ThatsRacin.com: Top Stories

Red Bull announces 2009 lineup

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:49 EST

Brian Vickers will have Ryan Pemberton as his crew chief and Scott Speed will race with Jimmy Elledge working on his Toyotas in 2009, Red Bull Racing announced Monday.

Pemberton comes to the team from Michael Waltrip Racing, where he worked with driver David Reutimann in 2008. Elledge joined Red Bull in 2008 and worked with Speed as he closed out the 2008 season in the No. 84 Toyotas.

Speed's car in 2009 will use the No. 82. Vickers will stay with the No. 83.

"We're entering our third Sprint Cup season with driver and crew chief pairings that have what it takes to consistently compete at a high level," said Jay Frye, the team's vice president and general manager.

"Brian and Ryan are each at a point in their respective careers where they can bring home wins and make a run for the championship. Scott earned his Sprint Cup ride by exceeding our expectations in ARCA and trucks. He has a great asset in Jimmy, who has experience working with both rookies and open-wheel drivers."

Speed also will run a partial Nationwide Series schedule in the No. 99 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota.

Dropping the checkered flag on the season

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:46 EST

It's just like the Oscars, only fewer gowns, fewer tuxes and fewer waifish entertainment reporters giggling at clever quips on the red carpet.

There will be no giggling here. Or red carpets, for that matter.

These are the Auto Racing Confidential season-ending awards, and they're a very serious matter. We'll break down this year's best, worst and most amusing.

Best Actor: Jack Roush for his vehement defense of the No. 99 team after Toyota Racing Development President Lee White accused the team of knowingly cheating. He hijacked a press conference about Aflac's sponsorship of the No. 99 with oil-tank lid in hand to tell everyone that his team members were not cheaters. This came the week after Carl Edwards was docked 150 points and 10 Chase bonus points for having a loose oil-tank lid during his win in Las Vegas.

Best Actress: Danica Patrick for acting like . . . well, like she always does when things go wrong. Ryan Briscoe knocked her out of the Indy 500, causing her to DNF for the first time in four Indy 500s, and Patrick was not happy. Still wearing her helmet, she stormed over toward Briscoe's pit, threw off her gloves and was stopped by security. Still fuming after the race, Patrick said, "It's probably best I didn't get down there anyway, isn't it?"

Best Writing: Carl Edwards for the note he left Kevin Harvick after Harvick called him out on television for causing The Big One at Talladega. "Kevin, Thanks for (expletive) me on TV. I was really trying to screw up everyone's day. Love, Carl."

Best Debut: Rick Hendrick sat next to Dale Earnhardt Jr. after the season-opening exhibition Bud Shootout, which Earnhardt won. "I don't know what took him so long to win a race for us," Hendrick said with a smile. It was Earnhardt's first real race in the No. 88 and his first win for the team — even though it didn't really count. The rest of the season wasn't quite so peachy for NASCAR's favorite son, but he had a great week in February.

Best New Artist: Time will tell how Joey Logano deals with fame and fortune, but right now he's an absolute delight for everyone who deals with him. The learning curve in the Sprint Cup Series is steep, so Logano will both have to learn fast and need his bosses to be a little patient. But he's already shown signs of brilliance in the Nationwide Series, finishing sixth in his first race and winning his third in Kentucky.

Best Picture(s): The Associated Press unearthed photos of Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards fighting in the Nationwide garages two days after the fight happened and Lowe's Motor Speedway refused to release them. You can see Edwards with his hands around Harvick's neck, Edwards with his fingers in Harvick's eye, Harvick pushing Edwards. Good stuff. The joke around the track was that if Humpy Wheeler were still in charge at Lowe's, he would've driven the photos down to the local paper's office and showed the editors where to print them.

Best Disaster Scene: The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard is a historic race at a historic track, but in July the Brickyard became a Goodyear graveyard. The tires were so soft and the track's surface so coarse that 10 or 15 laps in they'd turn to dust and explode. NASCAR called competition cautions every 10 to 12 laps to preserve the drivers' safety, and it made for a totally unwatchable race. Jimmie Johnson's win that day was a bit tainted but the beginning of his incredible season-ending run.

