Jeff Gordon fought back from a late slip to pass Kyle Busch with eight laps to go to win the Subway 500 at Phoenix International Raceway and end a victory lane drought that lasted almost two years.

Gordon dominated the last half of the race and led 138 of the 312 laps– the most of anyone — but a slow exit on the final pit stop cost him the lead to Busch. But Gordon had the faster car, and he relentlessly tracked down Busch, taking the lead coming out of the fourth turn and down the frontstretch with just a few miles to go.

It was Gordon’s first victory in 66 races — almost two years — and it breaks the longest streak of futility in a storied career that features four Sprint Cup championships. . And it came in only his second race with a new crew chief, Alan Gustafson, after team owner Rick Hendrick decided to shake up the driver-crew chief combinations during the off-season.

With a yelp of delight we haven’t heard in months, Gordon gave a ya-hoo and shouted, “You guys are awesome!” as he took the checkered flag.

“Welcome back, welcome back,” said Gustafson. “Awesome job.”

Moments later, Hendrick got on the radio with his own congratulations.

“Thanks so much, boss,” Gordon replied. “Thank you sooo much for this opportunity. I’m loving these guys.”

The race was slowed by eight yellow flags, especially toward the beginning of the race, including one for a multi-car crash that took out pole winner Carl Edwards and a number of other good cars.

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AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kyle Busch became the first driver in a national NASCAR race to win wire-to-wire in nearly eight years.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked, not with his car getting loose and Carl Edwards bearing down over the final few laps.

Busch dominated from the pole early and held off Edwards late, maintaining the lead the entire way in the Nationwide race Saturday to set up the chance for a perfect weekend at Phoenix International Raceway.

“It came down to the end of the race and Carl was alongside of me and we were racing really hard trying to beat each other, and I was like, ‘Man, just beat him back to the start-finish line, man, just beat back to the start-finish line,”‘ Busch said. “I was just trying to hold on for as long as I could.”

The Nationwide opener last weekend was a nail-biter, with Tony Stewart nipping Clint Bowyer by .007 seconds for the series’ closest finish ever at Daytona. Busch had race No. 2 looking like a walkover until Edwards pulled beside him three times in the final 20 laps.

Busch never let him get around, though, fighting a car that had lost some handling after the final pit stop to lead all 200 laps around Phoenix’s bumpy mile oval. He’s the first green-to-checkers winner in any NASCAR series national race since Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it during a Nationwide race at Daytona in 2003.

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AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Phoenix International Raceway is filled with bumps and cracks and has patches on top of patches trying to hold it together for one last race.

It may be falling apart, but one thing it has never lost is speed.

Carl Edwards had the fastest lap on one of the fastest days ever at Phoenix, setting the last in a slew of track records on Saturday during the final qualifying session before the surface undergoes a makeover.

“This track is great,” Edwards said. “I talked to (track president Bryan) Sperber earlier and I think the question I asked him seems a lot of people have asked was: ‘Why would you even mess with this?”

Raceway officials don’t have a lot of choice with the track nearly crumbling.

It’s at least going out with flourish.

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There’s an Iggy Pop song called “Gimme Danger.” The tune is haunting, although the words have almost nothing to do with what I’m about to discuss.

Those two words came to me every time I thought about what to write on a touchy subject, and I’ll admit to some reservation in writing it at all.

Arguing with aggrieved NASCAR fans is like trying to explain something to your ex-wife — you cant win.

Another quote brings it closer to home. Former world champion Jackie Stewart recalled a pre-season drivers meeting in the 1970s and looking around and wondering, en brogue, “which of these men I wouldn’t see at next year’s meeting.”

Yes, friends, the possibility of death on the track loomed large then, and before, not just in Grand Prix racing but in midget and sprint-car shows in the Tommy Hinnerschitz days. The Nurburgring, that 16-mile monstrosity through the German forests, was billed as the world’s most lethal track. Anyone remember Langhorne Speedway, outside Philadelphia? Bill Vuckovich? Eddie Sachs?

The now-gone Indianapolis News annually published the “official” record book of the 500-Mile Race. On a full page in the back was “Died at the Speedway”, a list that included not only drivers and crewmen but spectators and innocent bystanders.

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AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne is still working on finding sponsors for his Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars.

The 20-year-old driver says he’d like to add both races at Talladega, but doesn’t have anything lined up. He also says Friday his car would have a lot of open spaces on it this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway because the Wood Brothers are still trying to line up more sponsors.

Bayne is scheduled for 18 Sprint Cup races, but would like a full season. His Nationwide car doesn’t have a sponsor.

The youngest driver to win the Daytona 500, Bayne says he’s had a chaotic week, including calls from President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, TV appearances and meeting actress Pamela Anderson, who told him he reminded her of her son.

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When MIchael Waltrip crossed the finish line a winner in the Camping World truck series race at Daytona International Speedway Friday night with only half a spoiler to retard his progress, you knew NASCAR wouldn’t stand for that, at least to a degree.

Despite the broken spoiler (above), it was an emotional, stirring victory for Waltrip, coming as it did 10 years to the day of his first Daytona 500 victory in 2001 in the race that took the life of his car owner and friend, Dale Earnhardt.

In the announcing booth after the truck race, Michael’s brother, Darrell, confidently predicted that the victory would stand, but NASCAR would fine the team for the broken piece.

Darrell Waltrip’s prediction was spot on, as NASCAR levied hefty penalties for the spoiler, which “did not meet specifications in post-race inspection,” the sanctioning body announced Wednesday.

“As a result, crew chief Doug Howe has been fined $25,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31. Owner Billy Ballew has been penalized with the loss of 25 championship owner points,” NASCAR’s statement said.

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To me, the most exciting announcement to come out of Speed Weeks was in a bulletin released by NASCAR the Thursday before qualifying.

Or was it? We’ll get to that later.

The news was that NASCAR, in a major break from the stock cars of 1948, finally decided to adopt fuel injection for its racing engines, replacing the venerable (and largely obsolete) carburetors, the primary device for mixing air and fuel on internal combustion engines since the dawn of time.

Problem is, all cars manufactured for street use in the United States (and just about everywhere else) began widespread of fuel injection in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The last factory-for-sale car to use a carburetor was a single model of the Subaru in 1991.

NASCAR’s insistence on carburetor use was therefore mystifying, and evidence of the widening chasm between NASCAR and “stock” cars. Every other major form of motorsport uses some type of computerized mix-and-inject.

In fact, only one company makes the kind of carburetors used in NASCAR racing. The carbs therefore are pricey and require extensive machining in the team shops to make them work in specific applications.

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Whoever wins the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup series championship, his name won’t be Daytona 500 champ Trevor Bayne.

The 20-year-old rookie, who became the youngest winner of the Daytona 500 Sunday, said he’s sticking with his original plan for the season — a full-time Nationwide series run for the championship and a part-time Sprint Cup campaign.

“I think I am going to stay with Nationwide,” Bayne said Tuesday on the weekly NASCAR teleconference. “Nothing has really changed for me other than that I am the Daytona 500 champion, which is really incredible.

“I think we are still going to have an awesome year for Roush Fenway running for that Nationwide championship. Obviously we still have a blank car and I would love to get some partners on it, but as of now we are still running for it full time over there. I am still not full-time Cup and I am going to run for the championship in Nationwide. I don’t regret any of our decisions there.”

Bayne will also run at least 17 more races in Sprint Cup for the Wood Brothers.

As they have for the past several years and for most of their long and storied history in NASCAR, the Wood Brothers are running only a partial schedule.

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MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — The crown prince of Bahrain called off Formula One’s season-opening race Monday, handing another victory to protesters aiming to break the ruling dynasty’s stranglehold on power in the Gulf kingdom.

Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa owns the rights to grand prix and serves as commander of the armed forces in an island country were at least eight protesters have been killed in a week of unrest. Angry protesters, who see the Bahrain GP as particularly meaningful to him, wanted the March 13 race dropped.

Facing more demonstrations around an event that draws a worldwide TV audience of around 100 million in 187 countries, the crown prince told F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone by telephone that the race would not go ahead.

“We felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of Bahrain’s Formula One race to a later date,” Bahrain’s crown prince said in a statement.

After launching deadly attacks on protesters at a landmark in the capital city of Manama, the nation’s security forces pulled back Saturday under international pressure and allowed demonstrators to occupy Pearl Square. The protesters have now established a tent city there.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Flashing his dimples, and looking even younger than his 20 years, Trevor Bayne grinned broadly, laughed and fidgeted as he conducted his first news conference as the youngest Daytona 500 winner in history.

One day after celebrating his 20th birthday Bayne drove the legendary No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to victory Sunday in NASCAR‘s biggest race — sharing the honor with the team’s previous Daytona 500 winning drivers, A.J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough, Tiny Lund and David Pearson. Bayne wasn’t even born when Pearson claimed the Wood Brothers’ last Daytona 500 trophy in 1976.

Explaining how grateful he was for the opportunity, thankful for his good fortune and appreciative of his team’s efforts, the good-looking, well-spoken Bayne sounded as mature and poised behind the microphone as he was behind the steering wheel in holding off three series champions and a handful of other veterans on the last two laps of Sunday’s race.

The Knoxville, Tenn., native’s biggest smile, however, seemed to come when he found out that his Twitter account expanded from 6,000 followers to 16,000 by the end of the race. And, he modestly conceded, he was going to need a friend to drive his Ford truck home. Seems that while most of Bayne’s competitors flew in private jets to the race, he drove his Ford F150 pickup truck from Tennessee to Florida.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s shoulders may well have borne 500 miles worth of expectations this week at Daytona.

Marking 10 years since the death of his legendary father in NASCAR‘s most important race, Earnhardt Jr. served as the central beacon of a sport remembering the passing of one of its most legendary drivers.

The sport’s most popular driver also has been the most talked about non-factor for most of the last three seasons and has seen his share of changes in the Hendrick Motorsports program around him. A new crew chief — Steve Letarte — was in his ear.

Sunday, none of it seemed to be a distraction as Earnhardt sliced his way through the field time and again to find the front — and occasionally lead — one of the most unusual Daytona 500s in recent memory.

However, the chaotic nature of NASCAR’s season-opening beast, a race marked by the most cautions and lead changes in the event’s 53-year history, finally caught up with Earnhardt moments from the end.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — For all the talk of a new track surface, a different style of racing and promises of the “wildest” Daytona 500 ever, Sunday’s much-anticipated NASCAR season-opener still ended up like so many of those that have preceded it — decided in the final laps.

Making his first-ever Daytona 500 start, 20-year-old rookie Trevor Bayne held off Carl Edwards, David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte to earn the venerable Wood Brothers Racing team its fifth Daytona 500 victory and first since NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee David Pearson’s win in 1976.

“Am I dreaming? Is this real? I don’t even know where to go,” a stunned Bayne exclaimed to his team on the radio as he crossed the finish line and drove his No. 21 Motorcraft Ford to victory circle, where he was too young to even drink the traditional celebratory champagne.

The race lived up to its billing, easily setting records for caution flags (16) and lead changes (74 among 22 drivers), but in the end it was a a great show of poise heading to the checkered flag that made Bayne the youngest winner of NASCAR’s most prestigious trophy – one day after he celebrated his 20th birthday.

A five-car accident at the front of the field with four laps remaining in the 200-lap regulation period set up the first of two green-white-checkered overtime periods and all but eliminated several of the strongest cars, including Ryan Newman, Regan Smith and Clint Bowyer, who exchanged the lead in the closing 15 laps.

Robby Gordon’s spin on the first restart sent cars scrambling, and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet was collected in the melee, setting up the final two-lap shootout among Bayne and the veterans.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The racing may look different at Daytona, but the big crashes are still around.

Less than 30 laps in to Sunday’s Daytona 500, contact between a former Daytona winner, Michael Waltrip, and another car he owns set off a 14-car melee in turn four. Waltrip nudged David Reutimann into a spin on the race’s 29th lap to start the incident.

Earlier in the race, Waltrip spun Kyle Busch on lap six — an incident that managed to miss the rest of the pack.

“They make a quick move and it just spins them out,” Waltrip said. “I’ve been doing this all week and I haven’t spun anyone out. I’m involved in both of them and I don’t know what I could have done different.”

The crash collected several of the race’s likely contenders, including reigning five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson as well as his teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin.

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(AP) — A look at drivers competing in the 2011 Daytona 500, in order of starting position:

No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

BORN: Oct. 10, 1974

HOMETOWN: Kannapolis, N.C.

CREW CHIEF: Steve Letarte

SPONSOR: Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard

NOTES: NASCAR’s most popular driver won the Daytona 500 pole, then wrecked in practice on Wednesday. Now, he’ll start Sunday’s race at the back of the field. Earnhardt was a non-factor on the track for the fourth consecutive year in 2010. Earnhardt finished 21st in points. With teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon also struggling, owner Rick Hendrick shook up most of the four-car team. Will another new crew chief and a shop change be enough to overhaul Junior’s fortunes?

No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Jeff Gordon

BORN: Aug. 4, 1971

HOMETOWN: Pittsboro, Ind.

CREW CHIEF: Alan Gustafson

SPONSOR: Drive To End Hunger/DuPont

NOTES: After a winless season, Gordon was one of three drivers shuffled at Hendrick Motorsports. He moved out of the 24/48 shop into the building now known as the 5/24 shop. The four-time series champion is paired with crew chief Gustafson.

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(AP) — A look at drivers competing in the 2011 Daytona 500, in order of starting position:

No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

BORN: Oct. 10, 1974

HOMETOWN: Kannapolis, N.C.

