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08/17/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (August 17, 2010) – Texas Motor Speedway unveiled dynamic and historic changes to two of its marquee races during a special 2011 race schedule announcement extravaganza Tuesday night before a standing-room only crowd of more than 1,600 at the House of Blues in Dallas.
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08/17/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (August 17, 2010) – Texas Motor Speedway is known for its innovative advertising and marketing campaigns and for the 2011season there will be “No Limits” to how far the edgy campaign will go.
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08/17/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (August 17, 2010) – Texas Motor Speedway is coupling double-digit savings from the previous year with an array of new benefits for fans purchasing the 2011 “No Limits” season-ticket package that is highlighted by a pair of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races and an IndyCar Series event.
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08/17/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (August 17, 2010) – Country music icon Willie Nelson will serve as the headliner for the American Red Cross “Salute Our Troops” Pre-Race Show prior to the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday, Nov. 7, at Texas Motor Speedway.
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08/17/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (August 16, 2010) – Texas Motor Speedway will provide live streaming video of Tuesday evening’s 2011 Schedule Announcement Party at the House of Blues in Dallas.
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08/10/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (August 10, 2010) – Texas Motor Speedway’s “Speeding To Help” program kicked off Monday in Lewisville with speedway employees assisting families for the upcoming school year at Christian Community Action’s “Back-to-School” store.
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08/04/2010
From the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
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08/04/2010
By Reid SpencerSporting News NASCAR Wire Service (August 4, 2010) Free-agent Sprint Cup Series driver AJ Allmendinger will stay put after signing a contract extension with Richard Petty Motorsports, Sporting News has learned. The contract, signed Tuesday, is a multiyear deal, according to sources close to the situation. The team is optimistic about the prospect of re-signing Allmendinger’s sponsor, Best Buy, though sponsorship was not settled before Tuesday’s contract signing. A formal announcement will take place Friday at Watkins Glen International. Allmendinger has three top 10s in 21 starts this season, with a best finish of sixth at Atlanta in March. He won the first Sprint Cup pole in April at Phoenix. The driver of the No. 43 RPM Ford is 22nd in the series standings. Now that Allmendinger has decided to remain in the organization’s flagship car, RPM will work toward filling the remaining slots on the team. Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler have announced plans to depart at the end of the season. Marcos Ambrose, who will leave the No. 47 JTG/Daugherty Toyota team at season’s end, is a leading candidate to fill the seat of one of the RPM Fords. Paul Menard, who drives the No. 98 RPM Ford, has not announced plans for next year but has talked to other teams, including Richard Childress Racing, according to multiple sources.
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08/03/2010
By the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service (August 3, 2010) Pocono winner Greg Biffle jumped to third in this week’s Sporting News Power Poll. Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick was a unanimous choice to retain the top spot in this week’s rankings. The weekly poll is a collaboration of Sporting News and Rowdy.com. 1. Kevin Harvick (last week: 1st) With so many top contenders being inconsistent, maybe Harvick can win a title just by posting top fives. He has five in the past six races. 2. Jeff Gordon (7th) Despite having one of the strongest cars at Pocono, Gordon saw his winless streak reach 50 races. 3. Greg Biffle (6th) It wasn’t just the two-tire call that got Biffle the win at Pocono: His team’s ability to make the racecar faster for the finish made the call work. 4. Tony Stewart (4th) Stewart won his second pole of the year. He was the only driver who made significant progress on four tires in the final run. 5. Carl Edwards (8th) New geometry woke up the Roush cars and gave Edwards some breathing room in the race for the Chase. 6. Jeff Burton (2nd) Burton got shuffled back in taking four tires at the end but made his way back to secure his fourth straight top 10. 7. Denny Hamlin (12th) His average running position was fifth place, which was fitting because that’s where he ended up. 8. Jimmie Johnson (9th) Encouraging: Led the most laps for the sixth time this year. Discouraging: Wasn’t in the mix for the win. 9. Clint Bowyer (3rd) Bowyer did a remarkable job of working his way up from the 40th starting position, but being caught up in the Jimmie Johnson-Kurt Busch deal hurt him. 10. Mark Martin (15th) Martin’s top 10 was his first in eight races. With the Roush cars running better, however, it could be tough to crack the top 12. 