Best Picture: The No. 48's entire season. They played it flawlessly to win their third consecutive championship. Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson don't always get along, but I believe Johnson when he says they complement each other well. Knaus's meticulous attention to detail coupled with Johnson's patience, control and ability to run well when it counted won them that championship. The turning point in the season may have been Talladega, where Carl Edwards wrecked a third of the field while Johnson, caught in the middle of the wreck, escaped unscathed. Edwards lost the championship by a slim enough margin that had he finished well at Talladega, Homestead week wouldn't have been so comfortable for Johnson.

Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Forget what you've heard; S.C. SpeedPark is still open

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:01 EST

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- It's hard to get tourists to come spend money at your business when even the taxi drivers think you've closed.

That's the frustrating problem faced by NASCAR SpeedPark in Myrtle Beach.

What DID shut down was the NASCAR Sports Grille beside the SpeedPark.

The restaurant's giant NASCAR logo had a towering presence at the corner of 21st Avenue North and U.S. 17 Bypass. But just a scraggly outline of the logo remained after the cafe's parent company, Baltimore-based Entertainment Concepts Investors, closed this location in August.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, that looks horrible,'" said Debbie Evans, spokeswoman for PARC Management, which bought the SpeedPark chain from Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc. this year.

She saw the sign's remains during a meeting here with the marketing directors for the company's amusement parks.

Tim Ruedy, who runs the SpeedPark and Myrtle Waves, said he's gotten calls from visitors who said they heard from their hotel's front desk or from cab drivers that the amusement was closed.

"I think people just made a natural association between both facilities because they are next door to each other," he said. "Even though they've never been one and the same."

Ruedy said he's not too worried about the issue. The bigger problem, he said, is one faced by many here these days: Not enough people are coming to the beach in the first place.

Numbers that would make even Carl Sagan blush

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:48 EST

I am as suspicious as the next guy when it comes to the way numbers can be played with in assessing things like economic impact a Sprint Cup race has on a community or what value a sponsor gets out of backing a race team.

Such things are an inexact science, at best. But some numbers came out last week that are too staggering not to look at.

Joyce Julius & Associates monitors sports sponsorships, but it is best known for measuring exposure given to sponsors during televised sports coverage.

In NASCAR, for instance, Joyce Julius looks at telecasts of races in NASCAR's three top series and clocks how long a sponsor's logo can be seen clearly. It counts each second and then multiplies that by what it would cost to buy a second of advertising on that telecast.

According to this year's research, Jimmie Johnson's sponsors had their respective logos shown for 59hours, 28minutes, 39seconds. By the Joyce Julius formula, that means Johnson's sponsors got $510,161,750 worth of exposure.

Carl Edwards, who finished second in the standings to Johnson, had his sponsors shown for 58:50:11. That equates to $495,908,515 in exposure.

Add those numbers and you're talking about north of $1billion (that's with a b) in exposure for the top two cars.

OK, you're thinking, there's no way that's right. A billion dollars?

I'm with you.

But for the sake of argument let's say the Joyce Julius formula gives 10 times the actual value to each second of logo exposure a sponsor gets. In other words, it's 90percent inflated.

Even at that, we'd be talking about $100million in exposure for sponsors of Johnson and Edwards. All of a sudden sponsorships costing $20million or $25million don't seem terribly absurd.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch got the next best numbers this year in Cup. The top 10 Cup teams got more than $4.3billion in exposure for sponsors.

Johnson's primary sponsor got $200million in exposure. Chevrolet got $67.8million. Edwards actually got more exposure during the Chase, Joyce Julius' report said, $225million to $201million.

Nationwide Series champion Clint Bowyer got $76.8million of exposure to lead that series. Ron Hornaday, who was second to Johnny Benson in the battle for the Truck Series title, led that series at $24.4million to $19.2million for Benson.

* * *

Stocks for Tots will mark its 20th anniversary Dec.9 at the Charles Mack Citizens Center in downtown Mooresville.

The event allows fans to get autographs from drivers and celebrities from several forms of motorsports. The admission fee will be $10 plus an unwrapped toy that has a value of $10 or more. Proceeds will go to Stop Child Abuse Now of Iredell County.

