Truex Takes First Cup Pole At Texas
Martin Truex Jr. earned his first Nextel Cup pole on Friday at Texas Moitor Spedway for Sunday's Dickies 500. Truex turned a lap of 27.964 seconds around the 1.5-mile track, translating to a speed of 193.105 mph. Jeff Gordon will start on the outside of the front row with rookie Juan Pablo Montoya starting third. RCR driver Kevin Harvick rolls off in the fourh spot followed by rookie A.J. Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears and Mark Martin round out the top ten. Five drivers failed to qualify, Ward Burton, John Andretti, Michael Waltrip, Burney Lamar and Kevin Lepage.

This is Montoya's best qualifying effort since he started second at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Montoya’s qualifying effort this afternoon equals the best start by a Raybestos Rookie in 13 previous races at Texas (Kasey Kahne started third in 2004 spring race). The best start by a Raybestos Rookie in two previous fall races at Texas was sixth by Denny Hamlin in 2006.

SMI Official Announcement On NHIS Purchase
Speedway Motorsports, Inc. has agreed to purchase New Hampshire International Speedway from Bob and Gary Bahre for $340 million in cash. The agreement was announced today by O. Bruton Smith, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. To align with other SMI-owned speedway brands, the track will be renamed New Hampshire Motor Speedway following completion of the acquisition.

The speedway, which opened in 1990 and hosts two NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series events each year, is located about one hour north of Boston in Loudon, N.H. According to the latest census numbers, the population within 200 miles of the speedway is more than 18 million people. The venue is easily accessible via Interstate highways from all metro areas in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Located on approximately 1,100 acres, the multi-use complex is the largest sports facility in New England and features a 1.058-mile oval speedway, with chair-back seating for 92,000 spectators, and a 1.6-mile road course.

The speedway hosts the only NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events held in the six-state New England region. Both NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races regularly sell out and exceed the NFL Super Bowl in attendance.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our company to grow our business as we continue to invest in this sport and the motorsports industry," said Smith. Smith added that he has offered Bob Bahre the opportunity to remain associated as a consultant with the track that he built. In addition to the major NASCAR races, the track hosts several regional professional racing series, including the NASCAR Grand National Division, NASCAR Busch East Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. Amateur series events complete the schedule with SCCA sports cars, motorcycles, World Karting Association go-karts and racing schools.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway will join a strong portfolio of SMI facilities. The company also owns and operates Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.; Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.; and Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas. With this acquisition, the company will own race tracks in the West, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest, including four of the nation's top-10 metropolitan markets.

The breakdown includes: the sixth-largest market (Infineon/San Francisco); the fifth-largest market (Texas/Dallas-Ft. Worth); the seventh-largest market (New Hampshire/Boston); the ninth-largest market (Atlanta); the 25th-largest market (Lowe's/Charlotte); the 41st-largest market (Las Vegas); and the 92nd-largest market (Bristol/Tri-Cities). Speedway Motorsports, Inc. will promote 13 NASCAR-sanctioned Sprint (formerly NEXTEL) Cup races in 2008 and nine NASCAR-sanctioned Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series events. Combined seating for the seven SMI facilities will exceed 850,000 permanent seats.

Statement from Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO
Today’s announcement that Speedway Motorsports Inc. has purchased New Hampshire International Speedway is yet another indication that the NASCAR industry continues to grow and thrive. Capitalizing on NASCAR’s national appeal and growth, the Bahre family created a passionate fan base and developed a valuable venue that has hosted the largest sporting events in New England including 26 consecutive sellouts.

The success of NHIS, and the desire of the Bahre family to sell, made the track very attractive to SMI and several other interested buyers. SMI has a highly regarded record for hosting some of the most successful and enjoyable race events in all of NASCAR, and there’s no doubt that will continue.

While we don’t have any details about SMI’s plans for NHIS, all sanctions for 2008 have been signed and finalized. As a result, there will be no location changes to the 2008 schedule that was released last month. This is important to the fans, competitors, broadcast partners and sponsors who have already made plans for the 2008 races.

Looking beyond 2008, NASCAR will continue to consider requests by any track operator, including SMI, to relocate race dates. Under NASCAR’s “realignment” plan, we have worked with track owners to relocate race dates to meet the needs of our growing national fan base. Ultimately, any change must meet NASCAR’s objectives and serve our fans.

The industry owes Bob and Gary Bahre a debt of gratitude for their leadership and commitment to NASCAR. All of NASCAR wishes the Bahre family well during this time of transition. They will always be considered pioneers in NASCAR.

