Posts tagged NASCAR
Guest Post: Car Maintenance Made Easy with Simple Tips from a Gear Head
(Editor’s Note: The following guest post is from Rutledge Wood, the host of Top Gear U.S. on the History Channel, a NASCAR correspondent on SpeedTV and Valvoline spokesperson.)
Everyone knows car maintenance is important, but if you’re not a gear head – someone who loves working on vehicles – the idea of doing routine car maintenance can be very intimidating.
Whether on the set of Top Gear, at NASCAR races or just in my garage at home, I’m fortunate enough to be around cars a lot. I love driving them, repairing them and tinkering with them. However, for a lot of people, cars can be a confusing and even intimidating piece of machinery to work on.
To help people feel more comfortable in maintaining their vehicles, here are some simple tips that can make anyone feel like a gear head.
Change your oil
While many don’t find the prospect of being under a car messing with greasy filters their idea of a fun Sunday afternoon, changing a car’s oil isn’t as daunting a task as it seems. Here are a few easy tips:
1. Make sure your engine is cool before you start, then safely jack up your car and support it with jack stands. Lay a piece of cardboard under the engine, just in case you spill any oil.
2. Position a recycling container under the oil pan that’s on the bottom of your engine, then undo the drain plug and let the old oil pour into it. When the old oil’s out, put the drain plug back on and tighten it to your car’s torque specification.
3. Next, remove your old oil filter using an oil filter wrench; turn the filter counterclockwise until it’s free, but watch out you don’t spill the old oil that’s still in it. Make sure the rubber gasket comes out with the old filter.
4. Then, taking your new oil filter, lubricate the rubber gasket with some new oil and fill the new oil filter with oil to about two-thirds full.
5. Carefully screw the new oil filter clockwise into place (holding it upright); tighten only as much as you can with one hand, don’t overdo it or else it can cause a leak.
6. Now it’s time to fill the engine with oil, so unscrew the oil fill cap on the topside of the engine and insert your funnel. It’s smart to check your owner’s manual to find out how much oil your engine holds if you’re unsure, then pour a little more than three-fourths that amount into the engine.
7. Finally, start your vehicle and let it run for about a minute. During that minute, take a peek underneath to make sure you don’t have any leaks. After a minute, turn off you vehicle and check the oil level on the dipstick, adding more if necessary.
I use and recommend Valvoline NextGen Oil. It works great and since it’s made with 50 percent recycled oil, it’s good for the environment as well. To sweeten the deal, they’ve even come out with a ’Close the Loop’ program where they’ll give you a $20 mail-in offer if you return your used oil at participating auto parts stores and buy five quarts of NextGen for your next oil change.
Clean up cloudy headlights
It may seem obvious that your headlights are one of the most critical safety features on your car, but what’s not always top of mind is how quickly they can become yellowed, hazed or dull from rough road conditions and exposure to the sun. This can lead to severely diminished visibility for yourself and other drivers, especially when driving at night or in poor weather.
Replacing or professionally restoring headlight lenses can cost hundreds of dollars. Options like the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit – No Tools Required allow you to use basic DIY skills and a little elbow grease to sand, smooth, and polish your way to clearer lenses from the comfort of your own garage. This easy-to-use kit includes a series of hand-held abrasives and rubbing compound that’s used to remove yellowing and surface blemishes, and then refine and polish the lenses to reduce and remove scratches.
Check your tires
Worn treads are a major safety issue while on the road, leading to hydroplaning, poor traction as well as reduced fuel efficiency. Luckily, checking your tread wear is simple. Look at the tread pattern. You’ll probably see something called “tread wear bars.” These are small bridges between your treads. Look at the tread pattern and you’ll see the beginnings of these bars start to form between the treads, or running across the tires. As the tires wear, these bars will become flush with the tire’s tread. If they are, then it’s time to change your tires.
Another simple trick is to head for the change jar. Just grab a penny and place it upside down with Lincoln facing you in the center of the tread (at the thickest part of the tire). If you can see the top of his head it’s time to get new tires.
By following these tips, you might not quite be ready to join a NASCAR pit crew just yet, but you’ll be well on your way to becoming a true gear-head.
Jul 12th
Interview with Daytona 500 Winner Matt Kenseth
Matt Kenseth won a wild Daytona 500 a few weeks back. Due to the rain delay and the extra-late conclusion of the race, Kenseth wasn’t able to attend his Champion’s Breakfast until this week. We talked to Kenseth on Wednesday about his Daytona experience, social media, the new tandem racing rule changes and the upcoming race in Texas this weekend on FOX.
CS: So how does it feel to finally get Daytona 500 Champion’s Breakfast out of the way?
MK: Well there’s there problem, I showed up and there’s no food.
CS: Oh what? (Laughs).
