At end of 500, two cars weren't better than one...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For two weeks, they said, the tandem would win the race. Despite the fans' disdain for it, despite NASCAR's attempts to deemphasize it, drivers in the sport's premier division seemed almost certain that at the end, a two-car draft would be what claimed the Daytona 500.

In the final laps early Tuesday morning, those two cars belonged to Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr. So Earnhardt's No. 88 hooked up with the back end of Biffle's No. 16 in a green-white-checkered restart -- and the tandem draft still couldn't catch eventual winner Matt Kenseth, who claimed his second title in the Great American Race
Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle discuss how close they came to victory in the 2012 Daytona 500.

"This new package really didn't come down to tandem racing at the end," Earnhardt said. "I mean, me and Greg were pushing like heck and we couldn't get to Matt. So they have definitely made some strides in trying to make that not the definite way to win in a Sprint Cup level."

The tandem certainly seemed to be the difference-maker in last weekend's Budweiser Shootout, when Kyle Busch used the slingshot around Tony Stewart in a final-lap, two-man duel to claim the exhibition season opener. Yet a similar situation didn't play out in the rain-postponed Daytona 500, in which Kenseth led the final 38 laps. As it had shown in winning the second of two 150-mile qualifiers on Thursday, the No. 17 car was just too strong.

"Even on them restarts when Dale Jr. tried to push me, I tried to give him air and stay with him, but our car just ran so good, he couldn't quite keep up and stay attached to us," Kenseth said. "So I had to make other moves to keep the momentum up. I think when you come to plate racing, a huge, huge percentage of it is the car and how fast the car is. But I think Thursday was really good for us, because we learned some things in them last few laps that I think probably helped a little bit [Monday]."

Still, the drivers behind Kenseth were surprised they couldn't make up ground.

"Once we got straight, I pushed the gas down, I thought that we'd drive up on the back of the No. 17 without a problem," Biffle said. "It must have just pushed enough air out in front of my car that it pushed the No. 17 car out about five, six feet in front of me, and I couldn't get any closer. I thought, well, I need to get out from behind him because then we'll be able to go by him. So on the back stretch I moved up a little bit, and Matt is not stupid. We had no run at him. We were all going the same speed."

When Biffle moved over, Kenseth did the same. In retrospect, Biffle said he probably should have slowed down to try and put some distance between him and Kenseth, so he and Earnhardt could pair up and try to make a run at the leader.


I thought [Earnhardt would] shove me right up to his back bumper. He had all night. I had no doubt it would happen then.

"Then we could have moved up beside him coming off the corner, and then Junior and I would have had to dice it out to the line," he said. "That's probably what I should have done, is just anchored down the brakes down the backstretch and put distance in between us. [That's] the only way we probably would have got a run at him. But I thought for sure I didn't need to do that. Of course, Monday morning quarterback, I'd do it now, but I didn't think I needed to. I thought [Earnhardt would] shove me right up to his back bumper. He had all night. I had no doubt it would happen then."

But it didn't, and instead it gave the impression that Biffle was blocking for his Roush Fenway teammate. Earnhardt, who eventually overtook Biffle for second place, didn't see it that way.

"This is the Daytona 500, and I don't know what it pays, but it's a lot of money. And his team, I know that they're teammates, but his group of guys that specifically work on that car or travel down here to pit the car during the race, his crew chief, Greg himself, they work way too hard to decide to run second in a scenario like that," Earnhardt said.

"I'm pretty sure that if I know Greg, and ... if he had an opportunity to get around Matt and had a chance to win the Daytona 500, he would have took it immediately. He's trying to do what he could do. If I were him, I can't imagine what his game plan was in his head, but if I were him, I would have tried to let me push him by and then pull down in front of Matt, and force Matt to be my pusher and then leave the No. 88 for the dogs. But that didn't work out."

It didn't for either of them. And although Earnhardt seemed pleased with his Daytona 500 run early Tuesday morning, he knew at some point the internal second-guessing would begin.

"I'm very happy," he said. "I'm really in a good place. I'm not frustrated at all, I promise. I'm in a great mood. I run second here a lot, though, so I know I don't feel it right now, but I know later [Tuesday] and [Wednesday] and the rest of the week it's going to eat at me what I could have done to win the race. So that is kind of frustrating."

Rainy Day:(

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- History was made at the Daytona 500 on Sunday, but not the kind that anyone at Daytona International Speedway wanted to see. For the first time in the event's long history, the Great American Race has been postponed to Monday because of weather.

It is deflating. We've just got to suck it back up, and make sure [Monday] we do a good job and give our fans what they expect, which is a great Daytona 500.

After battling intermittent showers all day, NASCAR officials announced shortly after 5 p.m. local time that the 54th running of the Daytona 500 had been pushed back to noon Monday. Although NASCAR's showcase event had been shortened four previous times due to the elements, it had never been completely postponed -- until Sunday, when jet dryers battled rain all afternoon, and a gloomy forecast into the evening prevented any attempt at running the race under the lights.

And with that, a streak that began with the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959 came to an end.

"I think that's a pretty good record for NASCAR," said Carl Edwards, the pole winner for the event. "They've been living right to have 53 of these and never have one of them postponed. That's pretty spectacular. We'll come race tomorrow. I think everyone is really excited about this race. All the drivers I've spoken with, the fans -- this is going to be a very good Daytona 500. NASCAR, they're doing the right thing in not dragging this out. Everybody knows we'll be racing tomorrow during the day, it will be a good event, and hopefully the weather will hold off and we won't be in this same position tomorrow."

The green flag is scheduled to fall at 12:01 p.m. local time Monday. The rescheduled event will air on Fox television, and tickets will be available at the Daytona ticket office or at the gate.

"Long day," track president Joie Chitwood III said. "We attempted our best to get the track dry. It seemed like every time we got close, another pocket of rain showed up. We waited as long as we could in terms of the process, how long it might take to dry the track, and then what was reasonable in terms of our fans staying and enjoying the event."

Light rain fell much of Sunday morning, but let up enough at one point for NASCAR officials to send jet dryers out on the track and revive hopes of the cars rolling off at the scheduled 1:29 p.m. local start time. But as pre-race festivities concluded, the heaviest rain of the day moved in, undoing the work the dryers had already done. Although Daytona has 10 jet dryers at its disposal, as well as 3,500 pounds of jet fuel on site and more available at an adjacent airport, another pocket of rain that moved in at about 5:15 p.m. local so soaked the pavement that the drying process would have had to begin all over again.

"Once that happened, we made the decision that would not be able to get the track dry to actually have an event tonight that would work," Chitwood said. "... Obviously, it's very frustrating. I felt like we had an unbelievably good Speedweeks up until this point. ... It is deflating. We've just got to suck it back up, and make sure [Monday] we do a good job and give our fans what they expect, which is a great Daytona 500."

The rain teased throughout the day Sunday before finally winning out and moving the Daytona 500 to Monday afternoon.
Daytona 500 postponed
Track drying begins
NASCAR waits for a window
Helton addresses rain delay
The forecast for Monday is for a 70 chance of rain during the day, according to The Weather Channel, with a possible window in the afternoon. There is also a 40 percent chance of rain for Monday night. Chitwood conceded the possibility that the event would be run under the lights, but at the moment didn't want to consider going beyond that.

"By the afternoon, it looks like the forecast is much better," he said. "So I think we'll play it out best we can. No different than what we did today -- we're going to wait until the last possible minute to make a decision in which we would not run the race. So we want to exhaust every opportunity of getting the track dry and getting the race started. I would anticipate as we did today, if that at 5, 6 o'clock, if there's still rain on track, then you would start to see us make some decisions. But I think we'll play it out as long as we can. I don't even want to talk about Tuesday night now."

As it is, competitors will have to spend at least one more night with the sport's biggest event on their minds.

"That does make it even more frustrating, knowing that we have a good car, starting on the front row of the Daytona 500 and I feel like we can win this race," said Greg Biffle, who will start second. "There's just so much anxiety. I've watched all the programming leading up to this with all the interviews, and then to just put it on hold makes it tough for a driver because there's all kinds of adrenaline, and then you have to try to sleep tonight. It's still a big race, so you try to stay hydrated for tomorrow."

Although the Daytona 500 had never before been postponed by weather, it has been impacted many times by the elements. The first 10 laps in 1963 were run under yellow because of rain, and the 1965 and 1966 editions were both rain-shortened. The 1979 event started under caution because of rain, as were six laps in the middle of the 1992 race. A red flag of almost two hours was issued in the 1995 race for rain, and two recent winners -- Michael Waltrip in 2003 and Matt Kenseth in 2009 -- went to Victory Lane after events were shortened by the elements.

But then whenever you have these races, you wait till the next day, you go out there, walk up to the car, they feel a little different. ... There's not as much pageantry. It's more a feeling of just a pure race.

But none of those events were completely postponed, an event that presents a unique set of challenges for all involved. "This is one of the toughest things for us drivers," Edwards said. "... When you put [it] off for another day, for all of us, it's really who can stay focused for another day, and that's not just the drivers. That's the pit crews, crew chiefs, everyone, the officials. But I think we'll be just fine."

Drivers don't expect the rain to have a noticeable effect on the race track, which was resurfaced after the 2010 edition. "I don't think anybody will have an issue," said Edwards, who added that the asphalt will be more abrasive at the green flag because the rubber will have been washed off the surface.

Biffle agreed. "I think this race track, because of the grip and the downforce the race cars have, I think that you won't see a big difference with the track rubbering up," he said. "The speeds will be a little bit faster because the track will be green, but I think for that first run the track is going to get some rubber on it. NASCAR will probably do a competition caution just to make sure that everything is going OK -- probably lap 30 or 25 -- so I think it'll be OK. It'll just be fast at [noon] when we start, but then it'll be the same game after the first pit stop."

The postponement comes in the first year after the Daytona 500 was shifted back a week on the schedule, to tighten up the early portion of the Sprint Cup slate and avoid potential conflicts with other major sporting events on NASCAR's biggest day.

