NASCAR Star Tony Stewart And Office Depot To Auction Race-Worn Firesuit And Helmet To Benefit The Office Depot Foundation’s National Backpack Program

Stewart Wore Firesuit And Helmet While Driving Special Back-To-School Themed Race Car During July 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ Race At Chicagoland Speedway

Boca Raton, Fla., August 13, 2010 – Office Depot® (NYSE: ODP), the Official Office Products Partner of NASCAR®, is teaming up with Tony Stewart, a two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ champion and driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy, for a special online charity auction accessible via the all-new www.OfficeDepotRacing.com.

Starting today through August 23, fans can bid on the actual Office Depot Foundation firesuit and helmet worn by Stewart during the July 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™ race at Chicagoland Speedway. Stewart’s No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy featured a special “back-to-school” paint scheme at Chicagoland, and the unique firesuit and helmet were created specifically for that race.

Both items will be autographed by Stewart, and proceeds from the auction will be used to support The Office Depot Foundation’s award-winning National Backpack Program, which provides new backpacks to schools and charitable organizations that work with children in need across the country.

“It was a lot of fun to have the special back-to-school paint scheme on my No. 14 Office Depot/Old Spice Chevy earlier this summer, and I’m very proud to partner with the Office Depot Foundation on its National Backpack Program,” Stewart said. “I can tell you from experience how rewarding it is to see the look on these kids’ faces when they get a new backpack – it’s an automatic boost of confidence for them and helps them feel ready to take on the new school year just like everybody else. I hope fans will help support this awesome program by participating in the online auction.”

The Office Depot Foundation is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its National Backpack Program this year. Since the program began in 2001, Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation have donated approximately 2.3 million backpacks to children in need. Stewart will help the Foundation donate more than 300,000 backpacks during this year’s back-to-school season and is personally hosting backpack donation events in Chicago, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Richmond, Va., and Kansas City.

The Tony Stewart Foundation will support the auction by utilizing its eBay Giving Works account as the bidding platform. To reach the eBay page for the Office Depot Foundation firesuit and helmet auction, visit www.OfficeDepotRacing.com.

About Office Depot

Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of customers around the globe.  For the local corner store as well as Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot provides products and services to its customers through 1,598 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.2 billion e-commerce operation.  Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $12.1 billion, and employs about 41,000 associates around the world.  The Company provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 53 countries.

Office Depot’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.  Additional press information can be found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com. Media looking to access digital assets and news, please visit http://socialpress.officedepot.com. 

To become a fan of Office Depot on Facebook and receive exclusive content, offers and more, please visit www.facebook.com/officedepot. To follow Office Depot on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/officedepot.

About the Office Depot Foundation

The Office Depot Foundation is an independent foundation (tax exempt under IRC Sec. 501(c)(3)) that serves as the independent charitable giving arm of Office Depot, Inc. In keeping with its mission, Listen Learn Care^®, the Foundation supports a variety of programs that help children succeed in school and in life; enable civil society (non-profit) organizations to become more efficient and effective; help people and businesses prepare for disasters, then recover and rebuild afterwards; strengthen local communities through grants, product donations and volunteerism; and encourage community development through entrepreneurship and economic innovation. For more information, visit www.officedepotfoundation.org.

CONTACT:
Mindy Kramer
Office Depot
561-438-4276
mindy.kramer@officedepot.com

Lisa Schmitz
Edelman
312-240-2604
lisa.schmitz@edelman.com

Robert Richardson, Jr. and R3 Motorsports look to make most of luck and momentum in Irish Hills of Michigan

 CHINA GROVE, N.C. (August 10, 2010) – Robert Richardson, Jr. and the No. 23 Chevrolet of R3 Motorsports are looking to make the most of some recent momentum and luck while racing in the Irish Hills of Michigan this week.

Making their only trip of the year to the two-mile oval of Michigan International Speedway, the R3 Motorsports team will do so with a brand-new Impala for the second NASCAR Nationwide Series race using the new-style car. This one was built from the chassis up in the R3 Motorsports shop under the watchful eye of crew chief Steve Plattenberger.

Richardson is hoping his Irish heritage will come to good use in the Irish Hills. And, the team is looking to capitalize on the momentum of their top-15 and two top-20 finishes in the last three races, as well. Those accomplishments allowed the team to move up to 26^th in Owner’s Points, with their sights set on the next three positions within reach just ahead.

Fast Facts: Richardson will be making his third-career start at MIS, 16^th of the season and 62^nd of his career. His best outing at MIS was last year when he finished 24^th. To date, his best finish was 15^th at ORP last month; which was also a career best and third top-20 of the year.

Car Facts: Plattenberger and team will roll out chassis No. 52, which will be making its debut in NNS competition. This car was recently taken to the 7 post for a thorough test to acquire more information for this weekend’s race.

Welcome home, Jeff: R3 Motorsports team engineer Jeff Kirkendall returns to his home state. He hails from Onsted, Michigan; which is a whole six miles from MIS.

Did you know: In the previous 18 NNS races at MIS, no driver has repeated as a pole winner. And, only two drivers (Jeff Burton ‘98/Carl Edwards ’08) have won from the pole. The farthest anyone has started from the back was 38^th (Ryan Newman ’05) to win.

