With four manufacturers each spending an estimated $100 million-plus annually in NASCAR’s premier series, the financial benefit of their involvement must be significant. Despite the industry’s gloomy economic outlook, automakers still consider NASCAR a showplace for its showrooms, which makes racing expenditures worthwhile. General Motors will slice some motor sports programs as part of $10 [...]

Ryan Newman has reached a verbal agreement to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing next season, a NASCAR source close to the situation told ESPN.com on Wednesday. The deal could take up to a month to finalize and announce as negotiations continue for car sponsors.

NASCAR apologized Tuesday for the tire fiasco that ruined its prestigious race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and vowed to avoid a repeat. A durability issue with the tires Goodyear brought to Indy forced NASCAR to call cautions every 10 to 12 laps on Sunday to slow the action and force teams to change their tires [...]

Remember a few years ago when Formula One had a tire fiasco at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that resulted with, what, a couple F1 cars, a dirt bike and a Silver Crown car racing on Sunday? What a joke, many of us in the NASCAR world said. The fans deserve refunds, we said from our high [...]

It was ugly. It was absurd. It was inexcusable. And it was flat-out embarrassing. Other than that, the 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was a swell event. I will dispense with the particulars about who won (Jimmie Johnson), driving what (Hendrick Motorsports-prepared Car of Today), etc., because it doesn’t matter at this point. What [...]

Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George said today it’s up to NASCAR and Goodyear to find a solution for the tire debacle that spoiled Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart was fined $10,000 and his team was placed on probation Monday following an altercation last week at the U.S. Auto Club’s National Midget race in Indianapolis. Stewart was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct and conduct detrimental to racing.

Strike Joe Gibbs Racing from the list of potential employers for Ryan Newman. Newman’s name has been most prominently mentioned to land with Stewart-Haas Racing next season. Sources close to the situation said he also has had discussions with JGR, Richard Childress Racing and Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

Team owner Jack Roush got a second-place finish in Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard from Carl Edwards, but he was not in a good mood. Roush said that because his team wasn’t invited to the Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in April that involved only three drivers, his engineers and crew chiefs [...]

The Budweiser Shootout, NASCAR’s season-opening event, will return in 2009 as part of Budweiser’s multi-year sponsorship renewal with Daytona International Speedway. “For more than 30 years, race fans have circled the Budweiser Shootout on their calendars in the way baseball fans look toward Opening Day,” said Tony Ponturo, vice president of Global Media and Sports [...]

BRIAN VICKERS (No. 83 Red Bull Toyota): “We never can afford to take a points hit. It’s a tough day out there. The Red Bull team blew an engine. We dropped a cylinder. They tried to take the parts out so we could continue to run, but it didn’t last. I’ve got to stop and [...]

Goodyear officials will most likely test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway before this year ends in an effort to remedy the tire problems that marred Sunday’s Allstate 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the track.