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Tornado Overshadows Nashville Racing Action

An Opinion



April 12, 2009

By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

Happy Easter and a belated Passover everyone. There is no racing today, which allows the drivers and fans to relax and spend quality time with their loved ones on this weekend where you are spending time with the Easter Bunny or Elijah.

We did have racing in Nashville, Tennessee yesterday, however the racing was overshadowed a bit by what happened just a few miles away on Friday.

For those of you in the southeast, you know how nasty the weather was on Friday and yesterday. As the Nationwide teams were getting set up on Friday in the garage for a day of practice, the storms came through the area, forcing NASCAR to order all teams from the garage area and into safe locations where they could weather the storm with some semblance of safety. Media members were ordered to stay in the media center, and everyone battened down the hatches for about half an hour while the system moved through.

Thankfully, after the storm came through, all that was required at the track was to bring the jet dryers out and uncover the cars. However, just a few miles away from the track, a small town was devastated because of a tornado. And it only took moments for one Nationwide team to reach out and offer to help.

Baker Curb Racing calls Nashville their home. On Friday, they immediately offered to donate $25,000 in bonus money to the victims of Friday’s tornado if they won the inaugural “Dash 4 Cash”

"We are proud to be based in Nashville and are thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the devastating storms," said team owner Gary Baker Friday. "We have team members that live in the Murfreesboro area so this really hits home with us and it would make this win even more extra special if we can contribute that bonus to the relief efforts."

Murfreesboro is just 30 miles southeast of Nashville and the speedway. Hundreds of homes were leveled and several people were injured or lost their lives, including a woman and her newborn baby.

When you hear about events like this happening so close to a track on a race weekend, if makes you think not only how lucky the men and women at the track were to escape serious damage and harm, but puts in perspective how little the race actually means in the greater scheme of things. And it is no surprise that members of NASCAR’s garage would immediately reach out to offer help to those affected by the storm. NASCAR fans and teams are well known for their ability to jump into action to offer a hand to those less fortunate…and it is one of the reasons I love this sport so much.

Speaking of the “Dash 4 Cash”…a little primer for you in case you have never heard of it before. In a way, this harkens back to the day of the “Winston Million”, where a cup driver was rewarded for winning races at specific tracks over the course of the season.

Prior to the start of the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, Nationwide Insurance announced the Nationwide Insurance "Dash 4 Cash" program. The Dash, which is aimed at creating additional support for the teams who run full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series only, provides an extra incentive at four stand-alone NASCAR Nationwide events this season. The competition provides an additional payout to those full-time Nationwide Series drivers -- $25,000 to the eligible winner of each of the four races and a $50,000 bonus to the driver who accumulates the most NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship Driver points during the four stand-alone events within the program.

For some of these teams, who are struggling just as hard as the Cup teams for sponsorship, and who run their teams off considerably less, the bonus money could mean the ability to reward the team members for a job well done and the chance to race at all down the road.

Yesterday was race one of the four…the next race will be June 13 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky., and then the two remaining races are August 1 at Iowa Speedway and October 24 at Memphis Motorsports Park.

The fact that one of these teams was willing to part with this much needed money to help out those who lost so much in the tornadoes of Good Friday just makes me proud to be a fan of this sport.

On that note, I want to wish everyone a safe and blessed holiday. We’ll see you back here next week!





You can contact Kim at.. Insider Racing News
You Can Read Other Articles By Kim


The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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