Nascar Race Today

RELATED: Full 2014 Sprint Cup schedule

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series officially gets underway with the 56th running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 1 p.m. ET on FOX. The season will once again culminate with the final race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule will consist of 36 points races as well as two additional weekends featuring non-points events. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points races can be seen on either FOX (first 13 events), TNT (next six events) or ESPN/ABC (final 17 events). All races are broadcast by either Motor Racing Network, Performance Racing Network or Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network; all races will also air on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio channel 90.

Two events will see significant start time changes: the spring race at Texas Motor Speedway will shift to Sunday, April 6 and begin at 3 p.m. ET on FOX. The Kansas Speedway spring event on Saturday, May 10 will be under the lights for the first time, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

The Sprint Unlimited, which takes place on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. ET, and two Daytona 500 qualifying races, which will take place in primetime for the first time at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 20, will once again highlight the non-points races at the start of the season. Both events will air on FOX Sports 1. The third non-points event will be the annual NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which will also be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 on Saturday night, May 17.

Start times for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup will remain the same, with five of the first seven races beginning at 2 p.m. ET and the last three races beginning at 3 p.m. ET. The Bank of America 500 from Charlotte Motor Speedway is the only night race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and will air on ABC on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET. All remaining Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup races will air on ESPN.

The full telecast schedule is below, and subject to change:

* designates a non-points race All times listed are Eastern

(Getty Images)

The points system to determine the manufacturer title in NASCAR will now be similar to the points systems that the sanctioning body uses for owner and driver points.

The manufacturer's title is awarded to the car make in the sport that has the most points at the end of the season, so in the Sprint Cup that includes Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.

Starting in 2014, the points will be given for the highest finishing car make based off the points system that NASCAR currently uses. For example, if a Ford wins and leads the most laps, a Chevy leads a lap and finishes second and a Toyota doesn't lead a lap and finishes third, Ford will receive 48 points, Chevy 43 and Toyota 41.

Previously, the highest finishing manufacturer received nine points, second received six and third place received four.

"We have always focused on intensifying the natural rivalries between our manufacturers -- both on the race track and in the showroom" NASCAR VP of competition and racing development Robin Pemberton said in a statement. "We believe aligning the points system with the owner points will create better understanding for the entire industry, and bolster interest and excitement with our fan base, which has shown intense manufacturer loyalty throughout the sport's history."

Any tiebreakers will be decided on wins, second-place finishes and so forth, just like the drivers' and owner's points.

The manufacturer's points system has been a distant third in the pantheon of NASCAR championships, and that may be because of Chevrolet's dominance in the Sprint Cup Series. Chevrolet has won the last 11 manufacturer's titles.

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!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR announced today that it has restructured its manufacturer points system for 2014, simplifying it for fans, competition and the industry, while amplifying the already passionate rivalries between each auto maker.

The new points system -- which applies to all three national series -- mirrors the owner championship points structure. Points will be awarded to the single highest finisher for each car manufacturer in each championship event according to the finishing position awarded for each race. Specifically, in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, points will be awarded as follows (43-1, plus bonus points). Points will be awarded in a similar manner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (43-4, plus bonus points) and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (43-8, plus bonus points).

Three additional bonus points will be awarded to the manufacturer that wins the race. The single highest finisher for each manufacturer will receive one additional bonus point for leading a lap, and one additional bonus point for leading the most laps.

Example: In a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, if a Toyota finishes in each of the top three positions and the winning Toyota leads the most laps, and a Chevrolet finishes in fourth position without leading a lap, Toyota will receive 48 points and Chevrolet will receive 40 points.

"We have always focused on intensifying the natural rivalries between our manufacturers -- both on the race track and in the showroom" said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition and racing development. "We believe aligning the points system with the owner points will create better understanding for the entire industry, and bolster interest and excitement with our fan base, which has shown intense manufacturer loyalty throughout the sport's history."

At the end of the season, if two or more manufacturers have the same number of points, the manufacturers' championship will be awarded to the manufacturer with the greatest number of first-place finishes. If there is a tie in victories, the greatest number of second-place finishes, third-place finishes, etc. will break the tie. If a tie still remains, the manufacturer having the earliest win of the current season will prevail.

The 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season gets underway with The Sprint Unlimited on Saturday, Feb. 15 and the 56th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 23, both at Daytona International Speedway. The Sprint Unlimited will air live at 8 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The Daytona 500 will air live at 1 p.m. ET on FOX, Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Log on to NASCAR.com for additional coverage all season long.

