Nascar Race Today

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) Budding star Chase Elliott has landed a full-time NASCAR ride for 2014 with JR Motorsports, with surprise sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts.

Elliott, the son of 1988 NASCAR champion Bill Elliott, will race for the Nationwide Series title at JRM driving the No. 9 Chevrolet in a nod to his father's longtime number.

The ride became possible when NAPA reversed its decision to leave NASCAR following the scandal surrounding Michael Waltrip Racing's attempt to manipulate a September race to get Martin Truex Jr. into the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

NAPA issued a harsh rebuke of MWR and ended its multimillion-dollar sponsorship of Truex one year into a three-year contract extension with MWR. That cost Truex his ride at MWR and forced the organization to lay off about a third of its workforce.

But the Atlanta-based company had a change of heart, deciding to return for a 19th season in NASCAR to back the up-and-coming Elliott. The Elliotts are from Dawsonville, Georgia, roughly an hour from NAPA headquarters, and Chase didn't become eligible to compete full-time in NASCAR when he turned 18 at the end of November.

"NAPA is pleased to continue its long standing involvement in NASCAR, the most popular form of motorsports in the United States supported by its many loyal and passionate fans," said Dan Askey, president of NAPA. "Chase Elliott is a young and talented, future star in the sport and will represent NAPA well both on and off the track."

NAPA representatives declined interviews.

Elliott will make his Nationwide debut at the Feb. 22 season opening race at Daytona. He will report for testing this weekend and be paired with crew chief Greg Ives, who led Regan Smith to a pair of wins and a third-place finish in the standings at JRM last season.

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime for me, a chance to make a career of this," Elliott said in a telephone interview with nascarracetoday.blogspot.com. "I couldn't ask for anything more than a chance with JR Motorsports, the backing of Rick Hendrick, and the support of NAPA. I think to have that connection with NAPA is really, really neat. The headquarters is not far from our house, and to me, that goes a lot further than you think. For both of us to come from Georgia, my home state, is special."

Elliott has been in the Hendrick Motorsports development program since 2011, when he was a freshman in high school. His first NASCAR K&N Series win was at Iowa in 2012, and he became the youngest superspeedway winner in ARCA history at Pocono last June. He then won in the Truck Series in only his sixth start when he won at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in September.

"I think the Nationwide Series is only a short step for him," said JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. "He's that good."

JRM will field two full-time teams this season with Elliott and Smith in the No. 7 Chevrolet. The organization will also run the No. 5 with Kevin Harvick on a limited basis and the No. 88 with Earnhardt Jr. Ryan Pemberton will replace Ives as Smith's crew chief.

"This will be the strongest line-up we've put on the track since we started racing full time in 2006," said Kelley Earnhardt Miller, general manager of JR Motorsports.

Elliott will try to become only the fifth multi-generational NASCAR champion. His father won 44 Cup races, including two Daytona 500s; "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" was also a 16-time winner of NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award.

"No doubt the historical element of this is pretty cool," said Earnhardt Jr. "Bill Elliott is one of the greats. I've always looked up to him. He had some great battles with my dad. I think there are a lot of Elliott fans and Earnhardt fans that will take interest in Chase's career and support him 100 percent."

Elliott will spend the first half of the Nationwide season juggling his first full-time job and the second semester of his senior year of high school in Georgia.

The school has been flexible in working with Elliott as he's pursued his racing career, but the Nationwide schedule will be his most intensive racing to date and mother, Cindy, spent part of Monday discussing a plan with administrators.

"I hope they are understanding because this is a full-time job and one that will require me to be gone a lot - but second semester of senior year of high school? There's usually not a lot going on," he said. "I hope that side of it is manageable because I really think I've been given a lot in this situation. I feel things are positioned here at the shop, with NAPA, everything is aligned for success."

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

(Getty Images)

NAPA's hiatus from NASCAR didn't really become one at all.

After announcing that it was leaving Michael Waltrip Racing at the end of the season because of the race manipulation allegations at Richmond, the auto parts company will sponsor Chase Elliott full-time in the Nationwide Series in 2014.

Elliott will drive the No. 9 for JR Motorsports.

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime," Elliott said in a release. "My family and I are still trying to believe it all. I couldn't ask to be partnered with anyone better than Dale Jr., Kelley and Mr. Hendrick, along with all of the people at their organizations who have put in countless hours to pull this together.

"Working with NAPA will be an honor. They've had a tremendous impact in NASCAR, and I'm proud to represent their brand, on and off the track, to race fans. I'm extremely pumped to get to work in 2014 with that first trip to Daytona and make the most of this opportunity."

