Danica Patrick #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet

    Welcome back, NASCAR diecast fans~ Today's post kind of happened on accident, as I didn't intend on ever doing a post on Danica Patrick.. but I was working on Neil Bonnett's car in Photoshop, and the next thing I knew, I had changed the colors of the car, and it looked just like Danica's old GoDaddy colors~ The car I ended up doing doesn't represent an actual car she ever raced, it's just close enough to resemble a fantasy paint scheme that she could have driven~

    I must admit, I am a fan of Danica, although not so much as I was when she first came into the sport~ I bought into the hype that she was gonna be the next big thing in the sport, and for years, I've always been a fan of female NASCAR drivers~

    I was hoping that Danica was the one that was gonna give the female drivers their first win in the Cup series, or at least in the BGN series~ So far, I've been wrong.. very wrong~ I hope someday she can pull one off, and get a win.. but it's gonna be very difficult for her~ Let's go ahead and get into this post, and I'll just highlight some of Danica's better races she had while driving the #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet~

                                                              The eye of the tigress~

    Danica's first full Cup season came in 2013, after she had spent the previous season running full time in the BGN series~ She won the pole in her first race as a full time driver, in the 2013 Daytona 500, where she led for 5 laps, and finished in 8th place~ Her next decent run came 5 races later, in the STP Gas Booster 500 @ Martinsville, where she came home in the 12th position, after spinning out early in the race, and getting a few laps down~

    Following the good run @ Martinsville, Danica was god awful for the next 8 races in a row, with no finishes higher than 24th during that span~ Then came the Quicken Loans 400 @ Michigan, where she qualified 37th, and beat and banged her way up to a 13th place finish~ After 2 more bad races, Patrick would go to Daytona for the Coke Zero 400, where she started the race in 11th, and finished in 14th place~

    Her final decent run of the season came in the Goody's Headache Relief Shot 500 @ Martinsville, where she started 41st, and made her way up to a 17th place finish, 1 lap off the pace of race winner, Jeff Gordon~ Danica finished out her first full Cup season with 1 pole, and 1 top 10, along with leading 5 laps, and finished 27th in the final points standings~ She had an average start of 30.1, and an average finish of 26.1~

                                                 Danica always finds time for exercise~
                         

    I feel like Danica's best season came in 2014, although some would argue that opinion~ She did have a lot of bad finishes, but she had some really good runs as well~ Her first good race of the season came in the Auto Club 400 @ Fontana, where she finished 14th, after starting from 27th place~ Six races later, in the 5-Hour Energy 400 @ Kansas, she qualified in 9th, and came home in the 7th spot~

    Following the Kansas race, Danica qualified 4th in the Coca-Cola 600 @ Charlotte, but a blown engine on lap 281 ended her day, resulting in a 39th place effort~ In the Coke Zero 400 @ Daytona, Patrick manage to pick up an 8th place finish, after starting from 29th~ Her car was partially sponsored by the Florida Lottery for the event~

    She had a surprisingly strong finish in the Oral-B USA 500 @ Atlanta, where after starting the race from 27th, she charged her way up to dang near a top 5 finish, with a 6th place showing~ The rest of the season was filled with sub par efforts, with her best run after the Atlanta race being a pair of 16th place finishes~ She ended her 2014 campaign with 3 top 10's, 15 laps led, and was 28th in the final points standings~ Her average start for the year was 22.3, a current career high, and her average finish was 23.7~

                                    Will we ever get to see her in a NASCAR victory lane?~

    Patrick started the 2015 season off without a top 15 finish in the first 5 races~ She ended that streak in fashion, with a 7th place finish in the STP 500 @ Martinsville~ I've always thought of Martinsville as a road course type of track, so it makes sense that Danica would do well there~ She always has a chance of running well on short tracks, road courses, and super speedways~ Her main problems are her restarts, and pit stops/making the car better~

    Danica started 26th in the "Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes" @ Bristol, and hammered her way up to a 9th place showing~ I was at this race, and she was very fun to watch.. the night was full of energy, and I was proud of the way she ran that night~ The race ended up going into overtime, or whatever the heck it's called, and junky ol' Matt Kenseth won~ I was mad about that~ He's boring~