Jeremy Mayfield hasn't had too many victories since his suspension from NASCAR in May 2009.

He got a big one Monday.

Yes, he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors and while he has been convicted, he is a lot better off than the man who faced 21 felony charges across three North Carolina counties since the Nov. 1, 2011 search of his home.

MORE: Mayfield's plea | Drivers with something to prove | Elliott, Earnhardt join forces | Daytona testing sked

The former Sprint Cup star, who was suspended for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy, won't face jail time - his 45-day sentence was suspended as long as he completes 18 months of unsupervised probation.

So now that his legal trouble is behind him, can he race in NASCAR again?

Well, not yet. He must complete the NASCAR Road to Recovery program. He hopes it could be a quick turnaround as other suspended drivers have completed the program in just two months.

But Mayfield's world since 2009 has been anything but normal. And so to apply normal scenarios might be the wrong thing to do.

Consider:

* Mayfield failed a May 1, 2009 drug test that NASCAR said was positive for methamphetamine. He says it was for a mixture of Adderall, which he said he was prescribed, and Claritin-D. Mayfield sued NASCAR to try to get reinstated.

* In July 2009, after Mayfield won an injunction to race, NASCAR wanted to test him again. Mayfield said he couldn't find the lab NASCAR instructed him to go to, so NASCAR sent drug testers to his home, where they watched him pee in a cup. Mayfield then went to LabCorp to get drug tested about one hour after he was tested by NASCAR. The NASCAR test was positive for meth, NASCAR said, while Mayfield produced a report that he said had a clean verdict from LabCorp.

* As part of its defense against a Mayfield lawsuit and in an attempt to have his suspension reinstated, NASCAR got Mayfield's stepmother to sign an affidavit saying he used methamphetamine. Mayfield said it was his stepmother's way of getting back at him and blamed her for contributing to the death of his father, which was ruled a suicide. Mayfield's stepmother, in a deposition in a wrongful-death case Mayfield filed against her, said Mayfield supplied his father with methamphetamine until their relationship soured. Mayfield's estranged stepmother, who at one point was arrested for trespassing on Mayfield's property, sued him for slander. They settled, and Mayfield retracted his comments.

* Mayfield alleged that Brian France disliked him so much that France had him parked during the 2006 Brickyard 400. Mayfield's car owner at the time, Ray Evernham, said he made the decision to park Mayfield.

* It was while Mayfield's lawsuit against NASCAR was pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals that criminal charges were filed against him after his home was searched on Nov. 1, 2011 and he was arrested for possession of methamphetamine for having 1.3 grams on his property. On this charge, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug paraphernalia possession.

* Mayfield's attorney argued that the stolen goods found on Mayfield's property during that search were put there by John K. Franklin, who told police about him and Mayfield stealing from others when his own home was being searched. Based on Franklin's information, police searched Mayfield's property. Some of those goods found were from the same company that reported items stolen on the same day that Mayfield was seen there in the wee hours of the morning. Mayfield said he and his friend were just resting in the cab of a truck from a long trip. Franklin was later killed following a police chase, where he had methamphetamine in his possession.

So Mayfield is either very lucky or very unlucky, depending on how one views all this. He could be viewed as the sympathetic victim of a bizarre series of mistakes made by NASCAR and law enforcement or he could be viewed as a desperate person unwilling to admit his wrongs.

Now NASCAR must step in and decide how to deal with Mayfield.

Mayfield has been a thorn in NASCAR's side since the failed drug test, although his challenge to the suspension actually helped strengthen the policy as NASCAR now has a more detailed protocol.

NASCAR typically doesn't punish drivers who get in trouble with the law except when it comes to drug charges. The question of whether the misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charge would be factored into Mayfield's "Road to Recovery" program remains to be seen. Technically, he could face a lifetime ban as a third violation of the policy, but if NASCAR took that route, it would appear retaliatory for the lawsuit Mayfield filed against NASCAR - or retaliatory for Mayfield alleging that NASCAR worked with authorities to bring the criminal charges against him.

Does Mayfield get credit for being out of the sport for more than four years? Or does he need to take longer to prove himself?

NASCAR needs to treat Mayfield as it would treat anyone else who violates the drug policy. It needs to be satisfied that he is not a danger to others on the racetrack. If it is, then it should reinstate him.

Then it can let nature take its course. NASCAR will certainly give Mayfield a drug test often. And it remains to be seen whether a sponsor would back Mayfield.