CREW CHIEF: Steve Letarte

SPONSOR: Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard

NOTES: NASCAR’s most popular driver won the Daytona 500 pole, then wrecked in practice on Wednesday. Now, he’ll start Sunday’s race at the back of the field. Earnhardt was a non-factor on the track for the fourth consecutive year in 2010. Earnhardt finished 21st in points. With teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon also struggling, owner Rick Hendrick shook up most of the four-car team. Will another new crew chief and a shop change be enough to overhaul Junior’s fortunes?

No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Jeff Gordon

BORN: Aug. 4, 1971

HOMETOWN: Pittsboro, Ind.

CREW CHIEF: Alan Gustafson

SPONSOR: Drive To End Hunger/DuPont

NOTES: After a winless season, Gordon was one of three drivers shuffled at Hendrick Motorsports. He moved out of the 24/48 shop into the building now known as the 5/24 shop. The four-time series champion is paired with crew chief Gustafson.

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(AP) — A look at drivers competing in the 2011 Daytona 500, in order of starting position:

No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

BORN: Oct. 10, 1974

HOMETOWN: Kannapolis, N.C.

CREW CHIEF: Steve Letarte

SPONSOR: Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard

NOTES: NASCAR’s most popular driver won the Daytona 500 pole, then wrecked in practice on Wednesday. Now, he’ll start Sunday’s race at the back of the field. Earnhardt was a non-factor on the track for the fourth consecutive year in 2010. Earnhardt finished 21st in points. With teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon also struggling, owner Rick Hendrick shook up most of the four-car team. Will another new crew chief and a shop change be enough to overhaul Junior’s fortunes?

No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Jeff Gordon

BORN: Aug. 4, 1971

HOMETOWN: Pittsboro, Ind.

CREW CHIEF: Alan Gustafson

SPONSOR: Drive To End Hunger/DuPont

NOTES: After a winless season, Gordon was one of three drivers shuffled at Hendrick Motorsports. He moved out of the 24/48 shop into the building now known as the 5/24 shop. The four-time series champion is paired with crew chief Gustafson.

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(AP) — A look at drivers competing in the 2011 Daytona 500, in order of starting position:

No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

BORN: Oct. 10, 1974

HOMETOWN: Kannapolis, N.C.

CREW CHIEF: Steve Letarte

SPONSOR: Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard

NOTES: NASCAR’s most popular driver won the Daytona 500 pole, then wrecked in practice on Wednesday. Now, he’ll start Sunday’s race at the back of the field. Earnhardt was a non-factor on the track for the fourth consecutive year in 2010. Earnhardt finished 21st in points. With teammates Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon also struggling, owner Rick Hendrick shook up most of the four-car team. Will another new crew chief and a shop change be enough to overhaul Junior’s fortunes?

No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports

DRIVER: Jeff Gordon

BORN: Aug. 4, 1971

HOMETOWN: Pittsboro, Ind.

CREW CHIEF: Alan Gustafson

SPONSOR: Drive To End Hunger/DuPont

NOTES: After a winless season, Gordon was one of three drivers shuffled at Hendrick Motorsports. He moved out of the 24/48 shop into the building now known as the 5/24 shop. The four-time series champion is paired with crew chief Gustafson.

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The move shortens the NASCAR Sprint Cup season by one week, but also eliminates the March off weekend, one of the rare off weekends in Sprint Cup racing during the February-to-November season.

It also adds a bit of a cushion in case the Super Bowl is pushed back another weekend.

Chitwood said eliminating the March off weekend will have a positive effect because “many fans and media partners have said (it) created a drop in momentum in the early part of the racing season.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — NASCAR has made another change to cars for the Daytona 500, this one because temperatures are expected to reach 80 degrees Sunday during the season-opening race.

Sprint Cup officials say teams can add an extra inch to grill openings, allowing more air to flow to engine-cooling radiators.

The change was made following the final practice session Saturday and should help drivers keep their engines cooler at speeds nearing 200 mph around Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

NASCAR made three changes earlier in the week, reducing the size of the horsepower-sapping restrictor plates, adding a pressure-relief valve to cooling systems and reducing the size of grill openings. The moves were made to slow downs cars after speeds topped 206 mph.

The 43-car field will take the green flag at about 1:15 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks and other supplemental copy have been inserted by AOL.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The venerable Daytona International Speedway may as well be classified a completely new venue for the Nationwide Series this season.

The victory lane celebration, however, remains much the same.

Tony Stewart pushed by Clint Bowyer in the final feet of Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 to win his sixth checkered flag of the season-opener in his last seven tries. The winning margin of .007 seconds was the third closest in series history.

“We just got a great run,” Stewart said. “We had a good push from Landon Cassill there at the line.”

Cassill, a young driver without a full-time ride this season, finished third to take the Nationwide Series’ points lead.

The path to success again for Stewart had plenty of reasons to derail this time around.

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Needham directed the classic “Smokey and the Bandit” starring Burt Reynolds, and Gant won 18 victories during 22 years of driving in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series from 1973 through 1994. Many of his wins came driving the Skoal Bandit, named after the movie.

Needham, famous in Hollywood for his stunt work before he took up directing, has authored a book on his life, “Stuntman!” that was published Feb. 9.

Below is a replay of the chat.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Here’s a 3-D photo gallery from Speedweeks here at Daytona International Speedway, as well as several photos from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour in January.

To see these photos in 3-D, use common red-cyan 3-D glasses. Remember, left eye red.

Except as noted, all 3-D photos were taken by FanHouse motorsports editor Bob Zeller using a Fuji W3 3-D camera.

Jeff Gordon answers questions from fans in a live chat with FanHouse senior motorsports writer Holly Cain from the media center at Daytona on Friday afternoon.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — An emotional, out-of-breath Michael Waltrip could barely choke out words of thanks after he made a dramatic last-lap pass to win the NASCAR Camping World Truck series 250-mile race Friday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Waltrip, who usually announces the truck races, swept past Elliott Sadler in a classic Daytona slingshot pass as the trucks sped into the tri-oval toward the checkered flag in a green-white-checkered, two-lap finish after a couple of big wrecks late in the race.

It came on the 10th anniversary of Waltrip’s greatest and worst day — his win in the 2001 Daytona 500 seconds after his car owner Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash in turn four on the last lap.

“I’m just so thankful, Waltrip said Friday night, nearly breathless, with tears and sweat gleaming on his face in the glare of the television lights in victory lane. “I want to thank the fans, man. They keep us going. And they’ve just been so good to us. It’s just very emotional and I didn’t know I could push Elliott all the way around there. And I was able to do it.

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Needham directed the classic “Smokey and the Bandit” starring Burt Reynolds, and Gant won 18 victories during 22 years of driving in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series from 1973 through 1994. Many of his wins came driving the Skoal Bandit, named after the movie.

Needham, famous in Hollywood for his stunt work before he took up directing, has authored a book on his life, “Stuntman!” that was published Feb. 9.

Join us for another live chat with a pair of legends from NASCAR and Hollywood.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Up until the final few minutes of Friday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying, it looked as if IndyCar star-turned-NASCAR newbie Danica Patrick may just have landed herself the pole position at stock car’s most famous track, Daytona International Speedway.

Midway through the session Patrick laid down the fastest lap of the afternoon bumping veteran Carl Edwards off the top spot and igniting a buzz around the garage area. Had her lap stood, she would have been the first woman to win a Nationwide Series pole since Shawna Robinson did it in March 1994.

Instead, another newcomer, Landon Cassill, knocked Patrick out of the top spot only to have Sprint Cup Series veteran Clint Bowyer come in and better them both. Bowyer’s lap of 180.821 mph in the Kevin Harvick-owned No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet earned the former series champ the pole position for Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 and stifled the building frenzy around a possible Patrick front row start.

Cassill will start alongside him while another late qualifier Dale Earnhardt Jr,. took the third position. He’ll start next to Patrick on the second row; he owns both cars.

This is only Patrick’s 13th Nationwide Series start in her highly-publicized racing double as a full-time driver in the IZOD IndyCar Series and a part-timer in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide circuit.

“It’s been a fast car the whole time we’ve been here,” Patrick said, as she watched the remaining few cars qualify. “No matter what happens now, it’ll be a good starting position. This is a big deal and for it to come at Daytona, it’s 10 times a bigger deal.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The white No. 3 decals are no bigger than a fist and sit just above and behind the driver’s side window of all the Richard Childress Racing team’s Chevrolets. Crew members wore black baseball caps with the same No. 3 logo and driver Tony Stewart strolled through the Daytona International Speedway garage Friday afternoon clutching one of the prized caps himself.

Friday marked exactly 10 years since the driver of the Richard Childress Racing No. 3, seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt, was killed in Turn 4 of this track after crashing on the last lap of the Daytona 500. The speedway will remember the NASCAR icon with a moment of silence and fans will hold up three fingers on the third lap of Sunday’s Daytona 500.

But for such an overwhelming event, it has been a subdued, subtle and suiting anniversary.

For the past week, Earnhardt’s competitors, teammates and friends have shared emotional stories about that fateful Sunday afternoon. But the one person you won’t see participate in any contrived memorial this weekend is Earnhardt’s son, Dale Jr. No hat, no decal. None necessary.

“I’d personally rather just watch it and stand on the sidelines,” Earnhardt said of the various tributes and memorials planned for the weekend.

“It’s more fun for me hearing how other people reflect, hearing other people’s stories. I know how I feel in my heart and I don’t feel a real need to discuss that a lot.

“I want to do what’s right and honor him, but I don’t need to do it in front of a bunch of people. I feel like he carries his own weight and he doesn’t need me being a part of the celebration or whatever you want to call it. I don’t want to take away from it in any way.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Here’s a 3-D photo gallery from Speedweeks here at Daytona International Speedway, as well as several photos from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour in January.

To see these photos in 3-D, use common red-cyan 3-D glasses. Remember, left eye red.

Except as noted, all 3-D photos were taken by FanHouse motorsports editor Bob Zeller using a Fuji W3 3-D camera.

Jeff Gordon answers questions from fans in a live chat with FanHouse senior motorsports writer Holly Cain from the media center at Daytona on Friday afternoon.

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Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet, is a three-time Daytona 500 winner and is looking for his first Cup title since 2001. He posted the second-fastest qualifying speed last Sunday and will start The Great American Race from the outside of the front row.

The champ chatted with FanHouse senior motorsports writer Holly Cain. See a 3-D photo of Friday’s chat here.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Brian Keselowski was still sitting in his race car on Daytona International Speedway‘s pit road well after the checkered flag when his little brother Brad leaned in for a hug and a congratulatory word. It wasn’t a victory, but the Brothers Keselowski provided the unquestionable feel-good story of Thursday’s Daytona 500 qualifying races.

Driving a barely-sponsored, five-year-old race car, Brian Keselowski will make his debut in the Daytona 500 Sunday, thanks to the kindest shove he ever received from the little brother he used to wrestle as a kid.

After spinning early in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel qualifier, Brad Keselowski, 27, fell to the rear of the field and had to drive his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge back up through the pack.

On his way, he dropped the famous Penske Racing “Blue Deuce” in behind Brian, 29, and literally pushed — and willed — his big brother’s wayward No. 4 Dodge forward during the second half of the race. Brian finished fifth, Brad seventh, and for the first time in their lives, they will have the opportunity to compete against one another in NASCAR’s Super Bowl.

“Oh, my God,” an emotional Brian Keselowski said after climbing from his car. “He’s got to be the best pusher here. … I’ve watched him push others for the past three years and to push me into the Daytona 500 today. .. ”

“I’m gonna ask Roger (Penske) to help him out with a little better motor,” Brad Keselowski joked afterward.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Jeff Burton, with help from teammate Clint Bowyer, swept to victory in the second Gatorade Duel Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

It was the first Speedweeks victory ever for the veteran driver, 43, from South Boston, Va.

Bowyer was second, followed by Michael Waltrip, Kyle Busch and surprising, unsponsored Brian Keselowski, who got a big push from his little brother, Brad, to become the most unlikely top-five finisher in a Sprint Cup race in quite awhile. Full results are here.

In the first Gatorade Duel, Kurt Busch captured the checkered flag.

“It’s a shame two cars can’t fit in here (in victory lane),” Burton said. “With the way things are going (with the two-car draft), Clint and I decided we were just going to find each other early and it worked out for both of us. For us, it was a great start (to the season).”

Waltrip’s finish put him in his 25th consecutive Daytona 500. Waltrip and Brian Keselowski were the two drivers who raced their way into the 500 by virtue of their finishes in the second Duel.

“They like to put a car together at MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) for the old man,” Waltrip said. “To race in the Daytona 500 is just such a great opportunity. I’m certainly proud we have a fast car. We’re going to be up in the middle of all that mess.”

Bowyer said, “I don’t know if there will be another rule change. It was fun out there. Obviously, you always want to win, but I probably should have made my move a little earlier.”

As Burton took the checkered flag, Trevor Bayne and Jeff Gordon lost control of their two-car draft and Bayne spun into David Ragan, sending them both spinning.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Kurt Busch had never won a restrictor plate race before this week and now it seems he can’t lose.

Busch improved to a fitting 2-for-2 at Daytona International Speedway, his No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge claiming the win in the first of two Gatorade Duel qualifying races at the track Thursday afternoon. He won NASCAR‘s Budweiser Shootout exhibition race last weekend.

With a record 20 lead changes among nine drivers, Busch took the lead on the first lap of a green-white-checkered restart and led when he needed to thanks, in part, to the push from runner-up finisher Regan Smith in the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevy, whose effort earned him a third row starting spot in Sunday’s Daytona 500.

Busch, however, will start the 500 from the pole position. He would have started third, behind fastest qualifier Dale Earnhardt Jr., but Earnhardt wrecked his car in practice Wednesday and will have to start a back-up car from the back of the field. NASCAR rules say that in that event, the third-place starter moves up to the pole.