    Despite having some decent runs in several races, something always happened near the end of the race... Danica always seemed to fade away at the end of the race, and finish in like 30th place~ Her only other top 15 during the entire season came in the "FedEx 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks" @ Dover, where she finished in 15th place~ Her 2015 campaign consisted of 2 top 10's, 7 laps led, and was 24th in the final points standings~ She had an average start of 22.4, and an average finish of 23.5~

                                           Custom Danica Patrick Racing Champions card~

    With the end of the 2015 season, Danica's time in the GoDaddy car was over, and she started the 2016 season off with new sponsor Nature's Bakery~ Gone were the familiar colors of the famous GoDaddy paint scheme, now replaced by the white and powdery blue scheme of the Nature's Bakery car~ It was a season of solid goose eggs for Patrick, although it did have a few bright moments~

    Danica's fist top 15 of the 2016 season came in the "AAA 400 Drive For Autism", which was the  12th race of the season~ She finished 13th in the event~ 7 races later, in the New Hampshire 301 she managed to eek out a 14th place finish, after starting from 29th place~ She picked up another top 15 finish in the Federated Auto Parts 400 @ Loudon, with a 15th place effort~ Patrick led 11 laps of the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen @ Watkins Glen, but fell back towards the end of the race, and only managed a 21st place finish~

    Patrick's only other bright spot of the season came in the Bank of America 500 @ Charlotte, where she started in 13th, and finished in 11th place~ Although she didn't get a top 10 during the season, she led a career high 30 laps, and finished a career high matching 24th in the final points standings~ Her average start was 25.1, and her average finish was a career high 22.0~ Nature's Bakery is scheduled to be the sponsor for Danica for the 2017, and maybe even beyond that~ As of now, it's not been specified~

                            Would Shawna Robinson, Patty Moise, or Janet Guthrie act like this?~

     I swear, out of all the blog posts I've ever made.. this one was the hardest one to put together~ Every other picture of Danica is her in her underwear and bra~ Try searching for Ryan Newman, and see if you'll find a bunch of him in just his underwear.. lol~ You won't find that, because that's dumb, and Ryan Newman is a wheel man.. his driving skills are what keep him in NASCAR~ He may not win a lot of races, but he's consistent, and he doesn't tear up a bunch of race cars~

   With Danica, that's basically all she has to offer.. the sex appeal~ She does have an occasional decent run, but nothing near worth keeping her in that car with Stewart-Haas~ I still hope she wins a Cup race, but she's gonna have to focus more on the race car, and less on this yoga, and being in her underwear so much~ You don't see Patty Moise in her underwear, or Shawn Robinson.. they had respect for themselves~

    Danica will be 35 years old in March~ This is a time when most drivers are coming into the prime of their careers~ If there's any chance of her winning a Cup race, she'll have to do it within the next 3 seasons~ And she'll have to drive well enough to keep that ride.. in my opinion~ I don't see her staying with Stewart-Haas unless she starts becoming a top 15 driver on a regular basis, at the very least~ I don't care that she shows off her underwear that much, but I wish she'd at least get more competitive before she shows all of that skin~

                                               Danica Patrick #10 GoDaddy Chevrolet~

                                                              Click pics to enlarge~

    Although I disliked the idea of doing a blog post on a current day driver, I had a really fun time making this car~ It really looks like it could have been one of her cars, but in the form of an old Racing Champions car~ The card was fun to make also, and it took probably the longest of any card I've ever done~ As with the Neil Bonnett car I used to make this car, this one doesn't have any lettering on the tires, which I think was due to a conflict with Hoosier, but I'm not totally sure~

    The colors of the car, and the scheme design from the Bonnett car make this one look pretty awesome in my opinion~ If this car was out there racing in 1994, it would have been a fan favorite hands down~ I would go so far as to say that this car looks better than it originally did as the Bonnett version, by a thousand million.. but that's just my opinion.. surely I'm biased~ :P

