Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2022 Donruss Nascar Cards, Pack 2 of 24



Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Donruss Nascar Cards.  New teams, new drivers, new subsets, and of course some corny commentary by me.


Pack 2—Deegan, Bowman, and an Old Man


FIRST LOOK:
If there’s been a running theme over the past three or four sets from Panini & Donruss, its “Hailie Deegan”.  She might wind up having more individual rookie cards than laps led in the Truck Series.


TO THE BACK:
Pretty vague, guys.  You didn’t even include “running the sim rig for HMS”, “wasting time at TBR”, or “throwing out all of Jimmie’s old protein shakes from the hauler”.


SAY WHAT:
“I finally won the Daytona 500!  I should probably retire on top…nahhhh, what’s the worst that could happen!”


RATING: 7 Monster Energy cans (labels out!) out of 10



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SPAD3 RACING RACE SHOP REMAINS CLOSED TO FANS


Special Protective Advance Defense Department Detachment (SPAD3) Racing has been turning heads already in its first NASCAR Cup season, but while there’s more attention than ever on the team, it cautioned fans that its race shop is still not open to the public.

The SPAD3 Racing
race shop

“We really wish we could open things up for a fan walk or a retina scan—like other teams do”, said team principal Kent Simms, “—but we’re really just not set up yet to have members of the public visit the shop.”

SPAD3 RACING Chief Brand Officer Chris McCaffrey went on to explain the team’s reasoning behind not allowing the race shop to accept visitors.

“First of all, we’re in an office park that already has pretty high security regulations for the various national security outfits nearby”, said McCaffrey.  “We also have our own rigorous security measures to keep any spies from other teams or nations from stealing our intellectual property.  And besides, its Northern Virginia—nobody REALLY wants to deal with that traffic.”

McCaffrey said she hopes that the team will be able to offer a “virtual shop tour” online in the coming months.

“We’ve seen a lot of interest in our team, and we want to keep our fans happy”, McCaffrey said.  “For instance, did you know that our pit crew practices two hours each and every morning?  And did you know that we use the latest CNC machine technology to manufacture most of our race car parts?  And did you know that I can disarm a missile launcher in less than fifteen seconds?  These are the kinds of things people want to know about.”

Visit SPAD3.com for more information, or Race Shop Reviews to learn about race shops that HAVE been open to the public in the past.


Kimi Raikkonen on Cup Series Debut: “Bwoah”



F1 champion and vodka enthusiast Kimi Raikkonen will be making his Nascar Cup Series debut for Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 open entry at Watkins Glen this summer.  When reached for comment, Raikkonen commented that the opportunity was “bwoah”.

"Bwoah"

“Bwoah.  It is a race”, Raikkonen opined about his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drive a competitive Nascar Cup car.  “I will be running it.”

Raikkonen is returning to Nascar, where he made one-off appearances in the Truck and Xfinity Series in 2011.  But he’ll be forced to lean on both his experience and his teammates to compete against the sport’s best at The Glen.

“Bwoah—I did it before”, Raikkonen explained, “and now I’ll do it again.  The other drivers can help me if they want.  I don’t really care.”

Raikkonen—nicknamed “The Iceman” for his cool under pressure—will likely bring massive international attention to Watkins Glen—ironically a former Formula 1 track.

“Bwoah—Watkins Glen, its a track.  Its in New York I think”, Raikkonen expounded.  “There’s history there, I guess.”

When asked if there was anything he was looking forward to for his Nascar Cup debut, Raikkonen said “bwoah—as long as they let me have the drink”.


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UNCLE MAX vs. REPEAT WINNERS vs. THE ROULETTE WHEEL: Charlotte



Woo!  It’s getaway day for me!  As of the time this is posted I’ll be sitting in hours of traffic on my way to my buddy’s beach house.  My car will be stocked full of meat for the BBQ, beer for the guys, and Gas-X for the mornings after.  And just for fun my picks for this Sunday’s racing extravaganza are Charles LeClerc in Monaco and Scott Dixon in the Indy 500.


