NASCAR Daily News Headlines * December 21, 2007

DEI Extends Kevin Manion's Contract

Ragan Leads Crash List

"I have a notebook full of information that I've written down after every race, every weekend," he said. "That's something I'm going to have to go through over the offseason."

His notes include information about the characteristics of each track and about his competition. "There's no black or white rule on how to avoid wrecks," he said. "The biggest thing is just to be aware of who you're racing. Some guys you can race hard, some guys you can't, and it's just about putting yourself in the best position."

Team co-owner Jack Roush saw more positives than negatives in Ragan's first Cup season. "There's probably 100 bad things you could expect a rookie would get involved with in his first year," Roush said. "David, I think, is ahead of the curve on that with maybe 10 to 20 things that have happened that were regrettable. Those are behind him. We look forward to 2008. He's going to be knocking on the door in the top 20 of points." Despite crashing on his entry to pit road while leading the final Busch Series race, Ragan also managed to finish fifth in Busch points thanks to four top-five finishes in 35 starts.

"He's going to win his championship in the Busch (Nationwide Series in 2008) category," Roush said. "Unfortunately, a rookie has to have a rookie year. That's just the way it goes. He certainly hasn't disappointed me in anything he's been able to do."()

Sprint Sound & Speed Lineup Grows

The Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust will once again bring together the stars of country music and NASCAR for autographs, storytelling and question-answer sessions with their favorite performers and drivers at The Backstage Garage Pass festival from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 12, followed by the blockbuster Country Concert event headlined by Jackson at 8 p.m.

Earnhardt and Montoya are among four NASCAR celebrities and three country music artists announced today as newly added participants in the Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust extravaganza. Earnhardt is the 2004 Daytona 500 winner and two-time NASCAR Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series champion who will take over the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in the Sprint (formerly Nextel) Cup Series in 2008. Montoya, whose Cup Series rookie season included a race victory at Sonoma, Calif., will embark on his second season behind the wheel of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Dodge in 2008.

Also just added to the festival lineup is Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 07 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet who scored his first career Cup Series victory in his first race as a championship Chase contender at New Hampshire in September, and Scott Wimmer, Richard Childress Racing driver in both the Cup and Nationwide Series.

New to next month’s lineup of country stars is Josh Gracin, the former American Idol contestant who is one of only three country artists in recent times to release a debut album with three top-five hits, including the No. 1 hit “Nothin’ to Lose,” Bryan White, platinum recording artist who burst into the country music scene in the mid-90s with a string of four No. 1 singles, including “Someone Else’s Star” and “Rebecca Lynn,” and The Wrights, whose 2005 debut album, Down This Road, captured the attention of the industry and spring-boarded the husband-and-wife team into touring dates with Jackson and appearances on the Grand Ole Opry.

The Wrights will give an opening performance at the Saturday-evening Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust Country Concert, headlined by Alan Jackson and special guest Taylor Swift, with Jason Michael Carroll. Along with Gracin and White, The Wrights will also join fellow country artists and NASCAR celebrities in The Backstage Garage Pass festival earlier that day, which also offers fans a charitable auction featuring memorabilia from the racing and entertainment industries, as well as show car and sponsor displays.

Tickets for the 2008 Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust are available through TicketMaster and the event website (www.soundandspeed.org). They are $39.50 for the concert, $20 for the Backstage Garage Pass event, or $54.50 for both. Once again, proceeds benefit the Victory Junction Gang Camp, and the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum.

Joining Sprint and SunTrust as official event sponsors are the Great American Country television network, Nashville radio station WSM, Allstate Insurance, the Ford Motor Company, and Nashville Superspeedway. The lineup of promotional partners includes the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, UPS, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and RacingOne.com.