"At the end of the day, I'm sure I'm going to have some customers tell me about the date change and the challenges that we have with it," Chitwood said. "But I think weather is unpredictable. So we'll deal with it. I don't anticipate this would force us to change the date in the future. I think based on the NASCAR schedule, the TV schedule on whole, this was the right move for the industry. We'll continue to work with the last weekend of February. It's unfortunate that this had to happen the first year after we made that change. I'm sure I'll be talking to a number of customers in the next weeks ahead about that situation."

The 54th Daytona 500, coming on the heels of the dramatic finish to last year's Sprint Cup championship battle, attracted a crowd of celebrity guests that included Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, actress Jane Lynch, model Kate Upton, professional wrestler John Cena, mixed-martial arts fighter John Jones, New York Giants football players Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora, singer Lenny Kravitz, and South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier. It's unknown whether any of those famous names will still be at the track on Monday.

"Anytime you have to wait to race later, it has a different atmosphere," Edwards said. "But, I mean, we got to go out there, we got to take part in the driver intros. We got to go to the drivers' meeting and see all the celebrities and everybody that had come. Yeah, that stuff is neat. It's neat to see that much interest in our sport. I think it tells you a lot about how big the Daytona 500 is. But then whenever you have these races, you wait till the next day, you go out there, walk up to the car, they feel a little different. They feel more like a pure racing event. It feels more like a short track event. I don't know how to explain it. ... There's not as much pageantry. It's more a feeling of just a pure race."

Open letter to NASCAR fans from Brian France

Dear NASCAR fans,

With the Daytona 500 now upon us, I hope you are as excited as I am to see the greatest drivers in the world competing at Daytona International Speedway later Sunday.

NASCAR is in a very good place right now and our entire industry is working very hard for you, the fans, as we continually seek to improve and grow our sport. Indeed, we are listening to you, as several enhancements that have been put in place in recent years were a direct result of your input.

Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm, the way you wholeheartedly embrace NASCAR and how you share your passion for our sport with family, friends and others you encounter each and every day. We certainly were encouraged by the excitement generated by our 2011 season and look forward to enjoying this season together as one NASCAR Nation.

On behalf of the France family, I want to personally express our appreciation for your support, and join you in anticipation of the thrilling ride ahead.

Best Regards,

Brian France

Danica goes for a wild ride on final lap of Duel

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It all went pretty much according to plan for Danica Patrick in her inaugural Gatorade Duel qualifying race Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

Until, that is, the final two corners on the final lap of the 150-mile event.

I'll go look at it and see if I can change something or fix something that I'm doing out there, but overall, I'm just very disappointed ... It's not how we wanted to roll into Sunday.

Then, Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet got clipped in a chain-reaction wreck that sent her spinning and crashing violently into an inside retaining wall.

Patrick admitted afterward that the impact she took rivaled that of any she had endured in previous crashes in her racing career, but she walked away uninjured and didn't even appear to be shaken.

"Yeah, it was pretty big. I guess it's pretty good that it happened [Thursday] and not on a Saturday or Sunday -- because that would have meant I crashed in the Nationwide race, and that would have been bad," said Patrick, who is making the transition to NASCAR full time this year after running a full-time IndyCar schedule and part-time NASCAR schedule the past two years.

"It sucks. You just kind of brace yourself. I guess in these situations, I just need to be glad that I'm a small driver and that I've got room to just kind of hug it in and let it rip."

Patrick said her car was sent spinning after getting hit by someone else, and it appeared to be the No. 43 Ford driven by Aric Almirola who hit her. But Almirola said he was a victim of driver Jamie McMurray getting loose in his No. 1 Chevy right in front of him, which appeared to be confirmed via television replay.

"To be honest, I couldn't really tell what happened. We got a really good run coming to the white [flag]," Almirola said. "We were running in fourth -- and the next thing I knew, I got down into Turn 1 and I was in the middle on a three-wide for 12th. It got pretty crazy there when we came there and got the white.

"We went from three-wide in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and then I think somebody came from behind me to make it four-wide. Then the 1 car got loose off of [Turn] 2 and I tried to stay off of him, but he came across my nose and I couldn't stay off of him. Then me and Danica got together and she went off sliding down into the infield and had a big crash.

"I'm glad she's OK. We managed to save our race car. We've got a little bit of body damage -- but other than that our Smithfield Ford was really fast."

Almirola and Patrick talked for several minutes in the Sprint Cup garage area shortly after the race, parting ways amicably.

"I just got hit," Patrick said. "I was running on the bottom and I'm betting it was a chain reaction from the outside. That's what it looked like. Guys get so close on their side drafts that they're touching you sometimes. I'm sure that at times, at least in that situation, that it was a 'hitting' side draft. But it was probably a chain reaction.

"I'll go look at it and see if I can change something or fix something that I'm doing out there, but overall, I'm just very disappointed that the car got crashed with just two corners to go. It's not how we wanted to roll into Sunday. We wanted to be cool, calm and collected with no damage."

Patrick already was locked into Sunday's Daytona 500, which will be the first in her career. After being forced to settle for a 16th-place finish in Thursday's first Duel and now having to go to a backup car, she will drop to the rear of the field at the beginning of the race.

Thursday's first qualifying race was won by Tony Stewart, who doubles as co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing organization that is fielding Patrick's 500 car through a partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing for the 500. Stewart admitted he was trying to keep tabs on Patrick as Thursday's race unfolded, and said that for the most part he liked what he was seeing.

"I didn't see how [the last-lap wreck] started. I just saw it in the [rear-view] mirror, and saw her car taking a hard left there. So obviously when you turn that hard left, usually you got some help," Stewart said. "I didn't know what the start of that was, but I kept looking in my mirror to see where she was behind me. The good thing about that fluorescent green car is that she's easy to pick out.

"It was really impressive how she kept picking her way up through the field. She got up to sixth at one point, the way I saw it. So I thought she did a good job. I'll get a better shot to understand how she really did when I get the chance to see the replay of it and watch the whole race. But the little bit that I did see [during Thursday's race], I thought she did a good job. I thought she would do that."

Stewart said it was simply the beginning of the learning curve for Patrick on the Sprint Cup side. Patrick will run 10 Cup races this season, as well as a full-time Nationwide Series schedule in a JR Motorsports car.

"It's hard for her right now because she's trying to gain the confidence of the guys around her," Stewart said. "She wants to show that she's solid and makes good decisions, and that she's not going to just pull the pin every time she gets an opportunity to break out of line. I think there is more aggression in her and more confidence in her than even what she showed here [Thursday], but I was pleased with the poise that she showed in trying to gain the confidence of the other drivers."

Patrick tried to look at the bright side of Thursday's disappointing finish. All things considered, she thought she performed reasonably well.

"Overall, I'm happy -- and I'm forgetting the last two corners," Patrick said. "At times it was much more calm than I expected, to be honest. At times when we got single file and had very steady two-lane racing, it was pretty calm. I felt like I learned a lot, was learning a lot about the side draft. I learned what to do in those situations and how to get the most out of it. Obviously, you don't want to get into people because bad things happen. But I'm glad that I finished all those laps to get that experience. It would have been much more disappointing to have done that early on and not have had the experience that I did.

"Maybe that backup car is fast. We weren't super excited after qualifying, so maybe this is a blessing in big disguise."

NASCAR offers teams pressure valve concession

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After teams experienced some overheating engines in various drafting formations last weekend in the practices leading up to Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout -- which continued in the race itself -- NASCAR made a technical change Wednesday morning at Daytona International Speedway.

NASCAR told the teams they would be given three more pounds on the engines' pressure release valves, from 25 to 28 pounds per square inch. NASCAR will continue to monitor engine water temperatures and might make additional adjustments after Thursday's Duel, several sources said.



"That's just a good thing for us [because] it increased the boiling temp about 5 degrees, basically," Roush Yates Engines head Doug Yates said. "That's always a concern because when you do run hot, you want that protection and that limit to be a little bit higher."

Yates said the teams in his charge didn't get much chance to feel its effects Wednesday in two 90-minute practice sessions for Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying races, however.

"Some of the guys were out there pushing each other around a little bit, they watched the water boil off and they watched the temperature gauge go up," Yates said. "But at the same time, it's practice. The guys aren't going to push it and they don't want to end up tearing up a car."

Protecting cars is one thing, but another consideration would be the variable weather conditions, from relatively cool last Saturday night during the Budweiser Shootout, to in the 70s for Wednesday's practices to a forecast of highs in the mid-80s for Thursday.

"It drives us extremely wild," Yates said. "It's always the most recent memory of a race, and the problem we had at Talladega with the [Roush Fenway Racing] 6 car. We lost an engine in the 6 car -- overheated it, basically -- and that's fresh on our minds and why I say any change in pressure in the system is good for us."

Probably the most graphic example of risk versus reward that's played out in the Duel was demonstrated in 2011. Trevor Bayne had a potential race-winning car in his Duel, but he wrecked with Jeff Gordon at the very end. His Wood Brothers' team fixed the car and Bayne won the Daytona 500.

Sunday, Eddie Wood said his team would approach Thursday's first Duel no differently. Most teams queried felt the information that needed to be gained by racing legitimately in the Duel outweighed holding back. Pole winner Carl Edwards said his crew chief would make the call on how hard he ran in the first Duel, after pronouncing himself satisfied with his car after 24 laps in Practice 1, the only session he ran.

"I think it depends on Bob Osborne ... how much he can stomach," Edwards said. "Just in practice [Wednesday] I started having a little bit of fun out there and I think it made him a little bit nervous. I think it would probably be entertaining to tune into Bob and our radio conversation [Thursday].

"For me, this might sound dumb but I am not too worried about if we crash the car. We have a good backup car and it is identical and should be just as fast. I think there is value in learning something from that 150. I think you are going to learn things you can apply the last five laps at the [Daytona] 500 that could make a difference."

