Thursday night, February 8, will mark several “firsts” in the 29-year history of the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. For the first time, the drawing to determine the starting line-up for Saturday night’s 70-lap Shootout will be seen on prime-time television, as SPEED kicks-off their massive Daytona Speedweeks schedule.
Fans across North America can tune-in at 8 [...]

Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr. will return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time in seven years next week as he takes part in the Busch Series edition of NASCAR Preseason Thunder Las Vegas. He will be joined by 44 other drivers for the test.
Hornish, who finished a then career best third [...]

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) announced a month-long series of events to celebrate Black History Month. The events aim to increase awareness about the sport among African-American communities to help further diversify the sport.
“NASCAR celebrates Black History Month and honors the contributions of African-Americans in motorsports and society,” said Marcus Jadotte, [...]

Two Roush Racing employees were injured in a multi-vehicle accident 85 miles east of El Paso, Texas yesterday morning. Justin Grebe, the driver of the #6 Roush Racing Nextel Cup transporter was treated and released from Thomason Hospital. Driving partner Joe Millikan, a passenger, is in stable condition in the Thomason Hospital intensive care unit.

Darrell Waltrip generally likes this season’s re-tooled Chase for the Nextel Cup. But if NASCAR had asked, he would have offered a couple of suggestions.

Former IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon has been fitted in Charlotte for a NASCAR stock car seat and will test a Busch Series car at some point, but when and where has yet to be determined.

Brand Value (in millions):
• 1. Super Bowl, 379
• 2. Summer Olympics Games, 176
• 3. FIFA World Cup, 103
• 4. Daytona 500, 91
• 5. Rose Bowl, 88
• 6. NCAA Men’s Final Four, 82
• 7. Winter Olympics Games, 82
• 8. Kentucky Derby, 69
• 9. MLB World Series, 56
• 10. NBA Finals, 47
[Forbes.com]

In response to positive fan reaction and growing sales of the three single titles released in 2006, Harlequin Enterprises Limited (www.eHarlequin.com), one of the world’s leading publishers of women’s fiction, and NASCAR are launching a new NASCAR- themed book series. The two companies are expanding their relationship with the release of 20 books throughout 2007, [...]

With the number of full-time NASCAR Nextel Cup teams already up sharply from 2006, another new team will attempt to run a full Cup schedule this year. H&K Motorsports said Wednesday that it will field a full-time Cup effort this year, with Trevor Boys piloting the #08 Chevy with sponsorship from Gsmdashboards.com, Industro Tools and [...]

The most frequent complaint heard at “New and improved” LVMS was “Fast — too fast!”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said his “car wasn’t driving that good around the bottom” but he picked up speed as he moved up the banking. Junior compared the redesigned track to Atlanta, adding that “the bumps going into (turn) one are really [...]