It's possible. There could be a feel-good story somewhere for a veteran driver who appeared to be in the final years of his career when initially suspended.

There's a lot going against a 44-year-old driver who has been out of the sport for such a long time. Normally it would make sense to say that Mayfield won't race again in NASCAR. But "Mayfield" and "normal" haven't been used in the same sentence since May 2009.

Mayfield finished another chapter in his life Monday, but if he wants to get back into NASCAR, there are no guarantees that his world will ever be completely normal again.

NEWTON, N.C. - Suspended NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield agreed to a plea deal Monday that will result in no jail time and that he hopes will lead to his eventual reinstatement to racing.

Mayfield faced seven felony charges - one charge of possession of methamphetamine, five charges for possession of stolen goods and one charge of obtaining property under false pretense, all stemming from a Nov. 1, 2011 search of his home. The charges carried more than 20 years in prison.

MORE: Elliott, Earnhardt join forces | Gibbs hires Hornish | Drivers with something to prove

He pleaded guilty Monday in North Carolina Superior Court to three misdemeanors, two for possession of stolen goods and one for possession of drug paraphernalia. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, which will be suspended as long as he doesn't violate an 18-month probation. He also must pay a total of $88,124.41 in restitution to the victims as well as $1,100 in fines and court costs. The guilty plea he entered is known as an Alford plea, one where the defendant admits there is enough evidence to convict although not necessarily admitting to the acts themselves.

"It's been tough," Mayfield said Monday after an appearance in front of Judge Yvonne Mims Evans in Catawba County. "It's been something that has been held over us and we weren't able to move forward and move on with our lives, and that is something that was very important for us to do - keep going and get it behind us. ... I'm looking to start over with a fresh start."

In April, Mayfield unsuccessfully attempted to have the charges thrown out on the basis that confidential informant John K. Franklin - whose information led to the search warrant - died in a motorcycle accident following a police chase in 2012 and had a lengthy criminal record, according to court testimony last year.

Some of the items found in the Nov. 1, 2011, search of Mayfield's former 400-acre property were from burglaries reported by Red Bull Racing and Fitz Motorsports. Other items were furniture from DEA Ventures as well as items from Lincar Investments and from B.R. Lee Industrial Properties, according to indictments, as well as 1.3 grams of methamphetamines.

Less than a year after the search warrant was executed, Franklin died following a high-speed police chase, according to the hearing testimony. Police found methamphetamines and scales in a compartment in Franklin's motorcycle. A passenger on Franklin's motorcycle also was killed.

Prosecutors indicated the death of Franklin resulted in the plea agreement.

"The convictions ... were based on a number of factors, including conversations with the victims and law enforcement in this case, the unavailability of the state's key witness due to his death and the likely result should these cases have been presented to a jury without the witness," Catawba County District Attorney James C. Gaither Jr. said in a statement.

The 44-year-old Mayfield, who has won five Sprint Cup races in 433 career starts and made the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2004-05, still needs to apply for reinstatement to NASCAR. He was trying to run his own team before being suspended in 2009 for what NASCAR said was a positive drug test for methamphetamine. Mayfield argued that the test was a false positive for a mixture of allergy medication and the prescription drug Adderall.

He unsuccessfully sued NASCAR to get reinstated and later alleged that NASCAR worked with authorities on the cases that resulted in his criminal charges.

He has since talked about going through NASCAR's recovery program if that could help him become eligible to race again. He said Monday that he would consider going through the recovery program and did not believe his pleading guilty to misdemeanor drug paraphernalia possession would impact his ability to go through the recovery program.

"I'm not sure what we're going to do now," Mayfield said. "We're going to wake up tomorrow morning and figure that out. ... I'm not sure what I want to do yet. In some way (I want to race). I'm not sure what way yet.

"I love racing. That is what I love to do and what I'd like to do, I'm just not sure to what extent or not really even sure that will be in our future."

In the two years since the search, Mayfield's wife filed for bankruptcy and the couple had to move from the property. Their house recently was burned by the new owners.

Mayfield did not comment when asked about where he would get the money to pay the victims. He had to pay $60,000 on Monday afternoon and must pay the remainder Tuesday. The stolen goods found on Mayfield's property had already been returned to their owners.

Mayfield's attorney David Freedman said Mayfield agreed to pay restitution to the victims so they would be taken care of and everyone can move on.

"The only people who've been hurt by this, by Mr. Franklin's actions, are going to be taken care of by Mr. Mayfield," Freedman said.

