I traveled to New York City courtesy of Dodge to check out and drive some of their 2011 models, including the 2011 Dodge Avenger. This was my first opportunity to test drive this vehicle, and I had a red Dodge Avenger Heat V6 for the drive (see the photos above). It was a rainy spring day, but I was able to push the Avenger on some country roads outside of the city along with hitting the city streets as well. The V6 made this car fun to drive, and Dodge made a number of changes to this vehicle for the 2011 model year to improve the handling. The wet roads weren't a problem and I loved the way it handled tight corners. The result was a vehicle that matched the aggressive styling, and I think this car will be a big hit for guys looking for a sporty sedan. Check back for our full review of the Avenger in our Car Channel.

Dodge also had some Chargers for us as well. I drove the V8 R/T in the past and was very impressed with the vehicle, so I took the opportunity to drive the 2011 Charger Rally Plus with a V6 engine (see the silver Charger in the photos above). While it doesn't have the power of the V8, this V6 Charger performed very well and had plenty of power. You can save some money and get better mileage with the V6, so for many guys this might be the better option. I recommend you drive both of them and you can choose based on your own preferences, but I came away impressed with both the V8 and V6 versions of the Charger. This car handles beautifully for a full-sized sedan and it has the most aggressive styling in its class in my opinion.

On Thursday night the group hit the BroBible Alpha Experience on Manhattan's West Side. The event showcased products and brands targeting the male demo, and Dodge was one of the signature sponsors along with other brands like Microsoft, Xbox, The Art of Shaving, Under Armour, Blackbeard Rum and more. The event produced a great crowd and was capped off with a concert by The Knocks on Skylight West's rooftop. It was nice to be back in New York with a great party crowd. Fortunately the weather cooperated!

The Dodge exhibit featured an incredible Charger R/T with a black exterior and red interior. Jenn Sterger stopped to check out the vehicle and Fred Deperez, Head of Marketing for Dodge, gave her all the info on the vehicle (see the photos above). Dodge also had a slick Challenger on hand as well.

It was a great way to cap off the trip.

Photo Credit for pics 1-7: Sunny Norton (see more on BroBible's Facebook page)

In accordance with the FTC Guidelines, We are disclosing that our time, travel and accommodations have been compensated by Chrysler Corp. for our participation in the Dodge Ride & Drive. Although we have a material connection to Chrysler Corp., any publicly stated opinions of Chrysler Corp. and their products remain our own.

I traveled to New York City courtesy of Dodge to check out and drive some of their 2011 models, including the 2011 Dodge Avenger. This was my first opportunity to test drive this vehicle, and I had a red Dodge Avenger Heat V6 for the drive (see the photos above). It was a rainy spring day, but I was able to push the Avenger on some country roads outside of the city along with hitting the city streets as well. The V6 made this car fun to drive, and Dodge made a number of changes to this vehicle for the 2011 model year to improve the handling. The wet roads weren’t a problem and I loved the way it handled tight corners. The result was a vehicle that matched the aggressive styling, and I think this car will be a big hit for guys looking for a sporty sedan. Check back for our full review of the Avenger in our Car Channel.

Dodge also had some Chargers for us as well. I drove the V8 R/T in the past and was very impressed with the vehicle, so I took the opportunity to drive the 2011 Charger Rally Plus with a V6 engine (see the silver Charger in the photos above). While it doesn’t have the power of the V8, this V6 Charger performed very well and had plenty of power. You can save some money and get better mileage with the V6, so for many guys this might be the better option. I recommend you drive both of them and you can choose based on your own preferences, but I came away impressed with both the V8 and V6 versions of the Charger. This car handles beautifully for a full-sized sedan and it has the most aggressive styling in its class in my opinion.

On Thursday night the group hit the BroBible Alpha Experience on Manhattan’s West Side. The event showcased products and brands targeting the male demo, and Dodge was one of the signature sponsors along with other brands like Microsoft, Xbox, The Art of Shaving, Under Armour, Blackbeard Rum and more. The event produced a great crowd and was capped off with a concert by The Knocks on Skylight West’s rooftop. It was nice to be back in New York with a great party crowd. Fortunately the weather cooperated!

The Dodge exhibit featured an incredible Charger R/T with a black exterior and red interior. Jenn Sterger stopped to check out the vehicle and Fred Deperez, Head of Marketing for Dodge, gave her all the info on the vehicle (see the photos above). Dodge also had a slick Challenger on hand as well.

It was a great way to cap off the trip.

Photo Credit for pics 1-7: Sunny Norton (see more on BroBible’s Facebook page)

In accordance with the FTC Guidelines, We are disclosing that our time, travel and accommodations have been compensated by Chrysler Corp. for our participation in the Dodge Ride & Drive. Although we have a material connection to Chrysler Corp., any publicly stated opinions of Chrysler Corp. and their products remain our own.

I was invited by Chrysler to join other bloggers in San Francisco for the opportunity to drive some of the new Dodge vehicles. As you can see from the photos above, we had a beautiful day in the city by the bay, and I had a great time with this impressive new lineup.

The Dodge Charger is the flagship vehicle for the Dodge brand, and the Charger has been completely redesigned from the ground up for the 2011 model year. The iconic feel of the vehicle remains, but you can see the new, sleeker design in the first photo above and in the other Charger photos. It offers a sport sedan that I think will have huge appeal for guys looking for performance, aggressive styling and value. The car was a joy to drive through the winding roads in the Bay area, as the new suspension lived up to the promise. For a car that starts at $25,995, buyers will get tremendous value.