Edwards said any discretionary decisions would be made when he had to.

"I would like to race pretty hard in that 150," Edwards said. "Obviously, if it gets really crazy then maybe I would think about trying to give myself more room but right now the mission is to go race and learn."

Brad Keselowski's crew chief, Paul Wolfe, agreed.

"You've got to be as smart as you can but at the same time, we're here to race," Wolfe said of the risk-reward factor in the Duel. "You've got to limit your risk the best you can. We have a strategy that we feel like will put us in the least amount of risk but knowing that's still there we're prepared to have a backup car for Sunday if we need to."

Few nerves for Patrick in Cup qualifying!!!!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Even though she had a guaranteed starting berth, even though hers would be the only car out on the race track, Danica Patrick still felt nervous prior to her first Sprint Cup qualifying session.

"It's a little less nerve-wracking, because there's a little less to worry about as a driver. But to say I wasn't nervous at all is a lie," Patrick said Sunday during front-row qualifying for the Daytona 500. "Of course I was, a little bit. I want to do a good job, and I want to have a pretty smooth line out there, and I want to go through the shifts nicely. As far as nerves go, it was less nerve-wracking. There was no lack of photographers and cameras, though."

Certainly not, as evidenced by the horde shadowing Patrick's every move. And yet, Sunday didn't reveal much -- Patrick's car placed 29th among the 49 vehicles attempting to qualify for the Great American Race, and her starting position for the Daytona 500 won't be determined until Thursday's 150-mile qualifying races. That will be a rather notable landmark for Patrick, who didn't compete in Saturday's sometimes-hairy Budweiser Shootout, and is yet to get her first taste of this resurrected form of pack drafting on the 2.5-mile facility.

"Big time," she said, when asked how important Thursday will be in preparing her for the big show. "It's going be about getting a rapport with some of the drivers I haven't raced with yet, getting a feel for how the pack running is going to go. I'm not completely unfamiliar with the pack running -- the first year here was some pack, and even last year in the first race of the year in Nationwide, we did some pack running. ... Trust me, I'll be studying that last pass at the end with Tony [Stewart] and Kyle [Busch] to see when the perfect time is to do that."

Although Patrick has never before started a Sprint Cup event, she has a guaranteed spot in the Daytona 500 thanks to a deal between Stewart-Haas Racing and Tommy Baldwin Racing. That partnership shifted the 2011 points of TBR's No. 36 car, which finished inside the top 35, to her No. 10. She'll compete Thursday and start 17th in the first 150-mile qualifier.

Patrick said she watched some videos of previous qualifying efforts at Daytona, and that research taught her to turn down onto the banking quicker than she did during practice. She said Daytona's recent repaving job made her qualifying lap Sunday fairly straightforward, with little she could do other than come up smoothly through the gears. It was a much different experience than her efforts to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, which uses a four-lap average to determine starting spots, something that for Patrick grew more mentally taxing and pressure-packed with each passing season.

Not that Daytona is completely a breeze by comparison. "Nothing is anti-climatic at Daytona," she said. "The week started off with me doing about two and half hours of interviewing to start off the day on Thursday. That's not a small day. There's a lot of media going around with the event, and I like the layout, the format of the week. It's test, qualify, test, race. That's nice. It reminds me of how Indy used to be before they shortened up the month."

The Daytona 500 is part of a busy Speedweeks for Patrick, who is also preparing for the opener to her first full-time Nationwide Series campaign. She's enjoyed good runs on the big track before, including a sixth-place finish in an ARCA race two years ago that was her stock-car debut, and a 10th-place effort in the facility's Nationwide event last July. Now, though, she's preparing for her initial foray into Sprint Cup pack racing -- and that's where the real nerves come in.

"I think if anything, I'm probably more nervous now because it's going to be time to get running with everybody else," she said. "The running so far has been the easy part."

NASCAR contingency program adds awards for '12

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As teams make final preparations to start the 2012 race season, NASCAR announced Tuesday the lineup of 2012 contingency program sponsors for all three national series.

The NASCAR Contingency Program is administered by the Charlotte, N.C., ¬based NASCAR Automotive Group. The program strives to build strong relationships with high¬ quality, performance-driven brands that are leaders in their respective categories, and award money to NASCAR teams via per-race and year-end awards. Competitors become eligible for prize money by displaying sponsor decals on the front fender of their race cars and trucks. In some instances, use of a sponsor's product is also required.

Three new special awards highlight the 2012 contingency program award lineup. This season, longtime official partner and Roush Fenway Racing primary sponsor 3M will present the 3M Lap Leader award in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series. The award will go to the eligible driver who leads the most laps in each race throughout the season. USG Corp., the official building product supplier of NASCAR, will present the USG Improving the Finish award to the eligible Cup driver who improves the most positions from starting position to finishing position in each race event.

Freescale, the official automotive semiconductor of NASCAR, is not only helping to usher in electronic fuel injection to the Cup Series, but also will present a new contingency special award to Cup competitors. The Freescale Wide Open award will be given to the eligible Cup driver that is the most aggressive during the final 20 percent of the race, measured by having the throttle "wide open" the greatest amount of time and finishing in the top five.

"As one of the largest suppliers of electronics for automotive, networking, consumer and industrial products, Freescale is known for high performance products and for pushing technology to the limits," said Rich Beyer, chairman and CEO of Freescale Semiconductor. "We want to reward that same kind of performance on the track."

"We are very pleased to have a strong lineup of NASCAR Prize Money & Decal Program sponsors in the national series this year including new special awards from our dedicated partners 3M, USG and Freescale," said Todd Armstrong, managing director, NASCAR Automotive Group. "NASCAR contingency sponsors and teams display a level of synergy and teamwork that is unparalleled in sports and continues to be one of the major reasons companies choose to partner with NASCAR."

Below is the 2012 national series sponsor lineup and special awards:

•3M -- NSCS#, NNS#


* Lap Leader Award

•ARP Fasteners -- NNS
•Auto Meter Gauges -- NSCS, NNS, NCWTS
•Competition Cams -- NSCS, NNS, NCWTS


•Coors Light -- NSCS#, NNS#, NCWTS# (Keystone Light)


* Pole Award

•DIRECTV -- NSCS#


* Crew Chief of the Race/Year

•Edelbrock Intake Manifolds -- NSCS, NNS, NCWTS
•Featherlite -- NNS#, NCWTS#


* Most Improved Driver Award

•Freescale -- NSCS#


* Wide Open Award

•Goodyear Tires -- NSCS#, NNS#, NCWTS#


* Goodyear Tires Award to Series Champions

•Growth Energy/American Ethanol -- NSCS#, NNS#, NCWTS#


* Green Flag Restart Award (NSCS)

* Awarded to Series Champions (NNS, NCWTS)

•Holley Throttle Bodies/Carburetors -- NSCS (throttle bodies), NNS, NCWTS
•JE Pistons -- NNS, NCWTS
•JEGS -- NSCS, NNS
•K&N Filters -- NSCS, NNS, NCWTS
•Lincoln Electric -- NSCS, NCWTS
•MAHLE Clevite -- NSCS#, NNS#, NCWTS#


* Engine Builder of the Race/Year Award

•Mechanix Wear -- NSCS#, NNS, NCWTS


* Mechanix Wear Most Valuable Pit Crew (Quarterly/Year-End)

•Mobil 1 -- NSCS#, NNS#, NCWTS#


* Driver of the Race/Year

•MOOG Steering & Suspension -- NSCS#, NNS, NCWTS


* Problem Solver of the Race/Year

•MSD Ignition -- NNS, NCWTS
•Simpson Firesuits -- NNS, NCWTS
•Sunoco -- NSCS#, NNS#, NCWTS#


* Diamond Performance Award to Series Champions

* Rookie of the Year

•USG -- NSCS#


* Improving the Finish Award

# Indicates Special Award sponsor with a year-end bonus.

Wild Ride!!!!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- His neck is a little stiff from his impact with the wall. One shin banged against an area inside the car that wasn't padded, but will be in the future. He cut one of his fingers trying to climb out of his upside-down vehicle. But beyond that, Jeff Gordon emerged remarkably unscathed from his dramatic tumbling accident in the final laps of Saturday night's Budweiser Shootout

Jeff Gordon went for a wild ride after contact with Kurt Busch sent the No. 24 tumbling in the Budweiser Shootout.
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Caraviello: Pack racing is back
Return to Daytona's roots
"It's just a testament to the safety of these cars," Gordon said Sunday after his qualifying attempt for the Daytona 500. The previous evening his effort to claim the season-opening exhibition ended when he made contact with eventual winner Kyle Busch, sparking an eight-car accident on the penultimate lap that took out many of the leaders. But nobody got it worse than Gordon, whose No. 24 car hit the outside wall, slid on its side down to the apron, flipped three times, and came to rest on its roof.

Gordon's window net was down before emergency personnel arrived, and he spent the next few minutes wriggling his way out of the capsized vehicle. Rescue crews were prepared to turn the car over to make Gordon's exit easier, but the driver didn't want to wait.

"You've got the adrenalin from the race, the adrenalin from the wreck," Gordon said. "I remember sliding on my door, going 'Man, how am I going to get out of this thing if it comes to a stop like this?' And then it starts to turn and flip, and I go, 'Uh-oh. I don't have to worry about being on my door.'

"Then you hold on tight and go, 'Please don't land on its roof.' And what does it do, it lands on its roof. There's no doubt there's disorientation, there's adrenalin. I wish more than anything I would have listened to the safety workers to tell me let's wait and turn it over. But at that time, you have steam and fluids and everything else around you, and you know it's going to take a few minutes longer, and you're hanging upside down. So I wanted to get out of it. I'm a little guy. I feel like I could do it, and I did. But let me tell you, it was a lot of work. It didn't go smooth."

