Stock Car Grub

Imagine a NASCAR fan opens the refrigerated case to grab a Monster Energy drink while standing in the line at the grocery store. As he reaches for the liquid fuel in a can, he pauses.Remembering last weeks big announcement, the fan grabs a bottled water instead. A few minutes later, a woman wearing an M&Ms hat enthusiastically throws not one but two Monster Energy drinks into her grocery basket wh...

Jamie McMurray, Juan Pablo Montoya and AJ Allmendinger are among the NASCAR drivers daytonight racing this weekend as they will compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. The 24hour race on the 3.56mile road course begins at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday and will feature 59 cars 14 in the Daytona Prototype class and 45 in the Grand Touring class.

Charlotte Motor Speedways annual NASCAR Sprint Media Tour provides the opportunity to visit with practically every Sprint Cup driver and team and gauge their outlooks for the new season.And, as usual, practically all of them are poised to win races and make the championship Chase.And, like always, there were some intriguing developments and some developing stories during this years recently comple...

When they werent talking to the media about their outlook for the 2012 season, Sprint Cup crew chiefs and their teams were working on getting their Daytona cars tweaked this week for NASCARs new rules package.That package likely will change during Speedweeks, but teams at least know the size of the restrictor plate, the parameters for the engine cooling system and that they must extend their rear ...

Paulie Harraka, the first driver of NASCARs diversity program to win a track championship, will compete for Camping World Truck Series rookie honors driving for former Billy Ballew Motorsports crew chief Richie Wauters. Scheduled to graduate from Duke University in May, the 22yearold Harraka won the 2008 track championship at AllAmerican Speedway in California and also has three victories in the K...

Paul Menard has to be downright giddy heading into 2012. During a season in which Richard Childress Racing struggled, he had his best year to date in Cup competition.The Wisconsin native took his first Sprint Cup win and finished a careerbest 17th in the point standings.

Former Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton will compete in the seasonopening Camping World Truck Series race in a truck owned by former Germain Racing general manager Mike Hillman Sr. Hillman bought equipment from Germain and has started Hillman Racing, which will field the No. 27 Chevrolet in the truck series this year. Burtons truck will have sponsorship from State Water Heaters.

This is the weekend of the Rolex 24, a sports car event at the Daytona International Speedway run by the GrandAm organization.The race starts at 3PM on Saturday but SPEED will come on the air at 2:30PM and set the scene during a prerace show. The network will stay live until 11PM ET and then rejoin the race at 9AM and continue until the conclusion. Click here for the GrandAm website that has infor...

CONCORD, N.C. Penske Racing officials made sure there were no issues with driver Brad Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe late last season, signing both to multiyear contract extensions. Thursday, a similar extension was announced with MillerCoors, which provides primary sponsorship for the No. 2 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team through its Miller Lite brand.

CONCORD, N.C. Walmart has teamed up former NASCAR Cup champion Bill Elliott and Turner Motorsports to sponsor an entry in this years Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, a move linked to the retail giants 50th anniversary celebration.Elliott, the 1988 Cup champion, competed in five Cup races last season, four with Phoenix Racing and one with Whitney Motorsports.

There's a youth movement afoot in the world of NASCAR. Don't believe it Well, it's obvious you didn't attend the annual media circus this week in Charlotte.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. The biggest news of the 2012 Sprint Media Tour wasn't that Danica Patrick will run the CocaCola 600 or the unveiling of the 2013 Ford Fusion. It wasn't that NASCAR has eliminated secret fines as far as we know or that WalMart will sponsor Bill Elliott for the July Daytona race. It wasn't that Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team are "pissed off" over not w...

NASCAR officials say they aren't planning any radical changes for the 2012 season after one of its most exciting seasons ever.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France has reason to be optimistic.France was upbeat Thursday during the annual "state of the sport" press conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the last stop on the fourday NASCAR Sprint Media Tour presented by Charlotte Motor Speedw

Michael Annett will drive a Nationwide Series car for Richard Petty Motorsports in 2012, the team announced Thursday. Annett, who drove for Rusty Wallace Racing last year, brought the Pilot Flying J sponsorship to the team after Wallace suspended operations earlier this month.