     I have to give this one an A- on the Racing Champions quality scale, due mostly to the fact of the tires not having any lettering.. so that's not really the cars fault.. I'm just a mean ol' critic~ All in all I love this car, and I enjoy watching Danica race around out there.. I'd rather see Johanna Long, but I guess she just doesn't have the sex appeal to get the job~ Below are some videos featuring Danica's time in NASCAR, along with a bonus car that I came up with~ Please share this blog post on any kind of social media you may be a part of~ Thanks for comin', and I'll see y'all on the next NASCAR Racing Champions diecast blog post~

                                                                  ***Bonus Car***
                           Diggity Dave #29 Olde Thompson Himalayan Pink Salt Oldsmobile~

                                                                   
                                                   Danica Patrick: Pissed and Confused~

                                              
                                               What do other drivers think about Danica?~

                                                                Still hasn't learned~

                                               Danica fights, arguments, and tempers~

   

Dale Jarrett #29 Hardee's/Ghostbusters II Pontiac

    The year was 1989.. and one of the biggest movies of the year was about to hit the theaters~ That movie was the epic sequel to the 1984 smash hit "Ghostbusters", aptly titled "Ghostbusters II"~ Fast food restaurant Hardee's was running a promotional tie-in with the upcoming movie, and since they were sponsoring Dale Jarrett's Cup ride, decided to stick the Ghostbusters logos on the car for the Coca-Cola 600 @ Charlotte~

    This particular car only ran in that lone race, so I'm gonna have to fill in some spots with some random bits on the race, etc~ But I did like Hardee's back then.. and Ghostbusters II was one of my favorites as a kid, so I'm sure I can fill the void somehow~ With that out of the way, let's look back on Dale Jarret's running in the 1989 Coca-Cola 600, as well as  the movie that was co-sponsoring his car~

                                              Dale poses with the car before the event~

    Dale Jarrett's 1989 season began with his second year driving the famed #29 Hardee's Pontiac, owned by NASCAR legend, Cale Yarborough~ Hardee's was always involved in promotionals back then it seems.. I can recall getting the Days of Thunder cars there as a kid~ But to my knowledge, this is the first time ever that a car was re-themed with a special paint scheme for a movie~

    The familiar blue and orange paint scheme of the car was replaced with black and white, and the Ghostbusters logo was placed on the hood, as well as on the side panel~ I was always a sucker for any of the Hardee's cars, but this one took the cake~ It made what I considered "one of the most boring drivers in the history of NASCAR" seem pretty dang awesome~

                                                 Jarrett on track in the Ghostbusters car~

    By the time Jarrett started driving for Cale Yarborough, the #29 team seen better days.. and it sure showed on the track, with the car never being much of a threat during Jarrett's tenure with the team, minus a lone race @ Martinsville, where he led 96 laps in the 1989 Goody's 500, before falling off later in the race, finishing in 5th place~

   During qualifying for the race, Jarrett was very slow, and only managed to qualify 28th, in the 42 car field~ Among the drivers who failed to make the field were Jim Bown in the #41 Rose Auto Wrecking Chevrolet, Rodney Combs in the #89 Evinrude Pontiac, Delma Cowart in the #0 Chevrolet, and H.B. Bailey in the #36 Almeda Auto Parts Pontiac~ Alan Kulwicki won the pole in his #7 Zerex Ford, and was dominant all day, leading 138 laps before his engine gave out, knocking him back to a 23rd place finish~

                                           Going for a spin in the Ghostbusters machine~

    Oddly enough, there were two Australian drivers in the race~ Allan Grice qualified 32nd in his own #47 Foster's Lager/Bob Jane T-Marts Pontiac, and he finished 34th (career high), after a blown engine blew him out of the event~ Fellow Aussie Terry Byers also drove his own #06 Byers Racing Chevrolet, and qualified in 35th.. but was able to go the distance, with a 21st place finish~

    Another little piece of "Food Country" trivia.. former Food County drivers Rick Wilson, and Butch Miller were in the event~ Wilson finished 35th after his engine gave out.. he did lead for 15 laps, though.. and Miller went out after only 24 laps, with wheel bearing issues~ He was driving the #51 Fruit of the Loom Chevrolet (lol), owned by Leroy Throop~

