NASCAR's David Ragan lands with Front Row Motorsports

NASCAR driver David Ragan, released by Roush Fenway Racing after last season, landed a job for this year with the two-car team of Front Row Motorsports.

The 26-year-old Ragan will drive the No. 34 Ford for Front Row, whose other driver is Riverside native David Gilliland, who pilots the team's No. 38 Ford.

Ragan, a Georgia native, captured his first Sprint Cup Series win last July in the summer race at Daytona International Speedway, but he was let go after his primary sponsor, UPS, reduced its backing. 

Roush Fenway's remaining three primary Cup drivers are Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.

"I think [Front Row] appreciates what I can bring to the table, and I think it's a good opportunity for both of us," Ragan said in a statement Monday.

Team owner Bob Jenkins said sponsorship for the two cars was "being finalized and will be announced soon."

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Drivers David Ragan, right, and Trevor Bayne look over data during testing at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on Oct. 20, 2011. Credit: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images

NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Matt Kenseth: Pay up on bet

Drivers took their first test laps Thursday in preparation for the Daytona 500 next month, but NASCAR's silly season wasn't quite yet over.

In between practice laps, Dale Earnhardt Jr. joked with reporters at Daytona International Speedway that after fellow Sprint Cup Series driver Matt Kenseth showed up at his '70s-themed New Year's Eve party with a beard, Earnhardt bet him $2,500 that Kenseth could not keep the facial hair until this week's test sessions.

"We actually sent a few texts back and forth to confirm the bet, and he shaved his beard," Earnhardt said. "I told him to go to the bank, but maybe he forgot. I want my $2,500."

When Kenseth met with reporters later Thursday, the bet was the first question.

Kenseth said he thought he could keep the beard long enough to win the wager, only to find out this week "you've got to do a photo here and you've got to do this interview and do a photo shoot there. So I guess I lost."

Added Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion: "I'll try to scrounge [the money] up somewhere, I guess."

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-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Dale Earnhard Jr. talks to the media Thursday at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images

Danica Patrick to make NASCAR Sprint Cup debut at Daytona 500

Danica Patrick plans to make her debut in NASCAR's premier Sprint Cup Series at the sport's crown-jewel race, the Daytona 500, next Feb. 26 and is eyeing a possible full-time Cup ride in 2013.

Patrick, 29,will drive the No. 10 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, the team co-owned by two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart.

Patrick just finished her full-time career in the Izod IndyCar Series, in which she won one race in seven years, to drive full-time in NASCAR stock-car racing.

In an announcement at Texas Motor Speedway, site of the next Cup race Sunday, Stewart-Haas and Patrick said she would drive a total of 10 Cup races next year while also competing all season in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series.

Besides Daytona, Patrick's Cup schedule includes Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Dover (Del.) International Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway.

Her two other Cup appearances will be determined later.

"Our goal with Danica's schedule is to try and maximize her 10 races with us so that she's as prepared as she can possibly be for a full-time Sprint Cup schedule in 2013," Stewart said in a statement.

Patrick, who is driving in this Saturday's Nationwide race at Texas, also said her helmet and race car would carry paint schemes honoring two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, who was killed last month in an IndyCar race in Las Vegas.

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Danica Patrick and team co-owner Tony Stewart unveil Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series during an event at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday. Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images

NASCAR from Daytona to Irwindale on tap for July 4 weekend

Most major motor-racing series are idle over the July 4 weekend, but NASCAR's top series returns to its most famous track, Daytona International Speedway, on Saturday night while one of its minor-league series does the same at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Carl Edwards leads the field for the Coke Zero 400 at the high-banked, 2.5-mile Daytona super-speedway.

Drivers again are expected to pair up in two-car drafts as they did in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February, when Trevor Bayne, who had just turned 20, won the race in a huge upset.

Bakersfield native Kevin Harvick, who won the July race at Daytona a year ago, is in second place in the Cup standings, 25 points behind Edwards, and reigning champion Jimmie Johnson is 33 points behind in third.

NASCAR's second-level Nationwide Series also is racing at Daytona on Friday night, where Danica Patrick will again take a weekend off from her IndyCar schedule to drive in a Nationwide event.

Patrick already has driven in more than a dozen NASCAR races and there is widespread speculation that Patrick will leave IndyCar next season to race stock cars full-time.

Also on Saturday night, the half-mile Irwindale track near the intersection of the 605 and 210 freeways will host NASCAR K&N Pro Series West drivers in the Southern California Toyota Dealers 200.

Greg Pursley of Newhall leads the K&N Pro Series West title standings after winning four of the series' first six races this season.

The Izod IndyCar Series, the NHRA Full Throttle drag-racing series and Formula One are all off this weekend.

When they resume July 10, IndyCar will race on the streets of Toronto, the NHRA will be in Joliet, Ill., and Formula One will be at the Silverstone circuit for the British Grand Prix.

-- Jim Peltz

Photo: Trevor Bayne, front, leads Carl Edwards, David Gilliland and Bobby Labonte to win the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20. Credit: Glenn Smith/Associated Press 

Carl Edwards wins pole for NASCAR race in Phoenix in record time

Carl Edwards won the pole position Saturday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, where Edwards won the most recent Cup race last November.

Edwards turned a lap of 137.279 mph in his No. 99 Ford on the one-mile oval, breaking the prior PIR qualifying record of 136.389 mph he set before the November race.