Friday Night TRUCK SERIES NC Education Lottery 200: John Hunter Nemechek—going with a repeat winner (from last year) to get me off the schneid.


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES (3 wins) Alsco 300: Ty Gibbs—an unpopular win, but likely a popular pick.


Sunday CUP SERIES Coca-Cola 600: LAST RACE’S WINNER picks Kurt Busch.  THE ROULETTE WHEEL picks 11th in points Kevin Harvick.  FAVORITE (1 win): Alex Bowman—reasserting the dominance of the 48 car here (Ally Motor Speedway?).  NEXT FAVORITE (1 win): Austin Dillon—even if it means having to see him wear a cowboy hat.  DARK HORSE (1 win): Harrison Burton—the elusive milestone win for the Wood Brothers.


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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2022 Donruss Nascar Cards, Pack 1 of 24



Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Donruss Nascar Cards.  New teams, new drivers, new subsets, and of course some corny commentary by me.


Pack 1—Newmans, Cool as Fans, and Natalie “Stan”s


FIRST LOOK: A pair of Ryan Newman cards show off the base set designs for 2022.  We get the usual throwback look, plus a more modern layout, shown here in Optic form.  For anyone unaware, the Optic cards are usually a bit thicker (like Newman), and are very glossy (unlike Newman, to my knowledge).


TO THE BACK:
So when the weather cools down, Kyle Busch gets hot.  This marks the first time that Kyle Busch has ever been considered “cool”.


SAY WHAT:
“Ugh, more creepy old guys wanting their picture with me.  I wonder if they do that with other Xfinity Series backmarkers—does Howie DiSavino III have to deal with this?


RATING: 6 pole positions out of 10



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Musically Declined: NASCAR Goes Country, King of the Road


Stock Car Racing and Country Music—two pillars of culture in the Southern United States.  And the two have mingled throughout the years.  So put on your racing shoes, make sure they match your cowboy hat, and settle in for a look back at some of Nascar’s biggest stars turned Nashville wannabes!


The Song: King of the Road by Roger Miller


The Star: Richard Petty


The Clip: 



The Review: Hey, remember “Oh King Richard”, that song that came out in the 80’s?  Then Kyle Petty covered it?  Let’s all agree to just think about that song instead of this echo-fest.  Especially considering its essentially a song about a homeless guy.


The Verdict: Proof that production tricks DO have their limits.


Meet The Employee Who Designs & Chooses Joe Gibbs’ Outfits Every Weekend



It takes a lot of people to make a race team run, from the driver to the crew members to the office staff back at the shop.  But one particularly indispensable employee at Joe Gibbs Racing is Ron Aram, the man responsible for the multi-logoed outfits Joe Gibbs wears every weekend to the track.

“I start my workweek on Mondays by laundering what Coach (Gibbs) wore the previous day”, said Aram form his Huntersville, North Carolina cubicle.  “Later that day, I meet with the marketing folks to see what sponsors will be represented on the cars that upcoming week.  That’s where my work really begins.”

Aram said that with the multitude of sponsorship combinations, virtually no outfit is worn a second time in a season.

“Because of how many combinations we have, I almost always have to design a new logo layout every week”, Aram explained.  “I’ve wound up burning the midnight oil on Monday evening—sometimes bleeding into Tuesday morning—trying to decide how to arrange four different logos for Sundays and three different logos for Saturdays.”

While such work can take time, Aram only has until 10am Tuesday morning to finalize his designs, “…because that’s the deadline to get them to our digitizer.  Then its off to the embroidery contractor to bring my work to life”.

While it may seem like Aram is only placing logos on a polo shirt, he explained that there was far more to his job.

“I have to figure out the weather for every race weekend—I spend all day Wednesday figuring out if Coach will be wearing a heavy jacket, a light zip-up, or just a polo shirt”, said Aram.  “Then on Thursday morning I get the outfits back again, run them through the laundry once to get rid of that ‘new shirt smell’, and pack them away for Coach to wear before he leaves for the track.”

