How about some in car action?

From a Car of Tomorrow test at Nashville Super Speedway courtesy of KHamlin Racing.

The News Dump: August 20th

Texaco leaving NASCAR: After sponsoring NASCAR teams for the last 20 years. Texaco Havoline has decided to leave the sport at the end of the year leaving Juan Pablo Montoya and the Chip Ganassi to find new sponsorship in 2009. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR handed down stiff penalties to the Joe Gibbs Nationwide Series teams for placing magnets under the throttle of their cars before a dyno test. Both teams have had thier crew cheifs, thier car chiefs and thier engine tuners, indenfietly susepnded. And both teams lost 150 driver and owener points [NASCAR PR via Jayski.com]

Ken Schrader will attempt to get the Hall of Fame racing team back on track Satuday night in Bristol [Scenedaily.com]

Current Indycar Points Leader Scott Dixon will join De Ferran Motorsports for the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October [Autosport.com]

The News Dump: August 19th

NASCAR- Newman in 39 for 2009: Last night on his radio show Tony Stewart said that his driver Ryan Newman will drive with the number 39 in 2009, not 4. Should make those crybaby Morgan-McClure boys happy. [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR- 2009 Schedules Announced: NASCAR Announced the schedules for the three big series. The Sprint Cup Series Schedule had a big date swap as Atlanta Motor Speedway will have their second race on Labor Day Weekend. California Speedway will get a date in the chase in October and Talladega Speedway will get a new date in November.

Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series will visit the Iowa Speedway in 2009 and the Truck Series will have the Chicagoland Speedway as a new venue. [Scenedaily.com]

Too much, too soon?

Over the last few months we’ve seen and heard about the great talent that Joe Gibbs Racer Joey Logano has. Last year he took the Camping World Series East Championship and in May he won the inaugural Carolina 500 in the ARCA Series, all before his 18th birthday. In his third nationwide series start he took victory at the Kentucky Speedway becoming the youngest victory winner in any of NASCAR’s three big series. Now there are plans that young Joey Logano will inherit Tony Stewart’s vacant Sprint Cup seat next year. Which leaves me to wonder, is he ready for this big ride?

We’ve seen in the past how drivers that started racing in the Cup Series with very little seat time behind the wheel of a stock car have failed miserably. A notable example would include Casey Atwood who drove started driving in Sprint Cup with Ray Evernham at the young age of 19. After a ho-hum rookie season in 2001, he was moved over to a new ride that Evernham had teamed with Jim Smith, but the partnership dissolved and left Atwood with out a ride. Atwood has never found a new full time ride he still gets the occasional ride here or there.

A more current example would include Michael McDowell. McDowell finshed 2nd in the ARCA/Remax Championship last year and was tapped by Micheal Waltrip to drive his 00 car starting at the 6th race of the year in Martinsville. How was McDowell prepared for this big opportunity? He had one Nationwide start at Daytona. McDowell is now out of the 00 while hired gun Mike Skinner now tries to get the team back in the top 35 in points.

Even the new onslaught of open wheel drivers has had trouble getting adjusted to getting adjusted. Names like Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr, Patrick Carpentier and A.J. Allmendinger have all struggled getting adjusted to the Sprint Cup series and all have few starts in the Nationwide Series or the Truck Series. More starts would have helped them get used to handling these heavy beasts of a car.

So is Logano ready for prime time? Maybe. Being with an experienced team like Joe Gibbs Racing will help. All the other drivers listed in this little rant are not on the best of times. But certainly more track time could help and lets hope JGR has the horse sense to keep him in the Nationwide Series a little longer.

Newman to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009

So it will be Ryan Newman that will drive the 4 car for Tony Stewart in 2009. Well, no surprise there as Ryan had been pretty much the driver Tony has been eyeing his fellow Hoosier for this ride during the past few months. So the announcement this morning at the Micihigan International Speedway pretty much confirmed it.

Of course they’re just glad to be teaming up with each other. "It's just a great opportunity," Newman said. "I think a lot of Tony from a personal standpoint as well as a driving standpoint. Talking to Tony and his people, it seemed to be the best decision for the right reasons."

“The thing that impressed me the most about Ryan was he asked me all the right questions from day one," Stewart said. Sponsorship for Newman’s car has yet to be determined at this moment, but those dominoes will fall soon enough.

Carl Edwards used to date her

Yes, once upon a time Carl Edwards use to date Olympic swimming goddess Amanda Beard. Eventually they went their separate ways (I think it was because Carl kept bringing his mommy to all their dates and Amanda found to that be very creepy). So what is Amanda up these days?