Elliott, the son of Bill Elliott, was signed by Hendrick Motorsports as a developmental driver in 2011. He won the Camping World Truck Series race at MoSport in August when he had contact with Ty Dillon on the final corner.

His move to the Nationwide Series full-time means that JR Motorsports will field three cars in 2014. In addition to Elliott, JR Motorsports will have Regan Smith driving full-time and a car that's shared by Kevin Harvick and others. Elliott will also be keeping the No. 9 in the family. Bill drove that number for much of Sprint Cup Series career with Harry Melling and Ray Evernham.

Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

If you're a fan of NASCAR racing and especially of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, than you must take a look at the video below. There's no actual NASCAR action, but you'll get a chance to watch one of the coolest trucks that's not eligible for the famous series.

We're talking about a 1995 model year Chevrolet S-10 truck that's been stripped and modified to resemble a NASCAR contender. As you'll notice once the play button is pushed and the volume cranked up, the vehicle was fitted with a GM crate engine, which translates into a lot of horsepower and some serious V8 rumble.

We have no idea whether or not this vehicle will be entered in this year's Pikes Peak International Hillclimb or any other race, but our friends over at GM Authority videotaped it while being tested at the Pikes Peak Raceway.

It's easy for longtime NASCAR fans to get sentimental. We live in a hi-tech digital age where everything is happening so fast that it's easy for nostalgia to get lost in the fray.

We're getting ready for Daytona testing while checking Bleacher Report for the latest in NASCAR news. We're checking for the latest tweets from our favorite drivers while circling the calendar for our upcoming trip to the track.

With all of the up-to-date facilities on the circuit, it's easy to forget that Darlington wasn't the only track with a personality. It's easy to forget that Martinsville wasn't the only track with a history steeped in stock car racing. Have we forgotten about where Harry Gant's quest for five consecutive wins was derailed in 1991? What about where Geoff Bodine lapped the entire field?

Have we forgotten about North Wilkesboro Speedway?

North Wilkesboro Speedway was NASCAR's first sanctioned speedway. It was a small addition in the center of NASCAR country. While the sport had Talladega and Daytona, the short track in North Wilkesboro was a part of the sport for 50 years while names like Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough took checkered flags along with Bodine and Dale Earnhardt.

Speaking of Earnhardt, what about his heated interview in 1989 after a last-lap spin courtesy of Ricky Rudd cost him the race and ultimately the championship? Earnhardt's disappointment could hardly be contained as Dick Berggren attempted to get Earnhardt's side of the story following the incident. The incident is widely regarded as one of the most memorable moments in NASCAR history.

Now it stands a dilapidated relic, falling into disrepair while the sport continues to progress 18 years since its last major event at the speedway. It was on that day that a youngster named Jeff Gordon, fresh off his first Winston Cup championship, took yet another checkered flag in his No. 24 Chevy on his way to a runner-up finish in the points.

www.gordononline.com

As all fans know, North Wilkesboro was just a stepping stone on the way to bigger and better things for Gordon. What if we never took it off in the first place? What if we kept it around for Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson to dominate and add to North Wilkesboro's rich history?

We don't have enough tracks like North Wilkesboro, and from a historical standpoint that is a shame. Drivers have come to prominence at the .625-mile race track. Championships have been won and lost there. The track has held a fine lineage of winners from Red Byron through Richard Petty and down to Gordon.

We've got a fine crop of drivers coming up through the ranks who deserve to have their legacies cemented at the same places their grandparents' favorite drivers became legends. Darlington, Daytona and Martinsville aren't enough. Besides, NASCAR would be paying a fine tribute to its history by bringing back more storied venues. It's not like they can't front a bill for renovations to the speedway anyway.

It would be a welcome addition to the sport. There are a few venues on the circuit that have overstayed their welcome in NASCAR anyway.

For example, barring the 2013 event at Fontana, it's a likelihood that we'll never see another exciting Fontana event. We could also switch Chicago's Chase spot with one at North Wilkesboro. Anything would do, as long as we don't have to see such a storied venue suffer the test of time.

Besides, where else could the winner walk to Victory Lane after the race?

Jason Leffler wasn't the type of NASCAR driver that would get a starring role. But the 37-year-old simply loved to race. He had 423 career starts in a NASCAR national series, including 73 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series -- the last one came this year at Pocono.

Away from the NASCAR spotlight, you could find Leffler at a short track or in a sprint car or a late model, scratching the racing itch. He died in a sprint car race accident on June 12 in New Jersey.

