Tony Stewart

And so it begins. The Danica Patrick rookie card has arrived and it is part of a beautiful vintage style Press Pass NASCAR release titled Element. Priced at around $80, Element has 24 packs per hobby box for you to dig into and press the pedal to the metal in search of Danica and those other guys…

Ok, seriously, on average you’ll find an autograph and a memorabilia card of a NASCAR personality in each and every box. If the collation is solid you’ll definitely get a Danica rookie, you won’t have to hunt it down as the 100-card set can be attained with a lone box. The chase card will be the green bordered parallel variation; those are seeded 1:6 packs.

Now with a lead in of Danica, do you really need anything else to hype the product? The answer is of course – NO! But, Press Pass has done some amazing things with Element. First off, the collection is printed on completely recycled stock. That stock is not the glossy white stuff we’ve been used to seeing, it is an old-school, traditional brown back cardboard and I personally love it. It’s a cool theme if you think about it, especially since most of the NASCAR memorabilia used by Press Pass are recycled car parts anyway!

‘Tis the holiday season, and NASCAR fans are eagerly awaiting the start of a new year of racing… but don’t fret, there’s still plenty of news and new product for collectors. Obviously, the big news is that Danica Patrick has left Indy and joined JR Motorsports to race in the Nationwide series. She’ll be racing in the #7 GoDaddy car, and while many expect her to fail, she’s already going to succeed in doing something no one has done before: lining up a whole new series of sponsors – feminine ones! I would almost wager that she will make more money than most off of sponsorship opportunities than she does winning races, and you know what? GOOD FOR HER! I hope she wins big. You’ve got to be a special breed to turn left, and we’ll see if she’s got what it takes...

So you are infatuated with the Chase for the Cup, no, not the Piston Cup, although my kids are much more interested in the happenings of Lightning McQueen these days, no I am talking about the Sprint Cup Series… Tony Stewart has a solid lead and has been stellar in the Office Depot car taking in over $4,000,000 so far.

If you can’t get enough NASCAR, there are plenty of ways to get your fix merchandise wise, but none are as fun as the awesome trading cards offered by Press Pass. It has been awhile since I opened up some racing cards and to be honest, I have missed it. I just got a box of Press Pass Premium and I’m pretty excited as it is one of my personal favorites to break.