More Kelly Sutton

Sort of breaking into the middle of something here, but I wanted to get this up before I let it slip aside. I'll fill everyone in on what has me all uncomfortable NEXT post ...

Showing what a little perserverance can accomplish, I finally found more recent information about Kelly Sutton. Very recent. Like from yesterday. Link here.

Apparently the search for a major sponsor did not go as well as one would like, and Kelly will indeed be racing a reduced schedule in 2008. The creator of the post with this information promised a schedule soon. Kelly's deal with Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2007 included 4 2008 races as well, so we'll probably only be seeing her in 4 races this season.

Also, a movie about Kelly is in production.

One Thrilling Left Turn After Another

I started this post last week but just finished it now. Originally it was largely a Daytona 500 pre-race post. I didn't finish because I got into actually watching the race. Sort of made it so many of my initial thoughts were no longer relevant. Hard to preview something when it is already happening.

I was looking forward to the race, though. I even rearranged my weekend so I could watch it. I didn't watch all of it, though. About the first fourth and the end. The rest of the race I wasn't watching, having wandered away from my TV to do other stuff.

I rarely watch an entire race. Often I fall asleep, falling victim to the hypnotic effect of cars going around and around but getting nowhere fast. Other times the driver I follow is having trouble.

Last week I wandered off after Jeff Burton missed his pit and lost a lot of time making the stop. Ever since I started watching NASCAR (I picked up on a coworkers enthusiasm, I guess, and started following it) I seem to have a jinx-like effect on Burton. When I don't watch he does much better than when I do. I understand the differance between correlation and causality - I'm not naive - but the apparent effect is just kind of freaky.

Daytona this year lends support to a jinx that I know intellectually isn't real. I stopped watching after Burton's pit trouble. But I turned the TV back on to see if I could catch the end of the race. And I did. 2 or 3 laps to go. Burton was leading. Remember, I hadn't been watching. But now I was again, so ...

12 cars passed Burton in those last laps. Burton finished 13th. He was leading, but then I started watching again

Jinx.

Oh well. Yesterday (Saturday), I caught a race in the truck series. Kind of rare for those races to be on broadcast TV. I am not as familiar with the drivers on that circuit, so I don't pay much attention. With no one to support over any one else a lot of the interest just isn't there.

Although I do support one driver in the truck series. I'm not sure what she (yes, she) is even doing this year. I understand she was having difficulty pulling together sponsors, so maybe that didn't go well.

Her (I should actually use her name - Kelly Sutton) primary sponsor has been Teva Neuroscience. Teva manufactures Copaxone, the disease-modifying drug I inject daily. In fact the truck Kelly drove was emblazoned with the Copaxone name.

That connection isn't what grabbed me, though. Yeah, it's neat that she is a driver at one of NASCAR's highest levels and a woman, but that ain't it either.

To get at the real reason I find Sutton so intriguing we have to look at her past sponsorships. Teva didn't just sponsor her because they thought she was a decent driver. They probably thought she would also make a good spokeswoman. See, Kelly Sutton actually uses Copaxone.

"But Dave", you may be thinking, "isn't Copaxone prescribed to folks with MS?"

Yep.