Well when shes not choking up at the Beijing Olympics to people twice her age. She can be found teaming up with PETA campaigning against the use of fur in fashion. Well whoopity freaking do. Hey, we're on top of the food chain, you animal hugging freaks, deal with it! While I may support naked chicks, I surely don't support animal rights groups. Animals don't have rights, you know why? Because they don't have the brain power to get up and make a stand, but I'm sure they will in the near future.

So for now take advantage of our furry little friends while you can before they learn to strike back. I know I will and let us hope that Carl will stop listening to his momma's rants about how girls are "the devil" and bag him a nice one. Now excuse me while I go and make myself a nice bacon and turducken sandwhich. Mmmm, taste like america!

Your Random NASCAR News Update for July 28th

Adios, Mexico: After four years of racing south of the border, the NASCAR Nationwide Series will not return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2009. Attendance at the race in Mexico has dropped every year since the series started racing south of the border in 2005.

"This was never about a single event. The big idea was to strengthen motorsports in Mexico," said Robbie Weiss, NASCAR’s vice-president of its international efforts. "We didn't create racing in Mexico and it has a long heritage, but in reality the racing market down there was very fragmented.

"The idea was could we help relaunch and strengthen the Mexican motorsports community with the big idea of launching a national championship that would be the most significant championship in the country."

And so far the idea of launching a National Championship has worked with the NASCAR Corona Mexico Series, which is holding 14 races this year. Unfortunately holding major series race down there has not worked. In my opinion, I think the lack of drivers from Mexico up in the Nationwide Series running is probably what keeps the race in Mexico from being any more successful.

The Nationwide Series will race at a new venue in 2009 to replace the Mexico race and the most likely candidate to take its place is the Iowa Speedway.

NASCAR removes Mexico City from schedule [thatsracin.com]

Petty taking another weekend off: Kyle Petty is taking another week off from driving his Cup car, but with usual fill-in driver Terry Labonte driving for Evernham Motorsports this week means that the Petty Enterprises team will have to find another driver to fill in for Petty. Most likely Chad McCumbee, who failed to qualify with Petty’s car, may be that driver. This move is making some people speculate that Kyle Petty’s career as a driver may be slowly coming to an end. Petty has not been behind the wheel of the 45 car since the Coca-Cola 600 back in May.

Petty out at Pocono [ESPN.com]

Newman not on Joe Gibbs Racing’s wish list: Ryan Newman is leaving Penske Racing at the 2008, but don’t count on Joe Gibbs Racing to be his destination in 2009. JGR President J.D.Gibbs said that Newman isn’t the person they’re looking for to replace Tony Stewart’s empty seat in 2009.

"It would be hard," Gibbs said before the Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Another time, another day, maybe. He's a great individual. You would love to have him on your team. It’s just all those ducks aren't in a row."

Gibbs also denied the possibility of JGR expanding to four teams in 2009.

Newman’s most likely replacement at Penske Racing, David Stremme, is feeling pretty upbeat about maybe driving the 12 car in 2009: “We’ve talked,” Stremme told NASCAR Scene on Saturday at O’Reilly Raceway Park. “Obviously, I’m doing testing for them. But there are a lot of opportunities open, too.

“Who wouldn’t want to be racing for Roger Penske? He’s very successful in motorsports. I like how they do their program,” Stremme continued. “I just want to run good, and I want to be around people that want to race and perform,” Stremme said. “I can get right back in there and be competitive. I’m in the cars about every week testing.

“It’d be cool to get to drive for him - or another organization. But it’d be neat really for him because his reputation in motorsports and the success he’s had.” Stremme has talked to

Newman's List Getting Shorter [ESPN.com]

Stremme has talked to Penske Racing about driving No. 12 in 2009 [Scenedaily.com]

Dr. Stewart and Mr. Tony

If its one thing you have to know about Tony Stewart is that he is not one to mess with when hes having a bad day. Just look at him during the altercation with the USAC official last Thursday night. Boy, was he pissed:



But the amazing thing is that even with the debacle on Sunday, Tony was in good spirits. I was expecting, and I'm sure a lot of other people were expecting, for Tony verbally tear someone a new one as soon as the race ended on Sunday, but instead he had this to say:

"Just a tough day," Stewart said in a statment via his PR person. "There are really no other words to describe it."

