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NASCAR tightens noose on erring teams

Five NASCAR teams stand at the receiving end of penalties and points deductions, but teams are still bent on tweaking their cars in preparation for what promises to be a close run Nextel Cup series once the Car of Tomorrow goes flat out in 2008.

NASCAR suspended the respective crew chiefs of the teams working for drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson for six races, while both drivers and their owners were penalized with a 100-point deduction from their season totals. NASCAR cited the altered front fenders of the cars, which failed inspection Friday at the Infineon Raceway in Northern California. Both Johnson and Gordon flagged off at the tail of the field due to the penalty.

�We feel like we need to issue penalties and they need to be severe enough to display to the entire industry that we�re serious about the new car and the components of it that we don�t want altered or modified or messed with,� said John Darby, director of the Nextel Cup series.

�We believe the penalties that we did issue are adequate enough to deliver that message. If, going forward, we find more and more violations and they become more frequent, then we will upscale the penalties until we get the result we�re looking for.�

With the test runs of the Car of Tomorrow races this season, NASCAR does not have a set rules just yet and officials have come down hard on teams that make changes to the new cars. The close finish of the test runs indicate the CoT will be highly competitive and race officials are keeping an eye on teams that can get unfair advantage from body modifications.

Hendrick denied of No.8 ownership

Fill 'er up: The No.8 Earnhardt car in DEI

Dale Earnhardt Jr., formerly of the DEI Team, now drives for Rick Hendrick and both parties to the deal is well and happy about the trade until Junior finds out he won't be driving on a No.8 car.

NASCAR denied on Monday Hendrick's move to get the No.8 for the latest addition to his stable of ace drivers, which is likely to part Junior with the car number that his grandfather have used his own NASCAR stint.

NASCAR official Ramsey Poston told the Charlotte Observer on Monday that teams couldn't sell their numbers to other teams. The race body typically handles each number and approves whether a team can or can't run them.

A change of numbers from one team to another has been done before, although in not as high-profile as the DEI-Hendrick trade.

Talking Points

�In the past the road racing guys had the advantage, I don't think that's so anymore. In a road racing car you have to go right and left, accelerate and brake and downshift, [while] dirt track racers have good car control skills, they know how to manage the vehicle, they have a good sense of when it's going out of control and how to keep it right on the edge.�

--Mike McGovern, head instructor at the Bob Bondurant Racing School in Arizona, on the Toyota/Save Mart 350 this weekend at the Infineon Raceway, one of the two road courses of the Nextel Cup race this season. Some NASCAR teams hire "road course ringers" to replace regular drivers during the often pivotal road course events to help the team accumulate points.

Talladega puts Cars of Tomorrow to test

Expect not a few changes at the start of next year's NASCAR Cup Series. As the reported shift of Cup sponsorship from Nextel to Sprint creates bum steers around the motorsports world, the much anticipated debut of the Cars of Tomorrow is set to reshape the way stock cars compete.

This early the race body has been using its chief resources to give teams a chance to test the new CoT at different tracks before the 2008 season begins. Reports say the CoT lineup will be faced with their first real test as they take on the restrictor plate beast at the Talladega Superspeedway on September 11, two days after �The Chase for the Championship� from Richmond begins.

Brett Bodine, a former NASCAR driver and current cost research director of the CoT project, remains optimistic as the car continues to be presented at different tracks across the country. �The original design of the car of tomorrow has many characteristics of the current road course car,� Bodine said, �particularly in the fact that both are more symmetrical than the current (standard) oval track cars.�

There had been complaints, though, from drivers and crews who said the car has a high center of gravity that makes the setup tough for teams to find. Apart from the test run at the Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR also hopes to run its CoT at a 1.5-mile facility before 2007 is over. The itineraries of the test remains undetermined just yet.

Ferrari Paul Ricard 1988

Nextel out of NASCAR logo

The popular motorsports will be known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next year, ESPN reports, quoting unnamed sources from the industry.

Sprint's marketing director at NASCAR Dean Kessel denied the claims and said the company, together with Nextel, is still sorting out a proposition with the race body. He added that many details must first be finalized before a decision can be made.

In December 2004, Sprint and Nextel agreed to a $36 billion merger. The then go-to-market brand name of the combined Sprint Nextel was Sprint, with the Nextel name continuing as a key product brand.

The reported shift in NASCAR Cup sponsorship would give the race series its third name. From 1972 to 2003, the Cup Series was sponsored by R.J. Reynolds tobacco through its Winston cigarette brand. Then, starting in 2004, Nextel assumed the naming rights to the most popular racing series in the United States.

Talking Points

�I don't want to take his father's place, but I think we offer something that both of us are missing. It's not that he's looking for me to be his dad, or I'm looking for him to be my son [but] we have a common bond that we both lost somebody... so there's something there.�

--Rick Hendrick, speaking to reporters on the acquisition of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick, who lost family members and employees in an October 2004 plane crash, signed up Junior following a falling out with the DEI, a team Earnhardt Sr. had built.

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Earnhardt Jr. displaces Busch at Hendrick

Kyle Busch

Following Wednesday's press conference on the acquisition of DEI driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports yesterday confirmed reports that it was Kyle Busch who will have to leave the team. Handing over the rein of his No. 5 Chevrolet to Junior, the 22-year-old Busch was said to be on his way to replacing Earnhardt not only in the free agent market but to the DEI.

DEI officials were earlier quoted as saying that they wanted to make a stir with Junior's replacement. Their ideal driver would be a championship contender with a long career ahead of him. And the 10^th ranked Busch fits the bill.

Team owner Rick Hendrick, meanwhile, dispelled reports that the team fired Busch to make room for Junior. �He's a young guy, and everyone tells you how great you are and says you're not going to be the top dog there, you'll be the top dog here, we'll pay you whatever it's going to take,� Hendrick said. �What would you do? How would you respond to that?�

Talking Points

�Every sport needs a strong leader at the top in order to be successful, and no organization had a man that stood taller these last four decades than Bill France Jr. We will truly miss him.�

--Team Ford racing technology director Dan Davis, on NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr., who died at 74 Saturday in Daytona Beach, Florida after a long battle with cancer.

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Junior to ride for Hendrick in 2008?

Dale Earnhardt Jr., today's top free agent in the world of motorsports, was reportedly in the middle of negotiations with NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick on the driver's possible transfer to the Hendrick Motorsports. News reports had earlier indicated that Junior might opt to seek for a car to drive in Richard Childress Racing, the team with which his father won six of his seven Cup championships.

Sports Illustrated columnist Tom Bowles said that Junior is expected to announce in a press conference on Wednesday that he had signed to join powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports for the 2008 season. Junior's transfer to Hendrick Motorsports is likely to make the team more dominant than ever, which include drivers like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch.

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