The event will begin at 5:30p.m. Doors will open for autographs at 7p.m. Fans must have a wristband to get autographs. Wristband distribution will be at The Pit go-kart racing facility in Mooresville from 9a.m. until 3p.m. on the day of the event, then will move to the Citizens Center.

For more information, including a continuously updated list of people scheduled to be at the event, go to stocksfortots.com.

* * *

BRIEFLY NOTED: Edwards is the fourth quarter winner in the Driver of the Year voting, getting 10 first-place votes. Johnson finished second. He got seven first-place votes. … Cup team co-owner Ray Evernham has completed his deal to purchase East Lincoln Speedway and said that might not be the last track he buys. “I will try to save race tracks to keep them from becoming shopping malls,” Evernham said on Sirius NASCAR Radio. … Motorsports engineers will gather Tuesday through Thursday at the Embassy Suites in Concord for the Society of Automotive Engineers annual conference. Peter Wright, a technical consultant for the FIA, the governing body of FormulaOne racing, will be the keynote speaker. … Lowe's Motor Speedway will hold its Christmas tree lighting ceremony Monday. Refreshments will be served beginning at 5p.m. with the formal program starting at 6. … Highlights from the Nationwide Series banquet can be seen at noon today on ESPN2. Live coverage of Friday's Cup Series banquet from New York will begin at 9p.m. on ESPN Classic.

Hospital confession makes dream come true

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:30 EST

Matt Krueger, 19, was recovering from his first colon cancer surgery on the day he confessed his dream to a hospital nurse.

He wanted to get his 1999 Camaro Z28 out onto one of NASCAR's big tracks, to see if it would actually go the 155 mph promised on the speedometer.

What Krueger didn't realize, was that his nurse knew somebody at a tire store, who knew somebody at the Carquest Corp., who knew somebody at Lowe's Motor Speedway, who could make his dream come true.

And so it did.

On Friday, the Wisconsin teen and his blue Camaro had an uninterrupted half-hour together on the track. Speedway officials offered the chance after hearing of Krueger's story, including his diagnosis last month with a rare and aggressive cancer known as mucinous adenocarcinoma.

“Nervous? Yeah, I'm nervous,” said Krueger, as he waited for the flag. “We got here about 3 a.m. and I didn't sleep more than a half hour.”

Equally nervous were the dozen family and friends who watched nervously from the infield, including his parents, siblings, fiancee, best friend and a truck driver, Mel Simonds, who agreed to skip Thanksgiving and haul the Camaro on a trailer. All spent Thanksgiving Day on the interstate, making the 16-hour drive to Lowe's from their hometown of Ixonia, Wis.

“When we first found out about Matt's diagnosis,” said his mother Kitty Krueger, “the doctor said: ‘Now is the time to take a trip. Go to Europe, and do something you've always wanted to do.' Matt could have gone anywhere, done anything, but he kept saying ‘no' until this came up. It took him less than two minutes to think it over.”

Clearly, cancer was the last thing on Matt Krueger's mind as he climbed into his Camaro at 8:30 a.m., fired up an engine with 82,000 miles on it and set off a pair of rumbling mufflers. Krueger eased onto the track, barely visible through tinted windows, as he cautiously followed a pace car for three practice laps.

That done, he had his big chance to take off solo and go as fast as 350 horsepower would allow. But something different happened.

Over the next half hour, he pulled into the infield every few laps, to pick up his best friend, his father, his fiancee, his brother, his sister and even his reluctant mother.

All had their turn in the car, moaning and grabbing at the dashboard as he topped 100 mph. “I feel like I've been on a roller coaster,” said his mother, holding her forehead. “All I kept thinking was ‘don't hit the wall, don't hit the wall, don't hit the wall.'”

Matt Krueger and his Camaro never made it to 155 mph. The fastest he got was 135, before the car skidded toward the wall. It didn't matter.

“My having cancer has brought everyone closer together, and I thank God for that,” Krueger said. “He has a plan for me, and I intend to be here for a while.”

Besides, he has a new dream.

“I didn't get to pass anybody.”

Penske may replace Castroneves

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:45 EST

Penske Racing might announce before Christmas whether it will replace two-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves on its IndyCar Series team for 2009.