Maybe, Tony was just choosing his words carefully to avoid the possible firestorm he would receive from the press and NASCAR had he gone off about how crappy the tires were on Sunday.

Who knows. Hopefully, Tony can keep his cool like this more often.

Stewart Mum on Tires [Tampa Tribune]

Johnson wins a depressing Brickyard 400

Well folks, I don’t know what to say. In my mind yesterday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of the most that was one of the most pitiful races I ever watched. Sure, Jimmie Johnson had a great car and captured his second Brickyard win along with the 48 Lowe’s team, but what I saw yesterday was definitely not a race. If you were living under a rock yesterday and missed the race, you were probably one of the lucky ones. The tires that Goodyear brought were totally terrible; they couldn’t even last more than ten to 15 laps before blowing out. The tires looked the same every time they were pulled off with the cords showing due to severe wear. The rubber wouldn’t even stick to the track instead it became dust that blew away in the wind. This pathetic race was just mind blowing, but now everyone wants to know who is to blame?

The finger of course was pointed towards NASCAR and Goodyear for not handling the tire situation in a logical fashion. The first mistake that NASCAR made was not to have an open test at Indy this year like they do every year instead they only had a little tire test in which they only invited three teams to participate. They could have also used a different compound come race time, but they decided to stick with unreliable tire.

NASCAR VP of competition, Robin Pemberton said after the race on Sunday to Autosport.com that many of the solutions thought of wouldn’t help out one bit. "I think when you have an open test things like that have already been decided," Pemberton said. "I don't think an open test here would've done enough for us, it wouldn't have helped, I don't think.

"You may have had enough issues that you'd have gone back and redesigned the tires, but I don't know if we could've gone with that in time. Hindsight is always 20/20, I think we'll just learn from this experience and try to do a better job next year."

Other people tried to blame the abusive track surface at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the problems that were occurred on Sunday, but Pemberton denied that as a cause for the problems, instead he thinks that racing with the Car of Tomorrow for the first time at Indy may have caused the issues.

"This isn't the first time we've raced here with the surface the way it is, and in the past we've been able to accomplish what we need to accomplish," Pemberton said. "So to pick on the surface wouldn't be fair. I think the new car, and probably not having a test here, probably didn't help us at all. You can say that surface is abrasive, but we have been able to accomplish a full fuel run here in the past."
"We have to anticipate where the tires and the competition are going to meet on Sunday afternoon," he added. "We have challenges when we develop tires here because you have such a dramatic change in surface grip as the track rubbers in. You can make everybody happy on Friday, miserable on Saturday, and really miserable on Sunday, or you can come back and work best at trying to achieve the right grip when it comes to Sunday afternoon."

Pemberton also believed that not having any support races at Indy was the cause to the problems either.

Problems pushed aside a few good things did happen on Sunday, A.J. Allmendinger got his first career top 10 in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition, getting he and his Red Bull team ever closer to the top 35 in owner points. Elliot Sadler and Jamie McMurray got their best finishes of the season finishing 4th and 6th respectively. And with Johnson’s win Hendrick Motorsports got their first win of the season that didn’t involve fuel mileage, (with the way race was run, fuel mileage wouldn’t have been a factor anyway). The Sprint Cup Series moves on to Pocono where they and fans like I will hope that the memories of this race will disappear like a bad television series.

NASCAR to learn from tyre debacle [Autosport.com]

Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman just love to hate each other

It's a fact that Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman had a strained relationship during their time together at Penske Racing, but even now with Rusty retired and running his own team and also being a "media personality"at ESPN, it doesn't mean that mudslinging between he and Newman has calmed down any. For example, look at the comments that good ol' Rusty made yesterday on Newman's departure from the team that will occur at the end of the year.

"I'll clear this leaving thing up," Wallace said on Friday. "He didn't leave. Roger called Ryan up to his office and said, 'I don't need your services next year.' Ryan didn't come to him and say he's leaving. You all need to write that. That's exactly how it went down. "Obviously, there was some bad blood there when that happened. I love Roger, so I'm going to help clear up the story for him."

Of course, team boss Roger Penske and Newman quickly fired back saying that it didn't go down that way. "I have read Rusty's comments and it is important for everyone to understand that I did not fire Ryan," Penske said. "His contract runs though 2008 and we sat down and agreed that we were not going forward beyond this year."

"I don't know what Rusty is trying to prove, but that's not the case," Newman said. "Roger and I agreed not to continue our association. If anything, it was me more than him. Our goals didn't align." Yeah, like the goal of having Mr. Penske care about his NASCAR team for once.