Although Leffler loved racing, his greatest love was reserved for his son, Charlie Dean. Friends said Leffler's life was transformed when Charlie was born. The Charlie Dean Discretionary Trust Fund was established after Leffler's death, with drivers and friends such as Kasey Kahne ensuring the driver's legacy would last.

Welcome, Generation 6. The vehicle that took more than two years to develop took center stage in 2013. The results? Well, the numbers speak for themselves.

There were 19 track qualifying records set by 11 different drivers. The average margin of victory (1.267 seconds) for the season was the lowest in eight years. Twenty times, a race was decided by less than one second.

The on-track racing appeared markedly better in 2013, and the careful design of the vehicle allowed for more brand identifiable machines.

Considering this was just the first year in the Gen-6 cars, expect the product to get even better in the future.

It happened at Martinsville Speedway, perhaps the most historic track on the NASCAR circuit. In the rolling foothills of Virginia, 30 miles east from Danville where pioneer Wendell Scott was born, Darrell Wallace Jr. won his first NASCAR national series race with Scott's family watching.

Scott was the first African-American driver to win in a national NASCAR series. Wallace joined him 50 years later with his Oct. 26 victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at a tiny track that Scott himself raced on 23 times at NASCAR's premier level.

When the gravity of the moment hit Wallace, he began to sob in his truck. In an interview the next day with members of the Scott family, Franklin Scott said of his father: "Well, when the checkered flag dropped, I heard a big boom from heaven, and my daddy said, 'Hell, yeah!' "

The sun shone, the grandstands swelled and, yes, the trucks kicked up plumes of dirt as they maneuvered around Eldora Speedway in late July. If you closed your eyes, it was almost like you were in the 1970s.

In fact, prior to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competing at the Tony Stewart-owned Eldora Speedway, the last time a national series raced on dirt was more than 40 years ago when Richard Petty won a premier series event in 1970 at North Carolina State Fairgrounds.

The return to dirt lived up to its billing. The racing was fantastic in front of a sold-out crowd. Norm Benning delivered one of the quotes of the year ("I never lifted") and offered a one-fingered salute for good measure after qualifying for the main event, and then young stars Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson stole the show with legendary performances that belied their ages.

"This is special," Dillon uttered after winning the race.

We'd have to agree.

In an announcement that mixed the concepts of history and change, the No. 3 is returning to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next year.

Richard Childress Racing made the announcement in December, promoting NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Austin Dillon to the Sprint Cup Series to carry the number. The 3 hasn't been seen on the track since the 2001 Daytona 500 in which Dale Earnhardt, who drove the car to 67 of his 76 career victories, died following a late-race wreck.

Legions of Earnhardt fans responded -- both in support and in anger. Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed off on the move and said it's good for the sport to move forward with a new generation. At the very least, you get the sense Dillon realizes his place in history with a new-look No. 3.

"It's a huge responsibility," he said.

Danica Patrick's rookie season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series didn't produce the results the driver wanted. No one can take away Daytona, though.

After a blistering practice in which Patrick turned heads in her green No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet, Patrick won the Coors Light Pole for the season-opening Daytona 500. She was the first woman in history to win the pole for the prestigious race, and backed that up with an eighth-place finish.

It would be her only top-10 of the season.

The garage was a little less noisy through the final third of the season, and certainly was missing some of its character.

We all missed veteran Tony Stewart. Stewart was sidelined for the final 15 races after shattering his leg in a sprint car race accident. The incident came mere days after he chastised reporters who inquired about a previous -- less severe -- sprint car wreck.

That's just 'Smoke,' though. He loves to race and doesn't always need the Sprint Cup spotlight to do so. His first press conference following multiple surgeries was equal parts beautiful and psychological, as he extolled on both racing and the meaning of life. He showed up to the regular-season finale at Richmond on a motorized scooter, his injured right leg bearing scars that looked like a shark took a hunk out of it.

The veteran is expected to be cleared in time for the Daytona 500. We hope that's the case.

Jimmie Johnson claimed his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship in two years -- or in JST (Johnson Standard Time), an eternity. The Hendrick Motorsports driver had previously won five in a row before falling short in both 2011 and 2012.

His return to the top was highlighted by a dominant Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, in which he won twice and finished in the top five seven times in 10 races. At the end, Johnson's title was graceful, dominant and marvelous.

With six career titles, Johnson is one behind the record held by both Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Seven can wait, but maybe not for long.

Thirteen turned out to be a lucky number for Jeff Gordon. The veteran was on the verge of missing the Chase for just the second time in his career following a regular-season finale at Richmond that was steeped in controversy.

