Jeff Gordon

Temp asked:


The Crocs Company began when three guys based in Boulder, Colorado designed the Crocs shoes. These guys developed this innovative footwear for outdoors and boating enthusiasts, who, the founders thought, were looking for a better kind of accessible slip-resistant shoe.

Although Crocs were originally designed for boating and the outdoors because of its slip-resistant and non-marking sole, Crocs eventually became the title sponsor of the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour starting in 1996.

The Association of Volleyball Professionals is an organization that was founded by Leonard Armato in 1983. The organization started its own American beach volleyball tour in 1984 and quickly grew in popularity. By the late 1980s, the team reached even higher popularity because of many successful players being on the tour. The likes of Mike Dodd, Randy Stoklos and Sinjin Smith were on the tour.

The 1990s are considered the glory days for the association. The amount of tour corporate sponsorship and prize money was at its peak during these years. Legends Kent Steffes and Karch Kiraly dominated the tour in the 1990s. Also during this time, the association started to hold women’s events, including competing with the Women’s Professional Volleyball Association.

Between the years of 1997 and 2001 there was a large decline in support and popularity in the association’s tours. But starting in 2001 the association began to revamp its reputation and now has the title sponsorship of Crocs.
Crocs have two versions of the shoes made for Association of Volleyball Professionals. There is the Athens, which is a slip-on sandal, and there is the Beach, which is the basic model for the Crocs (with the slip-on clog form and strap).

But volleyball isn’t the only sport that Crocs have come to support. Crocs also have NHL (the National Hockey League), NFL (the National Football League), PGA (the Professional Golfers’ Association), and the MLB (Major League Baseball) versions of their Crocs.

There are also NASCAR drivers’ versions of Crocs. There are Crocs with the names of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, and Jimmy Johnson on them.

Crocs also have collegiate versions of their shoes. College versions include Florida State, East Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan State and Duke.

Crocs’ secret to being so comfortable and practical is the use of croslite, which is made out of a foam resin made of ethylene vinyl acetate.

Crocs really are a comfortable yet supportive piece of footwear. The standard design of Crocs shoes has a heel strap that keeps that shoe on the food. This strap can also be roll forward to make the shoes a slip-on clog. It has a ventilated toe box, which is the front of the shoe. This airy toe box keeps the feet cooled and comfortable.

Crocs have a supportive foot base that helps the arch of the foot. Lastly, Crocs shoes have air holes in the front of the shoes that help to filter air sand and water through the shoes for the wearer’s ultimate comfort and usability.

Overall, Crocs are one shoe company that is a supporter of all sports, including the Association of Volleyball Professionals.



EDWARDO

Greg Black asked:


Private jets no luxury for NASCAR teams

Business travel can be a grind, But for NASCAR drivers and race teams who are on the road for 36 races per year travel is unavoidable.

If these teams had to rely on commercial airline schedules travel would be a nightmare, if not a logistical impossibility. That’s why most of the top tier drivers own private jets, and race teams operate fleets of small aircraft to transport pit crew members and team executives to the racetrack each week.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. owns a LearJet 60, which is the top of the LearJet line, and their largest jet. It’s a business jet that can seat up to 10 passengers.
Thanks to the jet Earnhardt can leave his home in North Carolina and be at the racetrack in Daytona or Texas a couple of hours later — about the time it would take to drive to a major airport and clear security.

NASCAR rookie and former Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya also owns a LearJet 60. 2006 champion Jimmie Johnson owns a Learjet 31A, and Jeff Gordon owns a British Aerospace Hawker 800.

Most of the drivers leave the flying to professional pilots, but Mark Martin is a licensed pilot who often pilots his own Cessna Citation. Martin lives in a unique community near Daytona Beach called Spruce Creek. It’s a fly in community with it’s own airport. Residents have aircraft hangars in the yard where most of us have garages. Martin can literally park his jet in the garage.

The race teams operate larger planes to ferry the pit crews and team executives to the track. Roush Racing operates a fleet of planes, including a Boeing 737 and several smaller business jets. Dale Earnhardt, Inc. flies it’s pit crew on an Embraer 120, a mid-size turbo-prop that seats 30 passengers.

While cars have vanity license plates, NASCAR teams have vanity aircraft registration numbers. Dale Jr’s Learjet is N8JR, and Jeff Gordon’s Hawker is N24JG. The corporate Embraer at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. is N500DE.

NASCAR has come to rely on private jet travel so much that many tracks are located right next to airports. Daytona International Speedway is located right next to Daytona Beach International Airport where private jets and commercial flights arrive daily.

While most tracks are not located so close to a major international airport, some tracks have built their own airports. Right next to Atlanta Motor Speedway sits Tara Field, a small general aviation airstrip that sees little traffic until race week, when more than 600 planes descend on this tiny airfield.

However, some tracks are not as convenient, but when that happens expect the NASCAR drivers to come up with a solution. When NASCAR descends on a track like Dover Delaware some drivers like Dale Earnhardt bypass race traffic by flying from the airport to the racetrack in a chartered helicopter, landing directly in he infield.

Some people consider private air travel a luxury, but with the hectic schedule of today’s drivers it is a necessity. Following a Sunday afternoon race a driver can hop on his jet and be home by Sunday night. This means they can meet with the crew chiefs and team owners Monday morning to review the previous race, and develop a strategy for the following race. During the week drivers are often on the jet again, meeting with sponsors, shooting TV commercials, making public appearances, and testing. Without a jet this schedule would be impossible. Most drivers agree that having a private jet gives them one to two days per week of productive time, or just allows an occasional day off.

You can see pictures of these jets at JetJit.com and get more detailed information on each airplane.

See photos of these jets and more at JetJit.com



MOHAMMED