Nemechek Signs 3 Year Deal
Joe Nemechek signed a three-year contract to drive for Furniture Row Racing, the team and driver said Saturday morning. Nemechek joined the team at the Fontana race in September and has qualified the car into eight of the 10 events he has attempted. Prior to Nemechek's arrival, the team had made it into just 10 of 24 races.

"This team has come a long way since I came over here," Nemechek said. "It's neat seeing how if you give people a certain direction to go in, how they start excelling."

Nemechek, who began the season driving for Ginn Racing, made six straight events with Furniture Row before failing to qualify at Charlotte and Martinsville.

"When we missed that race at Charlotte, it sort of made everybody open their eyes and say, 'OK, where did we miss it at?'" he said. "The engineers had to go to work and everybody's been working their tails off trying to figure out how to make things better."(scenedaily.com)

HOF Racing Signs Coleman
Brad Coleman has signed a multi-year contract with Hall of Fame Racing, where he potentially could drive in seven Sprint Cup races in 2008 and then a full season in 2009, team general manager Tyler Epp said Friday. Coleman, 19, will spend 2008 mostly testing for the team, which is completing its second full year and was recent sold to Arizona Diamondback executives Tom Garfinkel and Jeff Moorad.

"We're going to grow up together," Epp said. "Depending on how the DLP [Sprint Cup] program runs and depending his development, there's the possibility he will run in some Cup races at the end of next year."

His Cup sponsor is still to be determined.

"As far as sponsorship, [his 2009 schedule] is more contingent on what's good for Hall of Fame Racing and the DLP program," Epp said.

Coleman has competed in 18 Busch Series events in his career. He has driven for Joe Gibbs Racing this past season. He will drive for Brewco Motorsports in a full-time Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series ride next season with sponsorship from Kleenex.

"After talking to them [at Hall of Fame] of what their visions are for the future of the team and what they're going to do with the personnel, they're going to make that team one of the top-tier teams competing against Hendrick and Joe Gibbs," Coleman said. "It really excited me. I feel very confident that Tom Garfinkel and Jeff Moorad are going to make it a great team." (scenedaily.com)

ARCA Will Race Rockingham
The doors are again swinging at Rockingham Speedway (formerly North Carolina Speedway) in Rockingham, North Carolina, and the ARCA RE/MAX Series is positioned to lead the charge through the gates. Speedway President Andy Hillenburg (left) has announced the ARCA RE/MAX Series will compete at the historic, high-banked, one-mile oval on Sunday, May 4th, 2008. The event has been named the "Carolina 500" and will be the inaugural event at Rockingham since Hillenburg took ownership of the property on November 1st, 2007.

"Racing has been gone from Rockingham way too long," said Hillenburg, the 1995 ARCA RE/MAX Series driving champion and one of the few drivers to race in the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. "We're really looking forward to hosting the Carolina 500 and making this race one of the cornerstones of the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule as well as the marquis event for Rockingham Speedway."

Hillenburg also announced that the event, spread out over three days, would feature the largest purse on the ARCA RE/MAX Series tour and the largest starting field with 50 cars in the line-up. The event will also include first- and second-round qualifying on Saturday, May 3rd, with a happy hour to follow Saturday afternoon. The race is scheduled to roll off at 12-noon local time Sunday afternoon. "The script could not have been written any better," said Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin. "History repeats itself when racing returns to Rockingham. We hope everyone will mark May 4th on their calendar. The welcome mat will be out."

The ARCA RE/MAX Series will begin its 56th consecutive year of competition in 2008 while Rockingham Speedway will be reviving its race tradition that dates back to the mid-60s. We feel it's a great honor to play a major role in reviving racing at Rockingham," said ARCA President Ron Drager. "Our company's roots date back to 1953, so we appreciate the rich history and tradition associated with Rockingham. We intend to work with the track to establish the Carolina 500 as a major event, both for the track and on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule, for the long term."

The ARCA RE/MAX Series raced at Rockingham Speedway once on June 10, 1973 where Charlie Glotzbach won the 300-mile event from the pole.

"I remember the race very well," said Glotzbach from his home in Sellersburg, Indiana. "I was driving for Hoss Ellington. I remember getting a message from John (Marcum/ARCA founder) during the race that I needed to slow down or I'd get black-flagged. I guess I was muddying up his show too much. But I think it's great that ARCA's going back to Rockingham. It's fast, and the track's still in good shape. The track's the right size for ARCA. It'll be a great show. I'd like to come down there and run, if I could get a Childress car, I'd do it; but it'd have to be a car that could win."