Vince Vaughn To Drive Pace Truck
Vince Vaughn will be starring as Santa Claus’ lesser-known brother in the upcoming holiday comedy “Fred Claus,” but on Sunday the actor is getting an early Christmas present that definitely didn’t come from the North Pole. The gift comes courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway as Vaughn will get the rare opportunity to drive the official pace truck that will lead the 43-car field to the green flag for Sunday’s Dickies 500 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race (ABC-TV, 2:30 p.m. CT).

Traditionally, special race guests such as Vaughn get the chance to ride in the lead pace car or perhaps drive a secondary pace car. But by virtue of special permission from NASCAR, Vaughn will actually take the wheel from customary pace car driver Brett Bodine following an on-track orientation prior to the race.

Vaughn will drive a 2007 Chevrolet Silverado to officially start the most prestigious race in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. The Dickies 500 possesses the largest crowd, purse and market size of any of the 10 races in the Chase championship playoff format.

"I’m thrilled that NASCAR and Texas Motor Speedway are giving me the opportunity to drive the official pace truck for one of the Chase championship's biggest races," Vaughn said. "It will be an honor to lead the talented field of drivers around Texas Motor Speedway."

Vaughn has established himself as one of Hollywood’s biggest names in comedy and has another potential blockbuster – “Fred Claus” – opening in theaters across the country on Friday, November 9. Vaughn has appeared in more than 30 major films, including a slew of smash hits in recent years. Among the notable were “The Break-Up,” “Wedding Crashers,” “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” “Old School,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Starsky & Hutch.”

“Vince Vaughn is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and what better place to host him than the biggest race in the Chase,” Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said. “I think he is in store for quite an adrenaline rush leading 43 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup stars to the green flag for the Dickies 500 in front of an enormous crowd. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Texas Goodyear Tire Notes
Teams in all three NASCAR series will run the same tire codes at Texas this weekend, though the Nextel Cup and Busch Series tires will be branded "Goodyear Eagle," while the Craftsman Truck tires will be branded "Goodyear Wrangler" -- this is the same specific combination of left- and right-side tires that Goodyear brought for Cup and Busch teams to run at Texas this past April -- Craftsman Truck teams ran this right-side tire code (D-4064) with a different left-side code in their early-season appearance at Texas -- in addition to Texas, this specific tire combination has been run at Chicagoland and will be run at Homestead on the 2007 schedule -- this left-side code (D-4078) has been run with a slightly different right-side code by major NASCAR teams at California, Dover, Michigan, Kansas and Kentucky this season -- as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Texas -- air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.

Sprint Nextel In Turmoil?
A private-equity buyout group that features some prominent ex-Nextel executives considered a takeover of Sprint-Nextel last year, through the Carlyle Group. That particular deal never got anywhere, in part because of the amount of money involved, around $100 billion to buy the whole operation. But there is still a lot of curious talk about Sprint Nextel, following the recent ouster of boss Gary Forsee. What it all might mean for NASCAR’s Nextel Cup soon-to-be-titled Sprint Cup series is unclear: The Carlyle Cup? Well, the Nextel Sprint merger has been rocky, to say the least. First, all the Nextel guys who put together the NASCAR deal abruptly left the company. Then just a few weeks ago Forsee got the boot, too, amid questions about the company’s direction.

These are big-money stakes.

Still, a deal of some sort could get footing. Particularly in light of Sprint Nextel’s precipitous third-quarter net-income decline, announced yesterday. And the company issues a warning about the fourth quarter too. Sprint Nextel, which is the nation’s third-biggest wireless operator, reported net income of $64 million for the quarter, compared to $279 million last year. Revenues also dropped slightly to $10 billion. And noteworthy with regard to the Carlyle angle: James Hance Jr., who is Sprint Nextel’s interim chairman, is a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group. Carlyle men Daniel Akerson, Bill Conway and Bill Kennard also have had ties with Nextel.(journalnow.com)

McClure Picks Up Nationwide Ride
Front Row Motorsports, which has competed full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the past three years, will have a full-time entry in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) with a new driver and new sponsor for the 2008 season. Bob Jenkins, owner of Front Row Motorsports, announced today that Eric McClure would be joining the FRM organization for the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. McClure will pilot a FRM Chevrolet for a minimum of 32 scheduled Nationwide Series events and at least two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events, including an attempt at the season-opening Daytona 500.

Additionally, the Hefty® Brand will continue its relationship with McClure for the third consecutive season, serving as primary sponsor for the 34 events in 2008.

McClure, who is completing his first full season of NNS competition, has previously driven for Front Row Motorsports, competing in the 2005 Nextel Open at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Since 2003, the Chilhowie, VA native has 41 NNS starts to his credit, as well as three Nextel Cup Series starts, with best finishes of 18th and 26th, respectively.

Additional details including the car number will be released at a later date.

Eric McClure Quotes: