NASCAR News

We're four races into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and Jeff Gordon has written his concession speech. It goes something like this:

NASCAR and its television partners announced this week that 20 Sprint Cup races next year will move to a 1.15 pm ET start, including the Daytona 500, making 21 races scheduled in that time slot. Overall, 28 of the events will start earlier than they did in 2009.

NASCAR and the sport's top teams are discussing ways to rescue their troubled licensing business by bringing all of the team and driver rights under one banner, marking the first major step toward creating NASCAR Properties.

The two big unknowns about the pending merger between Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing can be summed up in two words: "When?" and "If".

One day after Jack Daniel's announced it was leaving NASCAR, Beam Global Spirits and Wine Inc., maker of Jim Beam bourbon, announced Tuesday it will not extend its sponsorship with Robby Gordon Motorsports beyond this season and will not return to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2010.

Jack Daniel's will end its NASCAR programme and will not extend its sponsorship with Richard Childress Racing's #07 team, the organisation announced today.

Team owner Richard Petty said the merger between Yates Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports, now in the form of a letter of intent, should be finalised within two weeks.

NASCAR's version of musical chairs continued Friday, when Wood Brothers Racing named David Gilliland to replace ailing Bill Elliott in the #21 Ford for Sunday's Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Bobby Labonte may be out of his Sprint Cup ride at Yates Racing, which operates the #96 Ford for Hall of Fame Racing, but that doesn't mean he will miss this Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Despite speculation to the contrary, Kevin Harvick will drive Richard Childress Racing's #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet Impala SS in the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup campaign, his tenth in the top tier of NASCAR competition.

Yes, NASCAR, there is a Super Bowl - other than the Super Bowl of stock car racing. Daytona International Speedway found a creative way to deal with a scheduling conflict between qualifying for the 2010 Daytona 500 and the February 7, 2010 NFL Super Bowl in Miami.

Furniture Row Racing has announced that it will run the full 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule in 2010. The race team also announced that Regan Smith will continue to drive the No. 78 Chevrolet Impala SS next season.

Clint Bowyer was wearing the logo of a breakfast cereal on his uniform following the July 4th weekend Sprint Cup race at Daytona, but he must have felt more like toast.

How do you flesh out the entry list for a NASCAR Sprint Cup race? Hold it on a road course. On the circuits where right turns won't necessarily get you in trouble, you'll routinely see drivers who rarely appear on the staple of stock car racing - the ovals.

Richard Petty Motorsports has categorically denied reports that the organisation will downsize to three teams and release driver Reed Sorenson in the process.

By the age of 16, Tayler Malsam had played football and baseball and found neither appealing.

Steve Wallace continues to improve as a driver, only to have his future on the track clouded by a difficult economy.

If team owner Richard Childress has his way, Kevin Harvick won't be walking. Rather, he'll be driving the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet for RCR at least through the 2010 season, according to a statement Wednesday from Richard Childress Racing.

Lisa Mayfield, stepmother of suspended Sprint Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield, says she saw Mayfield use methamphetamine on at least 30 occasions dating to 1998, including once before a race in 1999, according to an affidavit that accompanied a NASCAR filing in federal court Wednesday.

Juan Pablo Montoya has claimed that Martin Truex's departure from the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing will have no affect on his own assault on the end-of-season Chase for the Championship.

You'll never see a book titled How To Win Friends and Influence People in Chicago under Jeff Gordon's byline, especially as Chicago Cubs fans still remember - with revulsion - the four-time NASCAR champion's off-key rendition of Take Me out to the Ballgame from May 2005.

A week may have passed since the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, but Kyle Busch remains far from happy with the incident on the final lap of the race which saw him lose out on victory to Tony Stewart.

The Richard Childress Racing #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet Monte Carlo that seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt earned his 76th and final victory in will participate in this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Brian Vickers has endured several near misses this season for a long-awaited return to victory lane in the Nationwide Series. He'll try to complete the journey Saturday in his 100th start in the series in the Camping World RV Sales 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.