As NASCAR opened an investigation in the late-race proceedings, Gordon turned into the Rainbow Worrier as he awaited his fate. In the end, days before the Chase was to begin, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France announced the unprecedented action of adding Gordon to the postseason field as the 13th driver.

The Richmond findings, along with alleged collusion between the No. 22 Penske Racing team and No. 38 Front Row Motorsports team, led to a totality of events outside of Gordon's control, France said.

The announcement also served as a signature moment, of sorts, for France, who felt the sport's integrity was at stake.

"I have the authority to do that," France declared in adding Gordon to the postseason. "We are going to do that."

It started with a spin. Clint Bowyer's No. 15 Toyota lost control in the waning moments of the regular-season finale at Richmond, forcing teams to pit road and altering the initial playoff field for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

The end of the race was just the beginning, however. Bowyer was accused of spinning out intentionally, and his Michael Waltrip Racing teammate Brian Vickers pitted after the ensuing green flag dropped following some questionable radio dialogue.

By the end of the night, Ryan Newman -- who was leading the race at the time of the spin -- was out of the Chase, while MWR driver Martin Truex Jr. was in.

That changed days later after a NASCAR investigation. All MWR drivers were docked 50 points, which ousted Truex from the Chase and added Newman. The organization was also fined $300,000 for attempting to "manipulate the outcome of the race," as NASCAR Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton said.

The oft-gregarious Bowyer went into a funk for the majority of the postseason, and a major sponsor withdrew its support from MWR, leading to Truex losing his full-time ride there (he eventually signed with Furniture Row Racing).

NASCAR also implemented new rules before the Chase opener at Chicagoland, including "giving 100 percent effort" at all times.

Bowyer never regained his regular-season momentum, Truex ended up on a new team for 2014 and a reinvigorated Jeff Gordon made a legitimate run for his fifth Sprint Cup championship before falling short.

1970s Honorable Mentions

credit autofoundry.com

Before Jimmie Johnson's amazing run of five consecutive championships, Cale Yarborough was the only driver who had ever won at least three titles in a row. He accomplished that feat from 1976 through 1978.

Yarborough competed in 234 events during the 1970s. He was victorious 52 times and earned 168 top-10s. Only 17 of his top 10s failed to end in a fifth-place finish or better.

While Yarborough is clearly one of the greatest drivers of the '70s, as well as of all time, he is arguably most remembered for his role in the 1979 Daytona 500.

Racing for the win with Donnie Allison, the two drivers crashed on the final lap. When the two drivers emerged from their cars they attempted to sort out the details of what happened. Donnie's brother Bobby then pulled into the infield, got out of his car and the Allison brothers began a brawl with Yarborough.

This was the first 500-mile race broadcast live on national television.

For the second time in as many decades, David Pearson is one of the sport's top drivers, but not its best.

Competing in nearly half as many events as he did in the '60s, Pearson nearly matched his win total from a decade prior. He earned 47 wins in just 186 starts, while also earning a total of 126 top-10s.

118 of his 126 top-10s ended inside the top-five.

Pearson's best points finish during the decade was only a third-place effort posted in 1974. This stat may be a little deceiving, however. He never competed in more than 22 events in a season during the '70s.

Bobby Allison and Benny Parsons

Sportscaster Allen Bestwick will remain with ESPN /ABC after it loses its NASCAR contract and work primarily as play-by-play announcer for the network's broadcasts of IndyCar Series events, The Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com have learned. Bestwick currently serves in the same role for network's NASCAR broadcasts but ESPN/ABC will lose broadcast rights to those races at the conclusion of the 2014 season. NBC and Fox and their respective sports networks will broadcast all NASCAR events beginning in 2015. Bestwick will do both IndyCar and NASCAR events this season for ESPN/ABC, two sources familiar with the situation confirmed to The Observer. In 2015, Bestwick will do IndyCar broadcasts and work in other sports, sources said. An ESPN spokesman declined to comment. Bestwick began his NASCAR career in 1986 when he joined Motor Racing Network as a race reporter and eventually became co-lead announcer with Joe Moore and Barney Hall. He moved full-time to TV broadcasting in 2001.

Subscribe to The Charlotte Observer.

The Charlotte Observer welcomes your comments on news of the day. The more voices engaged in conversation, the better for us all, but do keep it civil. Please refrain from profanity, obscenity, spam, name-calling or attacking others for their views.

Have a news tip? You can send it to a local news editor; email local@charlotteobserver.com to send us your tip - or - consider joining the Public Insight Network and become a source for The Charlotte Observer.