Mayfield originally faced charges in two other North Carolina counties. The charges in Iredell County had previously been dropped and the charges in Caldwell County were dropped Monday as part of the plea deal.

Before every race, NASCAR drivers and crew members go through a certain amount of conditioning to close up any potential gaps in performance. In a novel turn last season, tracks began to undergo their own form of pre-race conditioning. To carry the analogy one step further, drivers and crew members have personal trainers and fitness coaches in their corner for motivation. Tracks? They have Air Titan.

"You'll see the difference -- there'll be a noticeable difference on the track."

-- Jerry Kaproth, NASCAR's manager of race track infrastructure

The bonus facet of NASCAR's evolutionary track-drying system came to light last season as an additional form of track preparation. The asphalt conditioning process and the next phase of the Air Titan dryer were focal points of the three-day NASCAR Track Services Summit, which wrapped up Tuesday in Concord, N.C. Jerry Kaproth, NASCAR's manager of race track infrastructure, said the feedback from pre-race conditioning in the handful of applications last season has been overwhelmingly positive. He recounted that after the process was complete at Phoenix International Raceway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick approached NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby to say they could feel the difference. "They said, 'whatever you did, we could see it right away,' " Kaproth recalled. NASCAR.com rode along with the lead truck of the Air Titan convoy before season-ending events in November at Homestead-Miami Speedway to gain more insight into the track conditioning system. The low-speed ride failed to register on the truck's speedometer, but was nevertheless instrumental in getting the 1.5-mile speedway in peak condition to crown champions in NASCAR's three national divisions. In basic terms, the process uses the Air Titan's normal setup, but a water truck rides in front, wetting the track. The water loosens any debris or residue on the surface, helping the Air Titan's powerful vacuum to clean the track. The resulting combination of dirt, sand, debris and water gradually fills the Air Titan's collection tanks with what Kaproth calls a broth-like mixture. Kaproth said his team sent samples of the mix to the National Center for Asphalt Technology at Auburn University for analysis to get a better handle on the process. "It came back slag aggregate, meaning it does have some asphalt component but it's just junk that sits on top of the road that is loose already," Kaproth said. "We're just cleaning out the pores. Now that we know what it is, we just have a vacuum sweeper pick it up and dump it on the apron." The system is more effective than in previous years, where a jet dryer would simply blow off the track. The new process has helped the track surface take rubber faster, causing an uptick in early practice speeds. "It looks likes where we've done (conditioning), they've been running faster quicker," Kaproth said. "Instead of taking that first practice session to fiddle around, they're coming right at it." At Homestead, Air Titan driver Rob Angle led the conditioning charge on the eve of on-track activity. Though his speed never reached more than 5 mph, his task required continual radio communication with the other vehicles around him -- the water truck and the tractor-trailer carrying the collection tanks. A video camera facing backward helped Angle guide the white Ford pickup, working his way down in 9-foot swipes from the top groove against the outside retaining wall toward the inside of the track, much like a Zamboni would clear an ice rink. The difference was that the truck's windshield wipers were in continual motion to combat the excess spray from the water vacuum, forcing Angle to use visual cues -- asphalt seams or painted lines on the track -- to navigate the circuit. Other visual cues make it clear that the process is working. Before and after pictures of the track reveal a much lighter shade of asphalt after the cleaning. Even more noticeable is the grime that accumulates on the Air Titan truck's white paint. "You can see all the dirt on the vehicle," Angle said. "(At Phoenix) when we went out, the truck was white like this one here. When we came back, it was as black as that track. It was pretty nasty." Not every track will get the conditioning treatment in 2014; Kaproth said each race is considered on a case-by-case basis. But the next evolution of the Air Titan system may make the process much more efficient as the season progresses. Kaproth said a new, self-contained "Air Titan 2.0" could be ready by spring. He also said that his team has worked with innovation partner Sportvision to map out preferred grooves in past races. Using those coordinates, Kaproth's infrastructure team can tailor-condition tracks with the goal of widening the racing line and facilitating side-by-side racing. The technology has come a long way from the days when the only track sweeping was done with brooms. "We have all the parts and pieces," Kaproth said. "You'll see the difference -- there'll be a noticeable difference on the track."

Commentary

Kelley Earnhardt Miller knows the predatory nature of the sponsor business. So the vice president of JR Motorsports knew she would be among many opportunists attempting to exploit for her team the aftermath of NAPA's decision to leave NASCAR following Michael Waltrip Racing's race-manipulation scandal last September at Richmond International Raceway.

