Edwards On Cup Pole
Carl Edwards gave his mom a Happy Birthday gift by picking up his first Nextel Cup pole of the season on Friday at Phoenix International Speedway. It was his first pole in two years, the last one coming in November of 2005, 71 races ago. Edwards knocked Martin Truex Jr. out of the top spot by 0.003 with a lap of 27.114 seconds around the one-mile track, translating to a speed of 132.773 mph. Truex held on to the second spot and will start alongside Edwards in Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500K. Jeff Gordon starts third and J.J. Yeley rolls off in fourth. Johnny Sauter qualified fifth followed by Jimmie Johnson, Greg Biffle, Tony Raines, Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne to round out the top ten. Michael Waltrip Racing had a bad day at Phoenix, none of the three drivers, Waltrip, Dale Jarrett nor David Reutimann were able to qualify. Reutimann didn't make the race because of a mechanical issue with his car and failed to post a time. Also missing the race were A.J. Allmendinger, John Andretti and Ward Burton
For Full Starting Lineup...     (Insider Racing News)

New Sponsor For Petty
Petty Enterprises announces today that the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) will serve as a primary sponsor on the #45 Dodge Avenger for two races during the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. The events will be the May race at the Richmond (Va.) International Raceway and the June race at the Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The organization will be an associate sponsor on the #45 Dodge for the remaining 34 races of the season. Richard and Kyle Petty, along with PVA members Dianne Brunswick and Benjamin Garcia, were on hand at the Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway to make the announcement.

The PVA chose to make the announcement at Phoenix because it is Veteran’s Day weekend. They feel that aligning themselves with an organization like Petty Enterprises would be a great way to honor the more than 19,000 men and women that comprise the membership of the PVA.

“On this Veterans Day weekend, I would like to express my thanks to Richard and Kyle Petty for doing something good for paralyzed veterans, not just one day a year but all year round. We really appreciate the fact that you guys care,” said Paralyzed Veterans’ President Randy Pleva.

Monday Night Football Appearance
With the final race of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season in their windshields, drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will appear during halftime of ESPN’s Monday Night Football game between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. The game airs Monday, Nov. 12, at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates will battle for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup title in the Ford 400 at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway, the last race in the Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup. The race airs Sunday, Nov. 18, at 3 p.m. on ABC. ESPN’s Stuart Scott will interview Johnson and Gordon via satellite. Johnson is the defending NASCAR champion while Gordon is attempting to win his fifth title.

HOF Racing Opts For Toyota
Hall of Fame Racing (HoFR) officials announced today at Phoenix International Raceway that the team will partner with Toyota and Toyota Racing Development (TRD) in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. J.J. Yeley will drive the No. 96 DLP HDTV Toyota Camry in 2008 for HoFR, and the team will continue their strategic alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) – leasing engines and receiving manufacturing support from JGR.

“I’ve had the good fortune of working with Toyota in the past. Toyota is an industry leading company and an exceptional partner who is committed to winning,” said Tom Garfinkel, owner of HoFR. “We’re also thrilled to continue our relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing – a first-class organization who has been supportive of us from day one.”

“Toyota has had great success in all forms of motorsports and we look forward to building a long-term partnership with them,” said team owner Jeff Moorad. “We also want to thank General Motors for their tremendous support throughout the last two years. Without GM’s help, Hall of Fame Racing would not be where it is today. They have been a great partner.”

“Hall of Fame Racing has a great platform for success with Jeff and Tom as owners and J.J. behind the wheel,” said Lee White, Senior Vice President of TRD. “They’re committed to building a great organization and are allocating resources in the right areas to achieve that goal.”

Yeley’s first appearance in a Toyota in Sprint Cup competition will come in the Feb. 9 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. Yeley earned his way into the non-points paying event via his first career Cup pole on June 15, 2007 at Michigan International Speedway.

Phoenix Goodyear Tire Notes
Teams in all three NASCAR series will run the same tire codes at Phoenix 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 Nextel Cup and Busch teams to run at Phoenix this past April -- in addition to Phoenix, teams in all three of NASCAR's major series ran this tire set-up at Richmond and New Hampshire in 2007 -- Busch and Craftsman Truck Series teams also ran this set-up at Milwaukee, Gateway, Indianapolis Raceway Park and Memphis (Busch only) this season -- as on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, teams will not run inner liners in their tires at Phoenix.

Kyle Busch Wins Phoenix Truck Race
Kyle Busch won the Casino Arizona 150 Craftsman Truck race in a six lap shootout on Friday night at Phoenix International Raceway. It was the second victory for Busch in 2007 and the sixth of his Truck Series career. Busch held off a hard-charging Ron Hornaday and Mike Bliss but was concerned that he could hold the lead with six laps to go. “It was a great win. To beat guys like Mike Bliss and Hornaday here, this is pretty much their house,” Busch said in a post race interview. “They must have had better rear springs than I did. Those guys could get better restarts than I did. I just didn’t have any forward bite. I’d just spin my tires all the way down the front straightaway.”

Bliss finished third and Jason Leffler brought his Toyota home in the fourth spot. Kevin Harvick, who sent most of the race blocking for Hornaday, finished fifth. Todd Bodine nailed down the sixth spot followed by Johnny Benson, Mike Skinner, Dennis Setzer and Jack Sprague to round out the top ten. Mike Skinner came into the race with a 57 point lead over Ron Hornaday and left leading by only 29 points. It would have been more but Skinner's teammate Johnny Benson passed Skinner late in the race and it cost Skinner four points. Skinner was visibly upset with Benson. “I guess we’re not a team,” said Skinner. “I’m not in too good of mood right now. It’s better than being 29 points behind. We’re just one team, the No. 5 team. I don’t know how many teams we’re going to have to race against in Homestead.”

Hornaday was feeling good about his chances for the final race. “This team never says die. We’re going to do whatever we need to do to win this thing,” Hornaday said. “All we can do is go down there and keep doing what has worked for us all season -– racing hard. When you have something this fast, this is fun.” The race was slowed by a record thirteen caution periods and two red flags, one of them to repair a broken concrete wall.