Aram said that while his job is made easier by Gibbs wearing a Toyota hat regularly, he could see this changing in the future.

“We’ve had some in-depth discussions about adding a different hat each week as a sort of ‘sponsor spotlight’, Aram opined, “but we’d definitely have to add an intern to make that practical.”



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UNCLE MAX vs. REPEAT WINNERS vs. THE ROULETTE WHEEL: Texas



None of my picks came through last weekend but I’m a celebratory mood—I successfully renegotiated my townhouse lease!  The landlord and I were in a standoff, and thankfully he blinked first.  So its just a modest rent increase (when that curbside trash pickup fee is factored in) for me for the next ten months.

Not only that, but guess what’s coming up in a couple weeks?  My annual trip to the shore!  I’ll be busting out my favorite BBQ recipes and bringing a 30-pack or two, just kicking back at my buddy’s beach block house.

(NOTE—no picks are made for non-points events)


Friday Night TRUCK SERIES SpeedyCash 200: Zane Smith—getting on a roll.


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES (2 wins) SRS Distribution 250: Tyler Reddick—maybe THIS will lead to his breakthrough Cup win.


Sunday CUP SERIES All Star Race: No official picks, but put me down for Chase Elliott just for fun.



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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 4 of 12


Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards.  Because there’s 12 cards per pack, each pack is split in two.


Pack 4 Part 2—Wheels, Deals, and Delivering Meals


FIRST LOOK: A pretty nice prismatic (or would that be “prizmatic”?) Denny Hamlin card.  Although the green background makes about as much sense as Denny’s constant pit road penalties.


TO THE BACK: I, for one, am glad to see Josh Berry parlay his partial schedule into a full-time Xfinity ride, rather than a full-time Cup ride with Rick Ware Racing *shudder*.


SAY WHAT: “Gotta deliver this overpriced burger to someone who doesn’t feel like getting in their car and driving for dinner”


RATING: 5 racing wheels out of 10


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The Hero Card Project Part 4



Click here for Part 3


Some more Hero Cards have come in in the past three weeks.  Here’s what’s arrived from April 23rd through May 14th.

An autographed Timmy Hill card from his self-owned team

Five cards (and some autographs!) from PettyGMS

Four autographed cards from Venturini Motorsports (Corey's card
is ARCA-specific on the other side)


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UNCLE MAX vs. REPEAT WINNERS vs. THE ROULETTE WHEEL: Kansas



Well MY stress level is at an all-time high.  I’ve reached that part of my townhouse’s lease negotiations where its a high-stakes (for me at least) game of chicken with the landlord.  Either we reach a compromise on the rent increase that’s fair to everyone or I have a month to find a new place to live.  There’s no way I would just agree to what was proposed—who the heck pays $49 a month for “curbside garbage pickup” anyways?  I even volunteered to take it to the dump myself to avoid paying it…but I guess he didn’t find it all that funny.


Saturday Night TRUCK SERIES Heart of America 200: Chandler Smith—who knew that American hearts had sponsorship money.


XFINITY SERIES (2 wins): off


Sunday CUP SERIES Advent Health 400: LAST RACE’S WINNER picks Joey Logano.  THE ROULETTE WHEEL picks 33rd in points BJ McLeod.  FAVORITE (1 win): William Byron—payback from last week.  NEXT FAVORITE (1 win): Kyle Larson—still a solid pick, even if he’s not as dominant as last year.  DARK HORSE (1 win): Tyler Reddick—he’s gotta break through sooner or later…right?


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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 4 of 12


Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards.  Because there’s 12 cards per pack, each pack is split in two.


Pack 4 Part 1—HMS, a Fact (I Guess?), and an IROC Guess


FIRST LOOK: Three Hendrick Motorsports-affiliated drivers.  That’s right, Mr. H is the co-owner of JR Motorsports.  So if JRM ever comes to Cup be sure to criticize them JUST AS MUCH as you bashed 23XI Racing.