The real treat of the day was the 2011 Dodge Challenger. I had the opportunity to drive one of the Inaugural Edition versions of the 2011 Challenger SRT8 392. This car is beautiful as you can see from the slideshow above, with the white paint and the blue racing stripes, and it’s the ultimate American muscle car. Frankly, I can’t remember a car I enjoyed driving more than this one. The car is a torque monster – the 392 Hemi is rated at 470 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque. I drove the automatic version, and this car is a beast! When you hit the gas at any speed, this car does exactly what you want it to do as it respond with a muscular roar. It handles beautifully as well, and any car enthusiast will fall in love with this 2011 Challenger.

While the Challenger and Charger stole the show, I was equally impressed with the other vehicles in the Dodge lineup. Dodge brought back the Durango, and this full-size SUV should be a real hit. The 2011 Durango has all the luxuries customers are becoming accustomed to in the crossover segment, but this SUV is the real deal as it still leads its class in towing capacity. Meanwhile, the handling is much better than previous versions of the vehicle, so you don’t feel like you’re driving a big truck.

In the crossover segment, the 2011 Journey should do very well in this exploding segment. Many in our group were impressed with how this car drove, and Dodge added some nice features including optional third-row seating that folds up or down depending on your needs. It’s a nice feature for families with young children.

In all the vehicles, Dodge has placed a new emphasis on the interiors and it shows. The goal for the brand is to over-deliver and provide real value for the cost of a vehicle, and you’re finally seeing Dodge live up to that promise. I loved the interior in each of the vehicles, and I think customers will feel the same way once they test drive these cars.

After San Francisco we joined the Chrysler team as they unveiled their new vehicles at the LA Auto Show where we had the opportunity to join in on a round-table discussion with Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles. Ralph is a true car enthusiast and you can see the passion he has for the new lineup.

Check back as we’ll be publishing full reviews of each of these cars, but I would recommend that you take the time to drive them. Each of the Dodge cars combines muscular styling with an impressive driver experience, and I suspect many drivers will be pleasantly surprised as they rediscover this brand.

“Not only do you not know jack about NASCAR, but you have no real interest in any kind of sports. Surely someone…anyone…would be better suited to tackle this trip than you.”

My inner journalist may not get to come out and play very often, but when he’s right, he’s right. Despite the accuracy of his premise, however, the reality of the situation was that there was no one else to tackle the trip: everyone else’s schedule for the 4th of July weekend was already booked up. As such, all eyes turned to the guy who’d made the mistake of casually saying, “I guess I can do it if no one else is available.”

Whoops. Guess I’m going to Daytona.

Day 1:

As I have never, ever taken a trip for Bullz-Eye that hasn’t involved some sort of flight delay, it doesn’t really come as any surprise that the trip from Norfolk to Daytona finds me stuck in Charlotte for longer than I’m supposed to be. I didn’t even bother to try and find out what the problem was. I just shrugged, sat down and plugged in the laptop, and kept myself occupied until my flight finally did get around to taking off. I did have one brief panic attack when I called the hotel in Daytona to make sure that my delay wouldn’t complicate the rest of the day’s plans, only to learn that there was no reservation listed under my name, but it all worked out in the end. (Turns out everything was booked under the blanket name of “Dodge.”) Once I successfully manage to fly Charlotte to Daytona, I take a taxi to the hotel, check into my room, and gaze longingly at the beach outside my window, never realizing that the weekend will work out such that I will never get to take advantage of it. Still, it sure looked nice…

Once I arrive, I meet my “handlers” for the weekend, Philip and Chuck, who work with Dodge through their employers, New Media Strategies. They’re great guys, but they’re very much car guys…not, as Seinfeld once said, that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s simply that I’m not a car guy. Oh, right, I don’t think I mentioned that before, did I? Yeah, there’s another really good reason why I wasn’t necessarily the best person for this trip. And, yet, in a sense, I’m the perfect person, since I’m able to provide an outsider’s view of the whole experience…or, at least, that’s the angle I’m planning to take. (I say that like there’s any other angle I can take.) I let Philip and Chuck know of my deficiency of knowledge in this weekend’s events. They assure me that they’ll fill me in if I need any additional education to fully appreciate the goings-on. For this, I am grateful.

We head over to Daytona Dodge, the site where the band Atomic Tom will be performing. While I admit that I hadn’t been familiar with Atomic Tom prior to their name appearing on my schedule of the weekend’s events, I’d done some YouTubing and checked out several live performances by the band, all of which left me confident that I’d really enjoy the concert. I was a little sketchy on interviewing them, though, since I really didn’t know a whole lot about them. As it turns out, though, they are great guys, and we have a really nice chat about their history, career to date, and – most importantly for the purposes of this piece – how they came to be involved with Dodge’s attempts to rebrand their brand name for a new generation of car enthusiasts. You can check out the results of that conversation right here, but if you’d rather finish this piece first…and, really, why wouldn’t you?…then at least allow me to provide you with a little music by the band:

As you can see from the clip, the guys know how to put on a performance, and even though a highly unfortunate summer storm served to put a damper on attendance, Atomic Tom treated the show as if they’d been placed before a sold-out crowd and gave it their all. The originals sounded great – their sound is highly reminiscent of The Killers and The Bravery – and they deserve major bonus points for managing to work in three decidedly disparate covers: Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” and Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down.”

Both before and after the band’s performance (but absolutely not during), I wander around Daytona Dodge and check out the various vehicles on display. Like I said, I’m not even remotely what you’d call a car guy, but even so, I’m thoroughly impressed with some of the old-school machines sitting in the showroom. I also get a preview of some of the cars I’ll be seeing at the speedway, including the pace car as well as the #22 racer belonging to Brad Keselowski.