Castroneves, a two-time Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix winner, is embroiled in a serious legal fight. The Brazilian-born driver will go on trial March 2 in Miami on conspiracy and tax evasion charges involving about $5.5 million in income. Castroneves' sister and manager, Katiucia, and attorney, Alan R. Miller of Birmingham, also are charged in the case.

With the IndyCar Series season set to start on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., on April 5, Penske Racing has been placed in an uneasy situation with testing to commence in February.

This month, a federal judge rejected a request from lawyers for Castroneves and Penske to delay the trial until after the season in October. Under his contract, Castroneves must be available exclusively for all races.

''We are still in the middle of considering the alternatives," said Penske Racing spokesman Bud Denker this week of Castroneves' status. "We're probably two-three weeks away from a decision. We've had drivers calling us on the phone -- it's been pretty lively, as you could expect. There are lots of drivers looking for work."

Castroneves joined Penske in 2000. This year, he teamed with Australian Ryan Briscoe. He finished second to Scott Dixon in the championship.

Castroneves, 33, has been a rock at Penske since his arrival, winning the Indianapolis 500 for team owner and Birmingham businessman Roger Penske in 2001 and 2002. He began his trademark fence climbing celebrations after winning at Belle Isle in 2000, and became a national celebrity by capturing the title on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" in 2007.

''We hoped this (case) could be resolved," Denker said. "But we certainly haven't pulled the trigger on (replacing) him as yet."

VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: Former Penske open-wheel driver Sam Hornish Jr. has the team's full support in his second full season of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing next year.

Hornish, a three-time IndyCar Series champion and winner of the 2006 Indy 500, struggled this season in the No. 77 Dodge Charger in his rookie Cup year, finishing 35th in points and failing to qualify for the final race at Homestead. It was rumored he might even return to IndyCar.

But Denker said Hornish, who will have Mobil 1 and AAA sponsorship on his Dodge in 2009, would play a pivotal part in the Cup campaign with fellow Penske drivers Kurt Busch and David Stremme, who replaces Ryan Newman.

''We're absolutely committed to Sam," Denker said. "We're behind him and are blessed to have sponsorship from Mobil and AAA. We are very committed to Sam and expect him to do well."

To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Season Superlatives

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:23 EST

DAVID POOLE

Driver of the year

Boy, is it hard not to pick Jimmie Johnson after he wins a third straight Cup championship to match the record held by Cale Yarborough. It's almost as tough not to pick Carl Edwards, who finished second in the sport's top two series and went down fighting with late-season surges in both divisions.

But it's impossible for me not to go with Kyle Busch. He won 21 times in the Cup, Nationwide and Truck series. Nobody has won 21 times in one season in NASCAR national touring competition since Richard Petty won 21 Cup races in 1971. Yes, Busch didn't win in Cup after a victory at Watkins Glen, N.Y., on Aug.10, but his overall versatility is too much to overlook.

Crew chief of the year

Just after Johnson clinched his championship, Sprint Cup Series director John Darby radioed Chad Knaus and jokingly congratulated Knaus for completing his first full championship season. The reference was to the fact that Knaus had served suspensions for rules infractions in 2006 and 2007 but stayed out of NASCAR jail this year.

Johnson and Knaus lead a great team at Hendrick Motorsports. Knaus gets serious credit this year for not only becoming the first crew chief to win three straight titles, but for marshaling his team's forces through a remarkably ambitious testing effort after a slow start. As long as the sport's best team keeps working at getting better, it's going to be hard to catch.

Most improved driver

David Ragan is the obvious choice here. If he improves as much next year as he did after his rookie season, he'll be a threat to make the 2009 Chase.

Track of the year

The year's best race might have been the Sept.21 race at Dover, Del., and the Chase turned when Edwards bumped teammate Greg Biffle at Talladega, Ala. But when you consider both races, my track of the year is Richmond, Va.

The May3 race produced the most talked-about moment – Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecking while battlng door-to-door – and a Clint Bowyer victory in a race that seemed like Denny Hamlin's all night long. The Sept.7 race, delayed by rain until Sunday, propelled Johnson into the Chase with a victory with Tony Stewart going down fighting.

