Lifelong NASCAR “fanatic” Patty Chemberlin of Imlay City, Mich., service director at the Lasco Ford dealership in Trenton, is the big winner of the T1D, Motorcraft & Me “Customize for a Cause” t-shirt design contest to benefit JDRF. Chemberlin’s winning design features the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion NASCAR racer appearing to drive off the wearer’s chest over the words: “Helping Break Through to Cure Type 1 Diabetes.”

She and three family members will be the guests of Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing during Ford Championship Weekend for the final race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Nov. 17-19. Her design also will be featured as a decal the side panels of the iconic Wood Brothers Racing No. 21 during that weekend’s Ford EcoBoost 400, which will decide the 2017 series champion.

The giddy smiles said it all after spinal cord injured participants took a 135 mile per hour spin at Dover International Speedway with Martin Truex Jr. in an adaptive race car donated by Furniture Row Racing.

Kelly Brush, a paraplegic and skier from Charlotte, Vt. was one of the 10 participants Thursday, who got to experience the thrill of a few laps around the Monster Mile.
“What an incredible experience to say the least,” beamed Brush after exiting the race car. “What struck me was how loud it was. It was so fast I was pressed up against the side of the door the whole time. It was awesome, a really cool experience. I kept thinking Martin won’t hit the wall because that would be really bad but it felt like he was going to. I now know he was just taking a casual ride. He goes a lot faster in his race car.”

Brush and other spinal cord injured got to drive the car which had special hand controls linked to the accelerator and braking.
“It’s neat to see how Dr. Falci and his team are using technology involving racing and race cars,” said Truex, who is the points leader in the NASCAR Cup driver point standings. “For me honestly it was just fun to take these guys for a ride to show them a little of what we do and giving them a feel for the Monster Mile. I had a great time.”

For the 2018 model year, most new Volkswagen vehicles in the United States will come with the People First Warranty, a six-year or 72,000-mile (whichever occurs first) bumper-to-bumper New Vehicle Limited Warranty, which can be transferred to subsequent owners throughout its duration.

“Volkswagen has always been ‘the people’s car,’ and with the People First Warranty, we’re putting our customers first,” said Hinrich J. Woebcken, President and Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen Group of America. “By bringing the right cars, at the right time and making the offer very competitive, we believe we’re in the position to grow in the US market.”

Toyota has announced a $373.8 million investment in five U.S. manufacturing plants that will support production of its first American-made hybrid powertrain and to implement Toyota’s New Global Architecture at its Alabama plant. Each of the projects is scheduled to begin this year and all should be operational by 2020.

The investments will include adding new production of hybrid transaxles (hybrid vehicle transmissions) at the Buffalo, West Virginia, manufacturing facility; expanding 2.5-liter engine capacity at the Georgetown, Kentucky, plant; increasing production of 2.5-liter cylinder heads at Bodine Aluminum’s Troy, Missouri, plant; and modifying the Bodine Jackson, Tennessee, plant to accommodate production of hybrid transaxle cases and housings and 2.5-liter engine blocks. The Huntsville, Alabama, plant will undergo a comprehensive upgrade to enable it to build engines that complement TNGA.

ACT I: Hurricane Trump

So I set out this past weekend to enjoy some sports -- a little football, a bunch of NASCAR, etc. -- and then Hurricane Trump hit on Friday and turned everything into a political circus.

Now here we are: It’s Tuesday, and all anyone can talk about online and at the water cooler is the stunning comments Trump made about the NFL protesters, how nearly every athlete and team in the country strongly responded against him (including Lebron James calling him a “bum”), and who’s right in this debate.

It’s a lot to unpack, and the reason I’m even talking about it here is that 45 brought NASCAR into the discussion, praising their lack of protests -- and a couple of NASCAR team owners made huge headlines in mainstream media with some pretty outrageous comments that don’t paint the sport in a very good light.