Racing Facts

The yellow barrels at every highway exit were invented by John Fitch, a Le Mans driver who once shot down a German jet in WWII. After his co-driver died at Le Mans in 1955, Fitch filled liquor barrels with sand and crashed into them at up to 70 mph in his own driveway. He climbed out grinning every time. Highways adopted them in the late 1960s. An estimated 17,000 lives saved. Every one started in his driveway.

Frankie Muniz became famous playing Malcolm on Malcolm in the Middle. When the show ended, he left Hollywood to chase a different dream. Today he races full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 33 truck for Team Reaume. He finished top 10 at Daytona in his rookie season. He just re-signed for a full-time 2026 season.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is nicknamed the Brickyard for a real reason. In 1909, workers paved the whole 2.5-mile track with 3.2 million bricks. Asphalt slowly buried nearly all of them, until only a 36-inch strip survived at the finish line. Drivers still kiss that strip after every win. In 2025, a repave dug into a turn and found the original bricks still down there.

The five who come over the wall at a NASCAR pit stop are not the shop's mechanics. Teams scout college football for players too small for the NFL. Hendrick Motorsports invited 52 to a June tryout and expected to hire one to five. Four tires and a full tank in about ten seconds. Somewhere on pit road Sunday is a linebacker who never got an NFL call, still chasing a championship.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. went to North Wilkesboro Speedway in December 2019 and cleared weeds off the cracked track with a string trimmer, in the rain, with friends and track crews. NASCAR's Cup Series had last raced there in 1996, and the clean-up let a racing simulator scan the surface. The interest that followed helped bring racing back, and in July 2026 Joey Logano won the track's first Cup points race in 30 years.