*Sigh* Why can't we all just get along?

He said, she said: Wallace claims Newman forced out at Penske [ESPN.com]

Hey, they're racing at the Brickyard this weekend

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes it annual trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard (damn insurance companies). All the focus this weekend is on Indiana’s favorite son, Tony Stewart who is the defending winner of the race and also won it back in 2005. Earlier today Tony announced that the number that he would race with in the 2009 season, the number 14. Tony chose because it was the number that his own hero the grand champion, 4-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt drove with in his career. Tony also announced that he would have Old Spice (perfect gift for your Dad on Father’s Day when you’re too lazy to get him something good) and Office Depot. No word though on who will drive or sponsor the second car.

Tony is also in the news after he got into an altercation with a USAC Sprint Car official during a race at nearby Indianapolis O’Reilly Raceway Park when the official refused to order a push truck to go and help Tony’s driver, Tracy Hines. Tony knocked off the official’s headphones and shoved him. Tony, of course, regrets the incident.

Winning at the Brickyard is one of the biggest things a driver can do in his career. Some have even said that winning at Indy may be bigger than winning the Daytona 500. There are the drivers who still seek their first win at the track. Casey Mears, is one of the drivers, Casey’s family are no strangers to the Brickyard his father, Roger, raced the Indy 500 twice and of course his uncle, Rick won the Indy 500 four times along with Foyt and Al Unser.

This weekend will also be special for Mears who will make his 200th Sprint Cup start this weekend. "I feel so lucky to have the career that I do and to be able to race these cars every weekend," Mears said. "And to do it for a living -- that's all I wanted growing up."

Speaking of four time winners at the Brickyard, Jeff Gordon is one and he is looking to grab win number five, not to mention his first win of the year. Gordon, who grew up in nearby Pittsboro also fins this track to be dear to his heart. "As a kid, I remember taking the bus around here, going to the museum and just thinking how cool it would be to race on the track one day," Gordon said. "The opportunity to race here in open-wheeled cars never materialized, and I chose to pursue racing stock cars in NASCAR."


"That [the first win at Indy in 1994] is still one of the most memorable moments of my career," Gordon said. "I thought I'd lost that chance to race here. Then, to get that chance in a stock car and to win was just incredible. Now I get the opportunity to race here every year, and I've been fortunate to win the event four times."

If Gordon gets win number five, he will join Michael Schumacher as the only drivers who have five wins at the Brickyard and Gordon will certainly love to get his 2008 season back on track starting with a win here.

Of course, as always, Kyle Busch will be a threat to win on Sunday and looks to make 4 wins out of 5 races on Sunday. Qualifying is tomorrow at 10 am on ESPN2 and the race coverage starts on Sunday at 1 pm on ESPN.

Stewart expects fine from USAC for role in 'altercation' [ESPN.com]

Gordon refreshed, ready for Indy after vacation [Hendrickmotorsports.com]

Mears to make 200th start at Indy [Hendrickmotorsports.com]

Finish to the Coke Zero 400

Here is the wacky finish to last nights race, for tohse of you that haven't seen it or want to see it again:

Kyle Busch does it again at Daytona

Kyle Busch pulled another win out last night in last nights Coke Zero 400. Busch held off a spirited charge by Carl Edwards in a green-white-checkered situation to take his sixth win of the year.

"We didn't have the best car tonight," Busch said. "But these guys never gave up. Luckily, we were leading when the caution came out."

The night was bit of wreck fest with the yellow flag coming out 11 times during trace which included two large crashes at the end of the night, including one that sent the race into overtime when Jimmie Johnson spun and collected six others. Kyle Busch was given the narrow lead on Jeff Gordon for the final restart. The field was bunched up when the green flag came out for the final time and Carl Edwards turned Jeff Gordon spinning him out which made Gordon's car stall and relegated him to a 30th place finish. Meanwhile with Edwards and Busch duking it out for the lead, the rest of the field behind them decided it would be cool to play bumper cars that worked pretty well until Michael Waltrip and others got together on the final lap in turn 1 bringing out the caution and ending the race.

"I was driving as hard as I could," Edwards said. "Man, I hate to lose that thing like that. I was doing everything I could."

Meanwhile Jeff Gordon wasn't really surprised on how the race ended.