Gordon said the wreck occurred because he was trying to push Busch, but the two couldn't get connected, and he got too aggressive and got into the No. 18 car's left-rear -- contact of the kind that started many of the accidents that unfolded Saturday night. Don't be surprised if there's more aggression on display this season from Gordon, who says he doesn't want to leave more race wins on the table like he did on occasion last season.

"This is one of the things you're going to see a lot more from me this year. We're going to be aggressive," said Gordon, who won three times in 2011. "I've got an awesome race team, and a car capable of winning races, and I felt like we should have won more races last year than we did. I don't want to let those opportunities slip away, and I feel like we're going to try to make some opportunities as well."

Gordon was sixth-fastest in front-row qualifying Sunday for the Daytona 500. Before that, though, he had a talk with his young daughter Ella Sofia about the scary ride her father had taken one night earlier.

"She was asleep when that all happened," Gordon said. "When she woke up this morning, I told her what happened and I showed it to her on TV. Her first question was, 'Were you OK?' And obviously with me sitting there and her sitting on my lap, I could explain to her how I was, and she could watch it. That is the downside to being a race-car driver when things like that happen. I think maybe had she been awake and heard the reaction of my wife, then that probably would have gotten her more concerned than anything else."

Tony Stewart!!!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Tony Stewart ended Jimmie Johnson's five-year string of Cup Series championships in 2011. Johnson said he took a month off to reflect on that event, and how his "complacency" might've been partly to blame.

Stewart spent the offseason looking for places to race.


"My deal is a little different than all these other guys," said Stewart, who spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights this week burning around Volusia Speedway Park west of Daytona Beach at more than 140 mph on a half-mile dirt track in one of his own sprint cars.

"A lot of [his competitors] are married. Most of them are married and have families and children. I have a dog and two cats so they don't care if I go race seven days a week -- as long as they get fed they are happy. That is just my deal -- where my lifestyle is a little different.

"I looked for every race that I could run through the offseason. That is what I wanted to do. It sounds like you would wear yourself out doing it but that is my workout plan. I don't go to the gym. I go to the race track and race. I'm just much happier when I can be racing."

Stewart won a few races during the winter, so it was no surprise he was looking pretty cheerful at NASCAR's Media Day on Thursday outside Daytona International Speedway. He said his championship and other wins had him feeling pretty loose.

"What is odd about it is that we haven't stopped," Stewart said. "We really haven't taken a break through the winter. I've been content. We've been staying busy racing and we have had a lot of stuff going on at the shop, but it's all been stuff that we have been looking forward to.

"I think [winning the championship] helps. Obviously, when you can go back to your shop at the end of the year and everyone is excited and still pumped up from the result at the end of the year it makes the offseason go by that much quicker and that much easier. I think there is a lot to that."

The biggest thing for Stewart -- and possibly a reason for his competitors to worry a little, is that Stewart-Haas Racing's championship buzz still hasn't worn off.

"I mean, in all honesty we have still been riding that high," Stewart said. "But we really didn't sit there and say, 'hey, we are celebrating a championship.' That lasted through the banquet, then it was right back to work, immediately back on the job of trying to figure out how to do the same thing this year."


* 2012 Media Day: Stewart optimistic amid changes to team

Stewart didn't miss the chance to praise his organization's new additions, his own crew chief, Steve Addington, and competition director, and his former crew chief for two championships at Joe Gibbs Racing, Greg Zipadelli.

"It was easy to do that having Zippy [Zipadelli] and Steve Addington come on board, guys that weren't really with us when we won the championship at the end of the year," Stewart said. "Their focus was on what we were going to do this year so it kind of got the whole mindset of the shop to not get lazy and think about what we accomplished last year and get working on what we can do to try to repeat this year."

Stewart's anxious to get on track Friday for Budweiser Shootout practice, Daytona 500 qualifying practice Saturday, the Shootout on Saturday night and then Sunday's Daytona 500 qualifying to begin to see where his team stands in 2012.

"I don't think we know [where we are] until we start," Stewart said. "The hard thing is you have to improve through the winter and all the teams will improve.

"It's just a matter of if we get 5 percent better and someone else gets 7 percent better -- is that enough to put them ahead of us? I don't think you really know until you get two or three races into the year, exactly, to see what the results are from the winter and the hard work."

Bud Shootout!!!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Martin Truex Jr. will start from the pole in Saturday night's 34th Budweiser Shootout after claiming the top spot on the grid in a blind draw of numbers taped to bottles.

"I had a plan, and I stuck to it," Truex said after picking the winning bottle from the far right end of the line, as he faced it.

Kyle Busch grabbed the second starting spot for the season-opening exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway, but whether he'll actually line up there remains to be seen.

Busch went to a backup car after falling victim to a multicar crash in Friday's first practice session. The second session was halted by rain, and Busch did not practice the backup No. 18 Toyota. Typically, backup cars that have not had track time in practice must start from the rear.

Because the Shootout is a non-points event, however, NASCAR is reserving judgment on the enforcement of that rule until Saturday.

The decision also will affect the starting positions of Brad Keselowski (who drew the third position), defending race winner Kurt Busch (sixth) and A.J. Allmendinger (ninth), all of whom were collected in the same wreck that KO'd Kurt Busch and all of whom were forced to backup cars.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the Shootout in 2003 and 2008, will start eighth, after drawing his old Dale Earnhardt Inc. car number. Budweiser sponsorship on the No. 29 Chevrolet didn't help Kevin Harvick, who won the race in 2009 and 2010. Harvick drew the 22nd starting position.

The race is scheduled for 75 laps (187.5 miles) to be contested in segments of 25 and 50 laps. Between the two segments, teams will have 10-minute pit stops to make adjustments to their cars.

Daytona Beach, FL.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Marcos Ambrose still can't believe how one day at Watkins Glen International changed his life.

He received more respect when he went back to the race track. He got a bump in pay. His Richard Petty Motorsports team and the sponsors on his No. 9 car were thrilled. His fan base increased. He went home to Australia during the winter, and all anyone wanted to talk about was how he was a race winner at NASCAR's highest level.


"It's been great," Ambrose said Thursday at the media day that kicked off Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. "I can't for one second believe it could make such a difference. But it does, and to win on the main stage is important, but I didn't realize how important it really was."

Now he knows, as do four other drivers who broke through on the Sprint Cup level last season, and carry the memories and lessons of those moments into the 2012 campaign. Trevor Bayne captured the biggest spotlight with his stunning victory in the Daytona 500, a triumph that launched a formerly unheralded driver to stardom. But the benefits were no less meaningful for Ambrose following his win at Watkins Glen, for Paul Menard following his win at Indianapolis, for David Ragan following his win in Daytona's July event, and for Regan Smith in the aftermath of his victory in Darlington's Southern 500.

"I think for me, it was more I felt like I belonged," Smith said. "I felt like if a certain car comes up behind you sometimes, you have to yield position to them at times, and now I don't feel like I have to do that anymore. I feel like I deserve to be here just as much as you do. So if you want the spot, come take it from me. And if you can't get it, then you can get as mad as you want after the race but that's how it's going to be. So I think it just changed maybe my perception of how I belong a little bit differently."

Each of those breakthrough victories left impacts on the drivers who recorded them. No question, the most visible transformation belonged to the 20-year-old Bayne, who one day was a relatively obscure Nationwide Series regular, and the next was a matinee idol with a Daytona 500 championship ring and fans camping outside his hotel.

But all of the first-time winners felt the gravity of what they had accomplished, in ways both real and intangible. For some, it meant a bigger paycheck or more sponsors or a little different treatment on the race track. For others, it meant a degree of confidence that helped them believe they belonged among the best.

"I think that mentally, you have more self-confidence," Ragan said. "You're probably treated a little different in the community being that you finally got that win. And obviously, [there's] some self-pride that hey, this is my goal and we've been able to do it. This sport is a little bit different -- in most sports you have a 50-50 chance of winning, where here it's a little different situation. But to be a Sprint Cup Series winner at the highest level is certainly special. A lot of people have not been able to do that. But now, you don't rest on that satisfaction. Now it's like, I don't want to be a guy with just one win. I don't want to be a guy with just two wins. I want to try to improve that."

Ragan, who competed last season for Roush Fenway Racing before his No. 6 program was shuttered due to financial issues, believes his status as a Cup winner helped attract some sponsorship to his new ride at Front Row Motorsports. One week after his victory in the Brickyard 400, Menard remembers walking through the garage area at Pocono and receiving congratulations from drivers and crew members from other teams. It was among the sweetest experiences resulting from his win at Indianapolis.

"I will take it to my grave that I'm an Indianapolis Motor Speedway race winner," Menard said. "That is pretty special, something to tell the grandkids."

But nowhere does that first victory help more than between the ears. Martin Truex Jr. won his first Cup race at Dover in 2007, and while he's yet to reach Victory Lane again at NASCAR's highest level, the confidence he gained from that day in Delaware stays with him even five years later.

"To be honest, the confidence thing is probably the biggest thing," Truex said. "From there on, every week you go out and you say, 'I know I can do this.' You don't say, 'I think I can do this.' There's a difference, there's a big difference. Obviously it's been a while since that win, but I still feel like every time I go on the race track that I can win just like I did that day. I can win and lead the most laps and dominate the race. There's a lot of things you have to do properly to be able to do that, but the confidence is the biggest thing. Just have that in the back of your mind all the time and never have that question. Even though it gets harder sometimes to keep that train of thought because it has been a while, you never lose it."

It's not an instantaneous transition. The euphoria from that first victory carried Smith for a few weeks after his win in the Southern 500, but over time he began to feel more and more as if he truly belonged. And it all went back to that night at Darlington, where he stayed out on old tires and beat eventual champion contender Carl Edwards to the finish.

"From a mental standpoint you understand what it takes to win a race, you know how good it feels to win that race," Smith said. "[When] you are in the lower levels, you win all the time. You get up to these upper levels, and it's tougher to win and you don't win as much. It had been a little while since I'd won something, and you get that feeling back in you and it puts that drive back in your gut again. This is a bad comparison, but it's kind of like someone who is on drugs -- you get that feel of how good it is to win, and you just want it more, and it makes you work harder to keep wanting to get more wins."