Glotzbach is among the giants of stock car racing who have won at Rockingham since the track first opened more than 40 years ago.(arcaracing.com)

Harvick Wins Busch Race ~ Edwards 2007 Champ
Kevin Harvick won the O'Reilly Challenge Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday but the day belonged to Carl Edwards. Edwards finally wrapped up the Busch Series championship, his first ever NASCAR championship. The former school teacher ran the full Busch Series schedule and jumped out to an incredible lead (over 800 points) early in the season and could have wrapped up the title three of four weeks ago had he not experienced some horrible luck the past six or eight weeks. He still managed to out-distance his nearest rival, David Reutimann, by a margin of 552 points with two race remaining on the schedule. This is the second Busch Series title for Car Owner Jack Roush, Greg Bifflle was the 2002 Champion. "Hopefully, it’s one of many but we’re going to try and do it again next year and try to do even better," said Edwards. "We’ve had a lot of really great fortune this season and we’ve had a lot of bad fortune this season. This took a little bit longer than we thought. I’m just very, very grateful for all the people who have given me opportunities and I’m so glad to be here.”

The victory for Harvick was his 32nd career win in the series. That moved him into second place all-time passing Jack Ingram. He now sits in second place behind Mark Martin, who has 47 victories. "Just to be up there with Jack Ingram and Mark Martin and all they guys who made this series, that's pretty special," Harvick said. "It's been a lot of fun to drive this Richard Childress Chevrolet over the last few years."

Kyle Busch finished second yet again, his fourth time this year. Denny Hamlin placed in the third spot and Clint Bowyer was fourth. Matt Kenseth was fifth and Brad Keselowski, the highest finishing Busch Series regular and the highest finishing rookie, finished sixth. Tony Stewart led the most laps but managed only seventh place run followed by Jeff Burton, Tony Raines and Stephen Leicht to round out the top-ten.
For full final race results...     (O'Reilly Challenge Results)

Kevin Harvick Hires Jack Sprague
Kevin Harivck Inc. announced that Jack Sprague will join its team to drive in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as a teammate to Ron Hornaday beginning in 2008. Sprague, a three-time truck champion, hopes to get back to challenging for titles. Hornaday, a two-time champ, is looking to deliver KHI its first title this season.

A sponsor will be announced at a later date.

"I am very happy about this opportunity that has come about at Harvick%20Inc%22">Kevin Harvick Inc.," Sprague said in a news release. "I have known Kevin and DeLana [Harvick] for a long time. Kevin is a racer and he knows the importance of having good people around. The whole organization at KHI is very impressive and I look forward to having the opportunity of winning more championships." (scenedaily.com)

Duel To The Finish ~ Ted Musgrave Wins Wild One
Ted Musgrave won a wild Craftsman Truck race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night. With eight laps to go in the Silverado 350K, points leader Ron Hornaday was sitting first on a restart, with Mike Skinner in second and rookie Chad McCumbee in third spot. Hornaday seemed to get a good start but Skinner went to the outside of Hornaday and was along-side him when McCumbee went to the low line, dove past both drivers and too the lead. Just as McCumbee slipped into first place, Hornaday slipped up the track further and made contact with Skinner. Both Hornaday and Skinner wrecked, with Hornaday getting the worst of it. The race was red-flagged while NASCAR cleaned up the mess and when the race was finally restarted, both Hornaday and Skinner resumed their run, but Hornaday was down several laps and Skinner was sixth. McCumbee spun his tires on the green-white-checker restart and second place runner Jack Sprague nailed McCumbee from behind. McCumbee tried to save his truck but he swerved several times in the effort and both he and Sprague wrecked. Third place driver Ted Musgrave inherited the lead and the victory in a wild finish.

The win for Musgrave was the 17th in his 171 race career in the Craftsman Truck Series. This is Musgrave’s first victory this year in the No. 9 Team ASE Tundra. Toyota has recorded 12 victories in the Craftsman Truck Series this year. “This is awesome for the guys on my team to get a win," said Musgrave, who announced he was leaving the team at the end of the season. "We were close a lot of times, but it’s farewell. At least we were able to give them the checkered flag. I get two more shots at it. Mike (Abner, crew chief) is doing a heck of a job and the guys are pumped up. We’re running good and hopefully we’ll be able to get them again in Phoenix."