MK: I guess it’s not breakfast. That was the bad part. We got jipped out of the food (laughs). But it’s cool to come out here and see the car sitting there in the Daytona 500 Experience with all the confetti on it just like it was sitting in Victory Lane. It was really neat. I mean it’s different coming now a couple months later and celebrating it, but it’s always neat to come back and see the car, see the fans, and kind of relive the experience of the Daytona 500.
CS: That was such a wild race, man. I was following along on TV along with a bunch of other people. How did you stay in the right mindset with that extra long delay?
MK: Yeah it was different. Waiting till Monday night was one thing, but that delay in the middle of the race was really … it was really kind of a tough one. So it was after our last pit stop and I was worried about the track not getting fixed. And, you know, if we went back to green we were going to be the leader, the first off pit row, and the guys in front of us were going to have to pit. So it was just a lot of anxiety and you know, anticipating getting the race started and wondering what’s going to happen.
CS: And what did you think about Brad Keselowski’s Twitter antics during the red flag?
MK: Well he just seemed to be popular with the fans and the media and the TV and all that. It was very popular with the fans and the broadcasters and the TV and doing all that stuff. For me, it didn’t really matter to me. I was more thinking about the race than I was about Tweeting.
CS: Do you use social media at all to connect with fans? I mean, when you’re not racing?
MK: I do. I got on Twitter last August or something like that, so I was one of the later ones. But I do get on there at least a couple times a week, usually. You know, send some notes or pictures about what I’m doing or whatever and try to get on there and communicate with the fans on Fridays or Saturdays when I get a little down time at the track. I’m not on there every day and checking it every day, several times a day – I think like a lot of people do. I enjoy finding another way to connect with the fans.
CS: Gotcha. And what do you think about the new tandem racing rule changes?
MK: Oh I like the new rules that broke up the pack a little bit. You get back to kind of pack racing and kind of racing, you know, one against 42 and trying to make moves and not so much worrying about another car.
CS: You think most drivers have adjusted to the rule changes already?
MK: Yeah. Yeah I do. I think that’s kind of the way it was forever and I think everybody’s adjusting pretty well. That’s a little different. You can still try to get locked up for a couple laps, but it certainly has changed the race ethic for the better.
CS: Now I’m sure you get asked this all the time but what was your initial reaction a few years back to the Matt Kenseth rule – the whole point change that was made after your first championship?
MK: Oh, I think the change to the Chase was great. I think, if you look at last year for instance, I don’t think the battle or race could have been any more exciting. I mean at the ended up being the same amount of points and it went to the guy with the most wins, which I think is what they want. You had some people qualify for the chase, you know, with wins during the season but couldn’t make the top ten for whatever reasons – they had a bad start, but won some races made the Chase and were contenders down the stretch. I think it’s really added a new exciting element to the sport. Did they have Yoga Mudras . All passengers aboard the Orient Express have a secret to hide, and one among them is a ruthless murderer. As the luxury train speeds through Europe, the man known only as Poirot must match wits against a murderer who could be anyone, even a fellow passenger. The stakes are high
CS: Excellent. So last question, what’s the race you’re most looking forward to the rest of the way?
MK: Well, there’s a lot of races left, but right now I’m really looking forward to going to Texas. That’s always been one of my favorite tracks and we’ve had some pretty good success there in the past so I’m looking forward to getting out there and getting on the track tomorrow.
Matt is currently in fourth place in the Sprint Cup Series. Tune in to FOX this Saturday at 7pm EST to see Matt try for his third victory at the Texas Motor Speedway.
Apr 13th
Jeff Burton Interview
I went to my first NASCAR race last year and I totally got into the sport. I mean these guys are in pressure cooker situations traveling at speeds close to 200 MPH for hours at a time. The amount of preparation that goes into each race is crazy. And the communication that takes place on race day between drivers, crew chiefs and pit crews is something that I never really understood. It’s just fun to watch and even more impressive to see in person.
The NASCAR season kicks off this Sunday, Feb. 26 at 1pm with the Daytona 500 on FOX and we’re happy to be partnering up with NASCAR to celebrate the launch of the new season. MANjr is participating in the Daytona 500 Blogger Challenge this year. Basically, a bunch of blogs are getting assigned top drivers who will compete in the Daytona 500 this weekend. The driver with the best finish will deliver an all expense paid trip to the Sprint All Star Race in Charlotte, N.C. on May 19 for the participating blog and a lucky reader!
The drivers for the Daytona 500 Blogger Challenge were chosen at random and we got the Mayor, aka JB, aka Jeff Burton! JB’s appeared in 619 races during a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career that has spanned almost 20 years. The 44 year old driver has collected $77 million over his NASCAR career.