11. Ryan Newman (19th) A fuel-only call by Tony Gibson allowed Newman to grab his 10th top 15 of 2010. 12. Matt Kenseth (13th) Question: Why have teammates Biffle and Edwards combined for eight top 10s in the past eight races and Kenseth has none? 13. Kyle Busch (10th) Busch is not an afterthought in too many races, but he was Sunday at Pocono. 14. Jamie McMurray (5th) After the emotional win at the Brickyard, McMurray never got it going at Pocono. 15. Kurt Busch (11th) “Shhhh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m hunting Jimmies.” 16. Martin Truex Jr. (24th) Truex carded his first top 10 since May 1 at Richmond, a stretch of 11 races. 17. Kasey Kahne (14th) For the 15th time this season, Kahne failed to lead a lap. If he led just one lap in each of those 15 races he would be less than 100 points out of the Chase. 18. David Reutimann (16th) Reutimann was in 13th before the final pit stop, but like Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya and Gordon, he was undone by a four-tire call and finished 17th. 19. Juan Pablo Montoya (22nd) Does anybody else get the feeling the Juan Montoya-Brian Pattie era is about to come to an abrupt end? 20. Paul Menard (20th) Menard’s average finish for 2010 is 19.3. He has never finished a season with an average finish in the teens. 21. David Ragan (23rd) A second straight solid run resulted in a top-15 finish at Pocono. 22. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (21st) Based on Indy and Pocono, Earnhardt is a long shot to make the Chase, even though he’s 14th in points. 23. AJ Allmendinger (18th) His starting slot (seventh) was Allmendinger’s highest position all day at Pocono. 24. Sam Hornish Jr. (NR) For the first time this season, Hornish was the highest-finishing Penske Racing Dodge. 25. Brad Keselowski (25th) Keselowski’s last top 15 came 11 races ago, and he has yet to card a top 10 this season. It’s not exactly trending up.
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07/28/2010
By Reid SpencerSporting News NASCAR Wire Service (July 28, 2010) Bobby Labonte’s concerns about an uncertain future in NASCAR Sprint Cup racing have been settled. JTG/Daugherty Racing, which fields Toyotas in partnership with Michael Waltrip Racing, will put Labonte behind the wheel of its No. 47 Camry for a full 36-race Cup schedule next season, the team announced Wednesday. Labonte, 46, the 2000 Cup champion, made his 600th consecutive start in the series and his 602nd overall in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he finished 31st in James Finch’s No. 09 Chevrolet after sustaining damage in a wreck on the first lap. Labonte started the season with TRG Motorsports, drove for Robby Gordon at New Hampshire and has spent the past three races in Finch’s car. Labonte will return to TRG’s No. 71 Chevrolet for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. At JTG/Daugherty, Labonte will fill a void left by Marcos Ambrose, who on Tuesday announced his departure from the organization at the end of the season. Ambrose is the leading candidate to fill one of the empty seats at Richard Petty Motorsports, according to sources, though the driver denied he has already reached an agreement with RPM. “JTG/Daugherty Racing is a solid race team that has come close to winning races with Marcos Ambrose, and I’m looking forward to developing our new partnership in 2011,” Labonte said. “The team is thriving, and their technical alliance with MWR is intact. It’s great to have next year already set in stone so when this season ends we can begin focusing on next year right away.” Carlson new president at Hendrick Marshall Carlson will assume the duties of president and chief operating officer of Hendrick Motorsports, team owner Rick Hendrick announced Wednesday. Carlson, 37, was named executive vice president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports in 2005. The office of president has been vacant since the death John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick’s brother, in the crash of a Hendrick plane en route to Martinsville in October 2004. Carlson is Rick Hendrick’s son-in-law. “Marshall has the ability to plug into every aspect of our industry, from competition to marketing, at an extremely high level,” Hendrick said. “He’s versatile from a business perspective, and there’s a high degree of respect for him throughout the organization because of the way he treats people.” Roush update Jack Roush, co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, remains hospitalized in serious but stable condition following a plane accident Tuesday night at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis. Roush is under observation for facial injuries sustained in the accident, Roush Fenway Racing said Wednesday. His passenger, Brenda Stricklin, was treated at a local hospital and released Wednesday afternoon. New spotter for Jeff Gordon Jeff Gordon will have a new spotter this week at Pocono, after the hiring of Jeff Dickerson, who split with driver Kyle Busch earlier this month after an association that dates to Busch’s days at Hendrick Motorsports. Dickerson replaces Shannon McGlamery, who has spotted for Gordon since 2007.
