known as "Hell’s Chariot" was
raced by the villain, Crater Face, against Danny Zuko’s "Greased Lightning" down the Los Angeles River culvert in one of the film’s
most iconic scenes (below).
