Full Throttle

Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage unveiled a $2 million capital improvement project for the auto racing facility today that will transform the upper half of the backstretch area into a lavish motorcoach area known as Burnout Alley.

I thought the holiday season was a time of family, friends and good cheer. It’s hard to make that case if you spend any amount of time reading some of the headlines floating above NASCAR Nation.

Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will be the centerpiece of this week’s annual Champions Week celebration in New York City – a busy and joyful five days that marks the traditional end of each season.

The motorsports industry is not immune to the current economic downturn. Nearly all race teams in the industry have made some level of cutbacks. It is estimated that upwards of 700 jobs have been lost in recent weeks and its possible the lay-offs will continue into 2009.

HMS Holdings which operates the the Hendrick Motor Engine shop is suing DEI over termination fee stemming from a contract to supply Hendrick engines to Ginn Racing.

Say what you will, but this off-season is unlike most others. Normally the three days proceeding Turkey Day are a race fans No MansLand and devoid of much news- not this year - it’s all business.

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and Team Mopar team owner/driver Kasey Kahne will return to his roots on Thursday for the 68th annual “Turkey Night Grand Prix” at Toyota Speedway/Irwindale.

Today’s NASCAR quote of the day comes from Marcos Ambrose who jetted straight home from Homestead to attend the V8 Supercar Series event at Symmons Plains Tasmania.

EM Motorsports has announced that it has teamed up with NASCAR veteran James Hylton for the 2009 running of the Daytona 500.

Rick Hendrick, the new Ganassi/DEI alliance (assuming they go the Chevy route), RCR and any other NASCAR teams dependent on General Motors support better watch their bottomlines even more closely than previously.

In pre-race practice, teams realized that the tires provided for the race wore down quickly, due to the abrasive course at Indianapolis and the Car of Tomorrow, as this was the first race for the car at Indianapolis. Because of this concern, NASCAR announced that they would have a competition yellow after ten laps to check tire wear.

 

 Was 2008 Allstate 400 Worst Cup Event of the Season?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

NASCAR Nation, along with jet-setting Big Three CEO’s, are abuzz with the word “bailout.” The Detroit CEO’s were in receipt of a political smackdown this week when they were told to get out of D.C. and told to come back with a plan - any plan - before cash was handed out.

Australian motor racing fans will get a unique insight into the world of NASCAR and the life of Aussie ace Marcos Ambrose when 60 Minutes resumes on the Nine Network early in 2009.

NASCAR team owner Ray Evernham says he is negotiating to buy a small track in North Carolina so he can “get back into grassroots racing.”

Funny sometimes how fast things change. So fast at times it’s hardly worth calling oneself a Pundit, not that it is financially or otherwise, but still, making predictions can be so ego deflating.

Over and above all the “regular” end-of-season changes NASCAR endures each year 2008 has brought many others as a result of the so called credit crunch and economic downturn.

Every possible season champion has been crowned, but unlike the proverbial Bear in the Woods who both defecates and hibernates in the woods during winter NASCAR drivers stay active in one fashion or another.

Tony Stewart ended a ten year run Sunday in the famous, but now obsolete, Home Depot color orange.

Sunday may have been Jimmie Johnson’s coronation as Sprint Cup Champion for the third time but it was Carl Edwards who may have proved he is “Sprint Cup Prince” waiting for the King to abdicate the throne.

This is an end-of-season video compilation of drivers as they thanked fans after various events throughout the 2008 NASCAR season.