Brad Keselowski can relate. The Penske Racing driver won for the first time with James Finch at Talladega in 2009, in a controversial restrictor-plate finish that left Edwards spinning into the catchfence. Looking back, he believes that first victory helped him secure more of a toehold in the Cup Series -- he was driving full time for Penske the next season -- but it was his second victory, at Kansas last year, that truly validated him. And as for respect on the race track, he thinks that comes not necessarily from victories, but overall performance.

"I don't know necessarily if I would associate wins, as I would associate that with performance in general," Keselowski said. "I think that success will breed respect. Performance is a part of success."

Nothing, though, feels like the first time. Each of the first-time winners from 2011 enter this season a little more confident and a little more hopeful, because they know they can reach Victory Lane at NASCAR's highest level. Those initial breakthroughs are sweet moments they will savor even years later.

"Once you win in Cup, there's no feeling like it," Truex said. "It's like you're on top of the world

Shootout looms as Speedweeks set to begin

Speedweeks is about to get under way in earnest as cars take to Daytona International Speedway starting Friday for Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500 practices leading up to Saturday night's 34th running of the Shootout. The annual exhibition may shed light on how the new faces will fit in their new places ahead of the season-opening Daytona 500, but plenty of questions still remain.

Some of the asking will start Thursday as the media converge for the 13th annual NASCAR Media Day, where drivers across all three national series will meet the press. Many questions are expected to be directed toward Kasey Kahne, one of the season's biggest wild cards.

* Media Day driver interview times

The only drivers on more of a tear than Kahne during the home stretch of the Chase last season were title contenders Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards. Kahne could have been content to play out the string as a placeholder driver for the lame-duck Red Bull Racing team, which shut its doors just weeks after the season ended. Instead, he closed out his one-year Red Bull stint with seven top-10 finishes in the last eight races, highlighted by a convincing win at Phoenix International Raceway in the penultimate event of the season.

Momentum may be an abstract concept, but for Kahne, the biggest intangible on his side heading into 2012 is stability. Even though Kahne was a constant at the wheel of a red No. 9 for the first seven seasons of his career, the last four of those were spent in the turbulence of team restructuring as Evernham Motorsports became Gillett Evernham Motorsports, which eventually merged into Richard Petty Motorsports.

With the uncertainty behind him, Kahne enters the season with a four-year deal at one of NASCAR's most powerful teams.

"I have four years here that I know it's going to be stable and be competitive and have great people and a great team around me," said Kahne, who finished last in the 2011 Shootout. "To be able to be a part of all that is something that I haven't had. It's definitely nice to have it, makes you feel pretty good about where you're at. It's taken time. I've had some really good years in Cup and I've learned a lot from everything, and now I'm just in a really solid situation and need to take full advantage of it."

The 75-lap Shootout also will offer a glimpse into how NASCAR's new aerodynamic package will perform in race conditions and whether the two-car push technique will turn, as expected, into a rarely used tactic. Friday's two practice sessions should reveal more.

What the Shootout won't do is necessarily predict a Daytona 500 champion; no one has swept both events since Dale Jarrett accomplished the feat in 2000.

Mark Martin!!

Mark Martin's first Daytona 500 with Michael Waltrip Racing got a little easier Tuesday, when he became locked into the event's starting field thanks to a points deal with FAS Lane Racing.

Martin's No. 55 car, in which he will run a part-time Sprint Cup schedule in 2012, did not previously have a guaranteed berth in the race. The No. 32 car of FAS Lane Racing, owned by former Cup Series crew chief Frank Stoddard, finished 34th in owners' points last season, giving it secure starting positions for the first five races of the upcoming campaign. Those points have been transferred to Martin's vehicle as part of a deal that apparently makes FAS Lane minority owner Bill Jenkins a co-owner of the No. 55.

"When Bill Jenkins permitted Frank Stoddard to take FAS Lane Racing in a new direction it created an opportunity for Bill and MWR to work together in 2012," Waltrip said in a statement supplied by the team. "These partnerships are mutually beneficial for everyone involved. For MWR, this partnership has everything to do with benefitting our loyal sponsors, our new drivers and the growth of our young organization."

MWR expanded to three cars this season with Martin and Clint Bowyer joining holdover Martin Truex Jr. Part of the reason behind the deal, Waltrip said, was to pay back sponsors by guaranteeing them a spot in NASCAR's biggest race.

"Our motivation was to take care of them," Waltrip said. "Both Bill and MWR have worked closely with NASCAR to adhere to the guidelines. All of us owners understand how difficult it is and given the opportunity to take care of our partners, we all support each other."

Martin will run a 25-event schedule this season in an Aaron's-backed car he will split with Waltrip. A regular in the Great American Race since 1988, Martin's best finish in the Daytona 500 is a narrow runner-up result behind Kevin Harvick in 2007.

Michael Waltrip to Drive #40 Car

CORNELIUS, N.C. -- Hillman Racing announced Monday that two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip will drive the No. 40 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota in the 2012 Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

The race will mark Waltrip's 75th start at Daytona in one of NASCAR's top three touring series (Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Trucks) -- the most of any driver.

"Aaron's really does make your dreams come true," said Waltrip. "When I was a kid thinking about racing in Daytona I never dreamed I would start more NASCAR races there than anyone. That's amazing."

He said it takes many factors for success.

"I appreciate what the folks at Hillman Racing including Joe Falk are putting together. Hopefully my experience at Daytona will help them get out of the gate strong with their new team."

Daytona's 2012 Speedweeks promises to be busy for Waltrip. He'll race the No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota in the Feb. 18 Budweiser Shootout, oversee his three Sprint Cup teams at Michael Waltrip Racing and host several top executives from corporate America attending the races with the team. Waltrip also will continue his television work serving as a commentator for SPEED's Truck Series broadcasts and begin his new role as an analyst for the Fox NASCAR Sunday broadcasts joining his brother and Hall of Fame member Darrell Waltrip.

Aaron's chief operating officer Ken Butler said the chance to have Waltrip drive the No. 40 and Mark Martin drive MWR's No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machines in the Daytona 500 is too good of an opportunity to miss.

"We could not be more pleased to work out a deal to sponsor Michael for his 26th consecutive start in the Daytona 500," Butler said. "There isn't a better way to introduce our 2012 Dream Machine program than having both Mark Martin and Michael competing together in NASCAR's biggest race. I look forward to watching Michael and Mark bringing our Dream Machines to the checkers side by side in the first and second spots."

Hillman Racing is making its NASCAR debut this season, but the organization is anything but new to the sport. Team owner Mike Hillman Sr. played a key role in the founding of Germain Racing and was the architect of the group's two NASCAR championships in 2006 and 2010. Hillman acquired the championship-winning Truck Series assets following the conclusion of the 2011 season and is set to embark as the owner and general manager of Hillman Racing for the 2012 season.

"I can't think of a better way to start off the season than to have Michael Waltrip behind the wheel of our car at Daytona," said Hillman, who credits longtime friend and co-owner Falk for the inclusion of the Cup program under the Hillman Racing banner. "I've been in this sport a long time, but I've never been so excited to go to Daytona. To have two Daytona 500 champions at the start of the season -- with Ward Burton in the truck and Michael in the Cup car -- positions Hillman Racing for a strong debut and a chance to win both races."

Waltrip won last year's Daytona Truck race on a dramatic last-lap pass. The victory came on the 10th anniversary of his first Daytona 500 victory.

David Ragan?

David Ragan, who has five years experience in the Sprint Cup Series, will drive Front Row Motorsports' No. 34 Ford for the 2012 season.

Ragan, 26, will race the car number used all of last season by California veteran David Gilliland, who'll be his 2012 teammate in the No. 38 Ford fielded by Front Row owner Bob Jenkins.

If I can go there and help improve their program 10, 15 spots and maybe try to get them their first win as a team that would be huge.

"We've had meetings with potential sponsors that will be onboard throughout the year, a sponsor that's been in the series some," Ragan said. "It's a good program for me. This offseason, going in I knew that there was going to be some change and I've gotten an education on how the process really works a little better.

"I've been fortunate the last five years -- really my whole career -- that I've had sponsors locked-in the next season, in September-October-November so I've never had to go through this process. So I've really learned a lot more about the sport than just sitting behind the wheel and driving."

For Daytona Speedweeks both Front Row cars are locked-into the Daytona 500 starting field by finishing 2011 in the top 35 in the owners' points. Former Truck Series champion Travis Kvapil raced the No. 38 back into the top 35 near the end of last season.

"The Front Row program has been a team that's gotten better the last three or four years, obviously," said Ragan, who owns a Ford dealership in South Georgia. "They've got some Ford support that means a lot to me and I think there's a lot of positive things that can come of it. If we can improve their position a little bit we can be a good, solid team on the Sprint Cup circuit, week in and week out.

"If I can go there and help improve their program 10, 15 spots and maybe try to get them their first win as a team that would be huge."

Ragan's car will be tended by crew chief Jay Guy, who last year primarily worked on the No. 38 Ford with Kvapil or part-time Front Row driver J.J. Yeley. Gilliland's crew chief will be engineer Derrick Finley, who last year led Front Row's third car when it was entered.

Front Row general manager Jerry Freeze said that car, which used No. 55 last season, would have to be renumbered since the No. 55 has been assigned to Michael Waltrip Racing. FRM's No. 55 made 18 attempts in 2011 and qualified for 15 races, nine by Yeley.

"If we can fill some sponsorship on the two primary cars I don't see that third car running a lot," Ragan said. "Obviously [in 2011] that helped generate some revenue and it put another car on the track for an R&D car that was helping the other two efforts.

"We're a two-car team and that's what we want to take our pride in and try to get that two-car team to the top-20, top-25 in points and if the third car can help us some, that's when they're going to use it."

