Air Asia recently unveiled their Williams Formula One paint scheme on one of their aircraft, which got me thinking how cool would it be to see a NASCAR paint scheme on a U.S. air carrier.

Since 1982 when Piedmont Airlines sponsored Ricky Rudd’s No. 3 and then Terry Labonte’s No. 44, the airline industry hasn’t had a large presence in NASCAR.

There were talks last season that NASCAR was looking to partner with Jet Blue.

Like NASCAR, Southwest Airlines currently utilizes the special paint scheme on their planes with the designs including Shamu, the NBA and many paying tribute to U.S. States.

But if one U.S. air carrier was to partner with a NASCAR team which car design would you like to see on a plane?

I think a Jeff Gordon plane would be the best choice. One of the most recognized drivers and what plane wouldn’t look cool with flames painted on the side.

Southwest would also be my pick to partner with NASCAR or to sponsor a team.

After all they recently failed inspection.

This weekend one of NASCAR's greatest drivers will step aside.

Dale Jarrett will hang up his helmet in points-paying competition after Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor speedway.

Growing up, Jarrett was one of the main drivers that got me interested in NASCAR, which ultimately led me to pursue the sport as a career in college.

In the mid-90's my family and I would make the trek to Michigan Int'l Speedway, a track in which Jarrett won four times. I had the chance to witness Jarrett win many races live as a fan, including his 1996 wins at Indianapolis and Michigan.

Although he will retire driving a Toyota, I will always remember DJ as a Ford driver, and rightfully so, as he captured 30 of his 32 wins, and the 1999 title with the manufacturer. His No. 88 became an icon in the sport and I think it was great to see Robert Yates pass the legacy on to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Let’s also not forget his relationships with sponsors. He sported the red, white and blue colors of Ford/Quality Care, my personal favorite, and helped bring UPS into the sport with the innovative "Drive the Truck" campaign. Jarrett also helped Joe Gibbs Racing get off on the right foot by winning the 1993 Daytona 500 with Interstate Batteries, a company that still remains with JGR to this very day.

As for the memories, there were so many. From his Dad calling him to the checkered flag in the Daytona 500, to his championship season that saw him score four wins and 29 top 10s.

The decals on David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip’s cars this weekend pretty much sum it up the best.

Thanks DJ – A Champion, A Legend, A Friend.

What will you remember the most from Jarrett's racing career?

Robby Gordon’s sponsor is showing their support for their driver after he was hit with a 100 point penalty after violations were found during opening day inspection for the Daytona 500.

Jim Beam President & CEO Thomas Flocco has already submitted a letter to Mike Helton, Robin Pemberton and John Darby. The sponsor is also looking for fans to support them by signing an online petition at http://www.jimbeam.com/beam/v5/contactus.aspx

Dodge is also supporting Gordon, who just recently made the move to the manufacturer from Ford, for the mistakes that led to the unapproved Dodge Charger nose being given to Robby Gordon Motorsports from the Dodge/Evernham Performance Parts warehouse.

"While the nose meets the template, it has not yet been approved by NASCAR. The prototype parts were in the warehouse and share the same base part number as the approved Dodge Avenger nose,” said Kipp Owen, director of Dodge Motorsports Engineering. "Dodge has taken the appropriate steps to make sure that prototype parts can not be mistaken for approved parts in the future and hopes that the circumstances surrounding this error are considered."

“It was something that we didn’t build, we didn’t make, we didn’t supply,” Gordon said. “It was completely a clerical error from the manufacturer’s supply warehouse who delivered it to us. All we did was install it on the race car.”

Do you think the penalty was too harsh or did NASCAR do the right thing by staying consistent?

Take a good look at Tony Stewart before the 50th Running of the Daytona 500 because he could have a new look come Monday morning.

After winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series Camping World 300, Stewart said in the media center that if he wins he would let everyone in the media come up and cut off a “Golden” lock of hair.

I wonder how much some of Stewart’s hair would go for on eBay after winning the Golden edition of the “Great American Race?”

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owners Joe Gibbs and Jack Roush have spent time drag racing in their career in motorsports.

Vise-Versa, 69-time NHRA winner Kenny Bernstein owned the No. 26 Cup car from 1986-1995.

But with the inaugural NHRA Nationals coming to NASCAR’s backyard this season will that temp current NASCAR owners to the NHRA?

With the recent announcement of the fall of the sale of the NHRA to HD Partners, Bruton Smith, who owns The Dragway at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, could be back in the picture in purchasing the series. Also NASCAR teams joining the sport could help bring in additional sponsors.

Smith said Rick Hendrick might be interested in forming a team and Chip Ganassi, who already owns many types of racing cars, might be a future player. Both Hendrick, Ganassi and Roush are located within 5 miles of the new dragway.

"If I expand to any other form of racing, it will be drag racing," Ganassi said. "I don't have any concrete plans right now. We haven't talked a lot about it lately. I need to look at getting some things off my desk here first, but I'll probably get involved down the road one way or another."

