Monster Energy Drink To Earnhardt?
NASCAR Nation is on pins and needles waiting to hear who will sponsor the ride of Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2008. The deal could fetch $28 million, vs. roughly $15 million this year, fueling a growing consensus that Budweiser will bow out of its eight-year relationship with Earnhardt at season’s end.

Chatter from both NASCAR and Wall Street is making an Anheuser buyout of Hansen Natural (nasdaq: HANS - news - people ), the Corona, Calif., maker of the popular energy drink, Monster Energy, increasingly likely. Officials at the companies were not available for comment.

Mentioned as a possible successor in its own right to the King of Beers' deal with Earnhardt, Hansen’s Monster Energy drink has been distributed by Anheuser-Busch for over a year. In five months this year, sales have increased more than 67% on average vs. 20% for rival Red Bull, which is making its NASCAR debut this season as a primary sponsor. The test drive of Hansen’s high-growth "functional beverage" business makes an Anheuser takeover the next logical step.

In NASCAR, Anheuser slapping the kid-friendly Monster Energy logo on Earnhardt’s new car would allow it to exploit the driver’s popularity in ways it couldn’t with Bud. Laws prohibiting alcohol sponsors from, say, embossing die-cast cars with beer logos, or tossing drivers a cold one in victory lane, don’t apply to other brands--witness the five-seconds of marketing nirvana for PepsiCo every time driver Jeff Gordon climbs out of his race car, open bottle in hand, to flash bulbs and TV cameras.

Meanwhile, Budweiser would still have exposure as title sponsor of the Budweiser Shootout, an annual pre-season race in Daytona. In a perfect world, a Monster Energy Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the checkered flag next season at Dover’s "Monster Mile" race track.(forbes.com)

Yates Won't Seek Investor
Robert Yates has decided to go solo for now. The longtime Nextel Cup Series owner said Saturday he is no longer interested in selling part of his two-car organization to an outside investor and is intent on improving the performance of his team himself. And if he cannot succeed at that, Yates said, he just won’t do it.

“I just hope we can still be good at doing Cup stuff, but I won’t rule out that if I can’t get it right, I probably won’t do it,” Yates said Saturday at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Yates, who owns the numbers 38 and 88 Fords driven by David Gilliland and Ricky Rudd, respectively, was among a growing number of Cup team owners seeking investors and an influx of revenue. In the process of talking with prospective buyers, Yates said he found the process more difficult than helpful.

“I’m tired of spending too much time doing something that doesn’t benefit anything. Maybe if the right person showed up, but right now the thing I don’t need is money,” he said. “The thing I most need is performance and I haven’t found a person who can bring me the performance.

“The reason I even thought about selling was to put some of this pressure on somebody else. The problem is, if I sell, it puts more pressure on me. Now, I not only have to keep drivers happy and sponsors happy and people happy. But I have to keep an owner happy. I don’t need that.”(That's Racin')

Speed Channel To Replay Eldora Race
SPEED has secured exclusive basic cable replay rights for Tony Stewart's "Nextel Prelude to The Dream" dirt Late Model race, with the first airing scheduled for July 8 at noon ET.

Two-time NASCAR champ Stewart headlines a list of drivers including NASCAR's Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Juan Montoya and Mark Martin, and NHRA drivers Cruz Pedregon and Ron Capps, who competed at the Stewart-owned half-mile track located in Western Ohio in 2,300-pound dirt Late Model stock cars capable of putting out more than 800 horsepower. The full lineup included an impressive five Cup champions, three Daytona 500 winners and 24 major racing championship winners.

"This is a cool opportunity to give race fans another chance to see some of their favorite drivers having a lot of fun together," said SPEED president Hunter Nickell. "Tony has built this into quite a special event and SPEED is happy to be able to deliver it to the fans."(nascar.com)

Harvick Wins At New Hampshire
Kevin Harvick held off a hard charging Carl Edwards in the closing laps -- to win the Camping World 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway on Saturday. Harvick started on the pole and dominated most of the race, leading 166 of the 200 laps, until Edwards caught him with two laps to go. Edwards put the bumper to Harvick on the final turn but Harvick was expecting it and held on to become the 21st different winner in the Busch Series race at the track. Harvick's 28th career victory now ranks as third on the all-time win list. Harvick win the Nextel Cup race from the pole last September. Edwards settled for second. “It seems like old times – beat Edwards and win the race,” said Harvick, “The last run we got tight. I made the call not to tighten it up and it almost cost us the race. “I could see him coming. We kind of geared up for the short run. We got a little too tight there at the end but we were able to hold on with what we had.”

Matt Kenseth, who also gave Edwards a pretty good battle, finished third and Tony Stewart, driving for DeLana Harvick, was fourth. Rounding out the top ten were Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, David Reutimann, Reed Sorenson and Casey Mears. Last weeks Nextel Cup winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, was running in the top ten until he and Clint Bowyer tangled with 36 laps to go -- Montoya crashed into the outside wall while Bowyer continued on -- Montoya finished 34th. “I just got hit by Clint, I think, and spun," Montoya said. "It’s a disappointing day."

David Ragan finished 18th and took Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the sixth time this season. "We never had good track position or we did but we weren’t good enough to keep it," said Ragan. "This wasn’t the car that we wanted to bring. We thought it’d be a little bit better. It just goes to show how much competition is here in the Busch Series." Carl Edwards extended his massive lead in the Busch Series point standings to 809 over David Reutimann and 868 over Kevin Harvick. There were eight lead changes among five different drivers. The race was slowed by six cautions for a total of 35 laps and one red flag.