I should also mention that Justin Allgaier, driver of the #12 Verizon Dodge Charger, popped by the dealership after the band finished playing. I never really had a chance to chat with him, as trying to do a formal interview with him would’ve only served to frustrate him and make me feel like a tool for my lack of knowledge on his career (not to mention racing in general), but he seemed like a nice enough fellow during our brief encounter.

About halfway through our time at Daytona Dodge, the final member of our party arrives: Jen Dunnaway, with CarDomain.com. Given her employer, you will be unsurprised to learn that Jen is very much a car person. As such, I am able to offer very little to the conversation when we reconvene for a post-concert dinner at Vince Carter’s, though it probably doesn’t help much that I’m incredibly tired both from my travels and from standing in the Florida heat and humidity while watching Atomic Tom’s performance. Still, the shrimp and grits were outstanding.

Once we return to the hotel, I’m out like a light within mere minutes of hitting the bed, secure in the knowledge that tomorrow will likely find me more out of my element that I have been in a very, very long time.

Day 2:

After a hearty buffet breakfast at the hotel, we head out for our first day at the races. Before heading to the speedway, we have to swing by and pick up our press credentials. There’s a bit of confusion during this process, though, starting with the fact that the credentialing headquarters is nowhere near the track…I mean, it’s a solid 5-minute drive away…and is somewhat tucked away so that it’s not visible from the main road, and Philip and Chuck look momentarily pale when they learn that, although there are credentials waiting for Jen and I, the same can’t be said for them. Fortunately, by the time they’ve left the designated registration area (which is located inside the trailer of 16-wheeler), they’re good to go as well, and we head onward.

Although we’ve been given a pass which provides us with preferential parking, it still turns out to be a pretty significant hike from the lot to the outskirts of the track. Later, however, I see people more than a mile away from the track who are still walking to where they’ve parked their cars, at which point I realize that, hike or not, we were still relatively well off.

The Daytona International Speedway is of a size that immediately brought to mind Douglas Adams’ observations on space, which would, if applied here, go something like this:

The Daytona International Speedway is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to the Daytona International Speedway.

I realize this reference is in no way familiar to those of you who have never basked in the genius of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but it’s nonetheless exactly what I found running through my head as I walked in and around the 2.5-mile circumference of this place. I can’t begin to guess how much walking I did over the course of the weekend, but it was definitely more than I’d expected before signing on to this venture. Indeed, one of the first things I discovered upon our arrival was that approaching the gates of the Speedway should in no way be perceived as a sign that you’re close to your actual destination.

Given our association with Dodge, we’d be setting up camp at their area within the Midway, which is actually on the outskirts of the Speedway…so, basically, we walked from the car to the Speedway, then we hung a left and kept on a’walkin’, passing by stages, souvenir booths, food stalls, other automotive manufacturers, and promotional areas for various and sundry companies and products. By the time we made it to the Dodge area, all of us were more than ready to take advantage of the air conditioning within the Dodge trailer.

After soaking up the chill for several minutes, not to mention downing a Gatorade, I decided to venture forth and explore the midway a bit. I was appropriately awed by the number of giant inflatable beverages and freely took advantage of a few complimentary samples (I can now officially confirm that Riunite is quite nice even when it’s not on ice), enjoyed seeing the various custom-designed trailers which served as the various racers’ merchandise booths, and, as you can see below, I figured I’d get into the spirit of the weekend by having my picture taken whenever a booth offered to do so.

Oh, and right around the time I was finishing my stroll, the aforementioned Mr. Allgaier swung by for an autograph session. I wasn’t there when he was doing his signing, but I did make it back in time to almost get hit by him as he drove off in his golf cart. Good times.

Okay, enough about the midway. After returning to the Dodge trailer, Philip and Chuck suggested that we head over to the infield of the track, so that I could see what things were like from that perspective. We descended into the tunnel which took us directly underneath the track itself…

…came out the other side, and kept on walking until we finally reached the infield area. Thankfully, our passes allowed to us to take a few shortcuts here and there, but it didn’t cut that much distance out of the trip. We took a quick look around, photos of which you’ll see directly below, and then grabbed some lunch. There was only one problem that I experienced, and it was one for which Philip, Chuck, and Jen apologized profusely, but…I wore shorts. One of my friends had made a comment to me before my trip that I’d want to wear long pants when visiting the pit area, but in the process of trying to prepare for the temperature of the speedway, I forgot his warnings and went for shorts for maximum comfort. Unfortunately, long pants aren’t just a good idea. They’re the law. Despite having a pass which granted me access to the garage area, I was refused entry because of my shorts. D’oh…

From there, we took a tram over to the grandstands, so that we could catch some of the drivers performing their qualifying rounds. (If you’re wondering why we didn’t take a tram to the infield, it’s because we would’ve had to walk farther from the midway to catch the tram than we would’ve to just walk straight to the infield.) It only took moments to realize that all the warnings I’d received from my friends about how the volume of the cars would be staggering were completely on the money. I never got around to purchasing any earplugs, mostly because my ears have already been damaged from years of concerts, anyway, but make no mistake: it was loud. It was also my first up-close look at the cars performing at top speeds, and it was truly a sight to behold as they roared past. In no way do my photos do it justice, although they at least give you a bit of the feeling of how quickly they were passing me by.

At this point, we retreated back to the Dodge trailer on the midway…walk, walk, walk…at which point Philip offered me the opportunity to head back to the hotel for a few hours and just chill out. I absolutely took advantage of this, although in typical fashion, I absolutely did not chill but, in fact, simply ended up getting on the computer and working. Even so, it was nice to be out of the heat and humidity for awhile. We returned to it soon enough, though, and I was kindly provided with a grandstand seat for the evening race: the Subway Jalapeno 250.