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07/28/2010
Former contestants from NBC’s hit reality show The Biggest Loser – Brittany Aberle of Season 5 and Allen, Texas native Tracey Yukich from Season 8 – will compete in a ceremonial best-of-three drag race to kick off Week 4 of SCION Drag-n-Brag Friday evening.
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07/28/2010
Sporting News Power Poll after Indianapolis
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07/26/2010
By Reid SpencerSporting News NASCAR Wire Service (July 26, 2010) Thanks to Jamie McMurray for reminding all of us where our focus should be. Fundamentally, racing is about winning, about being first to the finish line, about taking home a gaudy trophy, about grabbing bragging rights from 42 other drivers. If that seems pretty basic, contrast it with the cautionary phrase from crew chief to driver that’s often heard during a heated battle on the racetrack: “Big picture, big picture.” What that means, of course, is, “Keep your eyes on the bigger prize.” In other words, weigh the potential risk of trying to win a race against the impact a wreck might have on a run at the series championship. Since the introduction of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 2004 season, our perception of the sport has undergone a paradigm shift. We have learned to view almost everything that happens on the racetrack through the filter of its effect on the standings. In the afterglow of his Brickyard 400 victory, McMurray reminded us that the little picture can be just as satisfying as the big one—if not more so. McMurray has won NASCAR’s two most prestigious races in the same season—the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. Despite three other second-place finishes, he’s 16th in points and a long shot to make the Chase. So what? “I don’t even really care where we’re at in points,” McMurray said. “I think you show up every week, do your job. If you make the Chase, that’s wonderful. Everyone wants to make the Chase. Getting to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 means more to me this year than making the Chase. “This year or in 10 years, the guy that won that race one time everybody will talk about. The guy that finished third in the points—nobody cares. I would really like to be in the Chase, but I have no focus on that at all.” Even if McMurray fails to make the Chase, no one will say he hasn’t had an exceptional season. If reports are accurate, his performance this year will earn a significant contract extension and strengthen his bonds with sponsors Bass Pro Shops and McDonalds. For McMurray, it’s more about winning the day than winning the season. NASCAR could benefit from that perspective, too, when it comes to possible changes to the playoff format in the Cup series. In a series of meetings with drivers and owners, NASCAR has floated enough trial balloons to lift the pagoda out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield. In recent weeks, we’ve been teased more often than a beehive hairdo. In a news conference before Sunday’s race at Indy, NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France repeated that the sanctioning body is considering significant changes to the Chase. Moments later France added, “Not changing the Chase is definitely a viable option.” The bottom line is that changes to the Chase—whether in the form of eliminations or resetting points once or more during the final 10 races—may be a short-term fix for TV ratings but may not promote the long-term growth of the sport. Toward that end, we all need to look at the little picture and start with the essential element in the sport—a single race. A baseball season is 162 games long, and every win or loss affects the standings, yet each game has an integrity and intricacy of its own. Each game contains enough subtlety of strategy and intrigue to captivate its audience. Each game is an event that thrives on its own merit. The same is true of a stock car race—if only we think that way. McMurray reminded us Sunday that—as basic as it seems--the core element of the sport is the burning desire to win a race, and it would behoove us to pay attention.
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07/21/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (July 21, 2010) – The Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track will welcome back dirt track racers Sept. 16-18 with the U.S. National Dirt Track Championship featuring O’Reilly Auto Parts SUPR Late Model, Modified and Limited Modified divisions.
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07/19/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (July 19, 2010) – Tomball native Zachary Hausler represented Texas well at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night as he raced his way to the Legends Million A-Feature and earned $10,000 for a 16th-place finish.
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07/16/2010
Texas Motor Speedway will convert pit lane on the 1.5-mile oval into a 1/8-mile drag strip tonight for the second season Scion Drag-n-Brag, an ongoing initiative to help curtail illegal street racing in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and provide a safer environment for racing enthusiasts.
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07/15/2010
FORT WORTH, Texas (July 15, 2010) – Individuals seeking super-charged family fun this weekend will have to look no further than Texas Motor Speedway as “The Great American Speedway!” will host three diverse events suited for fans of all ages.
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07/15/2010
There is no telling how many thousands of autographs—or different types of items—Jeff Gordon has signed in his NASCAR career (he was 18 in 1990 when he made his first Nationwide Series start). Over the years Gordon has become very proficient at signing, whether standing still or on the move. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
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07/14/2010
2012 IndyCar Series Chassis Animation Video
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07/13/2010
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