Today is the first Arkansas Razorback football game of the season.  The Razorbacks are taking on the Missouri State Bears at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.  Go Hogs Go!

Some Exciting Former Hog News:

• Former Hog baseball player Craig Gentry has been called up from AA Frisco to the majors – the Texas Rangers.  Northwest Arkansas has been fortunate enough to keep up with Craig’s progress through the Rangers organization because Frisco plays the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.  Good luck, Craig!

Brad Keselowski has helped Dale Earnhardt Jr make JR Motorsports a weekly contender in the NASCAR Nationwide series.  Brad has 5 wins in the NW series and got his first Cup series win in April at Talladega.  Penske Racing announced Tuesday that Brad will join them beginning in 2010 and will drive the #12 Penske Dodge in the Sprint Cup series.  Congratulations Brad on this great opportunity!  Just remember that Rick Hendrick & Hendrick Motorsports isn’t out of reach!

The Northwest Arkansas Naturals have 3 games left (with only 1 win needed) and they will have clinched a Texas League playoff spot for the 2nd straight season (in only 2 seasons in existence in NWA).  Good luck Naturals against the Tulsa Drillers this weekend!

Penske Racing has one of the most open shop layouts for fans.  As you can see in the photo above, fans can walk along an open air area and look down into the shop.  There’s no glass separating the fans from the work area either.

When I visited the shops in October, I was amazed at their cleanliness.  When I think of a garage to build/repair cars, I think of oil on the floor and grime on everything.  The NASCAR shops are definitely not like that (or at least the parts we can see aren’t).  In some of my photos of Penske, pay close attention to the floor.  Not a spec of oil or and very organized.  It’s like a showroom, more than a work area.

Penske was one of our last stops on our whirlwind tour of NASCARolina.  The fan entrance into Penske is into the gift shop which has windows that allow you to see out into the ground level of the shop.  Because I was there in October, I knew that there were some stairs that led up to the fan walk (that Shelby is on above).  I don’t recall a sign being there telling you to go upstairs and/or what was up there.  Because of that, I freaked Shelby out a bit when I headed up the stairs.  As we got to the top and rounded the corner out into the shop, Shelby got really excited.  She didn’t know what to expect and being able to essentially be in the shop was pretty exciting to her.  [Being able to experience these shops through Shelby's eyes during the week we were in North Carolina was part of the excitement and enjoyment for me.  I knew she was enjoying herself up to this point but to hear and see her excitement at this particular moment was exciting for me.]

Click here to see the photos I took at Penske Racing.