There were probably 30 among them, she said. Thirty if her counterparts were doing their jobs.

But JRM had some advantages.

Earnhardt Miller and her brother and team co-owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr., had history with the auto parts retailer from their time together -- including two Waltrip Daytona 500 wins -- at now-defunct Dale Earnhardt Inc. They had the lure of a promising young driver, also with a reverberant and respected last name, in Chase Elliott, whom the team hoped to field for a full-time Nationwide Series program this season. That Elliott is technically signed to a developmental deal with mighty Hendrick Motorsports could not have hurt.

And Elliott is the son of 1988 Sprint Cup champion Bill Elliott, who was voted NASCAR's most popular driver 16 times until being supplanted by Earnhardt Jr. And the Elliotts reside in Georgia, near NAPA's Atlanta headquarters.

Still, NAPA needed a little more. In the wake of the Richmond incident, it needed an assurance, even in a sport borne of outlaws and bred on pushing boundaries, of good citizenship. At least better. As in, don't try to rig the playoffs.

"They were going through a lot of different scenarios themselves as to where they stood within the sport," Earnhardt Miller said on Monday after JRM announced a multiyear deal with NAPA to field a full-time entry with Elliott in the Nationwide Series this season. "So this situation really kind of came together for us in the last 30 days full force, and to really get serious about it, we had to stand up to a lot of different things for NAPA as they have very high standards.

"We had to prove to them that we are going to go out and do what we said we could do and be a great representative for them."

Earnhardt Jr. concurred, saying in the team release: "I recognize -- and I think Chase does, too -- the responsibility that comes with representing a company so significant in the lives of NASCAR fans. We welcome the opportunity and appreciate what NAPA means to this sport."

Ultimately, JRM offers NAPA a place to cleanse itself of the stain of the MWR scandal while remaining in a series it has used as a ubiquitous marketing platform for 19 years. And in doing so in NASCAR's second-tier developmental series, it offered the opportunity at a marked discount over 33 races than its 36-points event Sprint Cup sponsorship, most recently last season with Martin Truex Jr. That was simply a bonus.

"NAPA has invested so much into the sport over the years that it makes sense to continue to be part of it," said Ramsey Poston, president of Tuckahoe Strategies, a strategic communications firm specializing in public relations.

NAPA officials refused interview requests on what they felt was a day of potential mixed reaction, but company president Dan Askey expressed in the release his belief that Elliott "will represent NAPA well both on and off the track."

NAPA's departure from the sport -- one year into a three-year renewal -- had cost NASCAR another rare full-time sponsor and was devastating to MWR, more punitive by far than the stoutest penalty in series history, $300,000 and 50-point penalties to Truex, Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers.

Truex went from an apparent unwitting beneficiary of a scheme to successfully land him a Chase for the Championship spot to unemployed -- with roughly a third of the company's employees -- as his program was shuttered without sponsorship, before he landed with the one-car Furniture Row Racing this season. MWR's other sponsors remained after initially following NAPA's lead of harshly chastising MWR via social media and press release.

How do you like @chaseelliott's No. 9 @napaknowhow ride? #NAPA9 pic.twitter.com/1ipFhReUq2

NAPA officials, according to sources, did not come bounding back to a sport where its image had been sullied. Its path to JRM was likely made a bit more precarious when Elliott's apparent second victory in the prestigious Snowball Derby late-model race in December was disallowed after his car was found to be carrying illegal tungsten ballast. That infraction wasn't Richmond-caliber, but it existed. With nearly two decades of time, energy and cash already invested in NASCAR, NAPA officials surely understand that their representatives will eventually run afoul of rules again. Doing so is a matter of millimeters at times, and MWR set a high bar for chicanery.

But rejoining the series with a wildly popular owner and a wildly promising 18-year-old driver campaigning a car bearing a No. 9 so associated with his father should offer some assurances and cover. The Earnhardts and the Elliotts speak of legacy and respect and have seen how they can be earned, squandered and nurtured.

Just like precious sponsor dollars. Earnhardt Miller went after both.

"Our role was to try to find sponsorship, and we knew at that point that we had the opportunity to put Chase in a car if we could come up with the right sponsorship scenario in working with Hendrick Motorsports," Earnhardt Miller said. "Of course we sent them a note, a proposal. ... It was an easy note to send from the standpoint of Hendrick Motorsports and JR Motorsports."

And considering all the factors, an easy one for NAPA.

Contributor, espnW.com