Franchitti snagged his second career Indy 500 title on May 30, 2010, becoming one of 17 legendary IndyCar drivers to have ever won the prestigious race more than once (his last win was in 2007). The Target Chip Ganassi Racing superstar started in the first row of the grid after qualifying for the race in third place behind Helio Castroneves and Will Power, easily snaking an early lead and keeping it consistent throughout the 500-mile race.

IRL drivers Dan Wheldon, Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan all made boisterous routes to the top of the pack during the 2010 Indy 500, but ultimately none could overcome the gaping lead Franchitti increasingly created throughout the day on May 30. The No. 10 Target car zoomed into Victory Lane under the yellow flag but almost didn’t make it to the end at all as Franchitti began to run out of gas at the backstretch of the race. He took a big gamble by forgoing a late pit stop and ultimately coasted across the finish line at a measly 208 mph, barely fending off second-place finisher Dan Wheldon for the big win.

Franchitti’s second Indianapolis 500 victory propels him into elite territory as one of very few drivers to win the prestigious Indianapolis race, but the modest driver expressed gratitude for the newfound comparisons after the May 30 race. He told ESPN, “They showed me a list of two-time winners [after the race], and those guys are legends. I’m so lucky to be driving for Chip [Ganassi] and Team Target, getting in good cars, especially having gone away [to NASCAR] after we won in ’07. To be invited back was pretty cool.”

Another Indy 500 title was perhaps not in his initial plans, but the 37-year-old driver is taking it all in stride. “To have won a championship and an Indy 500, I didn’t expect any of this,” Franchitti told ESPN. “I said before, I expected to be retired by the time I was 35. This is all bonus, and it’s pretty cool.”

Dario Franchitti now has two Indy 500 wins to match his two career IndyCar Series championships, and he’s currently (after the Indy 500) in second place in overall point standings behind Will Power. Franchitti has also taken the early lead in the competition for the oval title, and his $2.75 million purse for winning in Indy is the icing on the cake for the 2010 season thus far.

Franchitti’s clean racing and dignified demeanor have helped make him a fan favorite at IndyCar races, and the name Dario Franchitti has been selling <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.stubhub.com/irl-tickets-indy-car-series/”>Indy Racing League (IRL) tickets</a> like crazy ever since his infiltration into open-wheel racing.

Franchitti’s only year off from the IRL came in 2008, when he made a lukewarm foray into the wide world of NASCAR, and his reemergence last year as an IndyCar hero for Target Chip Ganassi Racing has proven wildly successful ever since. Franchitti is the defending IndyCar Series champion after winning the series in 2009, and his 2010 Indy 500 victory is one more big win to help propel him to the top of his game.

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NASCAR fans know that racing teams are willing to do everything in their power to give the driver a fair chance of winning the next race. Every member of the racing team has a job to do and by performing that task to the best of their technical abilities, they hope that one day, their hard work will pay off. They do not seem to mind if the driver basks in the glory of the win in the winner’s circle because if the driver has reached that point in the race, they know they have done their job superbly.

Every NASCAR racing team has one purpose in life. As a group, they are tasked with maintaining the racecar at top performance speeds that will allow the driver to be competitive each week. They want the driver on their team to win the race each week because they know that he must be able to tally up win points. Those points are a critical factor in determining which driver is the best and only the best driver in the country is going to be declared the winner of the Winston Cup.

To win the Winston Cup Racing Series, a NASCAR racing team must perfect their trade. They know that the road to the winner’s circle is a long one and racing team members also know that they must do their best each week if they are going to experience the thrill of the win. The racing teams are not afraid of hard work and hard work is all they know during the racing season.

Every team member in NASCAR is willing to devote many hours to training. The pit crew will train on various tasks that are performed in the pit during every race. The training time is centered on one concept. It is their job to make split second tire changes and make repairs to the race car and anything else that needs to be done and get the NASCAR driver back on the track so that he can do the job he was hired to do. Seconds count in the pit and the training periods can be grueling.

For everything that they are tasked to complete each week, the NASCAR racing teams feel that it is all worth it. The fans have come to expect a certain amount of greatness from the things that they do and the racing teams will do everything in their power to make certain that they do not disappoint them. The racing team feels that it will be justly rewarded for all of its efforts when the racing team driver brings the Winston Cup trophy back to the racing team owner at the end of the season. Until NASCAR racing is over for the season, the racing team continues to stand at the ready and give the team the best of their abilities.

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• Full-size 10 diameter wheel with adjustable sensitivity, for tweaking your control
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Product Description
So you’re not a pro driver on the NASCAR circuit. So what? When you start using the Logitech NASCAR Racing Wheel, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the sights, sounds, and thrills of racing. Just pull out the extendable wings to kick back and race from the comfort of your couch. Or attach the included suction cups for a rock-solid driving experience on your coffee table. The adjustable steering sensitivity allows you to tweak your wheel for maximum performance, … More >>

Logitech NASCAR Racing Wheel

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People can choose to visit the NASCAR Racing Museum and see the history of NASCAR in living color. The entire facility is designed to look like a NASCAR racetrack and fans are definitely thrilled beyond belief from the second they enter this prestigious facility. The fans see NASCAR racing memorabilia at its best and get to see the automobile that was driven by the Winston Cup leader.

Some fans think that a particular racetrack provides some of the finest NASCAR racing in the world. The entire complement of race cars are true exhibits of the quality and craftsmanship that go into making the NASCAR racing machine that circles the racetrack during racing season. As the rows of cars build with each lap, some fans agree that nothing in life could ever replace the thrill of all that excitement.

