Archive for August, 2010

Congratulations to Kyle Busch & Joe Gibbs Racing on the Bristol sweep this weekend.  Kyle made NASCAR history by becoming the 1st driver to ever win all 3 of NASCAR’s major touring series in the same weekend.

Pizza Ranch Racing is teaming up with Karsyn’s Krusaders for a special event in our 2010 racing season.  Pizza Ranch is helping Karsyn’s Krusaders raise awareness for funding of cancer research by sponsoring a special car design for driver JD Auringer’s car for some upcoming races.  Pizza Ranch will be sponsoring JD Auringer’s “Karsyn’s Krusaders” car at these upcoming events:

-August 31^st at Marshalltown Speedway on August 31^{st *}

^{-September 23-25 at Racing Fall Jamboree in Deer Creek, Minnesota}

*“Dirt Knights,” a new reality TV show scheduled to air on the Versus Network in January 2011 will be at Marshalltown Speedway on August 31^st with 23 cameras filming all of the action at the track.

Click the logo below to check out www.karsynskrusaders.com

One of NASCAR’s surprises is its embrace of religion and more specifically the Gospel.  Motor Racing Outreach (MRO) is a non-denominational para Church organization that has ministered to the NASCAR community for over two decades. The article linked below shares some of the ways MRO ministers to the NASCAR community all year round.  Featured in this article is chaplain Lonnie Clouse.  I have met Lonnie on multiple occasions and his ministry and that of MRO is well received by the drivers, crews and personnel of NASCAR.  Lonnie recently left his post at MRO to serve a orphanage in Mexico.  Lonnie’s presence at the track and in the garage will be missed.

http://www.nascar.com/2009/news/features/06/24/enterprise.inside.nascar.maumann.mro/index.html

A lot of things seemed to suit Matt DiBenedetto well about Pizza Ranch’s home track, Iowa Speedway.  Those good vibes culminated with a Nationwide series career best, top-ten finish.  Despite racing at Iowa Speedway for the first time, Matt took right to it and posted the fastest time in Saturday morning’s delayed practice.  Although none of the double-duty drivers practiced, it was a good sign that Matt was ready to rebound after back-to-back frustrating outings.

Matt started ninth in front of a sold out crowd of over 50,000, including 400+ Pizza Ranch friends.  Matt battled hard all night with cup and nationwide series regulars to keep the Pizza Ranch No. 20 Toyota solidly in the top ten and as high as 7th.  With 47 laps to go, and in 8th place, a caution came out that shook up the top ten.  Matt dropped back to 14th, after a handful of cars made a position grab going with just 2 tires.  Matt steadily worked back into the top-ten and went door-to-door with Justin Allgaier for the last 20 laps of the race and settled out in ninth place.  Matt’s next race will be Gateway’s curtain closer on October 23.

Congratulations to JGR’s Kyle Busch and the No. 18 crew with their ninth win of the year.  Pizza Ranch victory lane was excited to have Kyle back since his victory last year in the K&N East-West All Star Race.