Philip and Chuck headed back over to the infield with Jen, who – being completely and totally in her element – was taking full advantage of the opportunity to bask in the car-ness of it all, interviewing drivers, exploring garages, and making the most of it all. (Indeed, we ended up leaving without her: she stuck around for the post-race press conference, so the guys dropped me back off at the hotel and then headed back to the track to pick her up.) Although I was now wearing long pants, it was a case of too-little-too-late, as the pits had shifted to “hot” mode because of the ongoing race, and we weren’t allowed in there with the passes we’d been given. Not that stopped Jen, you understand…

Earlier in the day, I’d been assured that NASCAR races are one of the few sporting events where it’s a good thing to have a seat in the nosebleed section. After hauling my already-tired ass and feet up more steps than I’d care to count, my feelings were that, based on that premise, my seat ought to be fucking awesome…and, as it turned out, it was. When I sat down and surveyed the track, I discovered that my vantage point allowed me to watch the cars all the way around, and I had the added bonus of a jumbotron screen in my line of sight as well, providing me with additional video coverage of the event. Now all I had to do was sit back, relax, and get into the right mindset.

I was somewhat surprised to find my heart soaring when I heard the four most famous words in auto racing: “Gentlemen, start your engines!” And when the cars roared into action, damned if my pulse wasn’t pounding. I didn’t expect to get so caught up in the event so quickly, but, man, I was really digging it. Unfortunately, the excitement proved short-lived. I found that I just wasn’t able to maintain that level of excitement. This isn’t something that I’m blaming on the event, though. I’m just not a competitive person by nature, so I found that, although it was undeniably awesome to see these drivers traversing the track at breakneck speeds, once I got past that, I didn’t have anything else to hold onto…and, frankly, I started to get bored. I felt a little embarrassed about it, but it’s true. Granted, it didn’t help things any that I was confused about how much more of the race was yet to come.

This was my problem: I thought that, since the race was called the Subway Jalapeno 250, there were going to be 250 laps. Even now, I am convinced that this is not a stupid thing to think. It was, however, completely incorrect. The 250 signifies the number of miles in the race…and since it’s a 2.5 mile track, that means it was only 100 laps. Unfortunately, I did not know this going in, so at the 50-lap mark, I’m, like, “Oh, my God, there is no way that I’m going to survive 200 more laps of this thing without falling asleep…and if I do that, these NASCAR fans are going to kick my ass!” And that would have absolutely been their right. Fortunately for me, however, it was soon after this moment of horror that I realized the error in my theory, and once I had, the final 50 laps positively zoomed by.

If you’re wondering, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ended up winning the race, and if you look carefully at the bottom of the above photo, you can see him making his reverse victory lap. I’m led to understand that it was a pretty big deal for him to have taken home the victory, so I tried to be appropriately impressed. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was regularly muted by a drunken lout a few rows in front of me who insisted on screaming “Junebug!” at the top of his lungs every time Earnhardt drove by.

Before I wrap up Day 2, then, let me just offer my impressions of my first NASCAR race as an adult. Despite fearing the worst at the 50-lap mark, I really was impressed with the experience, but I just don’t think I can ever be the kind of person who’d love the sport so much that he’d attend races whenever the opportunity arose. I absolutely understand why people love racing, because as I learned, it’s astonishingly easy to get a rush from the speed you’re witnessing. Beyond my non-competitive nature, though, the problem is that, although you’ve got a lot of fine, upstanding, intelligent individuals who thrill to the NASCAR experience, so many that they are almost certainly in the majority within the sport’s viewership, you’ve also got the loud, obnoxious, fashion-challenged, often-intoxicated individuals, and they are so loud and so in-your-face that they all but force you to be aware of them…and, my God, are they distracting. They may be the statistical minority, but, hey, no matter how high class a neighborhood may be, if you stick a ratty-ass trailer in the middle of it, it’s still going to bring the property value down dramatically, you know what I’m saying?

Day 3:

I’m not going to lie to you: when I woke up, I just was not feeling the Daytona Coke Zero 400. I’d been up late the night before because of the Subway Jalapeno 250, I had to get up relatively early, and, frankly, I couldn’t help but feel that maybe one NASCAR race was enough for me. And, yet, believe it or not, I had no one to blame but myself for my early rise and subsequent trip back to the track. Philip and Chuck had told me the night before that I had the option to just hang out at the hotel for the day, since there was no specific agenda ’til the Coke Zero 400 that evening, and you will not be surprised to learn that I was very seriously considering taking them up on their kind offer to do absolutely nothing. But something was gnawing at me, and I quickly realized what it was: the guilt that I knew I’d feel if I didn’t do something race-oriented for this article.

No, seriously. I really do have that kind of work ethic, and I really fucking hate it sometimes. But what can you do? I’ve been instilled with it, and I’m stuck living with it. And, so, Philip, Chuck, Jen, and I piled in the car, first stopping at Starbucks, then heading to the track for the NASCAR Rolex Grand Am Series race. Honestly, this is what made me want to come to the track: Chuck had played it up as being a more European-styled race, and I wanted to see what it was all about. It turned out to be pretty cool…well, you know, up to that same point when I’d been sufficiently impressed by the speed of it all. Unfortunately, looking at this shot, which I took during the race, you can see that Americans can’t seem to muster much enthusiasm for Grand Am racing, which seems a real shame.

I can’t really blame them, of course, given that I got bored pretty quickly, too. As the others walked back to…actually, I don’t know where they were, but they weren’t with me, anyway, because I’d decided that I just needed to step away from the racing for awhile. How did I accomplish this? By walking over to the Barnes & Noble across the way from the speedway. It felt like a total cop-out even as I was doing it, but I have no regrets. I spent about 45 minutes over there, totally recharged my batteries, and found myself once again ready to take on the world…or, if not the world, at least another NASCAR race.

