What a whirlwind of an off season it has been for BAM Racing and the BAM 49 Fans. In October we all got word that BAM Racing had formed a partnership with Warner Music Nashville. Since the partnership was announced, it has been non-stop, announcement-after-announcement.

In November, just four weeks after announcing Warner Music Nashville came onboard, it was announced that Larry the Cable Guy will be the first featured artist to adorn the hood of the No. 49 Camry. On the same day that Warner Music Nashville announced Larry the Cable Guy's presence with BAM, there was also an announcement of the all new VIP Fan Experience created by BAM Racing and Warner Music Nashville.

By now, I'm sure everyone knows what this program entails. I'll tell you first hand though; it's one of the coolest experiences in NASCAR and Country Music. BAM Racing and Warner Music Nashville have provided fans several amazing opportunities that until this point were unheard of. The promotional video on www.VIPFanExperience.com says it all, "the perks are literally worth thousands!" After the announcements about the launch of VIP Fan Experience and that Larry the Cable Guy will be featured on the No. 49 at the 2010 Daytona 500, fans wanted to know one thing; who will be the driver?

December was here, usually this means for everyone it's the holidays, a time to slow down from the fast-pace of life to spend time with your family. But that wasn't the case for BAM Racing; the work did not slow down, if anything, it picked up. Team owners Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau flew up to Charlotte, NC from their south Florida home (BAM Racing's shop is located in Concord, NC, just north of Charlotte) for several interviews...and apparently one with a driver/owner named Robby Gordon.

As the holidays had come and gone, BAM 49 Fans still had one question, who will drive the car? People were asking on every forum or blog on the web, who will be BAM Racing's driver? Although BAM 49 Fans could not see it, things were "wide-open" at BAM Racing working on forming an alliance with another Toyota team. The team that BAM was forming an alliance with would provide technical assistance, personnel, and equipment; a big deal for a team returning to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

Finally, on January 6th, the VIP Fan Experience Facebook page announced that BAM Racing had reached an agreement with a driver/team for an alliance and would announce the news on BAM Racing's weekly radio show, BAM Spirit. This was joy to BAM 49 Fans ears as everyone would finally find out potentially who would drive the car and something no one had thought about, align with.

8:00 pm EST arrived and the NASCAR community had BAM Spirit playing across the land anxiously waiting to hear the announcement. The BAM Spirit intro started to play, then Beth Ann and Tony began to talk. First Beth Ann and Tony announced six more Warner Music Nashville artists have signed on to be part of the VIP Fan Experience program, those six artists' being: Blake Shelton, Whitney Duncan, Gloriana, Jessica Harp, Jason Jones, and James Otto. Then came the announcement of the new-formed alliance with Robby Gordon Motorsports (RGM) where RGM will provide technical assistance, personnel, equipment, and also the alliance will allow sharing of information at the track. But what was not in the announcement was who the driver of the No. 49 Warner Music Nashville Camry will be.

Questions were raised as to why there was no announcement of the driver. The simple answer was, Robby Gordon was in South America racing in the Dakar Rally and he wanted to have a say in who the driver of the car will be. Well, a week-and-a-half later when Robby returned to the States, the long awaited question of who will drive the BAM Racing Toyota was finally answered.

On Tuesday, January 19th, BAM Racing announced that David Gilliland will drive the No. 49 Larry the Cable Guy Toyota Camry at the 2010 Daytona 500. Robby and David are both Californians and have worked together before - it appears that chemistry is definitely there between the two racers. This duo teaming up for the Daytona 500 can only produce great results.

We are now only weeks away from Media Day for the 2010 Daytona 500. Thanks to the hard work and determination from the entire BAM Racing staff, the pieces have fallen into place for BAM Racing to make a successful return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. Both Robby and David are ready to "Get-R-Done" in Daytona for BAM Racing/Robby Gordon Motorsports!

Hey BAM 49 Fans!

I hope you're enjoying the new www.BAM49Fans.com website. I felt it was time to get an actual domain name and also get things a little cleaned up. Over the next coming week there will be added features and new pages, also I'll be updating current pages already featured on BAM 49 Fans.com. I'm also thinking the header needs some sprucing up, so expect to see a new header coming within the week as well!

Here you will be able to read about several subjects. I will not just be posting about BAM Racing, but a majority of the posts made will be related to BAM Racing...after all, this is a BAM 49 Fan site! But at times, I will blog about what's happening in the NASCAR world and maybe even an event that's not racing related. Who knows what you might see on the BAM 49 Fan Blog?

Just wanted to introduce the BAM 49 Fan Blog and also give you a warm welcome to the new www.BAM49Fans.com! It's going to be a very fun year for the BAM 49 Fans; we've already seen stuff beginning to happen with the VIP Fan Experience program that Beth Ann and WMN Vice President of Marketing, Kelli Cashiola announced at the Homestead-Miami Speedway a couple weeks ago. On top of that, Larry the Cable Guy will adorn the hood of the No. 49 for the Daytona 500...how cool is that? I'm not one to walk around town yelling, "Get-R-Done!," but it's still going to be fun to see Larry at Daytona with the Morgenthau's and the BAM 49 team!

Stay tuned to the BAM 49 Fan Blog for new posts coming soon!

Brandon Johnson