"We had such an awesome night going," Gordon said. "I'm so excited about the way we ran, obviously disappointed with the way it finished. … They were all laying back, we were all playing kind of cat and mouse on that last restart, you know on a green-white-checkered. … We were going for the win, trying to get the momentum and the 99 [of Edwards] got a run and I went low to block him and he kept going low and I guess I must have come across the front bumper."

"I knew it was just a matter of time before we got wrecked the way they were bump-drafting and getting pretty crazy out there," Gordon said. "I'm excited about the way we ran. We had a great opportunity to win the race. I have to look at the videos. It might have been my fault, I don't know."

After Busch and Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and David Ragan rounded out the top five.
And Kyle Busch extends his points lead to 182 over Dale Earnhardt Jr. The next Sprint Cup race will be next Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway.

Late-race crash didn't surprise Gordon [Scenedaily.com]

Busch wins again- this time at Daytona International Speedway [Scenedaily.com]

NASCAR Preview: Daytona

It’s time once again for that midsummer classic, the Firecracker Pepsi Coke Zero 400. Yes, the NASCAR boys are back in Daytona for some high speed, tight racing action. But let's not kid ourselves were only watching tonight to see a giant crash. Racing? Yeah right. You want to see a big 25 car pileup and say "Its just like real life, except my dumbass isn't in it! WOOOOO!"

And by the way who's great idea was it to let Coke Zero sponsor a race? That has to be the second-nastiest drink to grace this earth. Pepsi Blue bieng the first.

Anyway, qualifying turned out another surprise as Paul Menard won the pole for tonight’s race. Paul Menard? Really, Paul Menard? Does anybody actually try in qualifying anymore?
Tonight TNT's will also feature "Wide Open Coverage", which means that will be less commercials and more Bill Weber, aren't you happy? It will also be a high def broadcast produced for the small screen. Which means everyone with a standard screen will slit themselves after the race because they'll will be still without HD long after the race has ended. So enjoy the race tonight and lets hope that all of your crash fantasies come true.

Oh, you wanted me to say something about what will happen the race. Um, okay, hmmm, oh. Boris Said still won't win a race. That's a fair enough prediction.

Indycar return for Franchitti unlikely

After his Sprint Cup team shut down earlier this week, there have been many rumors sprung up on what 2007 Indy 500 Dario Franchitti will do to get his racing career back on track. Dario will like everyone to know that a return to the Indycars is out of the question.

"Let's see what the future holds," Franchitti said. "I need to sit down with Chip and see where his head is, but NASCAR is where I want to be. I want to be successful here and I certainly don't want it to end like this.

"I made a big commitment coming over here and I'd like to get an opportunity to be successful."

"When I made the decision to come here (to NASCAR), I wasn't going to do the IndyCar thing anymore anyway, so this isn't a case of missing out on what could have been in IndyCar," he said. "That just wasn't a direction I wanted to go in. "Never say never, but it's unlikely I'll go back."

"We definitely struggled in the first couple of races, but we were getting there," Franchitti said. "The results have been this and that, but I really feel like we were getting there."

With a best finish of 22nd, yeah that is "getting there" alright.

"We were starting to run well, me and the No.40 guys all thought things were turning around."

Dario's misfortune has got him some sympathy from other drivers in the Sprint Cup garage.

"I think a couple things happened," Richard Childress Racing driver Jeff Burton said. "Dario is an accomplished racecar driver and I think he can get it done in the Cup Series, but it's going to take time. The question is, how patient can people be? And at a time when we don't have a lot of new sponsors coming in it's hard to build a company that wants to be patient. People that are wanting to make that investment want success right away.

"I think a lot of things stacked up against him and it made it harder for him than if he would have been able to have success sooner. Unfortunately Ganassi have been a little down, too. They haven't been as good as you would expect them to be."

"It's really shocking to us to see a team shut down like that, and it's tough," Roush Racing's Greg Biffle said. "You don't want to see that. Dario, I think, is a great driver. He's improved tremendously. He ran very well at Loudon, and qualified decently, but I don't know. Their organisation has been having a tough time competition-wise lately, and it's sad to see them without a sponsor and having to shut that down temporarily."

Four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon believes the U.S. economy is to blame for Dario's bad luck.

"I think it's certainly a wake-up call, you know, any of us are vulnerable," Gordon said. "I would have never thought that they would have struggled getting sponsorship. I'm sure Chip Ganassi thought they wouldn't struggle. They probably didn't think they'd struggle on the racetrack as much as they have either, especially on the road course. We all can be vulnerable and it just makes you appreciate what you have, the sponsors you have, and it makes you work that much harder to try to stay competitive."