As I walked back, however, the batteries began to be drained again. Fortunately, when I made it back to the Dodge trailer to meet the rest of the bunch, I was greeted with a surprise: we’d been provided with the opportunity to tootle around the area in a Dodge golfcart.

And tootle we did, getting a chance to explore the depths of the infield without having to exhaust ourselves in the process. Let me tell you this: you have never seen so many trailers and wading pools in your life. Race fans are permitted to set up camp in the middle of the track, which is a pretty cool idea, but, my God, the water in some of the wading pools – which, as you may have guessed, are a cheap and easy way to keep cool while you’re hanging outside – looked absolutely disgusting. Seriously, one looked like it may or may not have had some degree of fermentation going on. Despite grotesque imagery such as this, the opportunity to explore the nooks and crannies was a lot of fun. We soon parked the vehicle, headed into the actual infield on foot, and got the chance to stroll around as well as enjoy a free concert by Darius Rucker, late of Hootie and the Blowfish.

As you can probably tell from the photos, the weather was less than wonderful, and not long after this, the rain began to fall. Fortunately, we were able to get back to Dodge headquarters to return the golf cart before the deluge started, but since they were preparing to close up shop for the race, we had to move our stuff elsewhere. Because it was starting to rain, I asked Philip if he’d stash my electronic equipment in his bag, which he kindly did, and we made the group decision to take our bags to the car. I followed suit, as I had dutifully been doing all weekend, and as the rain fell on us, I continued to do my best to maintain their pace. I didn’t succeed, but, by God, I tried…well, up to a point, anyway. Finally, as the rain poured down on us, we made it to the car, and we decided to wait out the storm in the car, since we knew that the rain was going to cause the race to be delayed, anyway. It was at that point I explained to the group why my pace had slowed so dramatically at the end: it was because I realized that I was a complete dumbass. I didn’t even have a bag. I never needed to go on that walk in the first place!

Eventually, the rain stopped, and so we headed back to the track. Philip and Jen returned to the infield, Chuck and I took our seats in the grandstand, and we watched as they dried the track so that they might get down to racing. It took a little while, but the race finally got started about an hour and a half after it had originally been set to kick off. Chuck and I stuck it out in the grandstands for the first 2/3 of the event, but we eventually decided to meet the others in the infield…and, frankly, our timing couldn’t have been worse. I’m not saying that I was happy when there were accidents during the races, but I won’t lie to you: the adrenaline does tend to start pumping when metal starts twisting and fire begins to burst forth from the cars, and the biggest one of the entire weekend happened right in front of where we were sitting. Unfortunately, the emphasis is on “were.” We were already in the infield when the accident took place, so our vantage point, which would’ve been spectacular, ended up being virtual nil.

Here’s what happened:

Rough stuff, that…and, by then, I was feeling pretty rough myself. By the time the race finally ended (which still took quite some time, since there was yet another accident a few laps later) and we got back to the hotel, it was almost 1:00 AM…and I had to be up at 4:00 AM in order to get to the airport and catch a 6:00 AM flight back to Norfolk. If you do the math, you can imagine that I spent the next day pretty well wiped out. But I will say this: because of the weather delay and the various accidents, the race didn’t end until after midnight, which means that I was watching the post-race fireworks on the 4th of July. That was pretty awesome…and so, it must be said, was the majority of the trip.

Whether you’re a NASCAR fan or not, if you ever get the chance to attend a NASCAR race, you should absolutely take advantage of the opportunity. Even if you find yourself getting bored at some point during the event, the rush you’ll get when the race begins…there’s really nothing quite like it.

When I arrived at the Dodge dealership in Daytona for Atomic Tom’s performance, it was suggested that I might want to sit down with the guys in the band for a chat, and since even with my current TV vs. music handicap, I still know wayyyyyyy more about music than I do about cars, I didn’t hesitate for a moment to break out my recorder. The only problem…? I was just off my flight and hadn’t had much of a chance to do my usual pre-interview research. As such, I tried to break the ice by casually acknowledging my lack of knowledge on the group’s back story.

Bullz-Eye: So, first, if you don’t mind, you could really save me a bit of time if you’d just go ahead and run through the complete history of the band… (Laughs)

Tobias Smith: Well, wait, who are you? (Laughs)

BE: Oh, I’m just this guy, you know?

TS: (Laughs) You’re a live blogger, is that right?

BE: Oh, God, no. I’m not that fast. (Laughs) I’m a writer and editor for a web magazine called Bullz-Eye.com.

TS: Where are you based?

BE: Norfolk, VA. Virginia Beach, that whole area.

Luke White: I’m from Virginia. A little north of you, though. Manassas.

Eric Espiritus: I’m from Fairfax, actually.

BE: Nice. Well, I was born at Norfolk General, and I never really left.

TS: Well, you’re here now! (Laughs) So what’s the site like? Do you talk a lot about music?

BE: It’s pop culture, across the board. It’s a guy’s site, really. It started mostly as an excuse to put up bikini girls and sports scores, but it’s evolved quite a bit. Don’t worry, though: there’s still a lot of bikini girls. No nudity, though.

TS: Well, that’s good, because we’re a family… (Hesitates) We’re not really a family band, are we? But we don’t have any swearing in our music, though.

Philip Galitzine: No, we haven’t gotten there yet.

LW: Maybe on the second or third record we’ll get around the putting the parental advisory sticker on there.

BE: Maybe during your rebellious period.

TS: Exactly! We’ll also put out a Christian album to come back from that.

LW: Then the folk/acoustic record.

TS: Sure, but not until long after the greatest-hits album…which, by the way, will be our second album. (Laughs)

LW: You do know he’s recording all of this, right?