Former Daytona 500 winners Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth finished third and fourth after establishing themselves as drafting partners in what was a race of two-car drafts and strategically picking your dancing partner. Kasey Kahne’s Toyota and Juan Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet paired up for fifth and sixth place. Full results are here.

“You’ve gotta have a partner and Regan Smith was a great teammate today,” Busch said. “It was almost like a roulette wheel was spinning and our numbers came up today.”

“We are going to ride this wave. We’ve made all the right decisions so far.”

In the second race, Jeff Burton captured his first victory ever at Daytona.

Despite a handful of technical changes to the cars — including a smaller carburetor restrictor plate — to lessen the opportunity of two-car packs, the two-car draft remained the norm and produced unexpected “friendships.” Seldom did teammates run together. Instead, it was a friendship of convenience and proximity, like the Dodge-Chevy, Chevy-Ford and Toyota-Chevy combination of the top finishers.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the pole position for Sunday’s Daytona 500 last weekend, had to start from the rear of the field after crashing in Wednesday’s practice and switching to a back-up car. He ran among the top-10 but ended up 13th and, according to NASCAR rules, will have to start from the rear of the 43-car 500 field anyway.

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It’s a safe bet that you won’t be seeing Darrell Waltrip holding hands with Tony Kornheiser and singing “Kum Ba Yah” anytime soon, not that you were likely to anyway.

But the chances got even more remote when, during his show, “Pardon The Interruption,” Kornheiser said Tuesday he had spoken to someone who said there was a “60 percent” chance that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had qualified and won the pole position for Sunday’s Daytona 500 with a car that was not up to code and that NASCAR officials had looked the other way.

Needless to say, Waltrip, a FOX race analyst, took umbrage with Kornheiser’s off the cuff statements and said so during a conference call to promote Daytona coverage Thursday.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Daytona 500 pole-winning Chevy was involved in a crash Wednesday afternoon and sustained enough damage that the team had to go to a back-up car and will now have to start both Thursday’s Gatorade Duel qualifying race and Sunday’s Daytona 500 from the back of the field instead of from the front.

Earnhardt’s No. 88 AMP Energy Chevy was riding second in a two-car draft behind Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson when they slowed to avoid traffic. The two cars behind them — Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers — didn’t react quickly enough and Truex hit Earnhardt from behind, sending both cars into the inside wall.

Because of the unique qualifying format for the Daytona 500, only the two fastest cars officially “qualified” for the 500 during Sunday’s time trials — polewinner Earnhardt and second fastest Jeff Gordon. NASCAR rules state that if a driver has to switch from the car he qualified in, then he must drop to the rear of the field for the green flag. When that happens, the third place starter — which will be determined in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying race — will move up into the first position alongside Gordon for the start of the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt, who had won his first career superspeedway pole, said he had a bad feeling about even running in the rain-delayed practice Wednesday.

“We’ve got the pole-sitting race car, we didn’t need practice,” an obviously frustrated Earnhardt said, ‘I had a fast car and I didn’t want to practice it.

“I had a bad feeling about it and we come running up on some guys that didn’t have their heads on straight and got into an accident.”

And now, “Get the next one ready,” he said shaking his head.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After taking other steps last week to try to reduce the 200 mph-plus speeds of two-car tandem drafts at Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR has taken a more aggressive step by reducing the size of the restrictor plate.

The sanctioning body has reduced the size of the restrictor plate by 1/64th of an inch, which should cut about 10 horsepower from the engines.

Previously in Speedweeks, NASCAR made changes in an effort to minimize the ability of cars to hook up together in two-car drafts. Although Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole at slightly over 186 mph, the two-car drafts have reached speeds upward of 206 mph.

“We want to get those speeds knocked down a little bit,” NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said. “That 206 is a little quick.”

“Every time we get on track with these cars and NASCAR makes a change, it’s going to have to be a learning curve we adapt to,” said Denny Hamlin.

That learning curve was going nowhere early Wednesday, however, as coastal showers halted all activity on the track until mid-afternoon, when practice finally got underway.

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NASCAR is asking 200,000 fans to honor Dale Earnhardt this coming Sunday. On the third lap, everyone at the Daytona 500 will be asked to extend three fingers.

The announcer might as well say, “Everyone who thinks Dale’s son will win, please raise your hand.”

The smart money is on Junior. So is the dumb money, the Confederate money and every other bit of currency. Ten years after Dale Sr. died at the track, who doesn’t think the Earnhardt stars are aligning?

“I don’t really get into that hypothetical, fairy-tale ending stuff,” Junior said.

He would like to earn his way into victory lane. Others suspect Earnhardt will do it the old-fashioned way – by relying on the script writers NASCAR hired from Disney.

I normally dismiss conspiracy theorists as having moon rocks for brains, but this isn’t Dealey Plaza or Area 51. This is Daytona International, where a second gunman always seems ready to shoot out the tires of Earnhardt’s competition.

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To live in Kannapolis, N.C., during the 20th century was to live in a company town, and if folks there didn’t exactly sell their soul to the company store, everyone lived by the pulse of the massive Cannon Mills, provider of fluffy cotton towels and washcloths to a increasingly cleanliness-conscious nation.

“They had three shifts there — first, second and third,” recalled Martha Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt’s mother. “When it came time for a shift change at Cannon Mills, a mile or so away, “they had a horn that blew,” she said in a 2007 interview with this writer for Racing Milestones magazine. “You could hear it.”

Ralph Earnhardt, her husband, started his adult life in the mills, but didn’t stick around. He was too independent-minded for that. “He definitely didn’t like being shut up in there,” she said.

“When he and I got married, he was working on the third shift in the mill. He worked in the weave room. That was in ’47. I was 17 when we got married and he was 19. He left the mill not too long after we got married and went to work for a gentleman down here on (U.S.) 29 in a garage. That’s where he learned about building motors and all that.

“But then some of the local guys that raced around here came down, and Ralph worked on their cars. That’s how he got into racing. He didn’t like the mill anyway. It was a place to get out of.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — As NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams were packing up their equipment from Sunday’s Daytona 500 pole qualifying session, NASCAR officials issued a technical bulletin aimed at keeping the cars from the 206-mph, two-car drafts that dominated Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout 75-lap non-points race.

“I thought it was cool at the beginning, medium in the middle and when they hit 206, I wasn’t thinking of the race anymore, I was thinking what we needed to do in the next couple days,” NASCAR Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton said of Saturday’s race,

In response to the increasing speeds and two-car breakaways, NASCAR has regulated the front grille opening on all the cars to 2 1/2-inches by 20-inches and it will install a pressure relief valve in the water cooling system. Pemberton said the idea is to decrease the temperature that the engine water will boil. Some cars could run water as hot as 290-300 degrees. Pemberton would like to get that temperature down to 250 degrees.

Cars shouldn’t be able to run in the two-car pack for a sustained period of time for fear of overheating, thus making it less likely they will reach speeds upwards of 200 mph like they did Saturday night.

Although NASCAR did not change the size of the carburetor restrictor plate, Pemberton said that remains an option and didn’t rule out other technical changes in advance of the Feb. 20 season-opening Daytona 500. Officials are looking to see what the racing is like in the Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying races on Thursday. They issued the technical bulletin Sunday so teams will have a chance to make the necessary changes before NASCAR Speedweeks resumes with a practice session on Wednesday morning.

“The speeds are high because everyone did their job,” Pemberton told reporters in a nearly abandoned Daytona garage late Sunday afternoon. “The track with the paving, Goodyear, the teams have done a great job and now we’re (NASCAR) in the fold and trying to reel some of that back in. And we have the support of the race teams.

“There’s a lot of pressure here,” he continued. “I can’t even begin to tell you the pressure from a large group of people that are expecting us to get it right (for the Daytona 500).”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The roar from the Daytona International Speedway crowd confirmed it. On a brisk but sunny afternoon, all seemed right with NASCAR nation. Let the 2011 season begin.

The sport’s favorite son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start his No. 88 AMP Energy Chevrolet from the pole position for the Feb. 20 Daytona 500 after posting the fastest lap of qualifying (186.089 mph) Sunday on the newly-paved 2.5-mile track. It is Earnhardt’s first superspeedway pole and comes 10 years after his father, the legendary seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt, was killed in the 2001 Daytona 500 — a fact not lost on a largely sentimental crowd cheering him on Sunday.

Earnhardt’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon completes the other half of one of the most popular starting front rows in recent 500 memory. Rookie Trevor Bayne was a surprise third-place qualifier for the iconic Woods Brothers Racing team. Richard Childress Racing teammates Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five fastest speeds.

Only the front row is set for the race. The remaining portion of the 43-car field will be filled out according to the finishing order in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150-mile qualifying races. Each of the Duels starting lineups will be assigned according to the qualifying results.

The last driver to win the Daytona 500 from the pole was Dale Jarrett in 2000.

“We’re fired up,” said Earnhardt, who started second and finished second in last year’s 500. “I had a great car today. I didn’t have a whole lot to do about it (winning the pole), just held on. The power and the body does all the work.

“It obviously gives you the idea you’ve got a great car. But anybody can win the race. The main thing for me is it takes the pressure off the (Gatorade Duel) qualifier, I don’t have to worry about where I finish and I can just go out there and have fun.”

As for the timing of his first pole at the track coming on the 10-mark of his father’s tragic death, Earnhardt deferred the irony.

“I’m here to race,” Earnhardt said. “I understand the situation and I look forward to seeing how people remember and honor my father. But I don’t really get into the hypothetical, fairy-tale ending stuff. I just need to focus on my job and what gets me closer to victory lane on Sunday.”

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Once there was a time when the great Dale Earnhardt was a crew chief.

As you might expect, it was before he could legally drive.

From the age of 13 until well after he got behind the wheel of a race car, Earnhardt was the crew chief for Gray London, a Kannapolis sandwich maker who took up racing in the 1960s to escape the stress of producing 60,000 sandwiches a day at his Dainty Maid Foods plant in Kannapolis. The teen-aged Earnhardt also worked at London’s Sunoco gas station in Kannapolis.

One night early in his driving career, London’s yellow 1957 Chevy was fishtailing every time he came off the second turn on the dirt track at Concord (N.C.) Speedway.

“I came back into the pits and Dale was jumping up and down, raising Cain.”

“Quit that!” the 13-year-old crew chief hollered at London.

“Quit what?”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Call it “Dancing with the Cars.” Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout exhibition was a 200-mph tango of two-car drafts on the newly-paved, super-fast Daytona International Speedway.

In a photo finish, Kurt Busch won a predictably wild NASCAR opener on the new $20 million racing surface, pushed to the front by defending Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray a few feet before the finish line. Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag first, but was subsequently black-flagged for dropping below the yellow line on the track trying to pass Ryan Newman at the finish line.

NASCAR ruled the finish Busch, McMurray and Newman. Five-time defending Sprint Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson and Greg Biffle rounded out the top five.

“What an unbelievable experience,” Busch said.

The race had set a record for lead changes (24) with 12 laps to go — there ended up being 28. The two-car drafts were easily reaching speeds of 206 mph — nearly 15 mph faster than last year’s pole-winning speed for the Daytona 500.

Picking a dancing partner was nearly as important as having the fastest car. And “two-car breakaway” described the entire field. In an intense version of speed dating, Newman was pushed by Hamlin up until the final few feet while just alongside McMurray pushed Busch’s No. 22 Pennzoil Dodge to Busch and Dodge’s first Shootout victory.

“I went to the inside of Ryan Newman and I saw quickly a dart down to the bottom so I moved my car down to the bottom to avoid contact,” Hamlin said. “I thought it was a great three-wide finish, but obviously, I used some pavement that we shouldn’t have.”

Only 14 cars were still in the 75-lap exhibition with 24 laps remaining thanks to a handful of accidents caused when the two-car draft was just out of sync, a case of two left feet.

“There’s plenty of film tonight for the highlight reels that’s pretty much what we’re filling up right now, SportsCenter,” Kyle Busch said after his dancing, er, drafting partner, veteran Mark Martin, hit him from behind too hard and crashed them both out midway through the race.

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I stopped in a line of traffic, the nose of my car just short of the rail tracks that run in front of Richard Childress‘s shop complex in Welcome, N.C. The line of cars began to build behind me.

I heard a loud train horn.

I didn’t exactly jump, but I looked quickly left and right, up and down the tracks, just to be sure. Then I looked behind me, and yes, there was Earnhardt, behind the wheel of a black Chevrolet dually pick-up. He and a colleague in the cab were doubled over laughing.

Earnhardt and I finally parked simultaneously, and he waited for me on the sidewalk in front of the shop. “You must have jumped half a foot,” he said, still chuckling.

“Did not.”

He grinned like a cat. “I rigged that horn on the truck for times like that. Some people, we really get ‘em.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The recently repaved surface at Daytona International Speedway is fast. Really fast. Maybe too fast.

In the most significant test on the 2 1/2 -mile superspeedway, cars topped 203 mph Friday during practice for the Budweiser Shootout.

Joey Logano turned the fast lap with an average speed of 203.087 mph in the second of two practice sessions. Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch also topped 203 mph. Several others were close behind. In all, 10 cars hit 200 mph. Four more were in the 199 mph range, creating some concern at NASCAR’s most famous track.

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The golden voice of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing has been stilled.

Tom Carnegie, the public address announcer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for more than 60 years, died Friday at age 91 in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville, the speedway announced.

From the end of World War II until well into the 21st century, Carnegie called the action for the fans in the grandstands. From 1946 to 2006, he called 61 Indianapolis 500s, 12 Brickyard 400s and six United States Grand Prix races.

His voice literally grew with the speedway. As the Indy 500 became ever more popular through the latter half of the 20th century, and more and more fans came to see the 500, Carnegie’s voice became an ever-deeper, ever-richer baritone, with ever-more dramatic flourishes.

