This just in - and just in time for a new season

By Bob Henry
ThatsRacin.com Editor

Well, we appear to have (somewhat) successfully negotiated the holidays, which means a new racing season is really on the way. It’s no longer just an idea or concept, like “the check is in the mail.”

This is a definite.

Yes, preseason testing of all sorts is cranking up at Daytona International Speedway, among other signs. One of those indicators is that the volume of news releases we receive here – from teams, tracks, driver and sponsor reps and television networks that cover racing – has started to pick back up.

We post nearly all of those we see in our Media Center section and readers should expect to see more of more of those as Daytona draws nearer and the season formally takes the green flag.

In the meantime, let’s look at some of the highlights from the off-season in-box.

Harold Holly arrives at RWI

Two days after Christmas, Rusty Wallace Racing announced that Harold Holly, former NASCAR Busch Series crew chief, has been hired to work with the owner’s son, Steve Wallace, and the No. 66 team in the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series season.

Holly worked extremely well during the 1999-2001 seasons with driver Jeff Green. They won 13 races and 11 poles, posted 56 top-five finishes and 72 top-10s. Oh, and they won the 2000 NASCAR Busch Series championship, too.

Rusty Wallace, according to the news release, is excited about it.

“I’m really excited to have Harold Holly on board,” he’s quoted as saying. “Harold should really be able to help take our team to the next level.”

Holly, too, is excited.

“Rusty Wallace is a legend in our sport, so needless to say, I’m excited about the chance to work with his team.”

That’s one of the things we love about the days and weeks leading up to a new season, whatever the sport. Everyone, on every team, is full of hope and believes their outfit can contend.

But I also believe that Holly’s efforts, along with those of new RWI general manager, Rick Carpenter, will be big positives in the younger Wallace’s 2008 racing season.

Yes, 88 pays better than, say, 8 on this one

Not a bunch to overlook the significance of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s new affiliation and car number, Atlanta Motor Speedway has announced the availability of “a limited number of the $88 tickets” for the March 9 Kobalt Tools 500 Sprint Cup race. And in the frontstretch Earnhardt Grandstand, no less.

“The race will help usher in a new era in motorsports when Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes his first competition laps in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at Atlanta Motor Speedway” the track’s PR office notes.

The tix can be had through the AMS ticket office and at Ticketmaster outlets.

I’m betting the people at the Hampton, Ga., track think it’s a good thing Earnhardt Jr. and his new boss, Rick Hendrick, didn’t go with one of those other – lower – car numbers. And there were a lot of them being bandied about last summer when the driver moved from Teresa Earnhardt’s company to Hendrick Motorsports.

Petty Enterprises still hiring

Petty Enterprises, which is – as a recent news release points out – “the winningest organization in the history of American motorsports, has announced the hiring of Derrick Finley as technical director.

Says Finley of the Petty shops: “Their legacy of success is unequaled. From top to bottom they have shown a commitment to return to the top. ...

“In crew chiefs Jeff Meendering and Billy Wilburn we have two of the brightest minds in the garage area. Both Bobby (Labonte) and Kyle (Petty) had several strong runs last year. Everything is in place to build on those finishes and have an even better year in 2008.”

If Finley and Robbie Loomis and a few others working in the organization’s new digs in Mooresville, N.C., are right about that, we know of a few million fans that will be cheering loudly.

Of course, whether those supporters are the “kind of fans” NASCAR's Brian France and others in the Daytona Beach offices are interested in keeping around remains to be seen.

Jeff Gordon filling in for Regis again

I posted one this morning that says Jeff Gordon is scheduled to make his 11th appearance as guest co-host on the popular daytime talk show “Live with Regis and Kelly” on Friday, Jan. 18.

I started to wonder if anyone really cared, but kept reading and learned that “Live with Regis and Kelly” is in its 20th year of national syndication and continues to wake up millions of Americans each day.

I don’t know whether or not they count viewers the same way NASCAR counts fans, but that sounds pretty impressive.

And who am I to argue with how millions of Americans wake up. I’m still kind of hung up on the whole argument over waking up most mornings.

Daytona gems being rerun

Speaking of television and reawakening – as fan interest certainly is with the season's approach -  ESPN’s public relations folks sent this one, informing us that ESPN Classic will be televising six of the best Daytona 500 races of all time every Monday at 2 p.m. ET starting Jan. 7.

I know, I know. A lot of race fans have voiced disappointment – to use the polite term – with ESPN’s first year back in the NASCAR fold. But, come on, they’re going to show some good ones. And we can get back to that debate about the sports network's booth lineup on race day some other time.

The 500s being re-aired will include the 1976 race, when David Pearson and Richard Petty wrecked while banging fenders on the final lap, and the 1998 race, when Dale Earnhardt finally won NASCAR’s biggest event.

And ESPN.com's NASCAR page will feature a poll that will allow viewers to choose their favorite Daytona 500s from the six. Then, the night before the 2008 version of the 500 – the 50th running, by the way - ESPN Classic will show the top-five races as chosen by the fans in their order of preference, starting at 10 p.m.

Thanks for reading and commenting, if you do shoot back. We’ll try and do some more of these compilations – from the world of NASCAR as well as other top racing series – as the new season arrives and gets rolling in earnest.