TO THE BACK: The Pinty’s title is nice, but really?  Listing an iRacing race as an accomplishment?  That’s as bad as my attempts to understand Alex’s pre-race streams in French.


SAY WHAT: “Yep, that’s me in front of the IROC car.  Oh, you’re too young to remember IROC—it was a giant waste of time for all involved.”


RATING: 7 angry IROC fans out of 10


Musically Declined: NASCAR Goes Country, Big Daddy


Stock Car Racing and Country Music—two pillars of culture in the Southern United States.  And the two have mingled throughout the years.  So put on your racing shoes, make sure they match your cowboy hat, and settle in for a look back at some of Nascar’s biggest stars turned Nashville wannabes!


The Song: Big Daddy by John D. Loudermilk


The Star: Bobby Allison


The Clip: 



The Review: “Big Daddy’s Alabammy bound”.  Oh.  We get it.  Because Bobby’s from Alabama (sorta).  Bobby seems to be trying his best to keep up with the great instrumentation but falls short—maybe if he was as passionate about music as he was about hating Darrell Waltrip.


The Verdict: Pretty bad, even by gimmicky country music standards.


Wacky Racing—Cartoon Network in Nascar




Click here for my look at another Turner property’s Nascar adventure—WCW


The mid-90’s saw Nascar go mainstream in the US, bringing a number of strange crossovers with pop culture.  Perhaps none was as strange as Cartoon Network coming on board as a sponsor for several different teams over the years.  Using the brand name “Wacky Racing” (after the “Wacky Races” cartoon), the Turner-owned network sponsored several drivers through the years with…little success.  Let’s take a look back:


Click on each year to see the primary Cartoon Network paint scheme for that season


1996: Team Wacky Racing debuted on board the Diamond Ridge Motorsports 29 car, with Fred Flintstone emblazoned on the hood.  Even driving his foot-powered car Fred might’ve outrun the 29, which struggled with a slew of different drivers throughout the season—Steve Grisson, Greg Sacks, Butch Leitzinger, Chad Little, Robert Pressley, and Jeff Green.  The car might’ve been Flintstones-themed, but the cast of drivers seemed more like The Simpsons.


1997 also saw the first Cartoon
Network "Special Paint Scheme", with
Tom & Jerry on the hood and Dexter
 on the quarter panels at Phoenix.
Researching this has me reevaluating
 how I spend my free time
1997: Cartoon Network returned to the 29 machine, but while they only used two drivers (Pressley and Green), the team continued to struggle.  Having Scooby Doo as the main theme for the paint scheme was pretty cool, but Cartoon Network would pull its sponsorship due to lack of performance.  Sadly, the Diamond Ridge folks couldn’t blame Old Man Withers for meddling with their cars.


1998: Turner wound up moving its sponsorship to Melling Racing, and while the 9 car had won the 1989 Winston Cup Championship, it had struggled mightily since Bill Elliott’s departure.  Any hope of stability with journeyman Lake “Michael Waltrip punched me” Speed ended when Speed was injured twice, forcing his retirement.  Speed was replaced at first by Butch Gilliland, then on a permanent basis by Jerry Nadeau.  Wacky Racing also began running a rotating series of paint schemes, so while the primary red car had Huckleberry Hound on the hood, you could’ve wound up seeing longtime mental health sufferer Droopy Dog on the track.


A Sprint/RadioShack/Cartoon Network
cross-promotional special paint scheme.
Back when cell phones seemed futuristic 
1999: Foretelling the current age of multiple sponsors (and multiple paint schemes), Turner chose to spread their sponsorship across multiple properties.  So while Cartoon Network used their space to promote their own original cartoon Dexter’s Laboratory, other paint schemes were used to advertise the Atlanta Braves, Dinner & a Movie, and even Nascar stalwart WCW.  On the driving front, Wacky Racing appeared to be heading in the right direction with the improving Jerry Nadeau posting a top ten and a top five.  Unfortunately for Melling Racing, Nadeau left to replace Ernie Irvan at MB2, prompting a return by Steve Grissom, then a stint by Rich Bickle, before Stacy Compton took over the ride full-time.  At the end of the year Compton would stay, but the Turner properties would depart, replace by Kodiak chewing tobacco, of all things—although I guess a baseball-chaw mashup would’ve made sense.


