CrossCheck Blog

CrossCheck Blog

Check Processing & Payments Information

A Labor Day Holiday for Everyone - Especially for NASCAR Fans

Posted by Tom Lombardo | Fri, Sep 04, 2015 @ 02:27 PM

Over the thirty-two years we've been in business we've seen a lot of major changes in American labor.

When we hung out our shingle in 1983 the personal computer barely even existed, for starters, so everyone in business expended a lot of labor writing with ancient instruments called "pens" to create ungainly three-dimensional databases by shoving "paper" into "folders" in rooms full of "filing cabinets."

We have no recollection of how society got anything done that way because, in 1984, Apple released its famous "1984" Superbowl commercial, playing off of George Orwell's classic novel of the same title.

Ever since, we've been watching our neighbors in Silicon Valley change the world by making the computer part of virtually all of our jobs. Manufacturing jobs slid from one-in-four to fewer than one-in-ten. "Routine" work practically disappeared as "nonroutine" work took over. Recessions came and went -- including the Great Recession, which is finally behind us.

And now that the nation's employment situation has recovered, making everyone breathe easier, we can focus on Labor Day Weekend for what's really important.

Sports!

It was nice to see college football kick off the season with Michigan at Utah last night. 

But this has got to be one of the greatest Labor Day weekends ever because one of racing's legendary traditions comes roaring back to life:

Bojangles Southern 500

Darlington opened in 1950 and became NASCAR's first super speedway, holding a 500-mile race every Labor Day until 1983. Then NASCAR fiddled with the date for a while, mostly in an attempt to adapt the race to the region's unpredictable weather.

Jeff Gordon won it six times, most recently in 2007, making him the most-winningest driver in the race's history. Chevrolet won it twenty-seven times, nearly twice as many times as Ford, the second-place OEM with fourteen wins.

Then NASCAR fans have decided they wanted the tradition back, and so for the first time since '83, the NASCAR Southern 500 is back at Darlington as of this Labor Day. Their twitter handle, appropriately, is "@TooToughToTame."

And it's going to be a blast, because NBC, NASCAR, the Darlington Raceway, the race's chicken & biscuit Bojangle's sponsor and thirty-two of the participating teams have all come together to make the entire event retro.

The cars will have paint jobs from the 1970's and 1980's, with many sponsors using older versions of their logos. Advertisers have gone retro with their in-track signage. The entire venue will look like it did back then. And NBC will use retro-style graphics.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.  @DaleJr  tweeted, "The teams that show up @TooToughToTame with no throwback scheme will be like those people who show up at costume party's not dressed up."

Daryl Wolfe, the CMO of International Speedway Corp., owners of Darlington Raceway, told USA Today, “I’m really proud of how the industry has really embraced this concept and rallied around it. We want to make this an annual, signature event for the series... it’s very exciting!"

We wish you a wonderful Labor Day weekend, and if you're a fan of the auto industry the way we are, you can rest assured we'll be cheering right along with you in Darlington!

Darlington Raceway

 

 

 

Written by Tom Lombardo