The most important offseason questions

1. Will teams get better with the Car of Tomorrow to the degree that the racing improves? You can talk about racing back in the pack until you turn blue in the face, but if the leader can't be passed because the clean air makes him bullet-proof on the larger tracks then no other problem will matter. As big a deal as No.2 is, until you fix No.1, fixing No.2 won't matter.

2. How will NASCAR endure the economic issues that face the sport – and the nation? People who keep obsessing about the top 35 might not have anything to gripe about next year. There might not be 35 teams beginning 2009 with enough funding to attempt a full schedule. And the Cup series is in much better shape competitively and financially than the Nationwide and Truck series teams.

JIM UTTER

Driver of the year

I can't say enough about Johnson's accomplishments in the Sprint Cup Series, but when it comes to the whole season, Kyle Busch was the clear favorite. Eight wins in Cup, 10 wins in Nationwide (tying Sam Ard's record for most in a season) and three in Trucks. He won 21 of the 84 NASCAR events he entered – an astounding 25percent.

Team of the year

Hendrick Motorsports put three drivers in the Chase and produced the series champion for the third consecutive season. It even got Earnhardt Jr. back in the Chase and he got wins in the Budweiser Shootout and June15 at Michigan in his first year with the organization.

Best race

The May3 race at Richmond, Va., produced so many wild storylines, many of which continued throughout the year. Hamlin completely dominated a race that he didn't win. Bowyer won a race that hardly anyone but him remembers. And Earnhardt Jr. and Busch tangled on the track, starting a feud among fans that still have them talking.

Worst NASCAR decision

Not allowing Regan Smith's pass of Stewart under the yellow line for the win at Talladega, Ala., to stand after NASCAR had allowed the very same thing to occur during a Truck race at Daytona. Days later they “clarified” their rule – which they first denied existed – and said no passes would be allowed “going forward.” How about backward?

Bonehead move of the year award

ABC's decision to cut away from the final 30 minutes or so of the season's next-to-last Cup race at Phoenix in favor of showing America's Funniest Home Videos. It should never have happened. Period.

Most overplayed story

Who will or will not be locked in the top 35 to start the 2009 season. Most races will not have anywhere near 43 fully funded, competitive teams entered.

Next season's champion

I picked Busch this year and looked good for 26 races. I'm staying with that in 2009 in the belief Busch and his No.18 Toyota team will have learned from this year how to carry that stellar performance through to season's end.

Hits, misses in preseason predictions

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:53 EST

Now that the season is over, I guess it's only fair for us to look back at how I thought 2008 would go and see how I did with my preseason predictions.

These predictions ran two days before this year's Daytona 500 on the That's Racin' weekly page that appears in the Observer and other publications.

My first prediction worked out pretty well. Here's what I wrote:

SPRINT CUP CHAMPION: It's hard to pick against Jimmie Johnson, so I won't. The third consecutive championship will be the hardest, but somebody is going to have to prove to me the No. 48 team can be defeated.

OK, so far so good.

My next pick was who would be a surprise to either make or not make the Chase. I said Casey Mears would have a big year and Clint Bowyer "might take a half step backward." Well, Mears and Bowyer did wind up being linked -- Mears will move into Bowyer's former ride in 2009 -- but I still have to admit I was wrong twice there.

I also said that NASCAR had "painted itself into a corner with this business about letting drivers show their emotions. Somebody WILL go too far." I can't really say that happened, either.

But I did get another one right. I said, "A lot of big-time driver contracts are, to varying degrees, not locked up long-term as tight as you might think they would be. Don't think Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to be the last top-tier driver to change jobs."

OK, so I didn't really go way out on a limb there. But Tony Stewart leaving Joe Gibbs Racing certainly qualifies as making that a good call.

Fellow Observer reporter Jim Utter said Kyle Busch would be champion, but he also said the biggest issue facing NASCAR would be "the impending budget crunch on the economy, which affects everything from the reporters sent by media to cover the sport, to the lack of big-money sponsors for teams, to the cost fans face to watch races."

So he was dead on the money there. He also correctly said the best championship battle would be in the Truck Series.

Jim Pedley of the Kansas City Star picked Jeff Gordon as his champion, said Earnhardt Jr. would win four races and predicted that a driver from Canada would win a Cup race this year. But he was right in saying all three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas would make the Chase.

