Today Is The Day For Busch To Name Team
ESPN is reporting that Kyle Busch will be formally introduced as the new driver at Joe Gibbs Racing on Tuesday morning at the team's Cornelius, N.C., shop. ESPN.com reported on Monday that Busch selected JGR over Chip Ganassi Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Richard Childress Racing and Evernham Motorsports. Busch declined to say where he was going to in any of the last weekend's interviews, saying only that he had made a decision but nothing had been signed yet. Also Joe Gibbs Racing has scheduled a press conference for a "driver announcement for the No. 18 car" on Tuesday. SPEED Channel will be covering Tuesday’s LIVE press conference from Joe Gibbs Racing at 11 a.m., ET.

Stewart Wins Watkins Glen
Sunday's race at Watkins Glen international had just about everything you'd want to see in a road course event -- and more. There were wrecks aplenty, eight cautions slowed the race as did the red flag to clean up an oil mess, fans running onto the track during the race stoppage, a shoving match between Kevin Harvick and Juan Pablo Montoya, death knell for the No. 8 car and a spin by Tony Stewart two-thirds of the way through the race and a drive back from 19th place to win. Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon both had fast cars. Gordon led the most laps, 51 of 90, but his Chevrolet wheel-hopped and he spun while leading over Stewart with two laps to go. It was only fitting though, Stewart also had some wheel-hop in turn one on lap 68 and needed the entire 20 laps to catch and pass Gordon.

Stewart has three win on the season. The victory was the 32nd of his 306 race career and he has won three of the last four races. Denny Hamlin drove a very aggressive race and it benefited him at one point and hurt him in other place. Hamlin made it through his tumultuous drive and finished second. Jimmie Johnson drove a steady race, staying out of serious trouble and brought his No. 48 home in the third spot. Ron Fellows, driving the No. 96, raced to fourth place and Robby Gordon was fifth. DEI's Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth followed by Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth to round out the top ten.

On lap 72, Juan Pablo Montoya tried to block an advance by Martin Truex Jr. Truex got into the back of Montoya, shoving him into Kevin Harvick. Montoya was hit again by Jeff Burton and Harvick crashed into Jamie McMurray. Both Harvick and Montoya leaped out of their cars and started a shouting and shoving match. The race was red-flagged and during the lull, a fan ran out to Matt Kenseth with pad and Sharpie in hand. He tried to hand it to Kenseth but Kenseth told the fan that he was a little bit busy and refused to have anything to do with it. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had an engine failure on lap 64 and put his "Chase for the Championship" on life support. Earnhardt finished 42nd on the day and is now 100 points behind 12th place Kurt Busch in the Nextel Cup point standings. The Nextel Cup Series moves to Michigan International Speedway next Sunday, August 19th. The race is scheduled for 1:30 PM / Eastern time and will be carried by ESPN TV and MRN radio.
To read the full article...     (Insider Racing News)

Strange Twist Puts Said In No. 21 Car
Bill Elliott offered his ride at Watking Glen, to Boris Said. It was a noble gesture by Elliott, who saw Said walking through the garage area on Saturday morning. Said didn't make Sunday's race because rain washed out Friday's qualifying session and forced the race to start on points. But Elliott offered the ride to Said and after a short conversation with the Wood brothers and sponsors, it was agreed by all parties that Said would drive the No. 21 car. NASCAR Approved the switch. Said practiced the car on Saturday morning.

“I haven’t road-raced since Sonoma and this team is so close to where they need to be,” Elliott said. “Bill Elliott doesn’t need the points, so why should my selfishness take away from this race team if I feel like with Boris, having come off fresh from racing last week and as much as he’s road-raced, I feel he can do better than I could? And that’s the reason I did what I did.”

Harvick Wins Another Road Course Race
Sunday's Zippo 200 Busch Series at Watkins Glen International was the second consecutive road course for for the series. Not much has changed from a week ago except for the controversey aspect, Kevin Harvick won the Montreal race week and won again this Saturday, both times driving a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. It is the ninth win for Childress this year in the Busch Series and the fifth victory for Harvick. In the process, Harvick tied "Ironman" Jack Ingram for second place on the all-time win list. Jeff Burton finished second but not until he and Kurt Busch battled, trading sheetmetal along the way, allowing Harvick to get away. Busch was third.

