| Darrell Cartrip: 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo / Mario: 1967 Ford Fairlane / RPM: Piston Cup race car / Hamm: Piggy car
Darrell Cartrip is an announcer at the Piston Cup races. Darrell is a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, and a former Piston Cup Race car. His name is a play on Darrell Waltrip, who provides the character's voice. Cartrip utters, "Boogity boogity boogity!" as the tiebreaker race starts; the real-life Waltrip is also known to use the phrase at the start of every NASCAR race. Cartrip appears in the Cars video game as the sole announcer; he is also a playable character in the Piston Cup VS. and Arcade mode. When the cars take the green flag to start each race, he says "Boogity boogity boogity! Let's go racing boys". The car is based on a real-life 1977 Monte Carlo Waltrip drove with DiGard Racing, although it does not have the actual paint scheme (which is owned by Pepsico, the successor to the team's sponsor at the time). The most famous of those cars was the infamous "Bertha," which is at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, AL.
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the largest sanctioning body of stock cars in the United States. The three largest racing series sanctioned by NASCAR are the Sprint Cup, the Nationwide Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. It also oversees NASCAR Local Racing, the Whelen Modified Tour, and the Whelen All-American Series. NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 39 states, Canada, and Mexico. From 1996 to 1998, NASCAR held exhibition races in Japan and an exhibition race in Australia in 1988.
With roots as regional entertainment in the Southeastern U.S., NASCAR has grown to become the second-most popular professional sport in terms of television ratings inside the U.S., ranking behind only the National Football League. Internationally, NASCAR races are broadcast in over 150 countries. It holds 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events in the U.S.,1 and has 75 million fans who purchase over $3 billion in annual licensed product sales. These fans are considered the most brand-loyal in all of sports and as a result, Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR more than any other governing body. In 2007 NASCAR made a profit of just under $3 billion, and was the second richest motorsport (Formula One was first).
NASCAR's headquarters are located in Daytona Beach, Florida, although it also maintains offices in four North Carolina cities: Charlotte, Mooresville, Concord, and Conover. Regional offices are also located in New York City, Los Angeles, Arkansas, and international offices in Mexico City and Toronto. Additionally, owing to its southern roots, all but a handful of NASCAR teams are still based in North Carolina, especially near Charlotte.
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was an American-made automobile. Originally introduced by Chevrolet for the 1970 model year (as competition with the Ford Thunderbird), the car has gone through six generations as of 2007. All Chevrolet Monte Carlos to date have been two-door personal luxury coupes, closely based on a contemporary mid-sized sedan.
The Ford Fairlane was an automobile model sold between 1955 and 1971 by the Ford Motor Company in North America. The name was taken from Henry Ford's estate, Fair Lane, near Dearborn, Michigan. Over time, the name referred to a number of different cars in different classes; Ford Fairlane was a full-size car during the 1950s but became a mid-size car in the 1960s. The mid-sized model spawned the Australian-built Fairlane in 1967, although it was considered a large car there.
Sprint Cup - The "NASCAR Sprint Cup Series" is the sport's highest level of professional competition. It is consequently the most popular and most profitable NASCAR series. The 2006 Sprint Cup season consisted of 36 races over 10 months, with over $4 million in total prize money at stake at each race. Writers and fans often use "Cup" to refer to the Sprint Cup series and the ambiguous use of "NASCAR" as a synonym for the Sprint Cup series is common. The winner of the most recent season was Jimmie Johnson in 2007; Johnson was also the 2006 champion.
In 2004, NEXTEL took over sponsorship of the premier series from R. J. Reynolds, who had sponsored it as the Winston Cup from 1972 until 2003, and formally renamed it the NEXTEL Cup Series. A new championship points system, "The Chase for the NEXTEL Cup " was also developed, which reset the point standings with ten races to go, making only drivers in the top ten or within 400 points of the leader eligible to win the championship. In 2007, NASCAR announced it was expanding "The Chase" from ten to twelve drivers, eliminating the 400-point cutoff, and giving a ten-point bonus to the top twelve drivers for each of the races they have won out of the first 26. Wins throughout the season will also be worth five more points than in previous seasons. In 2008, the premier series title name became the Sprint Cup Series and The Chase for The NEXTEL Cup became the "Chase for the Sprint Cup", as part of the merger between NEXTEL and Sprint.
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian American former racecar driver, and one of the most successful Americans in the history of auto racing. He is one of only two drivers to win races in the four major motor racing categories: Formula One, IndyCar (USAC), World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR, the other being Dan Gurney. He also won races in midget cars, sprint cars and drag racing cars.
During his career, Andretti won four IndyCar titles, the 1978 Formula One World Championship, and IROC VI (the 1978 - 1979 IROC). To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967), and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits.
Andretti had a long career in racing. He was the only person to be named United States Driver of the Year in three decades (1967, 1978, and 1984). He was also one of only three drivers to win races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times. At his final IndyCar win in April 1993, Andretti became the first driver to win IndyCar races in four decades and the first to win races in five decades.
The name Mario Andretti has become synonymous with speed in the United States, similar to Barney Oldfield in the early twentieth century and Stirling Moss in the United Kingdom.
Mario is a legendary Piston Cup racecar, with a zest for speed, he believes every day is a beautiful day for racing. This car is based on the 1967 Ford Fairlane from Holman-Moody that the real Andretti drove to victory in the 1967 Daytona 500.
RPM (Winford Bradford Rutherford) is a racecar that looks exactly like Billy Oilchanger, only yellow. Chick Hicks bashes him to the side of the racetrack while exclaiming, "Dinoco is all mine." The names of his pit crew are unknown, except for one named Petrol Pulaski.
Hamm is a piggy bank on wheels, with a cork in his belly. Hamm is from the enormously successful animated movie "Toy Car Story". His voice is performed by John Ratzenberger, who has a voice part in every Pixar film.
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