Ragan won in both Cup and Nationwide for Roush Fenway Racing in his seven seasons with the organization, where he made 293 starts across the Truck (19), Nationwide (92) and Cup series (182).

In 2009 he had two victories and 15 top-10 finishes in 19 Nationwide starts working primarily with 2011 Nationwide champion crew chief Mike Kelley. Ragan also won the July Cup race at Daytona in 2011 after being in position to win the season-opening Daytona 500 before making an illegal lane change on a restart that resulted in a penalty.

But it seemed the son of Georgia car dealer and part-time Cup Series racer Ken Ragan never quite achieved the potential that owner Jack Roush held for him. When RFR hit a sponsor shortfall after the 2011 season, there was no longer room for Ragan. Ragan weighed opportunities across all three NASCAR national series before making the decision to go with Front Row.

"I'm happy [because] I really wanted to stay in the Cup Series," Ragan said. "I didn't want to put myself in the position where I had to run a limited schedule or a start-and-park car. That's when I looked at some Nationwide opportunities and I even looked at some Truck opportunities.

"But when I talked to Jerry and I met Bob Jenkins, I saw the dedication that those guys had. I think their relationship with Ford and having two cars locked-in and going to their shop and seeing their employees and seeing that those guys are for real, I feel like it's a good opportunity for me to help their program stay in the Cup Series."

Berrier to move on.

Todd Berrier spent nearly two decades employed at Richard Childress Racing.

As Kevin Harvick's crew chief, he experienced winning a Daytona 500 in 2007. He also won a title with Harvick in what is now known as the Nationwide Series in 2001, and he won eight races and claimed four poles overall at the Cup Series level as a crew chief at RCR.

I've known Todd for a long time. ... I know he will come out and be able to give me things I haven't been able to have in the past.

But when Jeff Burton struggled mightily during the first 19 races last season with Berrier on top of his pit box, even Berrier realized it might be time for a change in his career. So not long after he was replaced as Burton's crew chief, Berrier decided to join JTG Daugherty Racing in a new role as not only crew chief of the organization's single-car team, but also as its hands-on general manager.

That announcement came this past October. Now, as Berrier prepares the No. 47 Toyota team with Bobby Labonte to take on Daytona International Speedway during Speedweeks, he realizes there is much work still to be done -- but he's fine with that fact.

"I haven't been surprised about a thing," Berrier said recently. "Honestly, I talked to [team co-owner] Tad [Geshickter] some in the middle of last year -- and it's exactly like I would picture it being at this point. So I haven't been let down or surprised about anything. It's all been kind of exactly what I would have expected at this point. ... We've been able to stick to the script we laid out in mid-September."

There are plans in the works to add a second car to the team by next season, and possibly even for a limited number of races by the end of this season. But Labonte and team co-owner Brad Daugherty said they already are seeing positive dividends brought about simply by the hiring of Berrier.

"With Todd's experience that he has, what he can bring to the table, he can do a lot of things that maybe some people can't do," Labonte said. "So he's able to multi-task. And it's funny, but he's also able to admit, 'Hey, I don't know anything about that. So I'm going to let someone else take care of that.' So if you admit that, you know that, that's always a better way than coming in and acting like you know everything.

"I've known Todd for a long time. He's got a great track record. He's very successful. I've never worked with him one-on-one before, but he's worked on my cars back a long time ago when I had problems at short tracks here and there. I know him real well -- and I know he will come out and be able to give me things I haven't been able to have in the past. He's the perfect fit for this organization and this team -- because he can do several things and he also lets other people do their jobs and holds them accountable for what they do."

Daugherty said Richard Childress himself recommended Berrier for the job, despite the fact that it meant the end to Berrier's long and mostly fruitful relationship with RCR.

"Todd's been around a long time. Richard Childress is a good buddy of mine, and I take a lot of advice from him," Daugherty said. "We were looking for someone. Richard saw what we were doing. We were spending a lot of money and we were like a commodity to these other race teams. It was benefiting them, but it wasn't benefiting us.

"Todd had been at RCR a long time, but he was looking for a new role. Him and Richard decided they were going to go their separate ways and Richard said, 'This is the guy who can lead your organization.' And he's the strongest guy we've got in the building now."

JTG Daugherty at first might take a step back, but its decision to break away from Michael Waltrip Racing was so it soon could move forward.
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Hence, the addition of Berrier was all part of the grand scheme of JTG Daugherty Racing to split from Michael Waltrip Racing, leaving the MWR shop it had called its satellite home and moving back to a shop in Harrisburg, N.C., that previously served as home to a Nationwide team owned by Tad and Jodi Geshickter. Berrier spearheaded the move and recently joked that he's been so involved he's even helped lay some fresh sheet rock at the new old shop.

"Todd was wanting to get back to being a racer, and get away from the corporate thing. He wants to tinker with race cars and be a leader of men," Daugherty added. "All of our guys respect him. He came to our shop and he's changed everything. He's made it much more efficient. The processes are more fluid. I mean, I think we're really going to be good by mid-year because of this.

"We're really leaning hard on him because of his knowledge. He looked a lot at our race cars from last year and showed us a lot of waste, a lot of things that weren't good geometry-wise. We changed all that and already our wind-tunnel numbers have improved. He's really sharp, a no-nonsense guy who is straightforward."

Berrier has set the modest goal of running 17th in the points this season, then building on that for next year as hopefully another team is added to the fold. But he said he's already having a blast in his new role.

"Having a clean sheet of paper, knowing we could assemble a group of people who had never been assembled before, that's what appealed to me most about this job," he said. "We've got 40 people who are coming either from Red Bull or Michael Waltrip Racing or KHI (Kevin Harvick Inc.) or other places that shut down. I picked up people I've had relationships with in the past, and some not as well.

"It's just fulfilling to me to be able to assemble a group of people who are part of a team, and not part of an assembly facility or part of a furniture factory. I want to put it back to the point of all of them being racers, and all of them being able to impact the bottom line."

Kasey Kahne

CONCORD, N.C. -- Hendrick Motorsports driver Kasey Kahne will be ready for the Feb. 18 Budweiser Shootout, the Feb. 26 Daytona 500 and all of Daytona Speedweeks after undergoing successful outpatient knee surgery Friday morning.

Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet, had an MRI Thursday after experiencing swelling in his left knee. The MRI revealed a torn meniscus, which was treated this morning with a partial medial meniscus removal. Following the common arthroscopic procedure, he was released from an outpatient facility in Charlotte, N.C.

Kahne will practice, qualify and race throughout NASCAR's season-opening Speedweeks, and Hendrick Motorsports has no plans to have a backup driver on standby.

In April 2011, Kahne had a procedure on his right meniscus and earned a third-place finish the following race at Richmond, Va

'The Three Stooges' to take Daytona 500 stage

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- As grand marshals, Jane Lynch and Kate Upton, co-stars from the new The Three Stooges movie, will deliver the four most famous words in motorsports: "Drivers, start your engines."

Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos and Will Sasso -- starring as Larry, Moe and Curly -- will start the action by delivering the green flag at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

"We look forward to Jane and Kate's participation in the pre-race ceremonies, adding to the star power of NASCAR's biggest and richest race of the year," Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III said. "Also, the thousands of race fans in attendance and the millions more watching on Fox Sports are eagerly waiting to experience 'Stoogemania,' when the Three Stooges deliver the green flag"

In The Three Stooges, which hits theaters everywhere April 13, newborns Larry, Moe and Curly are left on the doorstep of an orphanage run by nuns. The boys grow up finger-poking, nyuk-nyuk-nyuking and woo-woo-wooing their way to uncharted levels of knuckleheaded misadventure. Out to save their childhood home, only the Three Stooges could become embroiled in an oddball murder plot ... while stumbling into starring in a phenomenally successful TV reality show.

Earl Benjamin, president and CEO of C3 Entertainment Inc. (The Three Stooges brand owner) and executive producer of the new movie, said, "The Three Stooges as a part of the Daytona 500 gives both comedy and racing fans a truly unique blend of two of America's most enduring cultural icons -- the greatest comedy team of all time and the aptly named the Great American Race. What could be better?"

Jane Lynch is best known for her role as the sarcastic villain on the show Glee, for which she has earned an Emmy and Golden Globe. Kate Upton, who was raised in Melbourne, Fla., is known for her appearance in the 2011 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, where she was named rookie of the year.

Sean Hayes (Larry) garnered acclaim as the sarcastic and hilarious Jack McFarland on the long-running sitcom Will & Grace. Will Sasso (Curly) starred for five seasons (1997-2002) on the hit sketch comedy series MADtv. Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe) recently portrayed Frank Sinatra in the Emmy-nominated mini-series The Kennedys.

EFI opens a wealth of possibilities to competitors!!

CONCORD, N.C. -- Simply put, NASCAR's move to electronic fuel injection hasn't gotten the press it deserves.

There have been more pressing concerns. The sanctioning body and Sprint Cup teams were so focused on rule changes designed to break up sustained two-car drafts during mid-January tests at Daytona International Speedway that the impending competitive debut of EFI went virtually unnoticed.

Nevertheless, the introduction of EFI represents a profound change that goes far beyond bringing Cup race cars closer to models found in the showroom. Here are the basics:

Electronic fuel injection will make its NASCAR debut at Daytona. Mark Aumann gives an in-depth look at how the new EFI will work and what changes it brings to the sport.
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-- The fuel delivery system is fundamentally different. Injectors shoot fuel into each individual cylinder, as they are programmed to do by computer. Instead of a carburetor that mixes air and fuel, a throttle body provides airflow to the engine. As Sprint Cup series director John Darby put it during a meeting with reporters Monday at NASCAR's research-and-development center, "The engine architecture is the same. We're squirting it (fuel), instead of sucking it."

