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Tony Stewart has to be excited about that headline.

Wednesday brought good news to any race fan who already has tickets to the Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March of 2009.

The track, thanks to a new race-naming sponsorship from Shelby Automobiles (the company created and ran by Carroll Shelby, a legend in the sports car world), will now name the race the Shelby 427. And I promise, 427 wasn't just a randomly picked number:

The Sprint Cup Series event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 1, 2009 will be sponsored by Shelby Automobiles. The event will be lengthened to 427 miles and will be called the "Shelby 427."

Together, LVMS and Shelby will market a Las Vegas Motor Speedway Limited Edition Shelby 427 package for the Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang.

Interesting. A "Las Vegas Motor Speedway Limited Edition Shelby 427 package" is certainly a mouthful, but more importantly, that's going to be one big emblem to slap on the rear end of a mustang. LXi or Limited apparently was not available.

This package will be available to 427 previous Shelby GT500 owners on a first-come first-serve basis, and will include Carroll Shelby's autograph, race tickets and a chance at being the race's honorary starter. For more info on that, check out the LVMS web site.

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.

Geoffrey Miller is in Concord, N.C. for Sunday's Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He'll aim to eat as many elephant ears as possible while blogging away "Live from Lowe's" throughout Memorial Day weekend.

Generally, when Bruton Smith says he'll do something, he's gonna do it.

So when Smith promised both the ownership group of Kentucky Speedway and the world at a news conference on Thursday confirming his purchase of the facility that Kentucky would have a Sprint Cup race date in 2009, you've got to believe it will happen.

But at what cost to other race dates?

The only obvious answer I've got is that next season, at least one race at a current track will be eliminated in favor of the event in the Bluegrass State.

There are now three race tracks left on the Sprint Cup schedule not owned by either International Speedway Corp. or Smith's Speedway Motorsports Inc. Those tracks are Indianapolis (one race), Dover (two races), and Pocono (two races).

The final two in that list are both on Smith's radar for purchase with the primary goal of moving one of those race dates to Kentucky. If such a deal can't happen, Smith may move a race date from one of his current race tracks, though the track presidents from Atlanta and New Hampshire Motor Speedways have released statements that they are signing agreements with NASCAR for 2009 race dates on Friday.

Some late-breaking Friday night news from the Charlotte, N.C. area:

Firefighters put out a small fire about 9 p.m. tonight at the home of the Lowe's Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith.

An electrical short in the wire of outdoor Christmas lights caused a spark that lit the shrubbery in front of Smith's south Charlotte house, fire officials said. A passerby saw the flames and flagged down a police officer, who called firefighters.

Battalion Chief Tom Link said Smith was home at the time of the fire, but "he actually didn't know (about the fire) until we tried to get to the door."

Now, I'm really glad Smith didn't lose his house, and that he wasn't injured in the situation, but it certainly strikes me as a little more than a coincidence.

After all, this happened to a guy who threatened to rip down a Charlotte-area & NASCAR landmark because he was a little peeved at initial opposition to building a drag strip on the property.

The effect would have been mind-boggling for Concord and Cabarrus County had Smith uprooted Lowe's Motor Speedway. Not only does the track bring in $169 million + to the local economy each year, but it has created massive development in the northern suburb and would create a major economic problem for a region that has seen thousands of layoffs in the past few years.

He eventually relented after tax incentives, back rubs, and a street were named after him. The street name change was confirmed Thursday by the State of North Carolina.

And now a minor electrical fire at his home? Is that karma for his method of forcing government into private business matters or plain bad luck?

Most likely, it's just a good reason on why you should always turn off your Christmas lights before you go to bed.

HT: The Charlotte Observer