                                               Custom Dale Jarrett Racing Champions card~

   This race is also the reason there is a white/blue version of the Kyle Petty #42 Peak Antifreeze series 1 Racing Champions car~ Kyle drove a white/blue #42 Chevrolet in this one event, for Rick Hendrick~  As for Jarrett, his car ran horrible all day long... and with 69 laps remaining in the event, his engine finally let go, causing him to spin out~ He failed to finish the event, and finished in 28th place, in what was his only race in the #29 Ghostbusters II Pontiac~

   The race was eventually won by Darrell Waltrip, who led for 87 laps, and held off Sterling Marlin in the #94 Sunoco car (Sterling's highest finish driving for the Billy Hagan team), and Ken Schrader in the #25 Folgers Chevrolet~ Geoff Bodine, and Bill Elliott rounded out the top 5~ This was, and still is the longest event on the NASCAR circuit, and 12 cars failed to finish the race, due to engine failure~

                                                                      The Movie~

   The Ghostbusters II movie hit the theaters 19 days after the 1989 Coca-Cola 600, and was considered a major success~ The film grossed $215.4 worldwide, and at the time of its release, had the biggest three day opening weekend in history~ That record was broken the following week, by Batman~

   I can remember being a kid, and going to see this movie with my parents~ I was in 1st grade, and I loved the animated series "The Real Ghostbusters" at the time~ So obviously I couldn't wait for the new movie to come out~ I haven't watched it in a while to see how it holds up over time, but I do remember loving it at the time~ As great as it was, it was only the 8th highest grossing film of 1989~ Behind the likes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Batman, and Back to the Future Part II~

  After I finish up this blog post, I might try and check out Ghostbusters II again, just for ol' times sake~ I do like Slimer, and that dang ol' Rick Moranis~ haha~ I'm sad that Harold Ramis is dead now.. and I didn't like the new Ghostbusters movie~ The ghosts in it looked so poorly designed~ I could have worn a sheet and said "WooOOoooOOooo", and that would have been more realistic than their dumb, green, junky, flying ghosts~ Well.. that's my first (and hopefully last) movie review ever here on the blog.. and now, back to the cars~ :)

                                         Dale Jarrett #29 Hardee's/Ghostbusters II Pontiac~

                                                                Click pics to enlarge~

    Obviously, and sadly, this is a "fantasy" car.. that I created on Photoshop, using the #92 Sears set exclusive Pontiac~ The first picture looks a little dumb, because I just cut out the car in the second picture, and shaped it onto another picture.. (in other words, I was being lazy.. and didn't want to remake the car all over a second time)~

   You can buy a really nice custom version of the Ghostbuster car from the guy that's gonna make my Teague custom~ His Ebay link is here~ It's 60 bucks.. but it's freakin' awesome~ I want one, but I've got others that I have to get made first~ He also has other cool customs in his store~ The packaging design he did on it is amazing~

    I really love this Racing Champions car~ I tried to make a Patty Moise #37 Butter Flavored Crisco car, but it didn't look good, so I'm not gonna do a blog post on it~ Anyway, I made this one today.. and I feel like I redeemed myself from the horrible Moise attempt~ I feel like my version of the car gets a B+ on the Racing Champions quality scale~ It would have been higher, but I can't give myself an A, when I can't even spend enough time to get the first picture done right~ lol~

   I hope y'all enjoy these "fantasy" car posts that I've been doing~ I enjoy creating them on Photoshop, and although I'm not the best.. I can do a good job sometimes~ :P I hate to keep bringing up that these aren't real Racing Champions cars to those of you who already know, but I don't want someone new to the hobby coming here, and thinking these were actually produced~ You can always buy customs, but I like to make it known that these are just pictures~

  Sadly, this race has no footage on the internet, because it's been copyrighted away~ I can't even find footage of the pre-race show~ So I'm gonna leave you with some ol' random NASCAR stuff that I think you may enjoy~ Thanks to everyone who stops by from time to time, and don't forget to spay and neuter stuff.. if you want to~ :)