DEI's Paul Menard finished fourth, Brad Coleman fifth and Matt Kenseth sixth. Rounding out the top ten were Bobby Labonte, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman and road course ace Andy Lally. Busch Series points leader Carl Edwards continued his slide -- not that he's in any jeopardy of losing the lead -- but finished in 32nd place, six laps down after mechanical problems plagued the No. 60 Ford. Edwards now is leading the Busch Series point standings by 766 over David Reutimann and 791 over Kevin Harvick.

None of the so-called road-course experts didn't fare well. Canadian Patrick Carpentier, who finished second in last week's Montreal Busch race for Fitz Motorsports, finished 19th after late contact. Robby Gordon and Marcos Ambrose, the two drivers who were embroiled in last week's controversey, in the Montreal incident - finished 36th and 13th, respectively. Boris Said, driving the No. 9 Dodge for Gillett Evernham Racing was never competitive finishing 12th. Pre-race favorite Juan Pablo Montoya was competitive but a late race crash put his car in the garage. Montoya finished 33rd. The Busch Series moves to Michigan International Speedway next Saturday, August 16, 2007.

Kvapil Wins At Nashville
Starting in the eleventh spot on the grid, it took Travis Kvapil 103 laps to get to the front and once there, he wasn't pressured much for position. Only after the final caution and restart with 26 to go did Kvapil get pushed from behind. Ron Hornaday was doing the pushing but Kvapil quickly pulled away. "I didn't have a chance of catching Travis unless there had been a green-white checkers," said Hornaday. "Then maybe then we could have done something with him."

Mike Skinner had dominate car, leading for 102 laps, but once Kvapil picked up the lead, Skinner couldn't do anything with the No. 6 truck. "It took us half the race to get track position and get the truck adjusted," Kvapil said. "We made a big adjustment on the first pit stop and it really woke the truck up. After the pit stop, we got to racing on longer runs and I knew we were where we needed to be. We didn't slow down and were really consistent."

"Clean air meant everything tonight," said Skinner. "We need to get a handle on this coil-binding thing, we're rookies at this but it's what everyone is using, so we need to learn how to adjust on it." Hornaday finished second and Skinner third. In an effort to get track position, David Starr took two tires on the final pit stop and finished fourth followed by Todd Bodine, Rick Crawford, Jon Wood, Ted Musgrave, Erik Darnell and rookie Joey Clanton to round out the top ten. Last year's winner Johnny Benson blew a right front tire on lap 109 and hit the turn two wall, damaging his truck beyond repair. The race was slowed by five cautions for a total of 27 laps. The Craftsman Truck Series moves to Bristol Motor Speedway on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007.

Heavy Fine and Probation For Robby Gordon
NASCAR announced on Tuesday that Robby Gordon, driver and owner of the No. 55 Ford in the NASCAR Busch Series, has been fined $35,000 and placed on probation until Dec. 31, 2007 due to a rule violation during last Saturday’s race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Gordon was found to be in violation of Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing) of the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series Rule Book. The fine and probation also carried the stipulation that if, during the remaining NASCAR events in 2007, there is another action by Gordon that is deemed by NASCAR officials as detrimental to stock car racing or to NASCAR, or is disruptive to the orderly conduct of an event, he will be suspended indefinitely from NASCAR.

Evernham-Gillett Deal Done
On Monday, Ray Evernham and George N. Gillett, Jr. announced the creation of Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM), a partnership combining Evernham Motorsports and the Gillett family where Evernham will remain a substantial owner and retain the title of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The strength of Evernham’s championship on-track performance and Gillett’s off-track sports business experience creates a high-performance, high-energy platform to establish GEM’s value and appeal to fans and sponsors, on and off the track.

Recognizing that the rate of change off-track has exceeded the change on-track in the past few years, Evernham forged a relationship with Gillett, whose diverse holdings offer unique business-to-business opportunities, sponsorship activation and fulfillment that will revolutionize what sponsors can expect from a NASCAR team.