TS: (Spots the recorder on the table) Oh, God, you’re already recording? Well, then, look, let me just say this right now: we are a very serious band, and we do not joke around.

(Predictably, the entire band bursts into laughter at this comment.)

TS: So, I’m sorry, you said you wanted a history of the band?

BE: (Laughs) If you don’t mind. How did Atomic Tom first come together?

LW: I moved to New York in 2005 and started writing demos and putting them together with Philip here, who was born and raised in New York City.

BE: How did you two first cross paths?

PG: A mutual friend.

LW: Yeah, a mutual friend.

PG: This drummer that I was friends with and who went to school with, he was playing with Luke at the time and just doing demos, and he put me in touch with Luke to get started.

LW: And then this guy… (Motions to Eric) …came on board in 2007. He moved down from Boston, started playing some shows with us, got sold on the idea, and…as soon as he came on board, it was just, like, a big green light, ‘cause he’s a great songwriter and singer in his own right, and he really helped start develop the guitar side of things.

EE: Yeah, we knew each other from Boston, and we have a lot of mutual friends.

LW: And then we bumped into this guy… (Motions to Tobias) …when we were on tour in Toronto. He was actually playing for the band opening for us, and a couple of nights later, we said we needed a drummer, and he came down, auditioned three times… (Laughs)

TS: Really? We’re gonna talk about that?

LW: (Laughs) …and pretty much the moment we said, “Yeah, this is the guy,” things started to just take shape. We went into the studio last summer with what we thought were the ten strongest songs that we had, spent three months recording, started mixing in December or January, and finished the record in March.

BE: Who produced it?

LW: Ben Romans, who’s a good mutual friend of ours. We went to school with him.

TS: He’s a really, really talented musician, a keyboard player, and just all-around really talented.

BE: How did you come up with the name of the band?

(There is a notable silence in the room, though it is accompanied by much smirking.)

PG: Atomic Tom is the world’s smallest superhero.

EE: And that’s all we’re going to say.

BE: I feel like there’s a back story there that’s just screaming to be told.

PG: Yes. And at some point, it will come out.

TS: Maybe on the greatest-hits album?

LW: That’s all we know about Atomic Tom: that he’s the world’s smallest superhero. We have to find out more about Atomic Tom himself at this point.

(The smirking continues, along with a bit of quiet laughter, but it’s clear by this point that there will be no further revelations about the life and times of the world’s smallest superhero, so I decide to let the matter drop.)

BE: Okay, here’s a predictable one: what are your musical influences? Or, to be more specific, in what direction did you guys decide to go when you first started writing songs together? Did you have a style in mind from the get-go?

LW: Yeah, I mean, I think we really like things that are…well, in 2004, I guess I was listening to bands like The Killers and The Bravery and a lot of those new wave styled bands, and I was really fascinated by that. I’m a huge lover of anything from the ‘80s: New Order, The Cure, and those type of bands that use keyboards and electronics and have melodies that intersect with each other and use their instruments in unique ways. That’s what I tried to do with some of the first demos, and having all four of us together kind of really made that happen a lot more. Everybody kind of brought their own musicality, and the four of us definitely…

PG: I think that, as we got closer and closer to the album process, we, along with the producer, kind of took that vision and expanded on it. I think all four of us started to develop a real friendly relationship with rock/pop music, stuff like Kings of Leon, Coldplay…

TS: (With mock horror) Coldplay?!?

PG: Yes! A lot of people would consider them to be guilty pleasures, maybe, but I love their songwriting. I think it’s…those guys, the way that they made those records, are genius. The newer Phoenix record is another example of that. It’s pop music, but it’s just, like, “Oh, my God, I just want to keep listening to this!” And I think that we came from that era of the ‘80s-influenced kind of rock and took it and made it a bigger and more accessible sound. We just made it poppier, to put it succinctly.

EE: Yeah, I think we definitely…I mean, initially, there was definitely a lot of that ‘80s influence, and I think all of us share that, but we also come from different musical backgrounds as well, all stemming from that desire for good pop melodies, stuff that people can sing along to. We like an edge and a sophistication in the music as well. We like rock ‘n’ roll. We just came from different places and shaped it into this nice mix, this combination of rock.

BE: Yeah, actually, I was going to ask what you guys each brought to the table, as far as your individual musical backgrounds.

EE: Well, like, for me, I grew up playing a lot of Van Halen and stuff like that. I love Van Halen from the guitar standpoint. The Beatles and the Beach Boys are two of my huge influences as far as melodies and songwriting. Great pop songs. And, I mean, I try to keep up with modern music. I don’t do it as much as I used to, but ,yeah, I love Coldplay and Kings of Leon. The Killers brought something really amazing when they came out. Weezer. I love Weezer.

PG: Weezer’s another good one. For me…I started out listening to a lot of grunge, then moved from grunge to jam bands. Typical kind of adolescent progression. But by the time I was in college, I was listening to a lot of stuff that not a lot of people were listening to. I was listening to, like, UK drum and bass music, and then I kind of went from that and got into some strange electronica music and came into pop music that way…and, gradually, as that become poppier and poppier, that influenced my style a lot. It’s funny: I think we all have these different areas that we came from, but they all intersect with each other nicely.

TS: I came from more of a singer/songwriter thing. I grew up listening to my parents’ music. I don’t listen to the music that I once did as a kid, but I listen to, like, Pete Yorn and Dashboard Confessional and stuff like that. Even John Mayer, although I think…you know, we should probably strike that from the record. I might lose my indie credibility for saying that.