-- There are more parts and pieces. To run the EFI system, NASCAR has contracted with McLaren to provide an electronic control unit, powered by software from Freescale. An array of sensors provides performance data to the ECU, which is mounted on the engine. With a few keystrokes on a laptop computer, engine tuners can construct an ignition timing map that will regulate fuel flow to the cylinders based on input from the sensors.

The implications for Cup racing are far-reaching. Teams can plug into the ECU post-race and use the after-the-fact telemetry to make performance decisions. Traditionally, NASCAR has taken a firm stance against real-time data acquisition, and that won't change.

But teams will be allowed to download data after practice and qualifying and make adjustments to the EFI system. What they won't be able to do, however, is read data during a race, and -- realizing that fuel mileage may determine the outcome, for example -- reset their systems to a mapping more conducive to fuel conservation.

Accordingly, plugging into the EFI system adds an additional layer to NASCAR's inspection process. Before a race, the ECUs will be "locked" to one configuration for the duration. After the event, NASCAR will inspect the top five and random cars.

In keeping with its tradition of an open garage, NASCAR will also collect data and share it among the teams. But when Roush Fenway Racing, for example, sees information from a Hendrick Motorsports ECU, it will be broad-brush data rather than examination of minutiae.

In other words, RFR won't be able to compare where Carl Edwards lifts on corner entry as opposed to Jimmie Johnson. Each team will have specific information about its own cars but much more general data about its competitors. Nevertheless, the information should prove useful, particularly, as Darby says, "to get the little guys up to speed quicker."

Before its debut at Daytona, EFI has been tested extensively. Based on those tests, and on a critical mass of issues that have surfaced in a chat room established by McLaren, there have been approximately eight software revisions since NASCAR began testing the system.

Though McLaren has a history in Formula One and other forms of racing, the company had never dealt with a NASCAR engine, which Darby characterized as "the biggest, most bad-ass thing in motorsports, other than drag racing."

McLaren has never had a competition failure with one of its ECUs, but neither has the company dealt with a racing series that puts as much stress on its engines.

"If it's going to fail, we're going to fail it -- I guarantee you that," Darby said.

Though there has been much discussion of fuel economy with the switch to EFI, the consensus is that savings will be negligible. Nevertheless, EFI will allow tuners to achieve a higher level of efficiency in their fuel-saving measures.

One thing won't change: the inverse relationship between fuel economy and horsepower. To save gas, you have to give up power under the hood. But EFI, particularly as teams become more familiar with its nuances, will allow the engine to be tuned to a particular competitor's driving style, thereby enhancing the performance of both man and machine.

Last Tango at Daytona?

NASCAR fans spoke loudly. More than 80 percent of fans polled by NASCAR either hated the two-car drafts at Daytona or said they preferred pack drafting to the tandems.

In mid-January testing at Daytona, NASCAR instituted rule changes designed to break up sustained two-car hookups. The efforts didn't stop there.

When the cars return to Daytona next week, the grille openings will be higher on the front bumper and the rear bumpers will be extended down two inches. NASCAR determined that cars were still able to get airflow to the grille from underneath the lead car and took measures to counteract that.

"Our goal was not to eliminate the two-car pushes," Darby said. "Our goal was to change the look of the race back to more of a conventional drafting but not to take away the tool of the two-car draft."

If NASCAR and its fans get their wish, which seems likely, you'll see a lot more conventional pack drafting in the Daytona 500. But the race is likely to be won with a two-car push, whether it's one car pushing another to the win or one car trying to slingshot past another as they approach the finish, as Clint Bowyer did to Jeff Burton at Talladega last October.

WWE's Cena to be Daytona 500's honorary starter

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- WWE Superstar John Cena will wave the green flag as honorary starter of the 54th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 26, at historic Daytona International Speedway.

Cena was invited to participate in this year's big race by 2011 Sprint Cup Series runner-up Carl Edwards on WWE's Monday Night Raw. Edwards got out of his official No. 99 Fastenal Ford and told Cena, "NASCAR asked me to come to Monday Night Raw and personally invite you to drop the green flag and officially start the Daytona 500 on February 26." An appreciative John Cena enthusiastically accepted with an emphatic "Yes!"

"John Cena is the greatest superstar in WWE today," Daytona president Joie Chitwood III said. "We look forward to seeing him on the flag stand waving the green flag to start 'The Great American Race' and kick off the new Sprint Cup Series season."

Cena, who made his WWE debut in 2002, is a ten-time world champion. He can be seen each week on Monday Night Raw. The avid NASCAR fan will headline WrestleMania against The Rock at Sun Life Stadium in Miami on April 1.

Cena's success has led to starring roles in various Hollywood films. He recently starred in The Reunion and alongside Patricia Clarkson and Danny Glover in the family drama Legendary. His first theatrical film was the 2006 action-thriller The Marine. Always a fan favorite with kids, Cena played himself in Nickelodeon's popular teen comedies Fred: The Movie and Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred. A popular talk show guest, Cena has appeared on The Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Talk and many more.

Cena, like many NASCAR drivers, has a longstanding relationship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He is on pace to grant his 300th wish, making him the first celebrity wish granter ever to reach that lofty goal. The Make-A-Wish Foundation recently dedicated a room to WWE at the foundation's headquarters in Phoenix, in honor of Cena's unwavering dedication to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Past honorary starters for the Daytona 500 include NASCAR Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Richard Petty, actor Ashton Kutcher, comedian Whoopi Goldberg and singer Mariah Carey.

Mother of Roush Fenway driver Kenseth dies. :(

CAMBRIDGE, Wis. -- The mother of driver Matt Kenseth has died.

An obituary from a Cambridge, Wis., funeral home and Kenseth's fan website say Nicola "Nicki" Sue Kenseth battled Alzheimer's disease and died Tuesday at age 63 at Oak Park Place in Cottage Grove.

Matt Kenseth grew up in Cambridge and won the Daytona 500 in 2009.

Nicola "Nicki" Sue Kenseth is survived by her husband, Roy, her children, Kelley and Matt, and five grandchildren.

JTG Daugherty ready to move ahead!!!

Sometimes, even in racing, you have to go backward so you can eventually move forward.

That's the philosophy behind JTG Daugherty Racing's decision to leave its satellite home at Michael Waltrip Racing and return to the shop previously used by team owners Tad and Jodi Geshickter before they took on co-owner Brad Daugherty and formed the technical alliance with MWR. Prior to moving full time to Sprint Cup racing in 2009, the Geshickters had run a Nationwide Series team out of the Harrisburg, N.C., shop since 1995.

"Without question, we have to take a step back to hopefully take three forward," Daugherty said recently.

Bobby Labonte again will drive the No. 47 Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series this season. But the team has a new crew chief and general manager in Todd Berrier, who joined the organization after 18 years with Richard Childress Racing, most recently as Kevin Harvick's crew chief. The organization also added former Toyota Racing Development engineer Laerte Zatta as director of engineering and, in general, is "starting with a clean slate" after struggling badly much of last season, according to Berrier.

Berrier said it wasn't until the beginning of November that the team was able to start moving into and upgrading the Harrisburg facility. That put the team behind before the 2012 season has even started, but like Daugherty, Berrier is confident that it will prove the best course of action in the long run.

The team purchased some old cars from MWR to get started this season and will get its engines from Toyota Racing Development, but eventually plans to build its own cars at the Harrisburg shop.

Meanwhile, Berrier has set the modest expectation of finishing 17th in the points standings this season. Daugherty said the goal was to finish within the top 20 after finishing 29th last year when Labonte's only top-five finish of the entire season came with a fourth in the Daytona 500.

"I think we can run 17th every week. I truthfully do," Berrier said. "Honestly, we can be very comfortable with our position as a company and our position with personnel and our position with cars, of having our own kind of entity, by April.

"Until then, we're going to be playing a little bit of catch-up. We started in the shop Nov. 1, so there were a lot of things that had to happen. We had to acquire equipment -- and when I say 'equipment,' I mean I'm talking about brakes and drill presses and parts and shelving, all that kind of stuff. So we've really had to ramp it up. I've even had to learn how to put sheet rock up. I've done all those kinds of things."

Daugherty gave a strong endorsement to Labonte, the 2000 Cup champion who last won a race in 2003 when he still drove for Joe Gibbs Racing.

"Bobby Labonte hasn't forgotten how to drive," Daugherty said. "That's why we hired Todd Berrier. I've known Todd a long time, and with his wisdom and knowledge of these race cars -- along with Laerte Zatta, who has come over from Toyota and is just a huge asset -- I think we can get Bobby to Victory Lane.

"We have to give him the platform, though. We didn't do that last year. You saw Bobby wreck some race cars last year; you've never seen Bobby Labonte wreck like that before. He wrecked our race cars because he was driving his guts out, and some of our cars just weren't very good. We didn't give him the right opportunity."



Labonte added: "I'm excited. My confidence level is up. Brad's obviously is, and hopefully we can look for some good things. It's going to be a long road and a lot of work -- it's already been that to get to this point -- and we all know there is a lot more right in front of us. ... But I think if we all have confidence in each other, we'll make good things happen."

Daugherty said a plan already is in place to add a second car to the fold for next season, adding that "it's a distinct possibility" JTG could field a second car in a handful of races later this season.

"We're already working on it," Daugherty said. "That's something that's going to happen sooner rather than later, because we need that. That's as big as we want to be, though. The cost comes down and the information goes way up. So we're really working on that."

Meanwhile, the organization will look to take baby steps and claim small victories whenever it can, even if that means celebrating a 17th-place finish for now.

"I think by mid-season we'll have a clear snapshot of what we need to do to get better. It's going to be hard to battle the multi-car teams, no question about it," Daugherty said.

"But to say we're going to take a step backward to eventually take three giant steps forward, that's exactly right. How long is it going to take to make that happen? Hopefully we can do just that within the next 24 months."

Major sponsor deals indicate economy is turning!!

At last, there's a large patch of blue to break up the doom and gloom that has clouded the NASCAR economy for the past three seasons.