He was in his prime in an era when the Indy 500 was not only a race. but a contest of speed as well. Before the 500 itself on Memorial Day, the month of May was filled with the drama of the quest to go faster than the year before — to reach 150 mph, and then 175, and finally the magic barrier of 200, and then even higher.

Through those magical years, Carnegie’s deep voice cut through the din. And when he said, “And it’s a NEEEEW TRACK RECORD!!”, the packed grandstands roared.

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The Richard Childress Racing teams and Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines will pay tribute to the late seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt throughout Daytona Speedweeks.

All of the Richard Childress Racing cars, transporters and pit boxes will have No. 3 decals. Team members will wear a special RCR No. 3 hat on February 18, which marks 10 years since Earnhardt — driver of the No. 3 Goodwrench Chevy — was killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines employees will wear a special ECR No. 3 hat for the duration of NASCAR Speedweeks, which begins with Saturday night’s Budweiser Shootout 75-lap exhibition race and concludes with the Feb. 20 season-opening Daytona 500.

Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines is a joint venture launched in 2007 by Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc., the race team started by Earnhardt and his wife, Teresa, in 1980.

“All of us at RCR and ECR are honored to pay tribute to Dale on this 10th anniversary,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of Richard Childress Racing and Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines. “His legacy is still felt every day at RCR, ECR and throughout the world. We hope all of Dale’s fans appreciate this salute to their hero and ours.”

A tribute No. 3 decal has been on the No.. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick ever since Earnhardt’s tragic death. The team changed the car number from 3 to 29 out of respect for the legend and it has never been on a car in the Cup series since.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Ford Motor Co. has informed NASCAR it would like to race the Mustang in the elite Sprint Cup Series beginning in 2013.

Ford currently uses the Fusion in the Cup Series. The Mustang was used in four second-tier Nationwide Series races last year, and will be raced full-time this season. The 2011 Ford Mustang Boss is shown at right.

The director of Ford’s North American Motorsports program tells The Associated Press that fan reaction to the Mustang exceeded all expectations. Jamie Allison also says Ford wants to bring the iconic Mustang to NASCAR’s top series to have its entry consistent with a model fans can buy in the showroom.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks and other supplemental copy have been inserted by AOL.

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It was the end of the 1995 Winston Cup season, and Jeff Gordon — “Wonder Boy” — was the new NASCAR champion, set to be formally crowned at the annual banquet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

High up in his lavish suite on the 36th floor, a day before the banquet, the runner-up, Dale Earnhardt, sat down with me and five other motorsports writers for an interview. I was doing a profile of him for Car and Driver, ready to ask him broad, overarching questions about his career, his life and his place in the sport. (Earnhardt and his wife, Teresa, are shown above at his seventh championship banquet in 1994).

It was a time of rapid expansion in a booming sport, with even bigger changes looming. NASCAR was talking about racing in Japan. Bruton Smith, on the fast track to becoming a billionaire, had gone public with Speedway Motorsports, Inc., in February 1995 and would open Texas Motor Speedway in 1997 and Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1998.

Earnhardt was 44, having completed his 17th full season in the NASCAR Winston Cup series. Less than two weeks earlier, the two-time defending Cup champion (only his 1992 hiccup interrupted what could have been Earnhardt’s own five-in-a-row string) had faced an all-but-insurmountable, 147-point deficit to Gordon going into the final race at Atlanta.

Gordon did his best to choke, stumbling to a 32nd-place finish, 14 laps down, but had such a large points lead it was all over on lap 61, when the 24-year-old rising star led a lap to clinch the title. Earnhardt, meanwhile, drove like a man possessed, and 19 laps later, made one of the classic moves of his career, passing four cars in one fell swoop in turns three and four to blast from fourth place to the lead.

Earnhardt won that race in a runaway — his fifth victory of the year — and even though he didn’t win the title, it was a vintage Earnhardt year. He won the second Brickyard 400 in August and then at Bristol drove like a wild man, barging past anyone and everyone in his way until he got to leader Terry Labonte at the finish and wrecked him, too, though Labonte won it while crashing.

Earnhardt finished the season with 10 straight top-10s — eight of those top fives, including two victories — but couldn’t catch Gordon. The Intimidator was done in by his two DNFs, both at Michigan, including a crash in June that injured his neck and shoulders and left him sore right up to the point of this interview on Nov. 30, 1995. But he was a happy man that day, secure in his life and his sport and still king of his domain, even as the upstart kid was challenging his supremacy.

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“So, you got any advice for me here coming up?” Dale Earnhardt radioed to Andy Pilgrim while slowly driving caution laps around Daytona International Speedway, preparing for the final race restart with 21 laps to go in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Only two weeks earlier, the NASCAR icon had co-driven to a runner-up GT Class finish in the historic Rolex 24 at Daytona with the sports car champ Pilgrim (second from left above), who was now sitting with his girlfriend and Earnhardt’s wife, Teresa, hooked up to the race team’s radio in the couple’s private motorcoach in the speedway’s infield. A pair of motorcycle policemen had just arrived outside and were waiting to escort them all from the track after the race.

“When he said that to me, I just started laughing and thinking to myself, ‘Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time NASCAR champion, is asking me, a road racer, what to do in the Daytona 500,’ ” Pilgrim recalled. “I told him, ‘No, man, I haven’t got any advice for you, just keep doing what you’re doing.’ ”’

“Okay, just wondering,” Earnhardt good-naturedly replied, his words getting cut off by his spotter, who was alerting him the race was going green on the next lap.

“I told him, ‘Cheers, talk to you later,’ ” Pilgrim said. “And there was no more radio communication other than him cheering on and yelling for Michael (Waltrip) and (Dale Earnhardt) Junior.

“Then, 10 minutes later, he was gone.

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IndyCar driver Danica Patrick confirmed her 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule Wednesday and will compete in four markets that she didn’t visit last season in her stock car debut.

Patrick, who races full-time for Andretti Autosport in the IZOD IndyCar Series, will again run 13 Nationwide Series races — the bulk of the schedule coming before and after her open-wheel commitments.

As expected Patrick will open the year in the Feb. 19 Nationwide 300-mile race at Daytona International Speedway, and will compete in the next three races on the schedule in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol, Tenn.

After running the opening races of the IndyCar Series, Patrick then returns to the seat of the JR Motorsports’ No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for summer races at Chicago and Daytona, then, for the first time, at the road course in Montreal, and the ovals in Richmond, Va., and Kansas.

Patrick will finish out the year in Fort Worth, Phoenix and the finale at Homestead-Miami, where she recorded her best start (fifth) and finish (19th) of 2010.

“I have a much different perspective heading into this season,” Patrick said. “I know a little more of what to expect, and I’m not as out of my element.

“I’ve had a year to work with my team, and there is a comfort level that comes with returning to some of these tracks. It’s obvious experience goes a long way in this sport. Thanks to everyone at Go Daddy and JR Motorsports that have been incredibly supportive throughout this process.”

Joining Patrick at Daytona will be fellow IndyCar driver Milka Duno, who announced Wednesday she is entered in the Feb. 12 ARCA Series opener.

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IndyCar driver Danica Patrick confirmed her 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule Wednesday and will compete in four markets that she didn’t visit last season in her stock car debut.

Patrick, who races full-time for Andretti Autosport in the IZOD IndyCar Series, will again run 13 Nationwide Series races — the bulk of the schedule coming before and after her open-wheel commitments.

As expected Patrick will open the year in the Feb. 19 Nationwide 300-mile race at Daytona International Speedway, and will compete in the next three races on the schedule in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Bristol, Tenn.

After running the opening races of the IndyCar Series, Patrick then returns to the seat of the JR Motorsports’ No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for summer races at Chicago and Daytona, then, for the first time, at the road course in Montreal, and the ovals in Richmond, Va., and Kansas.

Patrick will finish out the year in Fort Worth, Phoenix and the finale at Homestead-Miami, where she recorded her best start (fifth) and finish (19th) of 2010.

“I have a much different perspective heading into this season,” Patrick said. “I know a little more of what to expect, and I’m not as out of my element.

“I’ve had a year to work with my team, and there is a comfort level that comes with returning to some of these tracks. It’s obvious experience goes a long way in this sport. Thanks to everyone at Go Daddy and JR Motorsports that have been incredibly supportive throughout this process.”

Joining Patrick at Daytona will be fellow IndyCar driver Milka Duno, who announced Wednesday she is entered in the Feb. 12 ARCA Series opener.

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More often than you’d guess, Tony Stewart calls up the YouTube video of his wild, death-defying crash in the closing laps of the 2001 Daytona 500. But not for reasons you might think.

In the short video clip, he watches his orange No. 20 get hit from behind on the massive Daytona International Speedway backstretch, turning it directly toward 200-mph oncoming traffic. As the rear of Stewart’s Chevrolet catches air and starts to launch vertically, cars take evasive action.

That’s where Stewart pauses the video. He even has a still photograph of this very moment (right).

Just as Stewart’s car lifts off the ground — seconds before he endures violent barrel rolls and smashes into a half-dozen cars — the black No. 3 Chevrolet escapes through the smoke and frenzy unscathed. Its driver, Dale Earnhardt, heads to the front of the field to contend for the win. As usual.

“That’s the part that bothers me the most,” Stewart explained in an exclusive interview with AOL FanHouse, speaking in depth about that fateful Feb. 18, 2001 afternoon when NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt was killed on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

“It’s like, if I could have just nicked him on the way by, would it have changed things just enough to keep his accident later from happening? There’s no way anyone would ever wreck and think about hitting someone else believing it would do any good. I was along for the ride.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Ten years ago on Feb. 18, we lost Dale Earnhardt. NASCAR President Mike Helton used those very words that day – “we lost Dale Earnhardt” – in making the announcement that shocked and saddened people like no other death in American motorsports. It was a national tragedy – Earnhardt’s photo appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek – and it reflected the fact that during his amazing career, the sport had grown from its regional roots into a major national sport, in good measure because of his exploits.

Starting today and continuing for seven days, FanHouse is proud to present a series entitled Ten Years After – The Untold Stories. Most of these stories about that fateful day or about Earnhardt’s career have either never been told or are recalled in greater detail than ever before. In this story, FanHouse’s Senior Motorsports Writer Holly Cain recalls that fateful day.

Peering through binoculars from a seat in the Daytona International Speedway press box — seven stories above the famous track’s finish line — I watched driver Ken Schrader climb from his wrecked car and run a few feet over to Dale Earnhardt’s crumpled Chevy at the conclusion of the 2001 Daytona 500.

It was the final lap, and their cars had collided and hit the turn 4 wall before coming to rest on the infield grass.

Schrader’s urgent gestures to the safety crew and then his body language — turning away from the wreckage — was unusual for the normally controlled veteran.

I vividly remember the sickening feeling as I realized that Dale Earnhardt might be seriously injured.

I will never forget watching a then 26-year old Dale Earnhardt Jr. running down pit lane towards his dad’s car a good half-mile away. The pure joy he experienced five minutes earlier as the runner-up finisher in the Daytona 500 — his career best — was replaced with anxiety and fear.

Once the rescue workers arrived at Earnhardt’s famous black No. 3 and assessed the situation, it felt as if everyone was moving too slowly. The ambulance — headed to the hospital just across the street — left the scene — and wasn’t rushed. The wrecker was in no hurry.

Then, the telltale sign: track workers unrolled a large tarp. After a decade of covering the sport, I knew the tarp was used to cover and cloak race cars in fatal accidents.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Ten years ago on Feb. 18, we lost Dale Earnhardt. NASCAR President Mike Helton used those very words that day – “we lost Dale Earnhardt” – in making the announcement that shocked and saddened people like no other death in American motorsports. It was a national tragedy – Earnhardt’s photo appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek – and it reflected the fact that during his amazing career, the sport had grown from its regional roots into a major national sport, in good measure because of his exploits.

Starting today and continuing for eight days, FanHouse is proud to present a series entitled Ten Years After – The Untold Stories. Most of these stories about that fateful day or about Earnhardt’s career have either never been told or are recalled in greater detail than ever before. In this opening story, with the perspective of a decade gone by, FanHouse’s Senior Motorsports Writer Holly Cain talks to Ken Schrader, who was the first person to Dale’s car after the fatal accident.

After hitting the turn four wall and spinning down the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, Ken Schrader’s car came to rest alongside Dale Earnhardt‘s famous black No. 3 in the infield grass as the rest of the field steamrolled by toward the checkered flag in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Frustrated that he was wrecked in the last corner of the last lap of the 500 and denied what looked like a sure top-five finish, Schrader unbuckled his safety harness, climbed out of his hobbled Pontiac and calmly made his way around the back of Earnhardt’s car (above). He leaned into Earnhardt’s window ready to commiserate with the seven-time champ on their misfortune but also to congratulate his good friend on Dale Earnhardt Inc.’s 1-2 finish in the Daytona 500.

Schrader took one look into the cockpit and instead immediately started motioning frantically for emergency workers to rush to Earnhardt’s aid.

Schrader’s reaction is an enduring moment.

His gestures and body language broke the news that stopped the hearts of NASCAR fans around the world.

“I’m like, that (crash) was a pretty big deal, I’ll climb out and go talk to Dale — we were the only two cars in the middle of the grass and no one was there yet, so I just checked on him,” Schrader explained to FanHouse recently in a rare and candid interview about that fateful day.

“I never thought (he might be dead). There was no instinct or anything, no gut feeling.”

“It was just tough seeing what I saw because I walked up there and took the window net down and thought he’d be happy to see that Mikey (Waltrip) won the race, but pissed off because he wrecked.

“I got caught off-guard with what I saw.”

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Why is Richard Petty the King? Let us count the ways.