Gillett is the owner of the Montreal Canadiens National Hockey League (NHL) team and a co-owner of the Liverpool Football Club in the English Premier League. Gillett’s other business interests include the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens and Gillett Entertainment Group (GEG), producers of some 700 sporting and entertainment events in numerous venues throughout Canada and the United States.

GEM will benefit from Gillett’s existing network of sports and entertainment properties, resorts, auto dealerships and auto franchises offering unique access to sponsors and partners and a powerful global connection that no other team can offer.

“It’s very exciting for me to deliver to sponsors and fans the opportunity to align with a worldwide sports leader,” said Evernham, CEO of GEM. “With the business acumen of the Gillett family and its sports brands, we’ve greatly expanded our reach. This will allow me to focus on our racing operations and team performance, while the Gillett family will focus on our business operations. It certainly allows us to capitalize on our strengths and position GEM for long-term success both on and off the track.”

NASCAR Wins Appeal Over AT&T
Not everything is going as smoothly as Richard Childress would have liked with his AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless) sponsorship. AT&T Mobility won an injunction against NASCAR to allow the logos on the Richard Childress Racing No. 31 Chevrolet, to be changed to the AT&T Mobility brand. But NASCAR filed a $100 Million dollar against AT&T and ask that the first decision be overturned.

On Monday the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the temporary injunction issued by a district court judge. The decision by the Atlanta-based court could result in removal of the AT&T Mobility logos from the No. 31 car, driven by Jeff Burton as soon as the Aug. 17-19 race weekend at Michigan International Speedway. AT&T still has the option of asking the court to reconsider.

"Obviously we're pleased," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. "This is good news for every driver and team in the sport, which benefits from our exclusive relationships. As we've always said, there are three key sponsors that benefit everyone in the industry - the tire manufacturer, the fuel supplier and the [series] title sponsors. This decision confirms those relationships."

The appeals court ruled that NASCAR did not intend for AT&T Mobility to benefit, and therefore couldn't be a third-party beneficiary to the NASCAR-RCR agreement, which included the grandfather clause in an addendum. Because RCR was not required to renew its relationships with Cingular, AT&T did not have a legal right for its logos to be put on the car, the court ruled. (In part from)... (scenedaily.com)

Kyle Petty Suffers Broken Hand
Kyle Petty, driver of the #45 Wells Fargo/Marathon/Tire Kingdom Dodge suffered a broken hand as a result of hitting the butt of his hand on a door inside the hauler after a lap 69 incident in Sunday’s Centurion Boats at The Glen at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International road course.

GM-Hendrick Renew Contract
Hendrick Motorsports has verbally agreed to a five-year contract with General Motors, keeping NASCAR's most powerful organization in Chevrolets through 2012. "We're done," team owner Rick Hendrick said after Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Watkins Glen International. "We haven't signed it, but we've verbally agreed."

GM is in the last year of all of its contracts with teams in the Nextel Cup series. Re-signing HMS was key, particularly with speculation that Joe Gibbs Racing may be leaving for Toyota. Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc., GM's other top teams, remain in negotiations but are expected to re-sign.(espn.go.com)

Tony Stewart's "Prelude" Raises $800,000 for Charity
The third annual NEXTEL Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice, held June 6 and broadcast live on HBO Pay-Per-View, raised $800,000 for charity. The 30-lap dirt late model event at the famed Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, featured some of racing’s biggest stars, and in a thrilling race won by NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver Carl Edwards, it allowed the Tony Stewart Foundation to make significant contributions to charity.

The chief benefactor of the NEXTEL Prelude to the Dream presented by Old Spice was the Victory Junction Gang Camp. The Randleman, N.C.-based organization that serves as a year-round camp for children ages seven to 15 with an assortment of life-threatening illnesses will receive $600,000 from the Tony Stewart Foundation.

“It’s tough to put into words what that kind of a donation means to Victory Junction,” said Kyle Petty, who along with wife Pattie formed the Victory Junction Gang Camp in honor of their late son, Adam. “Getting the camp built was a huge undertaking that took a lot of money from a lot of generous donations, but running the camp and maintaining its medical facilities have proven to be just as expensive. The success of the Prelude to the Dream has ensured the camp’s success, which allows everyone who works at Victory Junction to focus on one thing – making sure the kids who come to camp get to do the things they can’t always do in a hospital, and that’s the ability to simply be a kid.”