There is some NASCAR racing fans that are totally devoted to the colorful graphics on certain race cars. They think that when they see their favorite colors in the pole position, that they are experiencing some of the finest accomplishments that their NASCAR driver has shown to them thus far in his racing career. When that driver goes on to win the race, they will definitely think that they had a chance to see NASCAR racing at its very best.

The devotion that fans display week after week is evidence of their love for NASCAR racing. Even if a driver they admire has a bad week and fails to qualify for a race due to engine or mechanical failures, these fans still stand true and back their driver because they think that he is definitely the best driver in NASCAR history, just not that week.

Feel confident though that those fans will return the following week to see the finest racing done by their driver and they will look for them in the winners circle at the end of the race. If they fail to see them in the winner’s circle, you can be sure that they will be able to find an image of the driver attached to some memorable Nascar souvenir that will serve to remind fans of the marvelous time that they had at one of the finest stock car races in the world.

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Dario Franchitti takes two. Franchitti became the 17th driver in IndyCar history to win the prestigious Indianapolis 500 for the second time with his victory on May 30, 2010. The Ganassi Racing speedster led most of the race and coasted into Victory Lane at 208 mph despite running out of fuel at the very end. Franchitti’s win was a huge one in Indy and was well-deserved, as he clearly had the fastest car of the weekend.

Tony Kanaan is the comeback king. Kanaan’s stellar maneuverability on the track and elite racing is the stuff that sells <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.stubhub.com/irl-tickets-indy-car-series/”>Indy Racing League (IRL) tickets</a> each and every year, and it was no different at the 2010 Indy 500. After a horrendous week of qualifications in which he crashed on Pole Day and again on Bump Day, Kanaan barely qualified for the race at all and started dead last in the field of 33 drivers. Initially aiming to break his 14-car passing record for a single race, Kanaan dazzled the crowd in Indianapolis as he bypassed a whopping 22 cars en route to an 11th place finish.

Marco Andretti gets justice. The Marco Andretti sob story is hardly new, but this time the 23-year-old driver staked a fair claim when he petitioned for race reviewers to look into his original sixth-place finish at the Indy 500. Andretti proclaimed that three drivers illegally passed him under caution in the last few minutes of the race, and he was ultimately awarded a third-place finish when it was determined that Alex Lloyd, Scott Dixon and Danica Patrick passed him in the final stretch under caution on Lap 199.

Danica Patrick has company. Danica Patrick is no longer the only dominant female on the racetrack. 21-year-old Swiss rookie Simona de Silvestro is quickly gaining ground, as well, finishing a respectable 13th at her first career Indy 500. De Silvestro started in 22nd position at the Indy 500 and earned the Chase Rookie of the Year Award after the race for becoming the second-highest rookie finisher (after Mario Romancini), and it was a spectacular finish considering it was only her second oval race in the IRL. Will she soon eclipse Danica Patrick?

Tomas Scheckter might be faster off the track. Tomas Scheckter’s need for speed led him to a 15th place finish at the Indy 500, but it looks like he got a little extra practice in before the big Memorial Day weekend race. Scheckter was clocked going more than 100 mph on Interstate 65 in Indianapolis the night before the Indy 500, leading to a speeding ticket when he was caught by Indy police. Declaring the event on his Twitter account, the 29-year-old tweeted: “Stopped by cops 3 of them. they said told [sic] me I was weaving through traffic at over 100 and it took them ages to catch up with me. carb day .”

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As many are well aware of, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a third generation driver in a family that has been connected to the sport of stock car racing for years. He has a flare of charisma, originality, and character that have propelled him to become one of the most popular figures in sports today. Five times Nascar fans have selected him as the winner of the most popular driver award. Thousands of fans line up at every track at his merchandise trailer just to get something with his name on it. It is hard to see where he has time to meet with so many of his fans but he does. That is what makes him so popular.

His appeal certainly branches outside of just Nascar fans though. He has appeared many times on Harris Interactive’s annual polling for America’s Top 10 favorite athletes. This has put him in the company of such athletes as Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, and Tiger Woods. In 2002, Dale was named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Eligible Bachelors.

Outside of racing, he has become a role model for young ones with his business savvy as well. He has pursued the role of team owner and businessman while ascending in this too. In 2002 JR Motor sports consisted of just six employees and a street-stocked camaro was the only race car. Today, the company encompasses over 100 employees and a plethora of different vehicles that compete in the Nascar Racing Nationwide series.

If that were not enough, he has appeared on over 150 magazine covers and has been featured in high profiled publications such as Rolling Stones, GQ, Men’s Journal, Sports Illustrated and People Magazine. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has also made guest appearances on 60 minutes, the Late Show with David Letterman, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Larry King Live and many more talk shows. He has also appeared in numerous commercials for his sponsors.

But that was just not enough for this Nascar racing star either. He has played cameo roles in Talladega Nights and Cars, and was the subject of an episode of MTV’s Diary. To further add to his resume, in 2001 he became a best-selling author with Driver 8. This is a documentation of his rookie season in the Nascar Sprint Cup Series.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has done tremendous things for the sport of Nascar. Through his countless victories and ambitious personality, he has become a true role model for people all over the world. He has shown that there is life outside of sports with cameos and his documentary book and has given kids a reason to strive for their goals. There really is no question why he is one of America’s Top 10 favorite athletes.

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