He won 200 races. He’s signed at least a million autographs. He’s 73 years old.

As impressive as those feats are, what makes Petty the greatest driver in NASCAR history isn’t numbers. The King was good enough to win, but wise enough to know you don’t win at all costs.

That’s the big difference between Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. Sure, we could point to about total victories, win percentage and other arithmetic. But statistics can make any point you want.

Petty and Earnhardt each won seven NASCAR championships, but Petty won 137 more races. He did it pre-NASCAR boom, so Earnhardt fans will argue that it was easier to rack up checkered flags.

There’s some truth to that, but it’s also like saying Babe Ruth wouldn’t have been Babe Ruth if baseball had been integrated and he’d had to play night games.

Petty won 27 of 48 races he entered in 1967, including 10 in a row. I don’t care if he was racing against Danica Patrick’s grandmother, that’s astounding.

The King’s critics will even say that 200th win wasn’t legit. It was a premiere event, the Firecracker 400. Ronald Reagan was in the press box, making him the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race.

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In 10 days it will be the 10th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death.

The Intimidator was struck down on the final lap at the 2001 Daytona 500 when his car slammed into the wall at turn four. After nearly three decades of racing, the impact didn’t look that serious compared to some of his past wrecks. But, as Earnhardt well knew, angles matter, inches matter, milliseconds matter. And Earnhardt’s wreck hit the wall at the precise angle at the precise inch and at the precise millisecond that was most disastrous. One-hundred and sixty miles an hour, life to death in an instant. The impact of Earnhardt’s crash fractured the base of his skull and left all of NASCAR in mourning.

Now, 10 years after his death, it’s easier to consider Earnhardt’s own legacy in racing. And that legacy is undisputed, Dale Earnhardt is the greatest race car driver in the history of the sport. We can run down a roster of accomplishments — his seven championships, tied for the most all-time — his 76 racing wins in 677 races, and his legacy that continues to this day through his son, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who owes much of his popularity to a latent love affair of racing fans to his daddy. But what stands out the most is this fact, Earnhardt brought racing to the masses.

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Editor’s Note: Ben Blake is a long-time racing reporter and commentator known for his honest, perceptive and irreverent commentary. He started covering NASCAR and motorsports in 1982 with The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and later spent 10 years as chief NASCAR editor for Racer magazine and for SpeedTV. He is author or co-author of five NASCAR-related books, including Dale Earnhardt: Determined, the authorized biography of Dale Earnhardt.

My first response to NASCAR‘s package of structural changes, announced Jan. 26 in Charlotte, was: fine thing. After years of diddling with details and tweaking (NASCAR President Mike Helton’s and U.S. President Barack Obama’s favorite word) around the edges, the cartel finally presented a comprehensive plan for conducting races and determining a champion.

Then it struck me: No matter what the positive radiation from the announcement, NASCAR CEO Brian France’s single stroke of monumental silicone idiocy remains – the so-called Chase to the Sprint Cup championship. As long as that bit of opium folly exists, confusion will continue to plague each season, and the sport’s championship will stand as a joke.

First, what I liked: The idea of a simplified points system is a good one, and what could be more simple than awarding race points on a 1 to 43 scale for 43 finishing positions (assuming 43 racers continue to show at every event)? One recurring term in the talking-head talking points was that the fans won’t need a calculator. This is quite true. And it also brings NASCAR more in line with the World Championship, American open-wheel, and weekly stock-car racing.

Good. Check one.

Also, I’ll give NASCAR a hand for juicing up qualifying with some drama. Time trials, especially in the restricted era, offer a good opportunity for a three-hour nap, and really, what’s a pole position without a speed record or some other brush with danger?

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Editor’s Note: Ben Blake is a long-time racing reporter and commentator known for his honest, perceptive and irreverent commentary. He started covering NASCAR and motorsports in 1982 with The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch and later spent 10 years as chief NASCAR editor for Racer magazine and for SpeedTV. He is author or co-author of five NASCAR-related books, including Dale Earnhardt: Determined, the authorized biography of Dale Earnhardt.

Well, I’ve been watching Brian France again lately, and heaven still my pen.

I haven’t paid much attention to Brian in the four or so years since I came off full-time NASCAR beat coverage, but he still strikes me the same way – an arrogant punk with the smug look of someone born on third base thinking he hit a triple.

Brian (right), current chief officer of NASCAR, just doesn’t seem to have focus and grip on the huge product he inherited, third-generation scion of the France clan of motorsport moguls. Sure, he played a large part in developing NASCAR’s network-television packages in 2000, and for that we’ll give him some credit. On the other hand, he’s responsible for that abortion called The Chase to the Sprint Cup championship, and other mental breakdowns.

Funny thing though: Scribes older than I, ones who came to the game when founder Big Bill France was unquestioned Big Chief, thought pretty much the same of little Billy France — William C. France, or Bill France “Jr.” — who was given the controls in 1972, when his father, Big Bill, decided to back away. Billy (left) was 38 when he ascended to the throne, about the same age as Brian was when Bill Jr. stepped aside in 2003.

Billy was an arrogant punk, the old hands said, a smart-a**ed kid who got the job through the lineage rather than through any demonstrated aptitude.

Moreover, the old man had bequeathed to his son the beginnings of a series sponsorship, from R.J. Reynolds, which over its 33-year lifetime grew to multimillions of dollars annually and pretty much kept the game alive during the cruel years following the Detroit pull-outs of 1970 and 1971 and the OPEC oil embargo in 1973-74.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Sure, Chip Ganassi’s driver lineup looked unbeatable: three Indy 500 champions, a Daytona 500 winner and the reigning sports car season champs. But in the always grueling, unpredictable and increasingly wild and woolly Rolex 24 at Daytona, it takes more than talent. It takes luck, preparation and in Sunday’s case, great tenacity to win.

Reigning Grand-Am Series champ Scott Pruett took the lead from his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, 2008 Indy 500 champ Scott Dixon, with 45 minutes left in the twice-around-the-clock race on the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course, then held him off on a re-start with one lap to go to give Ganassi his fourth Rolex 24 win in the last six years.

Ganassi is the first owner in racing history to simultaneously own the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400 and Rolex 24 trophies — something people are already affectionately calling the “Chip Slam.”

“I don’t drive the cars, I don’t change the tires and I don’t work on the engines,” Ganassi said, modestly acknowledging the accomplishment. “I’m just the guy that gets to stand up here and talk about it. It’s a lot of other guys that do the hard work.

“A win here does not reward you at the next race. We had a great day today and tomorrow we’re on to the next race.”

The first four finishers were separated by less than four seconds after 24 hours of what was one of the most competitive races in the event’s 49-year history. It was the fourth overall and ninth class win for Pruett, who co-drove with Memo Rojas, second-generation IndyCar driver Graham Rahal and sports car veteran Joey Hand.

“We were very optimistic, but did we know we’d win? No,” Pruett said about his last stint in the car after chasing his teammates for much of the race. “But Joey (Hand) did a great job making up time. We knew we had a strong car and were just looking at our options.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Nineteen hours into the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Juan Pablo Montoya held a meager five-second lead over his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Memo Rojas and the Michael Shank Racing Ford driven by Max Papis.

As the sun came up over the famous Daytona International Speedway high banks Sunday morning, six of the marquee Grand-Am Series Daytona Prototypes were on the lead lap — the top five separated by only 15 seconds with five hours remaining in the twice-around-the-clock race through the 3.56-mile road course.

Wolf Henzler has the No. 67 TRG Motorsports Porsche in front of the GT production class — an inspired drive, considering the car started at the rear of the 50-car field after its pole-winning qualifying effort was disqualified for a technical violation.

Ganassi, who became the first owner to win three consecutive Rolex 24 races from 2006-2008, saw his teams have some minor problems in the opening hours of the race, but they emerged from a fog-induced early morning caution period to prove themselves as he class of the field again. Some of the closest calls came between the Ganassi team cars — both featuring a Who’s Who list of racing stars.

Montoya is co-driving with Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray, two-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti and two-time IndyCar champ Scott Dixon. They are competing against Ganassi’s full-time Grand-Am Series entry driven by reigning series champs Scott Pruett and Rojas, along with IndyCar driver Graham Rahal and sports car driver Joey Hand.

Without exception, drivers characterized the early laps of the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona as wild and adventurous and it has proven to be one of the most action-packed offerings in the race’s 49-year history.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The reigning NASCAR and IZOD IndyCar Series champions highlight a star-studded field for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Grand-Am Series’ season-opener at Daytona International Speedway this weekend.

But it’s one of sports car’s more traditional names, Porsche, that both five-time NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson and two-time IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti will be chasing when the green flag drops at 3:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday.

German Jorg Bergmeister will start the No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche from the pole Saturday in the twice-around-the clock event that has again attracted a Who’s Who list of auto racing greats.

Three Indy 500 winners, defending Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray (above left) and a potent mix of current and former NASCAR, IndyCar and Formula One drivers are giving it a go against the best sports car drivers in the world on the 3.56-mile Daytona road course.

Johnson and McMurray are trying to join Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt as the only drivers to win a Daytona 500 and Rolex 24 crown. Johnson will co-drive with former series champs Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty in the No. 99 GAINSCO Chevrolet and will start 10th in the marquee Daytona Prototype class. They were fastest in Friday’s final practice.

McMurray is part of an two-car wonder lineup for three-time Rolex winner Chip Ganassi Racing. He’ll co-drive the No. 02 BMW with three IndyCar Series champs, Scott Dixon, Franchitti and open-wheel-to-NASCAR convert Juan Pablo Montoya (above, center, chatting with Memo Rojas). They will start fifth among the 18 prototypes .

The other Ganassi car features defending Grand-Am Series champs Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas along with Ganassi’s newest IndyCar driver Graham Rahal and sports car veteran Joey Hand. It will roll off third.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Citing the need to make the championship format “simpler,” NASCAR chairman Brian France formally introduced a new points system for the three national touring series Wednesday and also announced slight changes to the Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff format and race qualifying procedures.

As has been rumored during the last two weeks, the new points payout will be 43-to-1 — paying 43 points to the race winner with each position decreasing in one-point intervals, with a single point going to last place in the 43-car fields.

The race winner will also receive a three-point bonus. There are one-point bonuses available for leading one lap and for the driver who leads the most laps, meaning there is a maximum of 48 points available for a race winner who leads the most laps.

“So now everyone will know, when a driver is down by 10 points, that he needs to pass 11 more cars to take the lead in the point standings,” France told a crowded room of reporters at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte.

“Very much a simple, easy to understand system for us.”

In other significant news, France announced the third major change to the Chase playoff format since its inception eight years ago. The top 10 drivers in points after the 26-race regular season will qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship. And in an effort to emphasize winning, NASCAR will now make the 11th and 12th place Chase qualifiers the drivers outside the top-10 with the most wins — giving it a sort of wild-card feel.

The top-10 drivers will be reseeded as before, with a three-point bonus given for each win, compared to the 10-point bonus previously handed out. The 11th and 12th place drivers will be reseeded but will not receive bonus points for their wins.

“These guys are going to be driving like their hair is on fire,” Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said.

“Give NASCAR credit for placing the emphasis on winning races with the new points system. The points championship should be secondary to winning races week in and week out. If you do that, championships take care of themselves.”

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CONCORD, N.C. — Three tour buses slowly circled Charlotte Motor Speedway Tuesday and stopped on the backstretch, disgorging dozens of media members into the cold winter air next to the construction site of billionaire O. Bruton Smith’s latest promotional extravaganza — the world’s HD largest video board.

This television screen will be 200 feet wide by 80 feet high and will tower some 30 feet higher than the backstretch lights. It will be visible — with an impressively large image — from every seat of the grandstands stretching from turn four all the way down the frontstretch and well into turn two.

In typical speedway fashion, the announcement included fanfare — in this case the arrival of Marcus Smith, speedway president, and FOX NASCAR announcers Jeff Hammond and Mike Joy, all driving front end loaders.

But many in the media were more interested in hearing from Marcus Smith’s father, Bruton, who parked his jet-black, brand-new Mercedes right there in the middle of the backstretch just a few yards away.

As a promoter, Smith goes back to the earliest days of NASCAR. He’s always been the most innovative of the major racing promoters, and he’s always been one to speak his mind. So despite the fanfare engineered by his son, when Bruton stepped out of his car, he was the one who was quickly surrounded by eager reporters.

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WELCOME, N.C. — Richard Childress knew the questions were coming. But that didn’t make it any easier.

On Feb. 18, it will have been 10 years since his best friend, seven-time NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt, was killed in the last corner of the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Earnhardt drove Childress’ black No. 3 Chevy to six of his titles and most of his glory. But more than that, the two were like brothers — best friends, hunting buddies, business partners.

So even before the NASCAR media descended upon the Richard Childress Racing headquarters about an hour north of Charlotte on this rainy, cold Tuesday afternoon, Childress had prepared himself for the inevitable questions as the sport solemnly marks 10 years since it lost its greatest star and Childress lost his greatest friend.

“I’m not dreading it, so to speak, but I know there’s going to be a lot of questions that I know deserve answers and some of the answers I’m the only person that can give,” Childress said during a nearly hour-long interview on NASCAR’s annual preseason media tour.

“It (the accident) almost seems like yesterday because you’re always still remembering and thinking of what’s happened since that time. Ten years, it just doesn’t seem like it.”

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National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) star Ashley Force Hood formally announced Tuesday that she is pregnant and will take a “temporary hiatus” — sitting out the 2011 Full Throttle drag racing championship.

This will be the first child for the two-time NHRA U.S. Nationals champ Hood, 28, and her husband, Dan. Force Hood’s father, 15-time NHRA Funny Car champ John Force, announced that 2008 Rookie of the Year Mike Neff will return to the cockpit to fill in for Hood this season in the John Force Racing Mustang. Dan Hood will be his tuner.