SMI Revenue Off
Speedway Motorsports Inc. today reported lower second-quarter revenues and earnings but said it still expects to match earlier earnings expectations for the year. Total revenues for the quarter were $180.8 million in 2007 compared to $183.3 million in 2006, while net income was $40.3 million in 2007 compared to $45.5 million in 2006. Diluted earnings per share were 92 cents this year compared to $1.03 in 2006.

For the first six months of this year, total revenues were $332.9 million compared to $334.4 million in the same period of 2006, and net income was $72.2 million compared to $77.7 million last year. Diluted earnings per share were $1.64 in the period this year compared to $1.76 in 2006. In a news release, the track operator based in Concord, N.C., blamed the declines on lower revenues under NASCAR's new broadcasting rights agreement as expected and a higher effective income tax rates as expected. The release also cited the impact of the rainout of qualifying for the Nextel Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway and the cancellation of the International Race of champions event at that track.

"Our second quarter 2007 results show significant increases in most event related revenue categories, with particularly strong increases in sponsorship, advertising, radio broadcasting, camping and other corporate revenues," said SMI President and Chief Operating Officer H.A. Wheeler. Also, attendance was higher at Lowe's Motor Speedway's Coca-Cola 600 and Infineon Raceway's Toyota/Save Mart 350 Nextel Cup Series racing events."

In addition to Texas Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway and Infineon Raceway, SMI owns and operates Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway.(scenedaily.com)

Mayfield Won't Return To BDR
Bill Davis Racing announced today that driver Jeremy Mayfield has decided not to return to the team next year. Mayfield joined BDR in September 2006 to drive the 360 OTC Toyota Camry as part of the two-team BDR effort in Toyota’s inaugural season of NNCS competition. Mayfield, a winner of five Cup Series races and nine Cup pole positions, has been one of the most popular drivers on the circuit during his 12 seasons in NASCAR’s top division.

“Jeremy has done all we asked of him and more as part of what has been an enormous challenge in 2007 for the entire BDR Cup program,” said team owner Bill Davis. It has been a huge undertaking to bring Toyota online for their first NASCAR Nextel Cup season at the same time all the teams in the sport were facing the dual competition platforms as we transitioned to the Car-of-Tomorrow.

“Add to that the challenge of facing the healthiest overall car-count in years for the Nextel Cup Series, the elements involved with the top-35 watermark, as well as the education of a company that was in its first NASCAR Nextel Cup motor sports sponsorship, and it has made for some trying times for all involved. We have had great support from Toyota on this endeavor, but it takes more than just manufacturer support to compete on this level; it takes a tremendous amount of additional sponsorship support that just did not materialize as we had anticipated.”

“Nevertheless, despite the challenges, we feel that with Jeremy’s help we’ve made significant progress with our Toyotas here at BDR, especially since the mid-point of the season, and believe we’re on-pace to show marked improvement before season’s end. When you have a great, veteran driver like Jeremy, it’s always easier to measure your progress. I certainly understand Jeremy’s desire to explore other options, but we are grateful that we will continue to have his services for a time to help us improve the overall week-to-week effort of the Toyota Cup program.”

The 38-year old Mayfield, a two-time qualifier for the NASCAR Chase-for-the-Nextel-Cup (2004, 2005) and a five-time finisher in the top-15 in the final Cup Series point standings, believes his #36 Toyota Camry can--in the season’s final 16 races--show the type of progress that he expected when he first signed on with BDR.

ISC Also Will Offer Ticket Insurance
World Access, a specialty insurance company, has struck a deal to offer insurance on tickets sold to all events at International Speedway Corp. tracks. ISC owns and operates 12 tracks that are the sites for NASCAR Nextel Cup events and promotes more than 100 racing events annually. This is the second motorsports deal in the last month for World Access, which reached a similar agreement with Dover International Speedway. The insurance company offers insurance for customers of ticketing agencies, credit-card issuers, travel agencies and employers, among others.