BE: I will indicate that your fingers were crossed at the time. (Laughs)

LW: I grew up loving a lot of the ‘80s new wave. I’d say my favorite kind of music is just that anthemic rock/pop stuff. I grew up just loving U2, and, yeah, I like Coldplay. New Order I mentioned earlier, and those kinds of bands. Weezer is one of my favorite bands, definitely. I feel like my musical journey really happened over the past ten years, to be honest with you. Growing up, I was into a lot of jazz, because my father’s a jazz musician. Bebop, jazz from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. But in terms of simple, melodic pop songs, that journey has really been over the last 10 years. I had a lot of catching up to do.

BE: Given that you guys have kind of a retro sound, do you ever find it a struggle to maintain a contemporary sound while still paying tribute to those sonic influences?

TS: I think no. And I think no because I think we all bring…everybody has their own flavor. Everybody has their own style in this band. Like, I’m always going to hit the drums really hard, and everybody’s going to play balls-out rock, usually. I think that with all of our different influences, I think it brings something that’s sort of unique while being a rock band with pop sensibilities, so…I don’t think it’s ever been a struggle for us to create a sound that we felt was current, because I don’t think we sound exactly like anyone, that’s for sure. We definitely pay our respects to many, many different artists, though.

PG: Good music carries over, I think. Like, U2 playing “Sunday Bloody Sunday” now sounds just as amazing as it did when they were playing in 1983 or whenever, and I think that we’re all aware of the past but of the present. In fact, working with Ben on the record for as long as we did made us even more aware of the present state of music. Ben was playing stuff for us like Britney Spears’ record, and we’re, like, “Okay, we can see the merits in this.” I mean, yeah, ultimately, it’s fluff, but at the same time, we’re asking, “All right, well, why are people buying this? Why are people wanting to listen to this? Why is it addictive?” And we kind of became students of that when we were making the record.

EE: Yeah, I mean, we’re definitely aware of a lot of the stuff that’s going on now and in the top 40. We definitely keep our eye on what’s hot and everything.

LW: I guess it just kind of comes down to the four of us creating music that’s our own thing. Modern, retro, whatever you want to call it. We synthesize it all, and it feels fresh to us.

BE: What are you guys doing for touring? Is it club gigs, or are you going to be opening for someone?

TS: Yeah, we’re doing club gigs now. Hopefully, in the next couple of months…the single’s going to get a big push on radio in August, and at that point, we’re hoping to do some national touring and, later, international touring.

EE: We’d love to be able to get on a good supporting-act tour. That’d be great.

PG: It’s about just getting in front of as many people as possible. So if there’s a band that likes our music and has a huge fan base, then we’ll be happy to introduce ourselves to their fan base. (Laughs)

BE: What are your hopes for your Universal debut and for the future, given the state of the industry?

TS: Well, we want to sell at least 100 copies.

PG: 100 to 150 copies.

TS: Really? 150 might be pushing it. But I think that if we got to 100, we’d be pretty happy.

PG: Yeah, but my mom is gonna buy 2 copies, and so are all of my family, so I think we might even push 250.

TS: No way.

PG: Yeah. For reals.

TS: Holy shit.

EE: Yeah, I mean, if we each buy 50, we’ll be pretty close.

TS: I can’t afford 50 albums!

PG: Maybe when it goes on sale on Amazon for six bucks. Download of the Day! (Laughs) But, you know, we’re on Universal / Republic, they’re very excited about the record, and…we have high hopes. I mean, I don’t know how else to put it. They’ve had a lot of success with a lot of bands in the past.

LW: Owl City.

PG: Yeah, Owl City was this pop act that just blew up. Godsmack has been with them for a long time, and they do really well on Modern Rock. Yeah, the label’s been great, so, personally, I have a lot of faith in them to get the record heard by as many people as possible. That’s the ultimate goal. That’s what we hope for: to get it heard by everyone.

LW: Labels are a marketing machine, for sure, and we definitely look at this as a slow-build process for us. We’ve got to keep working our asses off, keep writing, keep touring, keep doing our thing, hope that we’re connecting with new fans and potential fans and people we’ve never met before who are just seeing and hearing what we’ve done, what we’ve written, what we’ve created. And we’ll see how they’re reacting to it and what it’s doing for them.

EE: Yeah, we got signed based on an album that we were doing completely independently. The label…when we recorded our album, we were, like, “Okay ,the next thing we have to do is record an album.” So we recorded our ten songs…

PG: …not expecting to get signed at all…

EE: Yeah, not at all. We were just doing what we wanted to do, and we did it pretty much in our friend’s apartment in Brooklyn, but we were really proud of it. It was great because there was no label involved. We did it 100% the way we wanted to do it, and it was great that the label wanted to work with us. They believed in what we were doing, basically.

LW: We don’t really have, other than our performance, anything else to bring to the table. We’re not one of those bands with 5 billion YouTube plays or MySpace fans or Facebook friends. We’ve definitely been getting a lot over the past couple of months, which is great, but they said that the reason that they signed us was based completely on the record, which is a really cool feeling.

PG: Yeah, to know that we made something ourselves with our friends that could compete on that level.

LW: Most bands that are signed have, like, a lot more going on than we did at the time. We were just kind of minding our own business, and it just sort of happened.

PG: We were expecting to just do our own thing and go our own way, but now we’ve got this legitimate shot with a great partner in Universal / Republic.

EE: And they’re all really, really cool.

PG: Yeah, it’s the coolest place.

LW: No, that’s Disneyworld, isn’t it?

PG: Yeah, it might be. But Universal / Republic is definitely a close second. (Laughs)

BE: How did you guys get hooked up with Dodge?