In addition to Force Hood’s news, her father announced that 2009 Funny Car champ Robert Hight has been promoted to President of John Force Racing, which has won 17 of the last 21 NHRA Funny Car titles. Force will hold the title of CEO.

“This past November, after watching my dad clinch his 15th championship, Dan and I decided we would try to start a family,” said Force Hood, who will take over as president of John Force Entertainment during her racing sabbatical.

“We felt that if God wanted it to happen, it would happen. Well, God didn’t waste any time and I am pregnant and due at the end of the summer.”

Force said she still plans on representing her sponsors this season and will work closely with your younger sister Courtney, who is planning to make her NHRA pro class debut this season.

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KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Painted high on the walls of the sprawling setup room at the Stewart-Haas Racing team shop here are inspirational quotes from Winston Churchill, Thomas Paine, Lyndon B. Johnson and Vince Lombardi, among others, as well as Satchel Paige, the legendary African-American baseball player who made his name as a pitcher rather than a great politician or statesman.

Yet it is Paige’s quote — “Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you” — that seems to best typify the dead-of-winter mood in the race shops scattered around the greater Charlotte area.

Nearly all the teams and drivers are once again filled with hope and enthusiasm, but everyone has to be wondering nonetheless how their season will play out. Will they be competitive right out of the box? Have other teams gained some kind of a little advantage?

“It’s just who made the bigger gains” during the off-season and preparing for 2011, said Tony Stewart as the annual Charlotte Motor Speedway media tour, with some 200 media members in attendance, made a stop at his Kannapolis shop Monday afternoon for a visit with him and teammate Ryan Newman.

Chip Ganassi, co-owner of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, echoed the thought earlier Monday during a luncheon with the team. Although both of his drivers, Jamie McMurray and Juan Pablo Montoya, won races in 2010, “there are lots of places we can improve,” he said. “You’re looking at that all the time. It’s a constant process of looking at yourself and looking at the team.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR President Mike Helton, Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton and Sprint Cup Series director John Darby held a competition update news conference Friday at Daytona International Speedway, confirming that the sanctioning body is looking at a “simpler” points system that would be introduced in all three national series for the 2011 season.

Speaking to reporters during downtime from a three-day preseason test session at the Daytona Beach track, the trio spoke on a wide range of issues. First, Helton made the news official that drivers must now select only one of the three national series to earn points toward a championship. He also indicated NASCAR was considering changes to the 1, 3 and 7:30 p.m. race start times introduced this past year.

Pemberton said that the proposed fuel injection systems would not be used this season but are progressing well in tests and Darby explained that the introduction of ethanol to fuel this year was actually an easier transition than when NASCAR switched from leaded to unleaded fuel in 2008.

The hot topic, unquestionably, was a change to the points system — which would be the first since NASCAR formed in 1958 — even if none of the officials would confirm what the new format might look like.

“We’re in the middle of the conversations, telling the competitors where our mind is,” Helton said. “The goal for some time is to create a points system that is easy to understand, easy to explain, easy to talk about but also be credible at the end of the season. So it’s a function of taking the current one that has established credibility and come up with one that you can sit and have a conversation with someone and they say, ‘well, that’s pretty simple.’ ”

“We’re close. And we’re getting a lot of good feedback from the drivers about tweaks that would go into that.”

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — If a few hours of testing the new pavement on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway is any indication, NASCAR drivers say fans can expect an even more action-packed, unpredictable Daytona 500 than usual. And that’s saying a lot.

The prevailing opinion during Thursday’s first test session was that the spanking-new, $20 million paving job is going to create one of the most wide-open 500s in recent history. Drivers praised the smoothness of the circuit and say it has created an even playing field between the veterans who knew all of the nuances and the new drivers not afraid to lift in a four-wide draft through the corners.

“It’s just going to be wild,” said Carl Edwards, who was 22nd fastest of the 40 drivers in town for the three-day test session. “The track is so smooth and has so much grip that there’s no telling what people will try. You know the last lap is going to be insane.”

Michael Waltrip Racing drivers David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr. led four Toyotas (pictured above) at the top of Thursday’s speed chart. Reutimann’s top speed was clocked at 195.780 mph and Truex was just a tick off at 195.776 mph.

Red Bull Racing teammates Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne were next fastest. This was Vickers’ first official test since being sidelined most of last season with a blood clot. Kahne, who moves to Red Bull this season, is coming off double-knee surgery in the off-season.

Tony Stewart turned in the fifth-fastest lap in his Chevrolet, followed by the Chevys of Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and defending 500 winner Jamie McMurray.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Dale Earnhardt, Jr. spent a portion of his lunch break Thursday visiting with reporters at Daytona International Speedway, where his No. 88 AMP Energy Chevrolet was a respectable 11th fastest in the first morning session of a three-day test for the Feb. 20 Daytona 500.

This year’s 53rd running of the Daytona 500 marks 10 years since his father, NASCAR‘s seven-time champ Dale Earnhardt, was killed on the last lap of NASCAR’s biggest race. And while fans and the racing media are paying special attention to the sad milestone, Earnhardt said he thinks about his dad every day anyway.

“You think about your parents all the time,” Earnhardt said, alternately bowing his head and then looking off in the distance, as he endured the inevitable questions. “I think about him and my mother all the time, especially getting back to racing.”

Earnhardt said his father would approve of the new $20 million pavement job gracing Daytona’s 2.5-mile high banks. This week’s test is the first time the majority of teams have tried the new surface. But Earnhardt didn’t appear as concerned about the challenges of a new race surface as much as his desire to get out of a competition rut.

Earnhardt hasn’t won a race in two and a half years and his 21st place finish in the 2010 standings was the second-worst of his career. The worst was a 25th-place ranking in 2009. Earnhardt will break in his third crew chief in as many years with NASCAR powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports. Steve Letarte — formerly Jeff Gordon’s crew chief — will now lead Earnhardt’s No. 88 team, which will share a shop with teammate and five-time reigning Sprint Cup Series champ Jimmie Johnson.

“I feel good about the position I’m in now and I feel pretty confident about it and I’m looking forward to going into the season and working hard for it,” Earnhardt said. “We’ll just see how it goes.

“When you’re running good you can put up with about anything. It’s not fun being on the radar when you’re running like crap. But last year we sort of fell off the radar altogether.

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Two-time NASCAR champ Tony Stewart said Thursday during a break in preseason testing at Daytona International Speedway that he was “embarrassed” and “ashamed” about an altercation with a race track owner in Sydney, Australia, during the last night of a recent month-long vacation there.

Calm, smiling at reporters and speaking in subdued tones, Stewart sported a near full beard, but showed no signs of a “black eye” that was widely reported by Australian media last weekend. According to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, Stewart received a black eye in a brief physical altercation between himself and Sydney Speedway co-owner Brett Morris.

Stewart did not reveal the details of the incident, but confirmed he went to a local police station to give a statement and was released with no restrictions on his plans to travel back to the United States the following day. The issue between him and Morris was the condition of the track.

“I’ve always been one to speak up for what is right, especially when it comes to the safety aspect,”said Stewart, one of 40 drivers participating in a three-day test on Daytona’s new $20 million pavement. “It’s not uncommon to see drivers and track operators have disputes, but this one went a little farther.”

“I’m definitely not proud of what happened. …. I’ve lost a lot of sleep over it. I’m embarrassed. I made it all the way through a trip and the last night get in an altercation. I’m ashamed.”

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Not everyone doubted Tony Stewart when he announced his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008 to form his own Sprint Cup team, Stewart-Haas Racing.

But he will certainly note, as will anyone else around at that point, that so many people from so many corners of NASCAR thought the two-time champion was committing career suicide.

Instead, 2009 proved to be about as far from the gloomy predictions as possible when both Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman qualified for NASCAR’s championship battle. Their campaigns in the 2009 Chase to the Sprint Cup were to little avail, but seemed to paint a soon-to-be-dominant future for the race team.

Comparatively, 2010 was a step back for the SHR team — back to about the level most thought Stewart would be competing at by now.

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Nationwide regular Steve Wallace, 23, will make his Sprint Cup debut in the 53rd running of the Daytona 500 driving a Toyota Camry fielded by his famous father, Rusty, the family team announced Wednesday.

Steve Wallace will become the fourth Wallace to run in the annual NASCAR classic, joining his father and uncles Mike and Kenny.

A regular in the Nationwide series since 2007 with Rusty Wallace Racing, Steve Wallace will drive the No. 77 RWR Toyota Camry in the Feb. 20 race with backing from longtime sponsor 5-Hour Energy and new partner Aspen Dental.

Wallace has a guaranteed starting spot in the 43-car field because his father’s longtime car owner, Roger Penske, has a spot earned from Sam Hornish, Jr‘s 2010 full-season campaign in Penske’s No. 77 Dodge. Penske does not have a Cup ride for Hornish in 2011.

“Starting my first Daytona 500 is definitely going to be the most exciting day of my career — make that my life — so far,” Wallace said in a post at rustywallace.com. “It’s something that every kid wanting to be a racer — including me — dreams of doing one day.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR is considering scrapping the points system it has used since 1975 in favor of a simpler method that awards points per finishing position, The Associated Press has learned.

The overhauling of the system is one of a handful of changes NASCAR is considering implementing before the season begins next month. Series officials have been detailing their ideas in individual meetings with teams, a person who attended one of the briefings told The AP on Monday.

The person spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity because NASCAR has not finalized its upcoming changes.

The sanctioning body wants to go to a scoring system that would award 43 points to the race winner, and one point less for each ensuing position down to one point for the 43rd-place finisher.

NASCAR is also shying away from wholesale changes to its Chase for the Sprint Cup championship format.

Currently, a race win nets 185 points, with 170 points for second, 165 for third and dropping in increments from there, with 43rd place winning 34 points. Five bonus points are awarded to any driver who leads a lap as well as the driver who leads the most laps.

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Two-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart is reportedly en route to the United States a day after reports that he scuffled with a track owner during his final weekend racing in Australia.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Stewart threw his helmet at track co-owner Brett Morris during an alleged dispute over track conditions at Sydney Speedway. The newspaper said Stewart received a black eye in return from Morris, who the paper described as “not slight in size.”

Stewart’s public relations manager Mike Arning said Saturday he was still trying to sort through the news but had spoken with Stewart, who was reportedly detained briefly by the local Rosehill police department for questioning about the incident. Although he was released and cleared for his already-scheduled departure Saturday, the paper says a local official confirmed there is ongoing investigation..

Stewart has been in Australia for the past four weeks — the second consecutive year he and several other prominent American sprint car drivers have spent the off-season racing sprint cars.

The owner-driver is scheduled to drive his No. 14 Mobil 1-Office Depot Chevrolet in a three-day test session at Daytona International Speedway beginning Thursday.

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NASCAR driver and team owner Tony Stewart has been detained for questioning in Australia, according to a report.

Speedcafe reports Stewart was allegedly involved in a physical altercation with Sydney Speedway co-owner Brett Morris.

The report says Stewart was upset about track conditions after hot laps, and he started exchanging words with Morris. While Stewart was held for questioning, there is no confirmation on whether he will face any charges.

Saturday evening, Stewart public relations representative Mike Arning told FanHouse in an email, “We’re attempting to gather whatever information we can get our hands on in an effort to separate fact from fiction.

“However, we can say that Tony Stewart is not being held anywhere and is resting in his hotel in Australia. While we have spoken with him, he’s still half-a-world a way, so figuring out what did or didn’t happen is going to take some time.”

After racing in Australia during the month of January, Stewart was scheduled to return to the U.S. on Saturday. No word on how his detainment will affect his plans.

Stewart is about to enter his 13th season of NASCAR competition.

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Teams will be issued smaller restrictor plates for NASCAR‘s upcoming Jan. 20-22 Goodyear Tire Test at Daytona International Speedway. And at least one Sprint Cup Series crew chief thinks it’s a good idea to slow the cars on the newly paved 2.5-mile superspeedway.

“I think the decision was made to slow down the speeds because the speeds were too high at the first test,” said Pat Tryson, veteran crew chief of the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota.

“It’s a good move on the side of safety because no one wants to see a car go airborne at the potential speeds that could be generated with the plate they had last month. It will be better for the driver and better for the fans in the stands. Safety always comes first.”

The new carburetor restrictor plate will have a 29/32-inch hole compared to the 30/32-inch hole the cars used last month in the first major test session on the fresh pavement. Speeds reached 197 mph in December with 17-car drafts.

“By slowing down the cars, it will make the draft bigger and tighter,” Tryson said. ” Before with a little more power, the cars would spread out a little bit. I think now, we can expect to see the cars a lot closer together and more in one pack versus two, three or four.

“It’s going to make for some great racing for sure because I expect to see more three, maybe four-wide racing at Daytona which is exactly what we saw at Talladega Superspeedway. It’s going to be a lot of fun for everyone to watch.”

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TAMPA, Fla. — Brad Keselowski arrived at Tampa’s Busch Gardens theme park Wednesday to help promote the Feb. 20 Daytona 500 wearing a black jacket emblazoned with a NASCAR Nationwide series logo — a proud nod to the series championship he won in 2010 but won’t be defending in 2011.

In a posting on its official Twitter account earlier this week, NASCAR announced that drivers must declare themselves eligible for only one championship among its three national series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and the Camping World Truck series.

That means Keselowski, who drives the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for Penske Racing in the marquee Sprint Cup series, will race in multiple series but won’t be able to simultaneously accumulate championship points in Cup and Nationwide as he did this season.

And while NASCAR isn’t formally commenting on or confirming the format change yet — President Mike Helton and Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton will address it in a scheduled news conference next Friday in Daytona Beach — Keselowski appeared resigned to his fate.