 Kurt Busch qualified second and will start alongside Edwards on the front row. Kasey Kahne was third and Kyle Busch, Kurt's younger brother, was fourth.

Trevor Bayne, the 20-year-old surprise winner of last weekend's Daytona 500, qualified 33rd in the 43-car field. Dale Earnhart Jr., a two-time winner at Phoenix, was 35th.

Edwards is on a roll. He won the final two races last season, including the Phoenix race, then finished second to Bayne in the Daytona 500.

Photo: NASCAR driver Carl Edwards sits in his car Saturday before winning the pole for Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Riverside's David Gilliland again tastes NASCAR success -- for now

 

When 20-year-old Trevor Bayne crossed the finish line for his stunning Daytona 500 win, a few yards behind him in third was another one-time NASCAR Cinderella story, David Gilliland of Riverside.

Gilliland, 34, teamed up with Carl Edwards on the last lap and both charged to the front, but Bayne blocked them to become the youngest Daytona 500 winner in history.

Still, "it was a huge day" for Gilliland and his Front Row Motorsports team, Gilliland said Friday as he prepared for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' next race, the Subway Fresh Fit 500 on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.

It was Gilliland's first top-five finish since 2008. He has yet to win a Cup race.

"We're definitely not the highest-funded team out there . . . but we've got great equipment and great motors this year and we're going to make the most of it," Gilliland said of his No. 34 Ford.

Once an obscure short-track driver in California, Gilliland got his break in 2006 with an upset win in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series (then called the Busch Series) in Kentucky in only his seventh series start. A few months later, having advanced to the Cup series, he won the pole for the Daytona 500 in 2007.

Gilliland largely has struggled ever since for several different owners. But he said Friday his confidence wasn't shaken.

"I feel like I'm the best driver I've ever been right now and feel like we're ready to take advantage of any opportunity that comes our way," he said, adding that his "realistic" goal this season was to finish in the top 20 in championship points.

"I'm excited to come back here to Phoenix," Gilliland said. "This is a track where I've had a lot of success in other series."

-- Jim Peltz in Avondale, Ariz.

Photos: (Top) Trevor Bayne beats Carl Edwards, second from right, David Gilliland, left, and Bobby Labonte, right, to the finish line to win the Daytona 500 last Sunday. Credit: David Graham / Associated Press. (Bottom) David Gilliland at media day at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 10. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas / US Presswire

NASCAR's Martin Truex Jr. leads Daytona 500 at halfway point

Martin Truex Jr. led the Daytona 500 at the halfway point of the 200-lap race after an early multi-car crash ruined the chances of several of the leading drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

But several other drivers were less than one second behind Truex in the series' season opener at Daytona International Speedway, including Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya and his teammate and defending Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was running 14th but was only two seconds behind the leader.

Californian Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, his teammate at Richard Childress Racing, both were knocked out of the race with blown engines. Harvick won the Daytona 500 in 2007.

This year's Daytona 500 was unlike any other, owing mainly to the track being repaved during the off-season. Teams discovered that two cars, and only two cars, drafting nose to tail on the new, smooth surface was the fastest way to get around the high-banked speedway.

As a result, the leaders were bunched in two-car pairs as opposed to the multi-car packs that were the trademark at Daytona in previous years.

But the big pack of cars still prevailed in the middle of the field, and several contenders running in midpack lost their chance to win the 500 when they were part of the 14-car crash on Lap 29.

The drivers involved included reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and his teammates Jeff Gordon -- a three-time Daytona 500 winner -- along with Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip and his teammate David Reutimann.

Johnson and Gordon returned the race after repairs but were several laps behind the leaders.

-- Jim Peltz, reporting from Daytona Beach, Fla.

Photo: Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 56 Toyota is followed by Carl Edwards in the No. 99 Ford during the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Credit: Jerry Lai / US Presswire

Huge crash early in Daytona 500 collects 14 NASCAR drivers

The "Big One" struck early in the Daytona 500 on Sunday when the cars of 14 drivers -- including reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson and his teammate Jeff Gordon -- were involved in a crash on the 29th lap of the 200-lap race.

Martin Martin, another teammate of Johnson's at Hendrick Motorsports, also was involved at the melee at Daytona International Speedway, as were Brian Vickers, Greg Biffle, Marcos Ambrose, Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann, among others.

Johnson and Gordon were among the drivers whose crews were frantically repairing their cars, hoping to at least finish the season-opening race, but their hopes of winning were finished.

The crash started when Waltrip, Reutimann's team owner and former Daytona 500 winner, tapped the back of Reutimann's Toyota and sent it spinning directly in front of a pack of other cars.

Defending Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray was leading, followed by his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.

Kevin Harvick, the Bakersfield native who won the Daytona 500 in 2007, was knocked out of the race on lap 22 when his No. 29 Chevrolet suffered a blown engine.

The race opened with a moment of silence -- except for the roaring engines of the 43 cars as they barreled around the 2.5-mile speedway -- on the third lap in remembrance of Dale Earnhardt, who died 10 years ago in his iconic No. 3 Chevrolet on the last lap of the Daytona 500.

Under breezy, postcard-perfect conditions, those in the crowd of more than 175,000 also held up three fingers during the lap in tribute to the seven-time Cup champion. Then they cheered as the cars crossed the start-finish line to start the fourth lap.

--Jim Peltz, reoorting from Daytona Beach, Fla.

Photo: Several cars are sent spinning and colliding during a 14-car accident on the 29th lap of the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas / US Presswire