LW: They visited us. We were playing this TV show for Fearless Music in New York, and I guess they brought Dodge to the stage because they were hoping to connect with them. We kind of looked at that opportunity as, “Okay, we need a van.” (Laughs)

PG: But we met with the Dodge people, and they seemed really down to earth in a way that I certainly wasn’t expecting. I mean, they genuinely seemed excited about the music we were playing, and they were excited about how it could work for them. It was just much more relaxed than I thought it was going to be. It was actually very cool.

TS: They flew out the CEO, Ralph Gilles. He came, and he was a really cool guy. We got along because he’s Canadian and I’m Canadian… (Laughs) …but, yeah, they were good people, and we’ve been talking to them ever since.

LW: We’ve talked about sponsorship opportunities, maybe using a song here and there, maybe something like Phoenix did with the Cadillac commercial. Just seeing what kind of opportunities are there. We’ll see what happens.

After our chat, the guys from Atomic Tom headed out to the stage that had been set up for them in the parking lot of Daytona Dodge, and despite some decidedly uncooperative weather conditions which led to a smaller-than-hoped audience, the guys put on the same performance they would’ve offered to a sold-out crowd, interspersing two sets worth of original material with a trio of covers that confirmed their disparate influences: Van Halen’s “Running with the Devil,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” and Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down.” There’s no question about it: Luke was born to be a frontman, Eric’s a full-fledged guitar hero, and Tobias and Philip are all about rocking the rhythm. See them now while they’re still up and coming, because if the stars align as they should, Atomic Tom’s stock is going to be rising in rapid-fire fashion.

Between sets, while the guys cooled down, I caught up with Fred DePerez, head of Dodge Product Marketing, and asked him to tell me a bit more about the initiative that brought Dodge to team up with Atomic Tom.

Bullz-Eye: So tell me a little bit of back story about this promotion you’ve got going with Atomic Tom, if you will.

Fred DePerez: Sure! As the Dodge brand re-launches itself into the marketplace, we’re looking to reinvent ourselves, and one of the things that we want to do that ties us to the past but will also tie us to the future is to really have a presence around those things that people are passionate about. When you look at our heritage cars of the past, these are things that people…I mean ,they love these cars with a passion, and they will always love these cars with a passion, and Dodge is about continuing to build cars that people are passionate about. But at the same time, it’s not just about the cars. It’s also about the lifestyle. The Dodge lifestyle is about living life to the fullest, it’s about when others say “no” to driving, we say, “Yes!” (Laughs) We’re about loving the actual act of driving your vehicles, and when we look at what some others are doing in different areas, like music, we see that same kind of passion. We see some of these bands, like Atomic Tom, that have been working at this for many, many years and have finally gotten to a point where they’re ready to show the world what they’ve put together. At the end of the day, it’s about taking the passion of cars, taking the passion in music, putting them together, and bringing them to our customers so they can enjoy it. So that’s kind of how this all started. It’s very, very grass-roots. Sometimes you get into these endeavors and it’s about how big an act you can get and how big a name you can get. That’s not really what we’re about. What we’re trying to do is something very organic, very grass-roots. We’re actually going out there and finding these bands, and we have some partners that are helping us do that. We think it’s a great fit for where the brand’s going.

BE: Do you yourself get out there to check out the bands?

FD: Yeah, actually, I was down at Crash Mansion earlier this year, in the Bowery, in New York City, and Fearless Music was doing a taping for their TV show, and Atomic Tom was one of the bands that was playing. And you know what? Obviously, from a music standpoint, they’re great, but they’re also…when you get to talk to them and get to know them as people a little bit, it’s just a great group of guys, very passionate about what they do. Right away, we thought, “What a great way to help them move along in their career, and for them to help us connect better with our customers through something that everybody’s really, really passionate about,” which is music.

BE: I presume Dodge is doing to have a bigger web presence, now that you’ll be working with musical artists.

FD: Yeah, we’re working on a couple of different things right now, and one of those is revamping our web presence to include not just the ability to find our cars, price and build our cars, see what’s going on in the automotive side of the business, but also from a lifestyle perspective. We want people to know what Dodge is about. Dodge is about peak performance, which is why we’re into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. We’re about passionate living and being full of life and this “forever young” attitude, and that’s why we’re into music. We’re also into motorsports and NASCAR, because we’re about automotive excellence as well. You take all of these things together, and you can find them in bits and pieces out on the blogosphere and on the websites, but there is no one place where you can go to find out where Dodge is all about, and we’re in the process of creating that.

BE: Are there any other bands on your radar at the moment who’ll be participating that you can talk about?

FD: (Grins) Can’t talk about any right now, but, yes, there are some more bands that’ll be a part of our whole lifestyle platform. I don’t want to say too much! (Laughs) Part of what we’re trying to do is…we’re trying to have this evolve. This is the first event we’ve done, we’ll learn from today, we’ll talk to some of the people out here, we’ll learn how to do these things better. We think we have a great opportunity with some of our partners to find great talent. Fearless Music is one of them, but there are some other partners that we’re looking at as well. I think this is one of those things where you don’t want to force it. You want it to be kind of driven organically from the grass-roots perspective. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now.

BE: So there’s no one behind the scenes rushing you guys to move faster?

FD: No. This is something internally that, when we sat down as the senior leadership of the Dodge brand to think about who we’re going to become, we… (Pauses) Dodge will be 100 years old in 2014, and as you know, over the years, it’s had a lot of great products, a lot of great successes. But so have our competitors. And now it’s time to reevaluate where the brand is and really freshen its identity to people. That’s what we’re in the process of doing right now. We hope people like the concert. We think it’s cool to be involved with music, and we want to keep bringing music to places like this, whether it’s Daytona or dealerships across the country or Rock ‘N’ Roll marathons. We want to keep bringing music to the people as a way to show the passion that we have for life and this whole “forever young” mindset. We’re trying to continue to make people understand that that’s what Dodge is all about.