We had a good chat with JB last week. We talked about his expectations for the 2012 season, his new crew chief, what he thinks of the new two-car tandem racing rule changes, NASCAR and social media, Danica Patrick and a whole lot more. Here’s the interview:
CS: So as a NASCAR driver how do you turn off that killer racing instinct when you’re just driving around town, like going to the grocery store or taking your family out to dinner?
JB: (laughs) You know, driving a racecar is no different from driving a street car. The competition just isn’t there. The point of driving a racecar isn’t just about going fast. It’s about competition, and you don’t necessarily have somebody pushing you on the highway. Every now and again you do, you just have to ignore them.
CS: But do you feel a constant need to pass people on the freeway?
JB: I just stay the hell away from them. I’ve learned that most people don’t know how to drive.
CS: (Laughs)
JB: I’m much happier when I stay away from them.
CS: I read that you were pissed off about last year’s performance. It was your worst since ’95. How is that motivating you leading into this season?
JB: Well obviously you put high standards for yourself and your team and when you don’t meet those standards, it’s very disappointing. And I think that in some cases people lay down a little bit. But I’ve always done better after real bad years and I think that it does, it does make you mad. It puts you in a position where you want to prove yourself not necessarily to other people but to yourself. And at the end of the day, you know motivation comes more from within than it does from outside. So you want to prove to yourself that you can do it. You want to have the best for yourself and your team. Those things are high motivators and I think that sometimes difficult years force change. In this case, we had a really bad year last year, but that put us in a position to activate some changes. It’s going to be better for us so I view it as kind of a stepping stone. Yeah, we had to go backwards to go forward, but I think that’s what we’ve done.
CS: Well you did finish strong last season. You had four top 10 finishes in the final five races. How does that carry over year to year?
JB: Well you know it’s always nice to finish strong because you feel like you’ve built on something and you had something to work off of. Last year we always put ourselves in great position to win races, and we did start having better finishes. But we still weren’t necessarily the best enough to win so we did change some stuff as the year went on and we did do a lot better, but we never were as good as we needed to be. So it was good to finish strong but it wasn’t strong enough to say “okay now we’ve got it figured out,” it was strong enough to say “okay we learned how not to do things.” But I feel like we got a grasp of what we needed to do to go out and be successful on a consistent basis. So you know it’s good, but it didn’t change the way it was.
CS: Now you mentioned the changes from last season. One big change is your new crew chief. Are you excited to work with Drew Blickensderfer again?
JB: Yeah, I’m really excited about that. I think that that’s just a big bonus for us. He’s got a tremendous amount of talent. He’s got a lot of drive, a lot of heart. He’s good with our people, very well respected. You know it was time for some new energy around here, time to bring in a new thought process. You know I worked with him before, but it was a long time ago. The timing was right, and we’re damn lucky to get him.
CS: So what are the qualities that every good crew chief must possess?
JB: Well it’s different for every team. You know there is no template that says “every crew chief is this, every crew chief is that,” you know. It varies from team to team, organization to organization. For us, I believe the crew chief is someone that can use all the tools around him, use the assets that the company has, add to those assets, be part of a distributing group that makes the overall company better, which obviously makes your individual team better. You can’t have the personality that it’s all about me, it’s all about me. It’s got to be about the whole company doing well. Honestly, we want 31 to be the best at RCR, but how we’re going about doing that is all working really really well together and then just doing a better job with the same assets. And if you don’t have that understanding and appreciation in today’s world I don’t think you can be successful. You’ve got to find a way to work with other teammates, motivate people, organize, delegate. It’s not a game anymore with the crew chief making all the decisions by himself. It’s truly a lot of people making decisions. It’s not just the crew chief.
Feb 23rd
Valvoline NASCAR Trip Recap
Valvoline did the impossible a couple weekends ago. They got me really, really fired up about NASCAR. I didn’t think I’d be so into it. I’ve never followed the sport and I’ve never seen a live race before. But when Valvoline flew me out to Charlotte, I went with an open mind. I ended up hanging out with some really cool people, and I learned a ton about recycled oil, stock car manufacturing and what goes into equipping, supporting and maximizing the performance of a NASCAR driver. It was awesome.
Valvoline NextGen Oil
So first things first: the oil. That’s the main reason why this whole trip happened. Valvoline wants to get the word out about their new recycled oil, Valvoline NextGen. It’s something they’ve been working on for awhile and it’s actually a pretty smart product.
A little bit of back story first. Valvoline was founded by Dr. John Ellis, the guy who invented motor oil way back in 1866. He was futzing around with crude oil, looking for medicinal applications, and boom, he ends up formulating a petroleum-based lubricant that serves as the lifeblood for all car engines today. Valvoline was the first company to produce motor oil specifically for racing, and their racing oil is still the best selling in the industry.
Fast forward to 2005, and you have a convergence of factors that made Valvoline explore the viability of manufacturing recycled motor oil that would be cleaner to produce without sacrificing any performance. Valvoline wanted to explore more sustainable motor oil production techniques. Tech breakthroughs in oil recycling made that option a real possibility. Add in the fact that a critical mass of consumers in America wanted to make a conscious effort to go green, and you had a perfect storm for an advanced leap in recycled oil development.
Thom Smith, Valvoline’s VP of Lubricating Technology gave media members a full breakdown on the process of recycling oil. Regular motor oil that you put in your car contains 85 percent base oil and 15 percent additives. The additives are what breakdown over time, but the base oil remains usable. You can actually get more out of used oil that you can from crude oil. Used oil has less contaminants than crude and more usable oil molecules. When you extract crude oil, only 15 percent of it is usable as a lubricant. When you’re dealing with used oil, 75 percent of it can be re-used as a lubricant.
Recycled oil used to be inferior. In the past, the development of recycled oil required an acid clay filtration process that included dewatering and treatment with clay and sulfuric acid. With advanced refining techniques, recycled oil now goes through a flash distillation, thin film evaporation and hydro treating process. The old way of refining used oil created all kinds of nasty leftover materials. The new method creates much less waste.
But the proof is in the high performance pudding. Valvoline recycled oil has been tested under the most extreme conditions and it performs as well or better than conventional motor oil. It’s cleaner to produce, results in less wear on your engine (pistons, bearings, etc.) and it’s good enough to be used in professional racing. Valvoine partnered with Roush Yates Racing to introduce NextGen oil to professional drivers. If NASCAR and other motorsports drivers can win races with NextGen, it’s certainly good enough for consumers to use in their cars.
The NextGen formula contains only 50 percent recycled oil, but the technology is available to produce recycled oil that contains a higher percentage of used oil. Supply is the issue. As more used oil becomes available for refining, the amount of used motor oil that appears in new recycled oil formulas will continue to increase.
Valvoline is encouraging consumers to return their used motor oil to places like Advanced Auto Parts and Auto Zone. One gallon of used oil can contaminate up to 1 million gallons of water. So if you can, turn in your used oil and make sure it can be recycled.
Bank of America 500
After touring the Roush Yates Racing facilities (where I met Jack Roush and Doug Yates), I got to visit the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. I toured pit row, met drivers and pit crew members and I got to see 43 drivers compete in a three-and-a-half hour night race. There were 16 lead changes, eight caution flags and some pretty intense moments. Matt Kenseth finished first, and he’s currently trailing Carl Edwards in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
I watched most of the race from the Valvoline luxury suite, but I also spent some time right at the edge of the track. I wasn’t expecting the noise and reverberations to be so addicting. When all those cars scream past you at speeds of almost 200 mph, the sounds and impact of the momentum shakes you to your core. It was a trip. I can see what all the fuss is about now.
All in all, it was a pretty sweet mission to Charlotte. I want to thank Valvoline and Roush Yates Racing for a fun trip and for exposing me to something I never thought I’d experience.
Oct 26th
NASCAR, Here I Come
I’m on my way to North Carolina this weekend to attend the Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. This will be my second visit to the track in Charlotte. A few months back, I took a lap around the track with Martin Truex Jr. as part of a Toyota-sponsored event. This time around I’m heading to Charlotte courtesy of Valvoline, and I’m going to experience a live NASCAR race for the first time ever.
I’ve never considered myself a big NASCAR guy. I’m more of a football, baseball, soccer and situational Olypmics sports enthusiast. But from everyone I’ve talked to, attending a live NASCAR event is supposed to be fun as hell. It’s going to be loud and there will be drinks involved. How bad could it be?
Oct 14th
SYLVANIA 300 Ultimate VIP Experience
The SYLVANIA 300 is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that’s held every year at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. This year’s SYLANIA 300 will take place on Sunday, September 19th. If you’ve ever wanted to experience NASCAR in style, lighting leader SYLVANIA is running a contest that you need to check out.
The SYLANIA Ultimate VIP Experience contest is a NASCAR lover’s dream come true. One lucky fan (and a guest) will get to experience the event in true VIP style. The winner of the contest will arrive at the speedway in a helicopter, tour the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage, attend the drivers’ meeting, watch the race from a luxury suite, visit victory lane and receive a gift basket filled with lighting products and race souvenirs.
Anyone who purchases tickets to the race will be entered in the contest automatically, but fans who have not purchased tickets can enter the contest at no cost.
To enter the SYLANIA Ultimate VIP Experience, just visit the New Hampshire Motor Speedway site by September 10 and fill out a quick entry form. The winner will be selected on Monday, September 13.
Sep 1st
