Nascar News

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

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

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

At first glance, the most striking aspect of NASCAR's 2012 Drive for Diversity class is its size — six drivers.

When they weren’t talking to the media about their outlook for the 2012 season, Sprint Cup crew chiefs and their teams were working on getting their Daytona cars tweaked this week for NASCAR’s new rules package. That package likely will change during Speedweeks, but teams at least know the size of the restrictor plate, the parameters for the engine cooling system and that they must extend their rear bumpers two inches closer to the ground.

NASCAR competitors cut loose during media tour.

Paulie Harraka, the first driver of NASCAR’s diversity program to win a track championship, will compete for Camping World Truck Series rookie honors driving for former Billy Ballew Motorsports crew chief Richie Wauters. Scheduled to graduate from Duke University in May, the 22-year-old Harraka won the 2008 track championship at All-American Speedway in California and also has three victories in the K&N Pro Series West.

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

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

A.J. Foyt has been hospitalized in Houston for complications from knee surgery and will skip the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.