Robert Richardson, Jr. quotes

What are some of your favorite things about racing MIS: “It’s a big, fast track that gives you multiple options in regards to where to race on the track. You can use the low groove, the middle groove and the high groove to get around there. This track is a lot of fun and I’m hoping this new-style car works well enough here to use all those grooves. As long as you can get good grip out of the corners and can keep your momentum down the straights, you’re going to have a good day.”

Speaking of the new car, you haven’t raced it since Daytona. What are you looking for this weekend: “I’m hoping it drives better than the first car we had for that race. It was heavier than what we wanted, so this new car should be a lot better. Steve and the team busted their butts to get this car ready on this new chassis, and having that 7 post time really helped, too. If we can roll off the truck and get all we can out of the car during Thursday’s test session day, we’ll be good to go for the rest of the weekend.”

Media Contact: Tim Packman

Director of Communications and Marketing

R3 Motorsports, No. 23 Chevrolet | NASCAR Nationwide Series

timpackman@yahoo.com | 704-507-1838

Greg Biffle Collects First Win Of Season And Three Post-Race Awards

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Aug. 4, 2010) – Greg Biffle, crew chief Greg Erwin, and the No. 16 crew made crucial adjustments to their car and executed an aggressive pit strategy as Biffle followed up on his third-place finish last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway this past Sunday.

The performance and strategy won the No. 16 3M Ford team the Moog Chassis Parts Problem Solver of the Race Award, earned by the team that improves the most from the first half of the race to the second half utilizing the 40 best lap times. The No. 16 Ford Fusion improved its lap times by nearly half a second.

The quick pit stops earned the team the Tissot Pit Road Precision Award, presented to the team who spends the least amount of time on pit road and finishes the race on the lead lap. The team also captured the Sunoco Diamond Performance Award as the race winner. The awards are part of the NASCAR Prize Money and Decal Program, also referred to as the contingency program, which provides teams prize money and weekly awards based on performance in several categories.

“It’s a proud day for Ford, Greg Biffle, Greg Erwin, 3M, the Pit Bulls, and all of the wonderful sponsors who have stood by us for the past few months,” said Roush Fenway Racing owner Jack Roush, who continues to recover from an aviation accident. “They’ve done a wonderful job and this is the beginning of the rewards that have resulted from all of their hard work.”

After starting the race 12th, Biffle and Erwin immediately realized they had handling problems, even though it was the same car that finished third at Indianapolis. Using early pit strategy for adjustments, the No. 16 3M Ford crew came in for two tires, fuel, air pressure and track bar adjustments to allow them to take the lead on Lap 20.

The No. 16 3M Ford Fusion stayed around the top 10 through most of the race and utilized three separate two-tire pit stops and relied on the 3M “Pit Bull” crew to get Biffle out of the pits quickly and into the lead. The final stop came with 30 laps to go after a red flag stopped action and the crew pushed the No. 16 Ford to the front row after exiting the pits first. The team sustained a short caution for weather and overcame Sam Hornish Jr., who had stayed on the track during the previous caution, with 21 laps remaining and rolled to his first victory in 64 races.

“Greg Erwin and those guys just never gave up,” said Biffle. “This 3M Ford Fusion, it was mostly engine. This engine ran so good. We’ve been really tough and answered all the questions about the Ford. Ford is running really good.”

The win was Biffle’s 15th of his career and 596th all time for Ford Racing.

“This team is all about fight and the (No.) 16 guys have been up and down, and this core group of people that we’ve had with us now since about the end of 2007, we’ve (had) each other’s backs,” said Erwin. “When you can be in front in clean air, then two tires obviously had the largest advantage, but we probably netted six or eight positions, running order, on the race track before the next pit cycle and at the end you’ve got to give a shout out to those Pit Bulls. That was a two-tire, gas-only stop that took us from third and came out in the lead.”

2-2-2-2

2010 CONTINGENCY PARTNERS NATIONAL SERIES AWARDS

            Official winners of this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Prize Money & Decal Program special awards include:

·         COORS LIGHT POLE AWARD: Tony Stewart, 171.393 mph, 52.511 sec.

·         DIRECTV CREW CHIEF OF THE RACE AWARD: Darian Grubb (crew chief for Tony Stewart)

·         GOODYEAR GATORBACK BELTS FASTEST LAP AWARD: Tony Stewart (167.663 mph, Lap 2)

·         MAHLE CLEVITE ENGINE BUILDER OF THE RACE AWARD: Tony Stewart

·         MOBIL 1 “COMMAND PERFORMANCE DRIVER OF THE RACE” AWARD: Martin Truex Jr.

·         MOOG CHASSIS PARTS PROBLEM SOLVER OF THE RACE AWARD: Greg Erwin (crew chief for Greg Biffle)

·         O’REILLY AUTO PARTS POSITION IMPROVEMENT AWARD: Clint Bowyer (25 places)

·         RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE RACE AWARD: Kevin Conway

·         SUNOCO DIAMOND PERFORMANCE AWARD: Greg Biffle

·         TISSOT “PIT ROAD PRECISION” AWARD: Greg Biffle (266.914 sec.)