Big NASCAR souvenir sale to last longer this weekend

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:16 EST

A day-after-Thanksgiving tradition at Lowe's Motor Speedway will run through the weekend this year, due partly to the sour economy's effect on spending by NASCAR fans.

The Concord speedway's Souvenir and Race Ticket Blow-Out Sale usually is the Friday following Thanksgiving. Race fans across the region and from other states come not only to buy discounted merchandise, but also drive their own vehicles on the speedway oval.

But with NASCAR fans spending less on T-shirts, die-cast cars and other items in recent months – the result of high gas prices and the credit crunch – the speedway and race teams closed the season with more merchandise than usual on shelves. That was one factor in expanding the sale, now in its 16th year, to three days.

“It's no secret that we have product we want to move,” said Don Hawk, vice president of business affairs for Speedway Motorsports, the parent company of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

But, Hawk added, the annual sale also was ripe for a marketing boost – the speedway bought radio, print and Internet ads this year. And stretching the event through Sunday gives people who work Friday a chance to find bargains on NASCAR merchandise, with hats and T-shirts starting at $2.

“A lot of them are shopping for Christmas,” he said. “We decided to muscle up what we were doing already.”

Hawk oversees SMI Properties, a Speedway Motorsports subsidiary that designs, manufactures and licenses racing merchandise. The idea to hold the three-day souvenir sale came from speedway owner Bruton Smith, Hawk said. If turnout is light, he added, the event could revert to one day next year.

For now, though, the tough economy has left plenty of race teams with a surplus of memorabilia, clothing, posters and die-cast cars.

While merchandisers always have some obsolete items each season – especially when drivers switch numbers or sponsors – the current downturn has resulted in “somewhat more inventory” than last year, Hawk said.

When looking at sales for all 43 Sprint Cup drivers, “I have never seen it this tight,” said Hawk, who has been with Speedway Motorsports for a year and involved in NASCAR merchandising for 15 years.

Merchandise sales were strong early this season, Hawk said, boosted by demand for new Earnhardt items. NASCAR's most popular driver switched from Budweiser to AMP energy drink and the National Guard as sponsors, and from No. 8 to No. 88.

But those gains soon were offset by fans who curbed spending as gas prices soared above $4 a gallon. Prices have since tumbled below $2 a gallon, but other economic pressures – from the Wall Street crisis to tighter credit – have led some fans to keep their wallets closed.

While the situation could be worse, Hawk said, SMI Properties and other merchandisers likely will stock fewer items next season, figuring it's better to sell out than again have too much inventory on shelves.

“The old days of just ordering a boatload (of merchandise) and not worrying about” how quickly it will sell, he said, “we can't do it that way.”

Speedway Souvenir Sale

The 16th annual Souvenir and Race Ticket Blow-Out Sale is this weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.

The sale will have 28 sellers, including teams for popular Sprint Cup drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Vendors will be at the speedway's front entrance.

Fans who spend at least $50 on souvenirs or race tickets or donate $25 to Speedway Children's Charities on Friday can drive three laps on the speedway's 1.5-mile oval in their own cars, trucks or SUVs. The oval is reserved for driving school Saturday and Sunday, so shoppers who spend $50 or donate $25 those days get a free souvenir and tour of the zMAX Dragway.

For more information, call the speedway gift shop at 704-455-3202 or visit www.lowesmotorspeedway.com.

Nationwide awards show highlights to air on ESPN2

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:45 EST

NASCAR fans eager for an offseason fix can watch highlights of the Nationwide Series awards banquet from Orlando, Fla., at noon Sunday on ESPN2.

Series champion Clint Bowyer, runner-up Carl Edwards and rookie of the year Landon Cassill are among the drivers honored during the black-tie ceremony. Other drivers in the top 10 of the series standings recognized include Brad Keselowski, David Ragan, Mike Bliss, Kyle Busch, David Reutimann, Mike Wallace and Jason Leffler.

NASCAR on ESPN announcers Allen Bestwick and Shannon Spake co-host the one-hour program, which also features a performance by recording artist O.A.R.

-- ESPN Classic will air live coverage of the Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at 9 p.m. ET on Dec. 5.