                                         Buddy Baker breaking the 200 mph barrier~ 1970~

                                                                   1968 Daytona~

                                       Dale Earnhardt (the original) singing "Hard Charger"~

                                                            1994 Pepsi 400 - Finish~

                                  
                                                                             
      

Phil Parsons #29 Diamond Ridge Oldsmobile

    Today's post is going to be somewhat short~ This is due to the fact that I have other Phil Parsons cars to review, and that he didn't run this car in many races~ I'll provide the information that I was able to find~

    Phil ran this car in 3 races during the 1991 season under the Diamond Ridge sponsor~ His first start in the car came in the seventh race of the BGN season, the Pontiac 200 @ Darlington, where he started 34th, and finished 4th~

                                           Phil's Racing Champions card for the #29 car~

    His next race in the car came 5 races later in the Champion 300 @ Charlotte, where he rolled off 39th, and finished 42nd due to vibration issues after only running 19 of the scheduled 200 laps~ His final start with the Diamond Ridge sponsorship came in the 28th event of the season, the All Pro 300 @ Charlotte, where he qualified 20th, and finished 9th, 2 laps down~

    He ran 3 more races during the season, with sponsorship from Wheels Discount Auto (Fay's 150 - Watkins Glen - St. 8th Fin. 15th), NesQuik (Gatorade 200 - Darlington St. 19th Fin. 29th), and WHOA TV 32 (AC Delco 200 - Rockingham St. 23rd Fin. 29th). He also attempted to qualify for the Goody's 300 @ Daytona, but failed to make the field, driving the Champion Rentals car~
                  
                                              Phil Parsons #29 Diamond Ridge trading card~

     I would also like to note that the cars in the above pics are Steve Grissom Chevrolet's~ Parsons never drove for Diamond Ridge in a Chevrolet~ However, he did run 3 races in 1990 in the Cup Series with Diamond Ridge sponsorship, driving Pontiac's~ The first of those races came in the Miller Genuine Draft 400 @ Michigan, where he rolled off in the 36th position, and finished 22nd~

    His next race came in the DieHard 500 @ Talladega, where he started 8th, and finished 41st due to a lap 25 crash~ His final Cup race with Diamond Ridge as his sponsor came in the Heinz Southern 500 @ Darlington, where he qualified 28th, and came home 19th~ Racing Champions made a die cast track car for the Heinz Southern 500, which I will be reviewing later~

                                           Phil Parsons #29 Diamond Ridge Oldsmobile~

                                                              Click pics to enlarge~

                                                        

    When I got back into collecting Racing Champions cars, this was one of the ones I desperately wanted~ I just love the color of it~ It's not even close to the color of the actual car, which I'm thankful for.. because I like this color much better~ As with the Jimmy Means #52 car, logos were left off of this one for unknown reasons~

    Perhaps Phil hadn't secured sponsorship at the time they produced the car, but the card has the logos on the car.. so I'm not sure what the reasoning was for the blank car~ Regardless, I think this is one of the coolest looking cars they made~

    As far as I can tell, there were 4 variations of this car, all basically looking the same, but with minor changes~ The one exception being the older version with the older Oldsmobile body, the ones that tended to crumble apart due to metal fatigue~  This particular car was signed and numbered by Parsons himself, with this one being #146 of 10,000~

    This car was sent to me, along with several others which I will be reviewing later, by one of my newest friends, Jeff~ I want to again sincerely thank him for being so kind and generous sending me these die casts~ I couldn't have been happier when I opened the package and saw all the great things he had sent~ I will cherish them for many years to come~

    Below are some videos on Parsons, I couldn't find any footage of this actual car.. it's hard just to find anything about the guy~ Thank you all for stopping by and checking out the NASCAR Racing Champions blog~

                                                   Parsons hard crash 1998 Nashville~

                                                  Phil Parsons singing Born to Drive~ lol~

                                               Phil Parsons violent flip 1983 Talladega~

                                             Phil's only Cup win 1988 Winston 500 (full race)