Plans about Dario's future may be announced next week, lets hope the boys at CGR aren't wearing rose-tinted glasses like Dario is.

Cup drivers sympathise with Franchitti [Autosport.com]

Franchitti says IndyCar return unlikely [Autosport.com]

Your Fourth of July NASCAR News and Notes

Truex's Car Impounded: Martin Truex Jr.'s primary car was impounded yesterday after it failed tech inspection when its roof did not match the templates set by NASCAR. That meant Truex and his team had to go to a backup car which meant they missed first practice and didn't get a chance to run second practice due to the rains that came on Thursday night. Truex was none too happy about the situation.

“Somebody made a big mistake,” said Truex. “That shouldn’t happen at this level of auto racing, but people make mistakes. We’ll go on.”

“It’s tough when you miss practice. Two hours of practice isn’t much to begin with, you miss one hour and it’s tough to catch up if you’re not right.”

Truex unhappy with team [Speedtv.com]

S**t happens, Chad Walter: Crew Chief for Jr Motorsports number 5 car, Chad Walter, was fined by NASCAR for dropping the s-bomb on live television during last Saturday's Nationwide race at New Hampshire. Walter recevied a $10,000 fine, while the team suffred a loss of both 25 driver and owner points. Chad Walter is also on probation and will have to have a bar of soap in his mouth until December 31st.

Boy, what a bullshit call. What? It's not like they can fine me, too. [Source: Jayski.com]

Amirola in the 8 for 2009: Dale Earnhardt Inc. announced that Aric Amirola will drive the full time in 2009. *Yawn* This is news? [Source: DEI PR]

Hylton and Kerry Earnhardt to race at Daytona tonight: The 1,000 year old man James Harvey Hylton and the lovable Kerry Earnhardt will particpate in the Nationwide Race. Kerry will drive a DEI car while Hylton will drive for Johnny Davis' car. [Source: Jayski.com]

40 team shuts down, Franchitti out of a ride

Chip Ganassi decided today to shut down his no 40 team laying off most of the employees on the team and leaving driver and former Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti out of a ride. Ganassi reasons that lack of funds and sponsorship also with the lack of perfomance on all three of his teams were the reasons that Ganassi had to shut the team down.

"If I keep going I run the risk of dragging the other two teams down. I don't want to do that," Ganassi told the Associated Press. "There's no money. It makes no sense to be running this out of my pocket. I had to put a stop to it."

Franchitti had struggled greatly this year in Sprint Cup with a best finish of 22nd at Martinsville and a 41st place position in points. Ganassi said Franchitti was "disappointed" when told of the teams closing, but Ganassi hopes that Franchitti will still particpate in his Nationwide car until his Sprint Cup program is built it up. But there are rumors that Franchitti might go into sportscar racing in 2009.

Lack of Sponsorship forces Ganassi to shut down Franchitti's team [ESPN.com]

Randy Moss' team is coming on well

Randy Moss is expected to announce this week on his plans with his new Craftsman Truck series team. A source to told the Boston Herald (a trustworthy newspaper, *cough* spygate *cough*) that Moss has purchased a major stake in the Morgan Dollar Motorsports team and will run his truck at Kentucky in a few weeks with the number 81 on it and a "prominent" Sprint Cup driver will be behind the wheel. (Kevin Lepage is a prominent driver?)

Moss should be making the announcement Thursday at Daytona.

Patriots' Randy Moss starts engine [Boston Herald]

Hey...

The youngest of the Earnhardt children is into barrel racing.

Earnhardt to race in V8 Supercars

Dale Earnhardt Jr. plans to have a little fun after the 2008 NASCAR season ends. Earnhardt will drive a Holden Commodore at final round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series (which is like Nationwide Series for the V8 Supercars) at Oran Park in Australia. Earnhardt will team up with Scotts Loadsman and drive the car that Steve Owen has driven all season, Owen will have a new car at the Oran Park round.

“I know that Dale Earnhardt Jnr wanted to drive in the last race and Paul Morris is organising for him to come out,” said Loadsman. “That’s confirmed.
“We’ve already got the car from Morris, we got the sister car to ‘Earnhardt’… we bought ‘Gidget’. So he’s going to drive in the last race out there so he’ll probably drive that [Earnhardt] car.”

The race weekend will take place on December 4-7.

NASCAR Superstar to make V8 car debut [Wheelsmag.com]