So RacingOne Community members, if you had the choice to pick one current NASCAR team owner to make their mark in the NHRA who would that be, and what class should they race in?

My pick would be Jack Roush. It would be great to see him bring back a successful Ford to the Pro Stock category. A Roush Performance Mustang sounds like the perfect ride.

Tony Stewart said last year that without Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt Inc. is just a museum.

Well, after last week’s media trip to Dale Earnhardt Inc., I might have to disagree with Stewart.

With the absence of a majority of the memorabilia, and the 21 trophies that Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip combined earned with the team it’s hard to call DEI a museum.

No offense to Martin Truex Jr., Paul Menard and Mark Martin, but without a bunch of Junior's No. 8 items on display I would expect visitors to go down big time at DEI.

Although, DEI often changes out a couple displays the showroom there’s not that much to see. Unless want to see the clothes Earnhardt wore in the movie “Dale” or see the current waste of space display dedicated to the tires in NASCAR I would save yourself the trip. That's unless some changes are made.

There are a couple things to see, I guess, like Martin Truex Jr.’s championship Busch car, a cabinet with some of Earnhardt Sr’s trophies and memorabilia, and Sr’s past driver’s suits on the wall.

The best part of the shop is the center part of the building with a bunch of previous cars, including Junior's, on display, and even that’s not that great because they have it glassed off like the cars were in a zoo. Since the media visit was held in this area the cars were removed. But there was no reason to remove Junior’s presence from the showroom, as the media event was not held in this area. In fact, it was still open to the public. In my opinion, if Dale Jr’s memorabilia does return to the showroom part it will be due to the publicity it received.

My suggestion for the future for the DEI glass car room would be to rope off a straight walkway down the middle with the cars lined up on both sides so the fans could get closer to take pictures.

Now that the Cup cars are in the old Ginn Racing shop, let's hope that opens the doors for an actual museum, or as they call it showroom, at DEI to showcase everything the team has accomplished.

For now, if you want to visit a real Dale Earnhardt museum travel the extra hour up to Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, North Carolina.

The No. 28 made its return to NASCAR Sprint Cup racing on Monday at Daytona.

I’ll admit it was great to see the number back on the track, but it wasn’t great to see the car without a sponsor. In fact, currently the Yates Hauler is done up in white with the Yates Racing logo and the car is running sponsoryates.com on the quarter panels.

Travis Kvapil also made his return to the Cup Series today and one of his test cars (pictured) is running the red numbers just like when the car had Texaco/Havoline as a sponsor.

The No. 28 has posted 76 victories in Cup competition with the last coming with Ricky Rudd in 2002 (Infineon) when he drove for Robert Yates. Yates has posted 26 overall victories with the No. 28 with drivers Rudd, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett and Davey Allison.

Kurt Busch has gone from the penthouse to the outhouse when it comes to the garage.

Since Penske swapped his owners points on the No. 2 car to the No. 77 of Sam Hornish Jr., Busch was placed in the back of the garage along with the “Go or Go Home” cars.

Busch said today he felt like a rookie again because of his garage slot.

Now the 2004 Cup Champion will now have to use a tarp to protect his car in the open Daytona garage area at night instead of a garage door.

On Thursday, Greg Biffle was back at the Walt Disney World Speedway taking in some laps.

As part of the pre-NASCAR Busch Series Awards activities, Biffle, along with seven other drivers that finished in the top 10 in the standings, gave the media a taste of their profession by giving Richard Petty Driving Experience ride-alongs at WDWS.

Biffle was the only driver in attendance that had previous experience at the 1-mile speedway. In the final of two races that were contested at the speedway, Biffle started 20th and finished fifth in his only start at the track in 1998.

With the start coming in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the special Petty Event gave him a chance to climb behind the wheel of a stock car.

I was one of the media members that had the chance to ride with Biffle in a specially wrapped car that honored the final season for the Busch Series sponsorship.

RacingOne Editors Rachael West and Kym Opalenik also went for a ride. Rachael rode alongside Jason Leffler and Kym went with Marcos Ambrose.

For myself it was about the fifth time I have participated in a ride-along. Without going into depth about the experience I can sum it up in one word every time – Awesome! Climbing into the car gives you more respect about what they have to go through each weekend. Not to mention I only participated in three laps and can't image what 400 would feel like. You’re packed in the seat like a sardine and the HANS device makes it that much harder to move your head around. I was having a hard time looking to the right to get my picture taken with Biffle before the experience because of the device.

For Kym, it was her first time participating in the ride along and next week she will be writing a feature about her experience to share with all the RacingOne readers. We also had the chance to sit down with the drivers and play 10 questions so check back to see what interesting things they had to say.

Jimmie Johnson pulled off a remarkable post-season, one we might not see again in awhile. He scored a 5.0 average finish in the Chase and tallied 6,723 points. Since the award for winning races was added this year, Johnson points total was 190 points more than Tony Stewart's 2005 Chase total of 6,533. Some might say that The Chase was boring because they added more drivers and it only came down to two drivers. I disagree, because NASCAR is a sport and like others some years you have a team that just goes out there and dominates just like the New England Patriots. So congratulations Jimmie on one heck of a season.

