FanHouse NASCARTracks

This doesn't make up for a lack of NASCAR racing at the speedway over Labor Day weekend, but the new retro look at Darlington Raceway is certainly a good look.

Darlington, site of Saturday night's wannabe Southern 500 presented by GoDaddy.com -- don't forget that GoDaddy or Danica will go after you -- has drawn up an old-time logo and repainted its walls to commemorate the track's 60th anniversary.

And if I must say so myself, the alternating red-and-white paint job around the track [photos below] isn't such a bad idea for a track that with the history and character of Darlington.

Friday afternoon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. graced the web pages of Sports Illustrated after writer Bruce Martin hung around with the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for a day's-worth of commercial work recently.

The piece was mostly centered around Earnhardt Jr.'s status as a commercial icon and previewed an ad for sponsor GoDaddy.com that will feature fellow Hendrick/JR Motorsports driver Brad Keselowski, but as we've come to expect from Earnhardt Jr., the driver didn't hold back when asked about some comments made during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Media tour just a few weeks back.

Those comments centered around Speedway Motorsports, Inc., chairman Bruton Smith claiming that the drivers need to do a little more to help sell tickets in the struggling climate that faces the 2009 season.

Because of the struggling economy, 2009 could be the best year in a long, long time to see a handful of NASCAR races for a great value.

Thanks to this whole recession thing, several tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit aren't exactly selling too many tickets at the moment, and the speedways have wisely dropped some prices trying to get people through the gate. Here's a few of the offers that would make some really great -- but really late -- stocking stuffers:

Got reservations for 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Bristol, Atlanta, California, or Talladega? Better get on the phone with your travel agent.

NASCAR unveiled the 2009 schedules for all three series' -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Craftsman Truck Series -- Tuesday afternoon with a few a changes here and there that mostly seem to be very good.

There weren't any new tracks added to the schedule Sprint Cup for 2009 and Auto Club Speedway isn't scheduled for demolition (there's always next year!) but date changes and schedule location swaps were the name of the game. Chronologically the changes were:

• - Bristol: The spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway has long tried to dodge rain and even snow in its March location on the schedule, and it got a little bit of relief by being pushed back one week from 2008 to March 22 in 2009.


• - Atlanta: The next change on the schedule will see Atlanta Motor Speedway move to Labor Day weekend for a Sunday night race at the 1.5-mile track. If nothing else, it means NASCAR will race on Labor Day some 2,100 miles closer to where it should be that weekend. Ahem, Darlington.

One might have figured that long-time NASCAR fans would have been rejoicing this week thanks to the reincarnation of Darlington Raceway's legendary Southern 500.

The race -- a staple of NASCAR's top series for 54 years -- was traditionally held every Labor Day weekend at the gritty South Carolina track and produced some of the best-known races of NASCAR's modern-era.

It was a place where drivers made a name for themselves and was a place where legends cemented their status as such in stock car racing.

But in 2004, that all disappeared thanks to a track realignment by the higher-ups in NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation that sent the traditional weekend packing to the West Coast in what has turned into a lame, ill-timed attempt to gain fans in the Los Angeles market.

But now, with ratings dropping in 2007, attendance dropping in 2008, growth slowing, and sponsorship troubles occurring thanks to NASCAR being a tourism-based industry that has likely overpriced itself, the legendary Southern 500 at "The Lady in Black" is returning in a much different form -- with lights and in May.

Have you ever seen a more blatant exploitation of tradition?

First, I'll let the picture do the talking.


Yes, Dover International Raceway has a new guest on its property for this weekend's NASCAR events at the speedway.

The monster, named "Miles", has come to shape over the past few months as the 1-mile speedway has renovated its main entry way. Unveiled for the first time on May 14, the 46-foot tall beast is officially called the "Monster Monument at Victory Plaza, presented by AAA."

The base of the monster lists all of the drivers that have won at Dover in the history of the track.

I think we can chalk this one up to the "If you've got the money..." scenario. It won't make me want to buy tickets to the track, but if I had a 5-year old kid, he might get a kick out of it.

Bruton Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc. won't be getting their hands on Pocono Raceway any time soon in his bid to make a race date available to his latest acquisition of Kentucky Speedway.

Rose Mattioli told The Associated Press on Tuesday there are no plans to sell Pocono, which currently has two Sprint Cup races, and there will be racing on the mountaintop for at least "as long as our grandkids live."

"It never was available; it never will be available," said Mattioli, who owns the track with her husband, Joseph. "My husband has stated that over and again. That's it."

The track is "entrusted" to the Mattioli's grandchildren, and because of that, the family isn't selling one of NASCAR's three remaining race tracks not owned by International Speedway Corp. or SMI.

However, the track did open on Tuesday for some scheduled Sprint Cup Series testing.

Teams, fresh off the 600 miles at Lowe's Motor Speedway Sunday night, headed to Pennslyvania for the test which runs through Wednesday evening at the three-turn wanna-be road course track

Tuesday, teams got in about 4 hours of practice until rain canceled activities for the day -- meaning many, many Sprint Cup drivers were likely bored out of their minds.

David Gilliland paced the session while Dario Franchitti made his first laps in a stock car after getting injured over a month ago at Talladega.

Last season, Texas Motor Speedway track president Eddie Gossage took some heat over his marketing campaign involving the IndyCar series race there.

In that instance, Gossage played on the fact that Danica Patrick and Dan Wheldon had had a verbal sparring match after the previous race in Texas with a "Dan vs. Danica" theme.

This time around, though, the players are much different.

In anticipation of April's Samsung 500 at Texas for the Sprint Cup series, TMS has been running an ad campaign called "reasons" and includes a picture of a driver and a reason why they want to win.

One of those drivers was Dale Earnhardt Jr. And TMS thought he wanted to win because of the way Junior parted ways in 2007 with his stepmom's team, Dale Earnhardt Inc.

The billboard used to show Junior and read "Reason No. 88: Stepmom".

Not so fast, says the Earnhardt Jr. camp: