Back to the Beach. No, it's not vacation time yet. First we take care of some business on the high banks at Daytona. The Pepsi...er, Coke Zero 400 will have some fireworks of it's own Saturday night. Highlights and downlows...

I'm a big believer in a free market and survival of the fittest, but seeing Coke on this race instead of Pepsi is damn hard to get used to. Pepsi has been with NASCAR at Daytona since day one. About a half a century (HR13's got neckties that old). Of all the #### that Brian France has pulled, this irks me the most for some reason.

Some breaking news from earlier today (Thursday). Kurt Busch had the fastest time in Cup practice at Daytona. That would have been great, except he totaled the car and will go to the backup. Martin Truex Jr's #1 DEI Chevy failed inspection twice. NASCAR kept the car, and Truex, also will be in a backup. Randy Moss has bought half of Mogan Dollar Motorsports CTS team. It will be renamed Randy Moss Motorsports and sport #81 on the Chevy Silverados. Their first race will be at Kentucky in two weeks. Sponsors and divers will be announced soon. Excuse me if I don't hold my breath waiting on the sponsor announcement.

On to this week's silly season updates. Hendrick Motorsports has a press conference scheduled for noon Friday, July, 4. They will be announcing that Mark Martin will be driving the #5 HMS Chevy full time next year. Bad idea. Tony Stewart is scheduled to make his big announcement when NASCAR hits Indy later this month. Expect Tony to take over CNC HAAS Racing with Office Depot as a sponsor. Ryan Newman is still rumored to be Tony's teammate/employee in the second car. I don't see that. These two do not get along at all.

Heard that General Mills wants Casey Mears in RCR's new fourth car, #33, next season. Petty Enterprises may have to drop one of their cars next year due to lack of sponsorship. But wait, Jamie McMurray may go to the #45 with a sponsor in his pocket. Or, Michael Waltrip may bring the one sponsor he'll have left, when his three car team goes under, to his best friend, Kyle Petty's team.

Aric Almirola has been named as the full time driver of DEI's #8 Cup car for next year. Double A, don't be surprised when you show up at Daytona next February, and you're the only one from DEI there. Current DEI driver, Paul Menard, may take his sponsor to #26 at RFR next year. Funny, his family's name is the same as his sponsor. BAM Racing says they'll be back with Ken Schrader driving at Indy. Guess when 43 or less cars show up, BAM can make a race.

New sponsor/paint schemes for this weekend. Kevin Harvick will be in an orange, Reece Cup Chevy Saturday night. Dale Earnhardt Jr's #88 HMS Chevy will have a special camo paint job to celebrate the 4th of July. Truex's #1 will have the new movie 'Swing Vote' on board . The #96 of J.J. Yeley also features a new movie, 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. Polaroid will be on Reed Sorenson's #41. Jamie McMurray's car will have Irwin on it. Irwin was on the car last year when J Mac won this race. Don't expect lightning on Saturday night. Kerry Earnhardt will be in the DEI #8 in the NNS race Friday night. Just wondering, is Kerry part of the Nation?

Chip Ganassi Racing shut down the #40 team this past week. Rookie driver Dario Franchitti is among the 70 some employees out on their ####. Lack of sponsor was the official cause of death. Chip has offered Dario a NNS ride, or become Chip's third driver in the IRL. That's a tough choice. Learn stock cars in a lower series, like he should have to start with, or go get shown up by Scott Dixon every week. On the bright side (besides Ashley) he's got a $30 million contract with Ganassi. So expect him to be somewhere in a Ganassi car.

Just like the other major racing series, it takes a tragedy for the NHRA to begin closing the barn door. After Scott Kalita's senseless death the NHRA is evaluating, and analyzing the implementation of potential changes. In the meantime they have reduced the race track length from 1/4 mile (1,320 ft) to 1,000 ft for Top Fuelers and Funny Cars. Do they really think Kalita would have survived if the track had been 320 feet shorter?

Finally, a holiday weekend right in the middle of the long hot summer. Thank you Continental Congress. Stay thirsty, and keep an extra fifth for the Fourth.

Scott Dixon, driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, won the IRL season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway Saturday night. He took the lead for good with three laps to go when Tony Kanaan pitted with a damaged car from an earlier on track incident.

The highlights and lowdowns........

• Vision Racing's two drivers, Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt IV, both had to start at the rear of the field after qualifying a remarkable 2nd and 3rd. This after failing inspection on Saturday morning for undisclosed violations. Carpenter did go on to a 5th place, and AJ4 finished 9th.

•  Danica, Danica, Danica. Ms. Patrick led 0 laps, and finished 6th, one lap down.

• Marco Andretti finished 2nd, and led a race high 85 laps out of the 200 total laps run.

• Tony Kanaan looked to be heading to victory until rookie, Ernesto Viso spun in front of him late in the race. TK ended up 8th.

• Champ Car Teams just recieved their IRL cars in the last three weeks so the 12th place finish by Oriol Servia, which was the highest for the former series teams, wasn't that bad.

All in all a pretty good season opener. Now it's onward to St. Petersburg, FL for the next race. A beautiful road circuit on the Tampa Bay shoreline. If you're nearby, check it out. The ticket prices are reasonable, and the scenery is incredible.

No Cup race this weekend,  but there is other racing series news out there. Here are some updates and downlows.

 

The IRL season opener is March 29th, 8PM on ESPN2.

       

Danica, doing what Danica does best

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This first race should be interesting to see the new teams coming over from Champ Car.

The Rock is back, baby. Jimmie Johnson tested at Rockingham Speedway on March 18. Up to forty ARCA teams are expected to test at Rockingham on March 21 and 22. This two day test will be free to the public. Among the stars testing for the ARCA Carolina 500 on May 4, are Scott Speed, Joey Lagano, and Austin Dillon. Dillon is Richard Childress' grandson. Rockingham Speedway will also host the Hooter's Pro Cup American 200 on November 1. It's cool that the two big races at Rockingham this year are called the Carolina and the American. Old schoolers will remember those were the names of the two Cup races at The Rock back in the day.

Hooters....Racing.....Rockingham!

Sterling Marlin is in the #1 Phoenix Racing, Nationwide Series ride this weekend in Nashville. This, after Phoenix fired Johnny Sauter this week. I'm not a big Sauter fan, but if this car was capable of running in the top ten, he would have it in the top five.In other Nationwide news,  Chase Miller is making his first start of 2008 in the #9 Dodge. Colin Braun is making his first 2008 start in the #16 Ford. The #36 Dodge that Kenny Wallace had been driving is shutting down, but Kenny landed a new ride in the #28 Chevrolet.

Twenty year old Chrissy Wallace, Mike's daughter, will make her Truck Series debut at Martinsville later this month. Finally, a woman racer with talent. Seems like it was just yesterday we were watching her rip it up in the bandoleros at LMS.

Good Luck, Chrissy

 

Memo to Darell Waltrip: Don't do us any more favors by coming to work sick. Your voice sounded like rusty nails being pulled from oak planking. What a joke. Are you afraid of being replaced if you sit out, like what happened to Alan Bestwick?