2000: Wacky Racing continued its odd tradition of partnering with one great teams in transition, moving to Galaxy Motorsports.  The successor to RahMoc, the team now had its iconic #75…and not much else.  Strangely, this struggling team would be the lone Cartoon Network-supported entry to use a single driver all year, with journeyman Wally Dallenbach Jr. behind the wheel.  Various sponsors were used—both Turner-owned and non-Turner-owned, with the primary Cartoon Network scheme promoting another original show in the Powerpuff Girls.  After this season the disastrous merger of AOL and Cartoon Network corporate parent Time Warner would see Wacky Racing come to an end, although the new AOL TimeWarner would sponsor Jeff Green in 2002, thus proving that even with different owners and different brands, they still didn’t know how to pick a driver.



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UNCLE MAX vs. REPEAT WINNERS vs. THE ROULETTE WHEEL: Darlington (and throwback scheme)


Now that inventory is done, I thought it would be a fun idea for your ol’ buddy Uncle Max to take advantage of Throwback Weekend by looking back at my high school yearbook.  Let’s see my accomplishments:

*irritating laugh intensifies*

VARSITY FOOTBALL (MANAGER) 3,4—I knew I didn’t have the body to take a pounding on the field, but I did have the brain to help things out on the sideline.  I mean, you can win without a running game, you can win without a passing game, but you CAN’T win without properly laid-out uniforms!

VARSITY TRACK & FIELD 3—After two years on the JV squad I was ready to step up to the big time in the shot put.  Unfortunately my mind was ready but my arm was not, and I spent my whole senior year learning how to write with a seriously torn shoulder muscle.  Let that be a lesson to you kids out there—trying to impress a cute girl isn’t worth injuring yourself, even if she IS the athletic trainer.

STUDENT COUNCIL 2—As I remember it nobody from my homeroom wanted to run, so I was “volunteered”.  There’s nothing like spending an hour every month listening to whiny teenagers complain about school lunches.

VOTED “MOST LIKELY TO HIT IT BIG IN VEGAS”—Yup, I was running March Madness pools even in my younger days.  Thankfully I knew how to keep my nose clean!  And yes, I already checked—the statue of limitations has passed.


Friday Night TRUCK SERIES Dead On Tools 200: Ben Rhodes—two in a row to get me on the board in the Trucks.


Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES Mahindra 200 (1 win): Justin Allgaier—two in a row to help me forget that I didn’t pick The Gator last weekend.


Sunday CUP SERIES Goodyear 400: LAST RACE’S WINNER picks Chase Elliott.  THE ROULETTE WHEEL picks 16th in points Tyler Reddick.  FAVORITE (1 win): Ross Chastain—upgraded to “Favorite” status whether Teresa likes it or not.  NEXT FAVORITE (1 win): Martin Truex Jr.—getting back on track at a rare non-home-track.  DARK HORSE (1 win): Bubba Wallace—no throwback needed (but maybe a little pit strategy).


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Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021-22 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards, Pack 3 of 12


Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2022 Panini Prizm Nascar Cards.  Because there’s 12 cards per pack, each pack is split in two.



Pack 3 Part 2—Repeats AGAIN—yes, AGAIN—and a Mystery Man


FIRST LOOK: Three cards that showed up in Pack 1?  Come on, Panini—you gotta work some Hallie Deegan variants in there to break up the repeats!


TO THE BACK: Boy, I sure am glad they referred to Dover as “The Delaware Track”—I thought it was in Dover, New Jersey!


SAY WHAT: “Who Am I?”


RATING: 3 Tires out of 10