Everyone said it at the beginning, “The team that gets a handle on the Car of Tomorrow the best will be the 2007 champion.”

It turned out to be true, as the only remaining drivers that can win the championship were hands down the ones to beat in Car of Tomorrow competition.

Jimmie Johnson is coming off his fifth win with the car and it pushed his overall finishing average to 6.9 in the 16 COT races. He also led 55 laps at Phoenix to put his laps led total at 588, which was third among all drivers.

Johnson’s teammate Jeff Gordon ended up leading the entire series in finishing average (5.5), laps led (737) and starting average (10.9) among drivers that made all 16 starts.

Johnson and Gordon's closest competitor in terms of finishing average was Tony Stewart at 10.0.

Along with Kyle Busch’s M&M’s car, both Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin will have new paint schemes when Joe Gibbs Racing switches over to Toyotas for the 2008 Sprint Cup season.

If NASCAR brings a Car of Tomorrow type chassis into the NASCAR Nationwide Series I think the manufacturers should use that to brand their sports/muscle cars in the series.

This year Dodge and Chevrolet decided to phase in the Impala SS and Avenger with the COT and whether it's in 2009 or 2010 it would be the perfect opportunity for the NNS because Dodge and Chevrolet will have their new Challenger and Camaro on the market by then. Ford already has their Mustang in the class, but the only problem is Toyota currently has nothing in the sports car market. However, Toyota does have the FT-HS concept that made its debut 2007 North American International Auto Show, but there are no current plans for that to go into production. The FT-HS is a V6 hybrid that will have a target power output of approximately 400-horsepower.

Another option could be to market the V6 versions of the cars. But as of now, the Challenger will not have a V6, but could by 2009 or 10. This would open the door for Toyota's Solara for the Nationwide Series.

The cars should also have adjustments on them to make them handle differently than the Cup Cars and Trucks.

What cars would you like to be phased into the Nationwide Series in the future or should they stay the same?

Pictured from top to bottom (Sim versions I made): (L) Dodge Challenger and Toyota FT-HS Concept; (R) Ford Mustang GT and Chevrolet Camaro.

World of Outlaws fans and teams have every right to be upset at the proposed limit to the amount of races the merchandise haulers can be at a race.

One of the best parts of attending a race happens before the green flag and after the checkered flag flies.  Any race fan would agree that having the chance to walk around and shop in a variety of the driver’s merchandise haulers is one of the most important parts of the ambiance of any race.

Earlier this month, officials from DIRT, Inc. met with its World of Outlaws sprint car drivers and told the teams to settle on 15 dates in 2008 to bring their merchandise trailers.

A majority of the teams benefit greatly from the sales of merchandise, and Terry McCarl is one of many drivers that are upset.

"On every level, we all appreciate the money we can make on those trailers," McCarl said. "Whether it be $100,000 or $100 a night, that's what keeps us going down the road some nights. I know there are times over the years, where Terry McCarl needed that to put gas in the tank.”

DIRT claims the need for the change will benefit the promoters.

What?

Hmm...Getting to the track early before any car is on the track because one of things to do could be to look at more than a couple merchandise haulers means I might buy more beer and hot dogs than if I arrived just as the race started.

Image if NASCAR decided to lump all of the merchandise into a couple giant tents. There was fear that would happen when Motorsports Authentics was formed, but it stayed the same to the delight of the fans. A move like that would also limit the variety of product.

Honestly if there wasn’t a bunch of souvenir haulers and fan expo areas I might think twice about going to a race.

I remember when I was a kid going to Michigan. My family and I would arrive around 5 a.m. and sleep for a bit in the car. But once 8 a.m. approached and the merchandise haulers opened I made sure I was the first to be there.

Going to a race is suppose to be an experience and shopping, or even just browsing, in the haulers is part of that.

Many of the RacingOne readers have already voiced their opinion, and should continue to do so!

Here is one link to a way you can help.

Ford is racing into its 13th year of support for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

This year they have come up with a unique program that involves the legendary Ford Mustang.

On Monday Ford launched an auction on eBay to help benefit Komen for the Cure by having celebrities design or autograph a Ford Mustang GT diecast car. Some of the Ford Racing drivers that are participating include Ashley Force and David Gilliland.

The Warriors in Pink mini-Mustang charity auction runs October 15 – October 25, 2007, with one hundred percent of the proceeds benefiting Komen for the Cure.  For more information, visit http://stores.ebay.com/Warriors-in-Pink-Mini-Mustangs

The auction coincides with the special Warriors in Pink package that can be purchased on the new 2008 Ford Mustang V-6 Premium Coupe or Convertible. The car can seen on “Deal or No Deal” on October 19.

Ford launched the Warriors in Pink campaign in 2006 with a line of apparel for men and women. Last year, the line of apparel generated more than $1.1 million in sales, with all net proceeds going to Komen for the Cure.