“There’s a lot of different ways of looking at it,” Keselowski said Tuesday. “Obviously NASCAR has an obligation of trying to do the best for the sport and everything and I respect and appreciate that.

“I still plan on competing even though I can’t compete for the championship. I still plan on living up to the commitments that we’ve made for our sponsors and for our team. I’ve had the luxury of competing in both series last year and enjoyed it. We’ll just kinda live with it and deal with it this year.”

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Just when we thought Mark Martin might be winding up his long and storied career as a NASCAR driver, he’s decided to jump back in with both feet in 2011 by running races in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series.

In his final, lame-duck year with Hendrick Motorsports in the Sprint Cup series, Martin has decided to also run selected Nationwide series and Camping World Truck series events for Turner Motorsports.

Martin will drive the No. 32 Dollar General Chevrolet in Nationwide races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Ca., Michigan International Speedway and Kentucky Speedway, with Trent Owens serving as his crew chief, the team announced Wednesday.

Martin will also drive the No. 32 Chevy Silverado truck in NASCAR Truck series races at Michigan as well as Pocono Raceway.

“I’m excited to be running back in the Nationwide and Truck Series again,” said Martin. “Everyone at Dollar General and Turner Motorsports has been great and I’m looking forward to hitting the track with them next year. Working with Turner, I get to extend my relationship with Chevrolet and continue to have Hendrick horsepower under the hood, which is really, really good.”

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Speaking to racing journalists and industry insiders Tuesday in Indianapolis, INDYCAR CEO Randy Barnard revealed big changes for the series ranging from a new name for the sanctioning body — INDYCAR — to double-file restarts in oval races, to lowering the age for visitors in the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage area.

In his first formal “state of the sport” address since taking over as CEO a year ago, Barnard (above) spoke about the responsibility and commitment to listen to open-wheel fans as he tries to reinvigorate the once-thriving genre. And that means, according to Barnard, a new name “to move the sport forward.”

One of the most visible changes announced Tuesday will be double-file restarts beginning with the May 29 Indianapolis 500, where, for the first time in the track’s 102-year history, children nine years of age and older will be allowed in the garage on race day. The engine committee also revealed it will go with a smaller 2.2-liter engine for the new 2012 car, instead of the 2.4-liter originally approved for the cars. Honda, Chevrolet and Lotus have all committed to supplying engines.

“We’re trying to increase the excitement and drama around the events,” said President of Competition Brian Barnhart. “Much of it is a response to fans’ expectations.”

Earlier Tuesday, INDYCAR announced the opening of an office outside Los Angeles with the intent to integrate a Hollywood-feel within the series — bringing the entertainment industry into the fold to help promote the sport.

“This will be a one-stop shop to pursue opportunities and make deals across multiple business lines and entertainment outlets,” Barnard said.

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A California diet continued at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana with the announcement Tuesday that the track’s sole NASCAR Sprint Cup race in March this year has been shortened from 500 to 400 miles.

The announcement comes as the Southern California speedway begins to promote its only Sprint Cup race of 2011 after seven years of two annual races, both of which generally suffered for attendance.

The speedway’s final fall event last October was shortened to 400 miles and received positive reviews, the speedway said. Tony Stewart won that race by about a half-second over Clint Bowyer as drivers used many grooves through the turns of the two-mile oval.

“We’re confident the newly remileaged Auto Club 400 will continue the momentum we have been experiencing and that March’s race will be the most exciting ever at Auto Club Speedway,” speedway President Gillian Zucker said.

Like many facilities, Auto Club Speedway is also reaching out to fans with special ticket offers, such as a free, pre-race pit pass to any fan who purchases a $75 upper reserved seat ticket by Feb. 25.

The race will take the green flag at noon on Sunday, March 27, with FOX providing the live telecast.

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NASCAR drivers will have to declare which championship they want to contend for in 2011 — choosing to earn championship points in only one of the three national touring series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide or the Camping World Truck Series, according to a posting from NASCAR’s official Twitter account late Monday night.

NASCAR President Mike Helton will be addressing the media in a “competition update” on Jan. 21 during the open test session at Daytona International Speedway and there was no official statement regarding the format change. However, NASCAR.com is reporting that veteran driver Kenny Wallace confirmed the change in policy after receiving his 2011 licensing agreement from NASCAR last week.

According to Wallace, drivers are asked to place a check next to the series of their choice, meaning that while they may compete in multiple series, the days are gone for a Cup driver to also run for the Nationwide title and/or truck series title. Cup driver Brad Keselowski (above), for example, is the reigning Nationwide Series champion and will have to decide whether to defend his title or stay eligible to try to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

It is still unclear how the points will be awarded to drivers competing in multiple series, but that issue and possible changes to the Cup series’ Chase playoff format are both expected to be addressed next week in NASCAR’s competition update news conference.

NASCAR Chairman Brian France has said repeatedly this season that he was open to changing the format in the Nationwide Series to better showcase the up-and-coming Nationwide Series-only drivers and to entice and reward teams to compete in NASCAR’s triple-A series. And he has also hinted that he’s open to “tweaking” the Chase format it he felt it would significantly improve the playoff feel.

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Fans who make it to NASCAR‘s first event of 2011 — the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race held a week before the season-opening Daytona 500 — might want to keep a program nearby.

Feb. 12′s Shootout, firmly removed from its days of featuring only the previous season’s pole winners, got its sixth change in the past 13 years Friday when NASCAR announced the eligible drivers for the 75-lap race.

It’ll include those you would imagine — all 12 of last year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup qualifiers — and a few others, too, including past NASCAR Sprint Cup champions, past Shootout winners, past winners at Daytona and the Rookie of the Year winners from 2001-2010.

Yep, say hello to last year’s de facto rookie of the year Kevin Conway in the Budweiser Shootout.

“When you take a look at the field for this year’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, it’s loaded with all-star caliber drivers,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, in the press release revealing the expanded field.

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When Ryan Newman took the checkered flag in the 2008 Daytona 500, Penske Racing, his team at the time, got its first win in NASCAR‘s biggest race. Now team owner and motorsports mogul Roger Penske is in the market for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

In that regard, Penske looked to be in terrible position before the start of last season after it became the lone team operating under the Dodge banner. Penske made the best of the situation and, in fact, may have gained from the undivided attention his operation received from Dodge.

The team’s driving leader, former champion Kurt Busch, made a small push by securing another berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, while Brad Keselowski often struggled in his first season as a full-time driver in the Cup Series. The team’s other driver, Sam Hornish Jr., may see his ride disappear in NASCAR’s top division after yet another disappointing season in his three-year career.

11th – Kurt Busch [2 wins, 9 Top-5s, 17 Top-10s, 2 DNFs, 15.3 Avg. Finish]

It took just four races in the 2010 season for Kurt Busch to lay claim to his first win of the year, taking the checkered flag at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. The win — which featured Busch scraping the wall several times — seemed to galvanize Busch’s chance of being a real championship contender.

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For the first time in the history of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the reigning Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 winners will team up to campaign in the twice-around-the-clock sports car endurance race that kicks off 2011 Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway.

Indy winner Dario Franchitti and Daytona winner Jamie McMurray headline one of the most impressive driver lineups in all of motorsports, sharing driving duties in Chip Ganassi‘s No. 02 TELMEX-Target BMW with two-time IZOD IndyCar Series champ Scott Dixon and Formula One-turned-NASCAR star Juan Pablo Montoya for the Jan. 29-30 Grand-Am Series season opener.

Ganassi’s No. 01 BMW will be driven by reigning Grand-Am Series Daytona Prototype co-champs Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, the team’s newly-signed Indycar driver Graham Rahal and sports car veteran Joey Hand, giving Ganassi a formidable lineup in his quest to win a fourth Rolex 24 at Daytona title. His team became the first in history to win three consecutive times (2006-08) and has finished runner-up the last two years.

Ganassi’s eight drivers have won a combined 12 series championships, eight Rolex 24 at Daytona titles, one Daytona 500 and four Indianapolis 500s victories.

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Roush Fenway Racing, coming off a 2009 season that started with a bang after Matt Kenseth‘s Daytona 500 win and ended with the thud of being largely uncompetitive, moved in the right direction again in 2010.

Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth all raced their way into the Chase for the Sprint Cup field this time around, a nice turnaround after the former champ Kenseth failed to secure a spot in last year’s championship battle. David Ragan, however, continued down the same path of his dismal 2009 season.

The team reeled off three wins in the 2010 campaign, but most notably finished it on quite a high note with Edwards’ end-of-the-season dominance as Jimmie Johnson strutted to the Sprint Cup title.

Outside of the stats, Edwards also made it an interesting year for the Roush-Fenway public relations department with his on-track actions, particularly with Brad Keselowski.

But no one was involved in more dramatics than team co-owner Jack Roush himself, who survived his second plane crash when he crash-landed his jet while trying to touch down at Oshkosh, Wis., in July. The crash cost Roush the sight in his left eye, among other non-permanent injuries.

4th – Carl Edwards [2 wins, 9 Top-5s, 19 Top-10s, 2 DNFs, 11.8 Avg. Finish]

The Carl Edwards roller coaster — a ride that featured a loop around the 2007 Chase and a near-miss at dethroning Jimmie Johnson and then a steep drop into a mediocre 2009 season — started back up the next hill in 2010, complete with some jaw-dropping bumps along the way.

The most obvious reflection on 2010 for Edwards was his late-season performance that netted him wins in the season’s final two races. They were the culmination of the steady progress Edwards started to most noticeably show in mid-summer races. After his long drought, winning 2010′s final two races had to leave Edwards and No. 99 team feeling good headed to Daytona Beach in February.

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Thanks to history-making performances and an abundance of audacious racing, motor racing provided the entire sports world with some of the most compelling stories of the year.

Perhaps we should have seen it coming. The surreal pothole misadventure in the season-opening Daytona 500 may have been a sign this would be a year like no other.

Whether a highlight reel of great efforts or one of great feuds grabbed your attention, FanHouse wants you, the fans, to pick the motorsports story of the year, and I have spotlighted a few of the plenty to chose from.

Jimmie Johnson‘s unprecedented fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title is Hall of Fame worthy and will likely never be equaled, nor will 60-year-old drag racing icon John Force’s amazing 15th championship run in NHRA Funny Car drag racing, coming as it did three years after a death-defying crash.

Chip Ganassi became the first team owner in history to win the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 in the same year and threw in victories in NASCAR‘s Brickyard 400 Indianapolis race, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship and the Grand-Am sports car title for good measure. NASCAR’s favorite bad boy Kyle Busch good-naturedly endured the boos and jeers en route to victory circle after victory circle, racking up a record 24 wins in three national divisions.

Team Penske driver Will Power returned from a broken back in 2009 with a series-best five wins and eight poles in the IZOD IndyCar Series, only to have rival Dario Franchitti dramatically grab the championship in the final race — the second straight year Franchitti trailed entering the last race and took the trophy home.

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Thanks to history-making performances and an abundance of audacious racing, motor racing provided the entire sports world with some of the most compelling stories of the year.

Perhaps we should have seen it coming. The surreal pothole misadventure in the season-opening Daytona 500 may have been a sign this would be a year like no other.

Whether a highlight reel of great efforts or one of great feuds grabbed your attention, FanHouse wants you, the fans, to pick the motorsports story of the year, and I have spotlighted a few of the plenty to chose from.

Jimmie Johnson‘s unprecedented fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title is Hall of Fame worthy and will likely never be equaled, nor will 60-year-old drag racing icon John Force’s amazing 15th championship run in NHRA Funny Car drag racing, coming as it did three years after a death-defying crash.

Chip Ganassi became the first team owner in history to win the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 in the same year and threw in victories in NASCAR‘s Brickyard 400 Indianapolis race, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship and the Grand-Am sports car title for good measure. NASCAR’s favorite bad boy Kyle Busch good-naturedly endured the boos and jeers en route to victory circle after victory circle, racking up a record 24 wins in three national divisions.

Team Penske driver Will Power returned from a broken back in 2009 with a series-best five wins and eight poles in the IZOD IndyCar Series, only to have rival Dario Franchitti dramatically grab the championship in the final race — the second straight year Franchitti trailed entering the last race and took the trophy home.

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If there was an award for the biggest season-to-season turnaround by an entire team, the folks at Welcome, N.C.’s Richard Childress Racing would have walked away with an uncontested victory.

In a word, their change in competitiveness from 2009 to 2010 was astonishing.

In fact, RCR placed all three of its drivers in the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup — quite a change after those same three wheelmen missed the championship fight completely in 2009.

Yes, 2009 was a drag for the proud organization, with Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick all missing victory lane. That all changed — and changed quickly in 2010 — when Harvick assumed the points lead after just ten races.

He didn’t relinquish it until the Chase standings were shuffled and the drivers seeded in September.

Had the RCR bunch managed to string together a more-dominating late performance by Harvick or even avoided the Chase-ravaging penalty levied against Clint Bowyer after winning at New Hampshire, the team as a whole may have moved higher up the NASCAR team ladder.

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As easily the most staunch threat to unseat Jimmie Johnson and Co. from their record-setting run through the previous four seasons, Joe Gibbs Racing takes second spot in our review of the top teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from 2010.

Denny Hamlin (above) delivered the last, best threat to Johnson’s run to five consecutive championships at Homestead in November by holding a narrow points lead on the No. 48 before the season finale. However, a risky decision early in the race left Hamlin spinning and scrambling while Johnson cruised to his fifth.

It was a storyline we’ve seen before from the JGR camp — most notably in Kyle Busch‘s 2008 Chase implosion.