To major corporations, there still is a strong perceived value in association with NASCAR teams and with the sport itself, but the focus of those commitments has changed, along with the numbers of dollars sponsors are willing to allocate to motorsports marketing.


During the late-January Sprint Media Tour in Concord, N.C., Penske Racing announced the extension of its agreement with MillerCoors, whose Miller Lite brand is the primary sponsor of the No. 2 Dodge driven by Brad Keselowski.

Penske also has a multi-year deal in place with Shell/Pennzoil, another major long-term player in NASCAR racing and the sponsor of A.J. Allmendinger's No. 22. Team owner Roger Penske did allow, however, that the annual price of a Sprint Cup sponsorship is more likely to fall in the $12-$15 million range, rather the $25-$30 million figures bandied about during the rise of the sport's popularity in the previous decade.

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing has no more sponsorship inventory available on the Chevrolets driven by Juan Montoya and Jamie McMurray. In fact, Belkin, Liftmaster and Banana Boat extended their involvement in the sport to include primary sponsorship on McMurray's car in selected races.

All told, McMurray will have five primary sponsors this season, with Bass Pro Shops and McDonald's on the hood for the majority of the races. Montoya's car is sponsored by Target, whose relationship with team owner Chip Ganassi spans two decades and three series -- Cup, IndyCar and Grand-Am.

"How about my sales team?" Ganassi said. "There are no primary placings available on our cars. They've brought back (our current sponsors) and brought these new people to the sport. I want to give a call out to our sales guys. What a great job they've done."

Ganassi's cars are fully subscribed despite 2011 points finishes of 21st (Montoya) and 27th (McMurray), a performance Ganassi described as "pathetic."

Sponsorship news also led the program at the Joe Gibbs Racing stop on the media tour, with team owner Joe Gibbs pointing to contract extensions on the part of all three of his primary Cup sponsors -- Home Depot, FedEx and M&M's.

Walmart, courted for years by NASCAR and NASCAR owners, finally took the plunge, announcing a one-race deal for 16-time most popular driver Bill Elliott at Daytona in July in a Chevrolet built by Turner Motorsports.

Hendrick Motorsports also is flush with sponsorship for the 2012 season, prompting team owner Rick Hendrick to assert, "I feel the best I've felt about the economy in a couple of years. From the automobile side [Hendrick dealerships], we had the best year we've ever had in the history of our company.

"When you look at the fans, the excitement around Homestead, the championship -- our sponsors are here; we've spent the past two days with them -- and the excitement's there. ... It feels better."

Remember, too, that Sprint announced an extension of its title sponsorship of NASCAR's top series through 2016, welcome news as NASCAR negotiates TV contracts with its broadcast partners, with current agreements coming to term after the 2014 season.

That's not to say that the picture is uniformly rosy. Roush Fenway Racing is down to three full-time Cup cars in 2012 and still hasn't announced sponsorship for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne in the Nationwide Series -- even though Stenhouse is the defending series champion.

With driver Clint Bowyer's departure and a sponsorship gap in the Cup series, Richard Childress Racing doesn't plan to run four full-time Cup cars this year, though the No. 33 Chevrolet will be on track for at least the first five events of the season.

In fairness to RCR, the organization will field as many as 10 entries across all three of NASCAR's national touring series on certain weekends. RCR has absorbed the Nationwide operation of Cup driver Kevin Harvick -- providing full-time rides to Elliott Sadler and Austin Dillon in addition to an all-star car driven primarily by Cup drivers, starting with Tony Stewart at Daytona.

In addition, RCR will field its own Camping World Truck Series teams as Ty Dillon attempts to succeed brother Austin as series champion.

A major change in the sponsorship landscape involves the expectations of companies that invest in NASCAR racing -- and demand a measurable return. Sponsorship no longer is merely about paint on a race car or TV exposure numbers provided by Joyce Julius, the company that specializes in the evaluation of sports sponsorships.

Business-to-business relationships are critical. When Shell/Pennzoil opted to move from RCR to Penske in 2010, a significant part of the deal was Penske's agreement to fill the crankcases of the cars at his dealerships with Pennzoil.

In today's climate, car owners who can't offer a B-to-B component to a prospective sponsor are at a distinct disadvantage.

Equally important are sponsor relations, and that means both creative activation and cooperative drivers who are willing to go the extra mile in promoting the products that fund their racing efforts.

Yes, the NASCAR economy is improving, but there's still much progress to be made, as owners figure out, at varying speeds, the nuances of the new paradigm. Steve Phelps, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer, stressed the importance of the balance between containing costs and money sought from sponsorships.

"We're trying to control costs as much as we can," Phelps said. "The revenue portion of it, which is sponsorship, I think continues to gain momentum. And although we certainly have a number of cars that have inventory that's open, if you look at the companies that are coming in, look at the renewals that are happening ...

"I think the Sprint renewal was very important for the sport. It's important for the sport because it gave confidence to everyone else. Sprint's business has been challenged, and they're doing a great job of coming back from it, and this sport was so important to them that they're going to invest $100 million a year in it and continue for another five years.

"So do I feel it's turning? Yes, I do. Are we exactly where we want to be? No. The economy's still tough. We're not where we want to be, but we're certainly moving in the right direction."

Aric Almirola

Aric Almirola has stood on the precipice of what appeared to be a great opportunity in Sprint Cup racing previously in his career.

But he admitted Wednesday that he's never felt better about one after signing to drive the No. 43 Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports in the upcoming 2012 season. The last time Almirola thought he was about to break into Cup racing was prior to the 2007 season when he was supposed to split a ride with Mark Martin for Ginn Racing.

I'm a way better race car driver now than I was three years ago. I feel like I'll be able to make the most of this opportunity.

That went away in a hurry, and so did Ginn Racing -- which eventually merged with Dale Earnhardt Inc., which in turn merged with yet another operation to become Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Almirola, considered an up-and-coming potential Cup star prior to 2007, was left on the outside looking in and did the only thing he thought he could do to work his way back. He started taking whatever rides he could get and eventually went back to the Camping World Truck Series, where in 2010 he won twice and finished second in the points. That led to an opportunity last year to run a full-time Nationwide Series schedule with JR Motorsports, where he drove the No. 88 Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish in points.

By going backward in his career, Almirola, still young at 27 years of age, said he's now more prepared than ever to take the leap to the Cup Series -- this time in a full-time ride and behind the wheel in the car that sports arguably the most famous number in NASCAR.

"This is a great opportunity for me. I felt like a few years ago when I had the chance to go Cup racing, it wasn't at this level," Almirola said. "There were a lot of moving parts still going on, and it didn't end up working out. ... I think taking all of that knowledge that I've gained over the last two or three years has done nothing but make me a better race car driver.

"To have the opportunity to get into the type of equipment I'm getting into now, I'm really excited about it. I think I'm a way better race car driver now than I was three years ago. I feel like I'll be able to make the most of this opportunity."

Brian Moffitt, CEO of Richard Petty Motorsports, said that Richard Petty himself was among those who kept an eye on how hard Almirola kept working after the career setback he suffered in 2007. Prior to becoming a car owner, Petty guided the No. 43 to a record number of race wins in a Hall of Fame career as a driver.

"We saw a lot of potential in Aric and watched him closely throughout his time at JR Motorsports," Moffitt said. "Richard always said if we ever had the opportunity, that was somebody he would like to see in the 43."

Petty, Moffitt and others at RPM saw potential in Almirola toward the end of the 2010 season when they tabbed him to drive five Cup races in the No. 9 car they fielded that now is being driven by Marcos Ambrose.

"We are thrilled to welcome Aric Almirola into the RPM family," said Petty, who co-owns RPM with an investment group headed by Andrew Murstein. "We feel extremely fortunate to have had a number of very talented drivers interested in joining our organization, but ultimately we felt Aric would be the best fit for the team and for our current and potential partners.

"We have had the chance to watch his progress for the past several years and we had success with him in the past. We are really confident in his potential as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver. We think Aric has all the makings to be the next bright star in our sport."

Almirola's car is expected to be at least partially sponsored by Smithfield's, a meat company based in Smithfield, N.C. The primary sponsor for the car last season, Best Buy, has moved on to another team.

"As far as sponsorship, we will be making announcements in the coming weeks. We're poised for a two-car operation, as Richard has mentioned earlier," Moffitt said. "We do have some open inventory on the car, but we will be announcing some new partners within the coming weeks."

Almirola said he has never been more excited about an opportunity in NASCAR. He will be paired with veteran crew chief Greg Erwin and replaces A.J. Allmendinger, the driver who guided the No. 43 Ford to a respectable 15th-place finish in both the drivers' and owners' point standings last year. Allmendinger left RPM recently to join Penske Racing as driver of the No. 22 Dodge for that organization.

"I had the privilege last year of sitting on the couch at home and watching all the [Cup] races, and I saw how competitive their race cars were on a weekly basis," Almirola said. "That was a big factor in my decision to come over here to Richard Petty Motorsports."

Ten treated for smoke inhalation after fire at JGR

A Charlotte television station reported that 10 people were treated and released for smoke inhalation after a fire broke out inside the Joe Gibbs Racing complex in Huntersville, N.C., on Tuesday.

Huntersville police told WCNC-TV in Charlotte that a machine -- thought to be a laser cutter -- caught fire inside the building. The fire was contained to the machine shop inside the building, and all 10 people were treated in a JGR parking lot and subsequently cleared to go back inside the complex.

"A piece of equipment in the machine shop caught fire [Tuesday] at our Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters in Huntersville, N.C. The fire department was called and the fire was quickly contained and extinguished," Joe Gibbs Racing said in a statement. " A few of our employees received treatment on site for issues related to smoke inhalation. All employees were able to return to work within the hour to continue preparations for the 2012 NASCAR season."

It's the second year in a row that a fire has caused damage to the facility. In February of 2011, just under a year ago, a fire caused significant damage to the room where engines are built and worked on. No one was injured in that incident.