SAD NEWS: NASCAR announced that Kyle Larson is Leaving immediately after Facing…..
Danica Patrick reached great heights during her standout NASCAR and IndyCar career. Now, the retired driver is taking her talents to a new sport.
The 42-year-old recently revealed she started taking tennis lessons. Patrick suggested her pivot to the new sport centered around the potential long-term health benefits.
In 2018, Forbes cited a study from Denmark that determined that people who regularly play racket sports could extend their lives.
The network offers a way back into the sport they love, allowing former competitors to rekindle old friendships and reconnect with the fans who cheered them on week after week.
This organization is more than annual gatherings and handshakes between formal rivals though.
It’s the culmination of a deep love for the sport and the people who helped shape it.
Amber Wells, the Executive Director of the NASCAR Alumni Network, has always had an appreciation for the sport’s history.
With over 25 years in the industry, she has worked closely with, and managed, the NASCAR Hall of Fame for the company, welcoming each Hall of Fame class since its inception.
Throughout her career, Wells has focused on building lasting connections between NASCAR’s living legends, their families, and the community that continues to honor them.
But as she worked to celebrate those cementing their place in the Hall of Fame, one recurring issue kept surfacing – an issue she couldn’t ignore.
“I quickly realized that there was no database, there wasn’t an existing document or a file or a Rolodex, if you want to go back that far, of contact information for these guys,” she explained.
“As we’re going through the Hall of Fame process, and we need to find Cale Yarborough.
Well, you make phone calls and send emails and eventually, you get connected with Cale Yarborough.”
That missing Rolodex wasn’t just a logistical gap–it symbolized a disconnect between the sport and many of those who helped build it.
That “something more” would eventually grow into a broader mission – one that’s not just about honoring the past, but reconnecting with it in a lasting, meaningful way.
Introducing the NASCAR Alumni Network. Launched in 2024, this organization is a way to reconnect past competitors to each other and the sport, giving them a chance to reengage with the industry through annual at-track reunions and easier access to the tracks.
Wells, who was named the Executive Director of the NASCAR Alumni Network, works relentlessly to ensure those who gave so much to the sport feel reconnected once again.
A key highlight of the group is its annual reunion at Darlington Raceway during Throwback Weekend.
This past Sunday, NASCAR welcomed around 30 former industry members, bringing together old colleagues and competitors at the historic track.
In the past, returning to the racetrack might have been a challenge, but with events like this and the help of the Network, NASCAR is embracing legends, like Ron Hornaday, and helping him reengage with the sport they love.
“If you can take that video camera and walk through there and see all the people, they’re smiling, the stories they’re talking about inside there, that’s the coolest part,” said the four-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion as he gestured towards the NASCAR Alumni Network hospitality tent.
“The best part is standing out there with qualifying going last night, and there are fans out there in the fan zone, and [Mike] Skinner and I out there talking, doing a question and answer, and seeing how people really followed your career through the years. It’s pretty cool.”
“The drivers are getting as much out of it as the fans are,” Wells said.
“They’re feeding off that energy because our core fans have an experience with Mike Wallace.
They have an experience with Ron Hornaday or Mike Skinner, and they want to tell them about it. And the beautiful thing is these guys want to hear it.”
Geoff Bodine, who was one of the drivers to venture out to the Fan Zone echoed that sentiment.
“We didn’t have the TV and all the coverage like they have today, so we really appreciate what NASCAR’s done is putting us together and showing us to the crowds, getting on stage and introducing us and doing media things and doing autographs…
the generation I came from in racing, we appreciate all of that,” he said.
“Now back then, yeah you’re racing, you’re focused, you’re busy, sometimes drivers didn’t want to sign autographs but today ‘please come here, I want to give you an autograph, come on over here’, we love it!”
The reconnection with fans and the industry is something that was expected for Wells.
However, what came as a pleasant surprise was seeing the fellowship that these drivers have built, all thanks to the environment the NASCAR Alumni Network has helped foster.
“They may have had these adversaries on the racetrack, but for the most part, they’re all in the same place now, right?
They’ve retired, they’ve stepped away from competition, they’ve aged in their lives, and they’re just at a different point in their journey. And they want to reconnect,” Wells shared.
“They want to say, ‘Hey, do you remember this? Do you remember when the two of us were battling at this race and it came down to this, and you bumped me?’ ‘No, I remember you bumping me.
It’s about giving them the platform to do that.
You know, they’re not going to call each other up and say, ‘Hey, do you remember this race?
But if they’re at an event, we give them the platform to do that. I think it’s amazing.”
Many stories like this resurface at these events.
One notable example from this weekend came from the 1995 NASCAR SuperTruck Series race at Martinsville Speedway with Geoff Bodine leading the race trying to fend off Mike Skinner.
Bodine struggled to get through lapped traffic and was held up pretty heavily by Ron Hornaday.
The delay caused Hornaday’s No. 16 Chevrolet allowed Skinner to catch up to Bodine where they both battled it out for the win before crashing together on lap 148.
Back then, Bodine pointed fingers at both Skinner and Hornaday, but today, the trio is able to laugh about the incident.
“When we were competitors we didn’t like each other because we had to compete.
Now we’re in there having a great time telling stories and just having a good time taking pictures,” Bodine shared.
“So, what NASCAR’s doing with us older guys, these retired guys is great.”