Labeling the 2010 season a failure for JGR with one gaffe in one race, however, isn’t fair to the otherwise notable successes the team saw during the campaign. Here’s a look back, and the reasoning why, JGR was the second-best NASCAR organization in 2010.

2nd- Denny Hamlin [8 wins, 14 Top-5s, 18 Top-10s, 2 DNFs, 12.9 Avg Finish]

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Just days after Jimmie Johnson secured his record-extending fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup title, Hendrick Motorsports experienced quite possibly the largest shift within its organization, ever.

With the exception of Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, crew chiefs changed teams and drivers switched shops. All of it, goofy enough, in a bid to become as good or better than Johnson & Knaus in 2011.

But before they get there, it’s worth noting what Hendrick Motorsports did in 2010 that earned them the distinction of FanHouse’s top NASCAR team of the past season:

1st – Jimmie Johnson [6 wins, 17 Top-5s, 23 Top-10s, 4 DNFs, 12.2 Avg Finish]

Johnson obviously carried the Hendrick load most impressively this season by the sheer fact that he won, yet again, the Sprint Cup title. However, it was Johnson’s first season in which he looked terrifically vulnerable down the stretch — even needed to outrace Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick in the season finale to lay claim to his fifth title.

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In the second major IZOD IndyCar Series team announcement in the last week, de Ferran Dragon Racing named 2004 series champ Tony Kanaan to drive its No. 2 car for the 2011 season.

Kanaan, one of the most popular drivers in the series (shown above with his three-year-old son, Leonardo), parted ways with Andretti Autosport at the end of the season when his car’s primary sponsor, 7-Eleven, withdrew its funding of the car.

The new job unites Kanaan, 35, with fellow Brazilian and longtime friend, team co-owner Gil de Ferran, a two-time former CART champion and the 2003 Indy 500 winner. Legendary owner Roger Penske‘s son, Jay Penske, and Steve Luczo are also owners of the three-year-old team, which is still looking for its first IndyCar victory.

“We are still young and developing and Tony is a big addition,” said de Ferran, who joined Kanaan in their native Brazil for the announcement on Monday. “I have no doubt he will bring speed and determination but he’ll also help us shortcut a lot of the development process.

“This news certainly clarifies that we are serious in our intention to become a major force in series.”

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As defending Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray made his first laps on the repaved Daytona International Speedway Wednesday, the newness of it all was mildly overwhelming at first.

“Honestly, from my first 15-lap run in the draft, it took awhile to take it all in and kinda understand what was happening,” McMurray said of the first of two days of Goodyear tire tests on the 2.5-mile speedway’s new pavement. “When we unloaded, the cars seemed really wide and the track seemed narrow. But, really, after running 20 or 30 laps, it was not scary and was not that big of a deal.

“Today (Thursday), when I got out there, it felt way more comfortable and you kinda learn little tricks and stuff.”

What they also learned, McMurray and other drivers said Thursday at a press conference at the speedway, is that because the new surface is so smooth and fast and so much easier to drive, big packs of cars will stay together longer, and that means the chances of big crashes are greater.

“It’s gonna be different racing than what we’ve had in the past,” McMurray said. “The cars are going to stay bunched up more. When you’re really close together, it increases those chances” of a big crash, McMurray said. “You just gotta hope that you can make it to the end, because the odds [of a crash] are going to be really good, I’d say.”

Barring a huge mistake or problem, “you’re not going to the lose the draft,” said Jeff Burton. “It’s going to be big packs all the time. Three-wide is work. Four-wide is a wreck. Because of the mentality of superspeedway racing. there’s going to be efforts to go four-wide to pick up positions, and when that starts happening, it’s going to be get hairy.”

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Reigning IZOD IndyCar Series championship owner Chip Ganassi will be doubling his efforts in the series in 2011, adding two additional cars to his trophy stable.

The team, which would not confirm or comment on the long-rumored news, has scheduled a press conference Thursday in Indianapolis where Ganassi will introduce the newest additions to a driver lineup that already features two-time defending series champ Dario Franchitti and former two-time champ Scott Dixon.

Second-generation driver Graham Rahal — son of 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal — and Charlie Kimball, 25, a young talent moving up from the feeder Indy Lights Series, will campaign for Ganassi next year, working out of a “satellite” team shop rented from drag racing legend Don Prudhomme.

Rahal, 21, is the youngest IndyCar Series winner in history, scoring his only victory in the 2008 season-opener at St. Petersburg, Fla. However, he did not race full time last season. Kimball will be making his debut in the series.

Thursday’s announcement will also confirm full-time sponsorship for both Rahal and Kimball — significant for the series, which had several high-profile teams struggling to find primary corporate backing in 2010. In a unusual twist, Rahal actually announced a two-year sponsorship deal with TBC Corporation — which owns several automobile tire retailers — at this season’s finale in Homestead, Fla. before having a contract in place with a team.

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The freshly repaved track at Daytona International Speedway is smooth, has plenty of grip and plenty of room for racing, said NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers who participated in Wednesday’s Goodyear tire tests at the track.

“They smoothed out all the bumps,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., the 2004 Daytona 500 champion. “The track is real smooth. It’s got a lot of grip. The track reminds me a lot like Talladega was like when they first finished it.

“The racing during the drafting was exciting and I think it is going to be a good show, a more exciting show for the fans because the cars are going to stay real tight on each other throughout entire runs.”

The speedway said 18 drivers took part in the tire test Wednesday — the first day of a two-day Goodyear test to determine the proper tire compound for the 2.5-mile speedway’s new racing surface before the 53rd annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 20. Drivers turned laps on the speedway in both single car and drafting sessions.

It was the first time race cars have been on the track at speed since the repaving job was completed earlier this month. From July to December, the entire track was repaved for only the second time since it was built and opened in 1959.

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Five-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has been named Driver of the Year for the fourth time — tying a record with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for the most wins in the prestigious award’s 44-year history and putting him ahead of three-time winners Mario Andretti and Darrell Waltrip.

Johnson, who is the first to win five consecutive Sprint Cup titles, edged drag racing legend John Force, who won a historic 15th National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) championship. Johnson received 10 first-place votes from the 20-member panel of racing journalists and broadcasters while Force earned seven votes. Kyle Busch, who won a NASCAR-best 24 races in three national divisions this season, received one first-place vote.

“Among such tough competition; with the voting panel, who it is and how well-versed they are in motorsports, it’s a huge, huge honor,” said Johnson, who will receive a Tissot watch and trophy from the organization.

Driver of the Year President Barry Smoyer said the final vote came following one of the most “spirited” debates in the history of the award, which honors the best driver in an American four-wheel racing series or best American driver racing overseas.

“As many people have said already, it will be a long time before anyone will set the bar as high as Jimmie Johnson,” Schmoyer said.

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A NASCAR driver usually don’t sue his car owner after parting ways, since taking legal action could dissuade potential future car owners from getting involved with the driver.

But after more than seven years with Red Bull in both Formula One and NASCAR, Scott Speed has made that move, suing his former team for alleged breach of contract in a complaint asking the court to award him $6.5 million, SceneDaily.com reported late Friday.

Red Bull “significantly reduced its financial commitment to Speed’s race team and was unable and/or unwilling to provide [Speed] with ‘supporting equipment’ satisfactory for a driver of [his] skill to [be] effective [to] compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series,” Speed’s complaint states, according to SceneDaily.

Speed’s complaint also provides a rare, inside look at the money being paid in the Sprint Cup series for a driver at his level.

According to SceneDaily, the lawsuit says Speed signed a three-year deal in September 2007 for a salary of $300,000 in 2008, $500,000 in 2009 and $1 million in 2010. He was to receive 50 percent of his purse winnings for each top-10 finish, 45 percent for finishing 11th through 20th and 40 percent for finishes of 21st or worse.

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Twenty years ago, when I started covering NASCAR stock car racing, the sanctioning body’s public relations staff consisted almost exclusively of one man who ran ‘his’ media centers in the same dictatorial manner that his boss, the late Bill France Jr., ran NASCAR.

That PR guy is now doing hard time in prison, but that’s another story. Today, the many-tentacled NASCAR public relations operation is a media bureaucracy — an endlessly churning mill of facts, figures, videos, press conferences, photos and other information and content.

In their efficiency and zeal, bless their hearts, the PR folks at NASCAR have informed us exactly which five of the season’s 36 Sprint Cup races were the best of the year. Although I don’t agree with all the choices — I think the race in Texas last month was one of the best races I’ve seen in years — NASCAR says these five were selected “from discussions with the national series director, competition department and NASCAR PR managers.”

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The fresh asphalt laid at NASCAR’s Mecca — all 50,000 tons of it — will get its first big workout next week.

At least 18 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are scheduled to test the new surface of the high banks of the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway Dec. 15 and 16 as part of a Goodyear tire test, the track said Wednesday.

It will mark the first time NASCAR drivers will have driven on a new surface at the Florida superspeedway since the last time it was repaved in 1978.

“This place is going to have a totally new look to the drivers and the teams,” two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart said in October. “We’re going to fill every square inch of the race track because the surface is so even now.”

Goodyear will utilize the test to develop appropriate tire compounds for the preseason Sprint Cup Series test to be held in the middle of January.

The track was faced with repaving after a pot hole opened up in turn two during this year’s Daytona 500, forcing substantial, hours-long delays to the race. Essentially, the force of the cars began to tear an ever-widening gouge into the typically smooth surface.

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EDITORS NOTE: When you start talking about Richard Petty’s rightful place in NASCAR history vs. Dale Earnhardt vs. Jeff Gordon, you’re going to get in an argument.

In his first book, Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates, recently published by John Wiley & Sons Inc., motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski tackles these questions and provides his unique viewpoint. Prior to joining FanHouse over a year ago as an editor, Jerry Bonkowski was National NASCAR Columnist for Yahoo! Sports and ESPN.com and wrote for USA Today.

Here are several excerpts from Bonkowski’s book, which is available at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other book stores, as well as online at Amazon.com.

WHO’S THE GREATEST NASCAR DRIVER EVER?

This debate always gets passionate fans going, with typically mild-mannered individuals turning into raving, obsessed fanatics if someone dares to challenge the superiority of the guy they so proudly call “their” driver. Think of a 140-pound, Woody Allen-looking dweeb who lives and breathes Kasey Kahne suddenly getting a surge of testosterone, puffing out his chest while forgetting common sense, and stupidly trying to take on a hulking, 300-pound redneck who takes great offense if you say anything bad about Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Then watch the punched-out Woody Allen-esque fan suddenly wind up doing a frightening, almost cartoonlike barrel roll through the air like the great Rusty Wallace did more than a few times during his career at places like Talladega Superspeedway.

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LAS VEGAS — Three-time IndyCar champ and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr.’s NASCAR future remains in limbo, but his team owner, Roger Penske, said Thursday that he will likely field Hornish in the Daytona 500 and possibly in the Indianapolis 500, too.

Penske confirmed the news during a sponsorship announcement at his Ferrari dealership in the Wynn Las Vegas Thursday, where the team unveiled Kurt Busch’s new No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series and a similar design for the iconic No. 3 Penske car that three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves will drive at Indy next May.

For all his success in open-wheel racing, Hornish has never managed to make a big splash in NASCAR’s big leagues, with only a pair of top-five finishes and eight top-10 efforts in 108 starts over three full seasons. And with no primary sponsor signed for his No. 77 Dodge, Penske said Hornish still doesn’t have a full schedule set for 2011. Penske said both a limited Cup and Nationwide Series slate were possibilities.

“I told him that, at the end of the day, I’d much rather do a program where we can support you 100 percent than have some pick-up program with not enough sponsors,” Penske said. “We need to have the continuity. We have a number of opportunities, but we just couldn’t get them closed at this point.

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LAS VEGAS — In a luxury suite in the Bellagio Hotel high above the Las Vegas strip, Jimmie Johnson was all smiles and “aw shucks” on the eve of collecting an unprecedented fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship trophy. He was at the hotel to meet with a small group of reporters and to unveil the true benchmark of an athlete’s success.

Forget the historic five NASCAR titles, Johnson now has a video game named after him: “Jimmie Johnson’s Anything With an Engine.”

The game doesn’t go on sale until 2011, but the concept launch this week meant the vivid collision between two of America’s favorite pastimes, video gaming and NASCAR. And it was interesting to observe the hip, young gaming reporters, dressed in black adorned with lots of zippers and skull designs and colorful tattoos, sizing up the NASCAR All-American good guy’s entry into their eclectic world.

“So how does it feel to be a legend?” asked Jon Carnage, a former professional wrestler who is now a reporter from the video game blog Destructoid. He clearly caught the humble Johnson off guard.

“It’s still strange to me that I hear that,” Johnson replied.

Perhaps he should get used to it.

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LAS VEGAS — The only suspense in Thursday’s announcement of NASCAR‘s 2010 Most Popular Driver Award rested with the winner. For the eighth consecutive year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. claimed the honor — tops among the 1.5 million fan votes — once again proving his popularity is soaring even if his on-track efforts have fallen flat.

“Oh yeah, I was surprised,” Earnhardt claimed moments after accepting the award during NASCAR Champion’s Week. “You just never know. There’s the performance factor we’ve suffered from on the race track, there’s the new guys coming into the sport all the time. You never take it for granted.”

The same could be said for winning.

Earnhardt hasn’t won a race in nearly three seasons and hasn’t even been consistently competitive in the No. 88 National Guard-Amp Energy Chevrolet, while his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson will be crowned champion for the fifth consecutive year in Friday night’s lavish NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas.

The juxtaposition isn’t lost on the third-generation driver, son of the late seven-time champion, Dale Earnhardt. The 2004 Daytona 500 champ and 18-race winner is hoping a three-way crew chief swap at Hendrick will infuse new life into his career. And it can’t happen soon enough.

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