A New Hampshire Superior Court judge has thrown out a verdict that would have required New Hampshire Motor Speedway to pay Motor Racing Network $993,724 as a contract termination fee.When Speedway Motorsports Inc. bought the New Hampshire track in January 2008, it wanted its Sprint Cup and Nationwide races on its own radio network, Performance Racing Network. But NHIS had a contract with MRN, whic...

CHARLOTTE NASCAR fines may no longer be secret, but the potential for penalties for disparaging comments or behavior remains unchanged.Though NASCAR now plans to publicize all fines, NASCAR officials said Thursday that they would continue to penalize competitors who they determine have damaged the integrity of the sport.

CHARLOTTE NASCAR officials plan to reevaluate its boys have at it policy going into the 2012 season and could strengthen its stance against drivers retaliating on the track.NASCAR loosened the reins on drivers in 2010, allowing them to police themselves on the track and retaliate when they believed another driver had intentionally wrecked them.

CONCORD, N.C. Roger Penske termed the release of Kurt Busch as a business decision as he talked about the future of Penske Racing.

CHARLOTTE The 2012 season hasnt begun, but the first ontrack test for the 2013 car will take place Wednesday at HomesteadMiami Speedway. NASCAR officials confirmed a private test next month and did not deny that its next week on the 1.5mile oval where NASCAR conducts its season finale. Teams from Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota), Roush Fenway Racing (Ford), Penske Racing (Dodge) and Hendrick Motorsports...

Dr. Joseph Mattioli, founder and chairman of the board of Pocono Raceway, passed away Thursday afternoon after a lengthy illness. He was 86. Mattioli, who was affectionately referred to as Doc, built the 2.5mile speedway in the Pocono Mountains in the early 1960s, then welcomed NASCAR to the quirky, threeturn track approximately a decade later. He stepped down from the daily effort of running the ...

WELCOME, N.C. A popular topic this week as race teams and drivers meet the media has centered around whether Kyle and Kurt Busch can behave and their impact on the sport. Its no secret that Kyle Busch is an unpopular subject for Kevin Harvick.

Editor’s note: SceneDaily is counting down NASCAR Illustrated’s Top 25 drivers for 2012. NI Ranking: 23rdDOB: Sept. 23, 1983 ...

WELCOME, N.C. Rarely has a parttime team come with such high expectations, but thats the case for the No. 33 entry of Richard Childress Racing and drivers Elliott Sadler and Brendan Gaughan. Sadler, who will run full time for RCR in the Nationwide Series in 2012, will compete in the seasonopening Daytona 500 for the team. Gaughan, who is slated to run 10 Nationwide and eight truck series races fo...

Been a wild week with NASCAR TV starting up, the preview in Charlotte and now the NASCAR Media Tour underway. Here are some tidbits from the week to date:SPEED veteran Elliott Sadler will enter the Daytona 500 in an RCR car sponsored by General Mills and Kroger Food Stores. Sadler will race the #33 RCR car that is locked in from points last year. Gil Martin will be the crew chief. We haven't ...

WELCOME, N.C. Kevin Harvick revealed Wednesday one of the main reasons he and wife, DeLana, decided to sell their Kevin Harvick Inc. race teams. They wanted to start a family. And as is their nature, they're on their way to reaching that goal as Kevin announced that DeLana is due in midJuly, ironically during one of the two off weeks in the season. DeLana Harvick had often described KHI as h...

The pressure's off, right Hendrick Motorsports namely, Jimmie Johnson failed to win a Cup title for the first time since 2006. The streak is over, but expectations are skyhigh.

After "gathering feedback from the industry," NASCAR will stop the practice of secret fines and will publicly disclose the fines it issues, the sanctioning body announced today in a statement.

CONCORD, N.C. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner Rick Hendrick admitted that in previous years he hedged when it came to publicly addressing the expectations of his four teams. But this year Im not, the highly successful owner said. Im going to be really disappointed if we dont have all four cars in the Chase and Im going to be really disappointed if we dont win the championship, Hendrick said W...

CONCORD, N.C. When talking about how to make his 2012 season better, Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesnt talk about what should change but instead what shouldnt. It might sound strange, but one of Earnhardt Jr.s concerns going into the new season is that Steve Letarte will relax a tough love approach on the sports most popular driver.