Freshrubber Blog

Kyle Petty, 49, started doing television work for TNT near the end of his racing career. He’ll be in the booth as an analyst on Saturday night. Kyle is looking forward to the celebration of his father’s 200th win. “As you look at milestones, getting to that 200 mark was a big moment,” he said. “Whether you like Barry Bonds or not, when you break a record, that’s a day that everybody follows. When [Richard] and David Pearson went over 100, it was a big deal. Of all the drivers who have raced, only two have passed 100 and one went on to 200. “Having the president there, the way the race played out, there are days in sports when you say ’somebody wrote this down and we just performed it.’ ” — Philadelphia Daily News

The Nationwide Series returns to restrictor plate racing Friday night with the Subway Jalapeno 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

Restrictor plate racing always provides a lot of unknowns, but another unknown this time around will be how double-file restarts may or may not affect the outcome of a restrictor plate points race. Will there be more cautions? Will it in anyway give anyone an advantage that they wouldn’t have otherwise?

While the Sprint Cup Series has been utilizing double-file restarts for several weeks now, and the format has been in place for the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, not even the Cup guys have run a restrictor plate points race with double file restarts. The Nationwide Series will be a guinea pig of sorts when it takes to the track Friday night. Examiner

For this week’s installment in the Race to the Chase, the Sprint Cup Series travels to the birthplace of speed, Daytona International Speedway, for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400.

Tony Stewart heads into the race with the points lead. He’s a two-time winner of Daytona’s summer event, but restrictor plate racing always produces a lot of unknowns, and many times results in surprise winners.

Remember Brad Keselowski at Talladega? By the way, Keselowski is going to attempt to qualify for Saturday’s race in the James Finch-owned car he took to victory lane at Talladega.

Several drivers admit that restrictor plate racing makes them nervous, especially when it comes down to the big one. Several other drivers have more to be nervous about heading into Daytona, as they try to hold on to the slim margin that keeps them in the top-12 or to overcome the slim margin that’s keeping them out.  Examiner

NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield may have just won the war. A Federal judge has lifted Mayfield’s indefinite NASCAR suspension, allowing the driver to be at Daytona International Speedway for Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400.

Mayfield has said that he would definitely be in Daytona this weekend, but he didn’t know whether or not he would be fielding a car. That would all depend on whether or not he could come up with the money to get a car and crew there.

“We are disappointed, but we respect the judge’s ruling,” NASCAR said in a written statement. “This is only a temporary injunction. The legal case continues beyond this point, and we will continue to make our case.”  Examiner

Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked if his team can legitimately win: “Yes. A couple more moves in the right direction, I don’t know what that is. We ran pretty good this weekend. We’re a different team than we were two weeks ago. It just seems like each week we step it up a little bit more, little bit more, and I think we can get it to where we can legitimately win a race within a year.” — Orlando Sentinel

Michael Waltrip Racing will announcement on July 7 the future of the organization. According to multiple sources, Martin Truex Jr. will take over the No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota next season. Truex’s contract with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing is over at the end of the current season.

Drivers Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison were named as finalists for induction to the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. SPEED will unveiled the full list of 25 drivers this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. A total of five drivers will be inducted at the opening of the Hall of Fame in Charlotte in May.

Waltrip and Allison were longtime rivals and are tied for third with 84 victories in NASCAR’s top series. Waltrip won three Cup championships and Allison one.

Tony George’s tenure as the leader of U.S. open-wheel racing and its biggest stage, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was marked by tumultuous changes. Now George himself is being replaced — at the behest of a board led by his mother.

The board of directors overseeing the speedway and Hulman & Company announced Tuesday that a new management team will take over both entities beginning Wednesday. That means George is out as president and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and his family’s business, although he will remain on the board.

According to a person familiar with the league’s inner workings, George was offered the chance to remain CEO of the Indy Racing League but declined. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations were private.  sportsillustrated

The legendary Milwaukee Mile racetrack faces an uncertain future with its payments behind for NASCAR and Indy Racing League. The track promoters have not fully paid sanctioning fees owed to NASCAR and the IRL, according to reports in the Charlotte Observer and Indianapolis Star. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that promoters owed NASCAR nearly $1.9 million.

In a brief filed in U.S. District Court on Monday night, NASCAR contends that a test of Jeremy Mayfield’s urine samples at a second laboratory proved that the suspended owner/driver had an illegal drug in his system.

Mayfield and NASCAR are scheduled to be in U.S. District Court in Charlotte on Wednesday for the hearing on Mayfield’s request for an injunction seeking to stop the sanctioning body from suspending him until the driver’s suit can be heard by the court. NASCAR filed its brief Monday night in response to Mayfield’s brief in support of the injunction request filed Thursday.

Mayfield has argued that his May 1 test produced a false positive reading for methamphetamines, according to court documents. He contends the findings resulted from a combination of prescription drug Adderall, which is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and over-the-counter Claritin-D allergy medicine. NASCAR, which has not named the illegal drug it says Mayfield used, has asserted that could not be the case.   Scenedaily