Welcome to “Fuel It Up”! The racing world is chock full of intriguing stories, but sifting through them to get a good general sense of the landscape can be challenging. In Fuel It Up, I take the biggest, more interesting storylines and present them to you in a quick, compact 300-words-or-less format.
The winner of this week’s paint scheme award goes to the #20 Home Depot Husky Toyota, driven by last week’s winner and points leader Matt Kenseth…………… Speaking of our points leader, Kenseth would love to skip this track. In his last 10 finishes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he has only 1 top 10 and 7 finishes of 25th or worse…………… NAPA has announced it is leaving Michael Waltrip Racing after the scandal in Richmond. In a statement released Thursday morning NAPA said: “After thorough consideration, NAPA has made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing effective December 31, 2013. NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR. We remain supportive of the millions of NASCAR fans and will evaluate our future position in motorsports”…………… Nationwide announced it will not sponsor the NASCAR series after the 2014 season. The news comes on the heels of the Michael Waltrip Racing scandal. Nationwide said in its news release that they would focus on car sponsorship and track sponsorship. Sprint, which sponsors NASCAR’s premier racing circuit, has a contract with NASCAR through 2016. Camping World, sponsors of the truck series, has a contract to sponsor that series through 2015……………. Bobby Labonte is expected to return to the #47 Toyota this weekend. He’s still sore from the 3 broken ribs suffered in a bicycle accident near his home but feels comfortable enough to return to race at New Hampshire…………… Juan Pablo Montoya has signed a deal to return to Indy cars with Roger Penske. The deal reportedly allows Montoya to race a few NASCAR events as well…………… Danica Patrick will co-host the American Country Awards with Trace Adkins December 10th…………… It doesn’t happen very often but the NASCAR official blew a call on Jimmie Johnson’s team early in the Chicago race Sunday. The official believed a lug nut was not on Johnson’s right rear tire when in fact it was on. Crew Chief Chad Knaus was in a forgiving mood. “We all make mistakes. Let’s move forward.”…………… The weather forecast for Loudon on Sunday calls for a 40% chance of showers with temperatures reaching 66f (20c)…………… The race can be seen on ESPN in the US and TSN2 in Canada at 2:00 p.m.
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