·         WIX FILTERS LAP LEADER AWARD: Denny Hamlin (19 laps)

            For a complete description and special award standings of national series awards presented via the NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program, visit www.nascarmedia.com.

Road Course Brings Out the Best in Phoenix Racing

Spartanburg, S.C. (August 3, 2010) - Phoenix Racing and the No. 09 Phoenix Construction Chevrolet will head north to the 2.45-mile, 11-turn road course at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International Raceway this weekend for Sunday’s Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen.  Phoenix Racing and Bobby Labonte will be making their fourth start together this season.  The Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at the Glen is the second road course stop for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

This race will be only the second time Phoenix Racing has been to Watkins Glen.  But, with a strong 12th-place finish at Sonoma in June with driver Jan Magnussen, Phoenix Racing and Labonte feel confident in their chances of having a strong performance.

Bobby Labonte has 17 starts, one pole, two top-five and six top-10 finishes with an average starting and finishing position of 18th at Watkins Glen International.

Comments from Bobby Labonte on Watkins Glen International and Safety Improvements at the track:

“I have a lot of confidence going into this weekend.  James Finch and the No. 09 team had a solid finish at Sonoma earlier this year.  I had a strong run going as well, but just got caught in some bad luck at the end.  Hopefully all that bad luck is behind us and we’ll be able to put everything together for a solid run.

“Watkins Glen is a fast, fast road course with high speed corners.  There are two to three good passing points on the course and the rest is driver finesse.  It’s been really hard to pass here in the past, but with these new run-offs I think you will see more passing going on.  It’s a lot different than Sonoma, but I think a lot of guys like the higher speeds here.

“There have been a lot of changes to this track since we were there last year too.  A couple areas have been paved with run-off areas and safer barriers added.  It’s always nice to see where tracks have made safety improvements.  It’s something we always need to be in front of.

“I was involved in a pretty bad wreck there a couple years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAoRcIXQHgo).  It was a hard hit for a few us.  So, I’m glad that some changes have been made to improve the safety.  After the scary crash last weekend at Pocono with Elliot Sadler, it’s very important that our sport is making changes for the driver’s safety.  We’ve come a long way, but it’s always best to keep moving forward too.”
                                    - 30 -

Contact Information:
Katey Hawbaker
Breaking Limits, Account Executive
403 Gilead Road, Suite A
Huntersville, NC  28078
Mobile: 814-360-6084
office: 704-766-9064
Email: khawbaker@blmarketing.net

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NEW WEB SITE HONORS “THE FATHEAD GUY” FROM NEW NASCAR BOOK

Corinne Eckel of Pennsylvania was so moved by a NASCAR fan she recently befriended that she created a website for him. She now manages the site - thefatheadguy.yolasite.com - as a labor of love, including photos and news about her friend as well as a new book he’s featured in.

“I could be considered your average middle-aged woman who likes most sports,” Corinne said. “Yet, I never had a true favorite sport I followed regularly…until I met a really nice guy, Kenny Gregory, who quickly became a dear personal friend. Kenny introduced me to NASCAR and a wonderful new book about NASCAR fans, which led me to other fans. I was so inspired, I decided to create a website for friends, family and fans to follow my friend Kenny — the now famous “Fathead Guy” — as well as news about the book he’s featured in, “THE WEEKEND STARTS ON WEDNESDAY: True Stories of Remarkable NASCAR Fans” by Andrew Giangola.

Gregory, who is from Franklin, Pa. and attends up to 20 NASCAR races a year, takes his life-sized Fathead stickers (mounted on plywood) and sets up his starting grid in the campground at whatever race he happens to be attending. Fans from all over stop to chat and get their pictures taken with their favorite driver. Following Gregory’s inclusion in THE WEEKEND STARTS ON WEDNESDAY, he has been featured in several track souvenir guides and has made media appearances in Daytona, Tampa, Charlotte, and Erie, Pennsylvania. A taped ESPN segment will run later this season.

“As Kenny’s profile in NASCAR markets has grown, it’s been great for the website,” Corinne said. “I used a free website builder to create thefatheadguy.yolasite.com, where fans can check race results, track info, see photos taken at the race and link to various articles, podcasts and videos regarding the fans featured in Andrew’s book. The site is continually evolving and there’s usually something new every week.”

As a new NASCAR fan and fan website administrator, Corinne will be attending her first NASCAR race at Michigan Int’l Speedway this August.

“I’m definitely looking forward to spending time with The Fathead Guy ‘in his element’ at the racetrack and meeting fans from THE WEEKEND STARTS ON WEDNESDAY like Right Turn Ryan, Kevin Kent of Bob’s Party Bus, and Craig and Jackie Reda who have the number 3 carved from a tree stump and mounted on top of their yellow school bus. It’s been exciting to learn about the sport of NASCAR and meet the amazing fans who make up the so-called NASCAR Nation. I anticipate being at the track in Michigan is going to be an unforgettable weekend.”

Fans are encouraged to submit stories and photos to The Fathead Guy’s web site by visiting thefatheadguy.yolasite.com.