Jackson is one of the most compelling performers/songwriters in country music – a favorite of critics and fans alike. Jackson has sold more than 49 million albums, has penned 21 of his 31 No. 1 records, and is the most-nominated artist in Country Music Association (CMA) history. As everyone in Nashville knows, Jackson is an avid car collector with a garage full of classic cars, including his first set of wheels, a 1977 Thunderbird. His 1997 video for “Who's Cheatin' Who” was filmed at the Concord (N.C.) Motorsports Park and featured some of NASCAR’s hottest drivers such as Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Brett Bodine, Ernie Irvan, Jeremy Mayfield, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., and Bill Elliott. The three-time CMA Entertainer of the Year topped the album charts not once, but twice, in 2006 with the success of Precious Memories and Like Red on a Rose.

Recent CMA Horizon Award winner Swift burst into country music at the age of 16 with her smash top-five debut single, “Tim McGraw.” She is the first female solo artist in country music history to write or co-write every song on her platinum-selling debut CD, which produced three straight top-10 singles and remained at the top of the Billboard Country Album Chart for eight weeks. She was also named “Country’s Hottest Female Artist of 2007” by AOL Music and was nominated for the American Music Award for Favorite Country Female Artist.

Carroll’s first Arista Nashville album, Waitin’ in the Country, has launched back-to-back top-five singles with “Alyssa Lies” and “Livin’ Our Love Song.” Released Feb. 6, the album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s country album chart and No. 8 on the pop chart, with a whopping 57,608 units of first-week sales.

Celebrities previously announced as participants in autograph and question-answer sessions during Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust are country artist and recent inductee into the Grand Ole Opry, Josh Turner (Long Black Train sold over a million copies, garnering multiple nominations from the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Your Man attained double-platinum status and earned two Grammy® nominations), Marty Roe and Jimmy Olander of Diamond Rio (over 10 million albums sold to date, whose hits include “Meet in the Middle,” “Norma Jean Riley,” “Unbelievable” and “One More Day”), Danielle Peck (most-played debut female country artist of 2006, whose hits include “I Don’t,” -- “Isn’t That Everything,” -- “Findin’ a Good Man,” and the new single, “Bad for Me,” impacting radio now), and Bucky Covington, whose self-titled CD opened at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with not only 2007’s biggest unit debut from a new country artist, but also the best first-week sales and highest Top 200 debut for any new male country artist since Billy Ray Cyrus in 1992.

Covington’s new single “It’s Good To Be Us,” is climbing the country radio charts on the heels of the top-five success of his first single “A Different World.” The most recent additions to the country music celebrity lineup are Craig Morgan (“Tough,” “That’s What I Love About Sunday,” “Redneck Yacht Club”) and Richie McDonald (former voice of award-winning group Lonestar, whose hits include “Amazed,” and “I’m Already There”).

Among the NASCAR celebrities previously announced as participants are Richard Petty (seven-time Cup Series champion and the winningest driver in series history), Kyle Petty (third-generation NASCAR competitor, eight-time winner and founder of the Victory Junction Gang Camp along with his wife, Patty), Darrell Waltrip (three-time Cup Series champion, third-winningest driver in series history, and current member of the NASCAR broadcast team on the FOX network), Richard Childress (owner of Richard Childress Racing, which features drivers Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer), Michael Waltrip (two-time Daytona 500 winner and driver/owner of the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota), Ryan Newman (nicknamed “Rocketman” for his penchant for winning pole positions with regularity as driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge for Penske Racing; 12-time Cup Series winner), Jamie McMurray (current driver of the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford for Roush Fenway Racing; won July’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona), Dave Blaney (driver of the No. 22 Caterpillar Toyota for Bill Davis Racing), David Stremme (2007 driver of the No. 40 Coors Light Dodge for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates).

Joining them from the sports car racing ranks will be Max Angelelli (2005 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series champion as driver of the No. 10 SunTrust Pontiac Daytona Prototype) and Wayne Taylor (three-time sports car racing champion who co-drove to the 2005 Rolex Series title with Angelelli and whose Wayne Taylor Racing team campaigns the SunTrust Pontiac). More drivers and country music performer appearances will be added to the star-studded line-up weekly.