On Thursday afternoon, NASCAR announced that Todd Parrott, crew chief of the No. 43 Smithfield Foods

Darrell Wallace, Jr. etched his name in the NASCAR history book under two different columns on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway. Wallace took the checkered flag first to become the second African-American driver in the history of NASCAR to win a National touring series race, and the first to win a Truck Series race. He is also the second graduate virtual tour homes of NASCAR s Drive for Diversity to win a national touring race, following Kyle Larson s victory at Rockingham Speedway earlier this season.
virtual tour homes Wallace led a race-high 96 laps en route to his win. He led three times including the final 50 laps. Wallace outran Brendan Gaughan, Jeb Burton, Ben Kennedy and Ryan Blaney to secure his win. The average age of the top 5 at Martinsville was 23.8 with four of the five drivers being under 22 years of age. Wallace is the second non-Cup driver to win in a Kyle Busch Motorsports truck following Brian Scott s win at Phoenix last season.
Denny Hamlin will start on the pole for Sunday s Goody s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway after setting a new track record with a lap time of 19.013 seconds, good for a speed of 99.595 MPH . Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch ran identical second-place times of 190.61 seconds. Johnson will start on the front row after winning the tie-breaker, car owner points, where Johnson currently sits first. Busch will start third, and Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer round out the top 5. Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick complete the top 10.
In all, 18 drivers broke the previous track record, set in the spring race this year by Johnson. Bowyer broke the 100 MPH mark in practice, but no driver was able to duplicate that in time trials. The Sprint Cup drivers will have a pair of practice sessions on Saturday before Sunday s 500-lap event.
Seven Chase drivers qualified inside the top 10, and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Carl Edwards clocked in in 12th and 14th, respectively. Other Chase drivers include Ryan Newman (17th), Kasey Kahne (25th), and Greg Biffle (33rd).
Hamlin wasn t done after his Sprint Cup qualifying effort. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series drivers took their time trials after the Cup teams had their shot, and Hamlin duplicated his earlier effort, snagging the pole for the Kroger 250 in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports entry. Johnny Sauter, Darrell Wallace, Jr., Ron Hornaday, Jr., and Ty Dillon round out the top 5 for Saturday s race.
NASCAR announced the 2014 Camping World Truck Series schedule today at Martinsville Speedway. The series will run 22 events in 2014 starting at Daytona on February 21st and concluding at Homestead on November 14th. The schedule includes stops at New Hampshire Motorspeedway and Gateway Motorsports Park next year. The series will once again turn right and left at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park along with slinging mud for the second consecutive year at Eldora Speedway.
NASCAR announced on Wednesday that Corey LaJoie has been placed virtual tour homes on probation after posting an inappropriate tweet on Twitter last week. He will have to attend sensitivity training as prescribed by NASCAR .
In their statement, NASCAR stated that LaJoie is being penalized for "an insensitive and intolerable communication" posted on Twitter on October 15. The tweet, which has since been deleted, suggested that the Transportation Safety Administration ( TSA ) should conduct virtual tour homes a cavity search on a man wearing a turban.
"I am very sorry for those offended by my recent virtual tour homes remark," virtual tour homes LaJoie tweeted. "It was an immature insensitive comment. I am upset with myself and how this has affected what has been a very positive year in my career."
This incident marks the second time this season that NASCAR has penalized a driver for comments on social virtual tour homes media. virtual tour homes Earlier this season, Nelson Piquet, Jr. was forced to attend sensitivity training after using a homophobic slur in the comments section of an Instagram picture that Parker Kligerman posted.
Last week, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush Fenway Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing planned virtual tour homes a three-day test at Texas Motor Speedway in order to prepare for the AAA Texas 500, which will be run on November 3rd. However, the entire test was washed out due to rain on both Monday virtual tour homes and Tuesday. Richard Childress Racing was already scheduled to hold a two-day test this Tuesday and Wednesday, by themselves, but they were now joined by the other four teams, creating a large-scale test session. For the most part, it was a very good practice for all teams involved.
virtual tour homes Kenseth's test at Texas lasted a grand total of nine laps on Tuesday before he blew a tire and crashed hard into the wall. Afterwards, the No. 20 team packed up and returned to North Carolina, leaving the title contender none too pleased.
Kenseth's issues were the only tire failure issues encountered during the three-day test. However, the test did show that tire wear could be an issue. The tire compound, already set by Goodyear is actually wearing quite a bit on the 1.5 mile quad-oval. Kevin Harvick stated that the tires on his No. 29 would completely wear out after 35-40 laps, which is short of a full fuel run. The tires that will be used in Texas are the same compound that was used in April. There were no tire failures during the race then. However, it's not all bad. Carl Edwards seemed to like the rubber.
virtual tour homes "Next Sunday is going to be a really great race and it's because of that racetrack," said Edwards. "It's because right now, you can drive in the corner, turn that car sideways and either run the very bottom or you can run right up against the fence and the track is taking rubber. Whatever is going on with the Goodyear tire and the way that this asphalt at Texas has aged, it's letting the rubber stick to the racetrack. As it sticks to the racetrack, that part of the track gets slick so people move up and find different grooves and then, when it all gets slick, it starts over again and everyone goes back to the bottom. This is the type of racing that I like to participate in and I hope the fans enjoy it. That's rare right now with all the new surfaces out there. This is as good as it gets."
Since NASCAR instituted their current Substance Abuse Policy at the start of the 2009 season, we ve seen a number of people working in the sport fail drug tests and get suspended. The most notable suspension occurred when Jeremy Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamine and was suspended virtual tour homes hours before the Southern 500 at Darlington, which created a complete circus.
On Thursday virtual tour homes afternoon, NASCAR announced that Todd Parrott, crew chief of the No. 43 Smithfield Foods Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports, has been suspended indefinitely for violating NASCAR s Substance Abuse Policy. He is the first Sprint Cup crew chief to be suspended for violating the policy.
virtual tour homes In their press release, NASCAR stated that Parrott was in violation of Sections 12-1 (Actions Detrimental to Stock Car Racing) and 19 (Substance Abuse Policy) of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rule Book. In addition, it appears that NASCAR was very quick to enact punishment as the suspension virtual tour homes was handed down the same day (October 17) as the infraction was discovered, which is a little unusual.
We have an expectation of all RPM employees to conduct themselves at the highest level of professionalism and within the competitive confines as set forth by NASCAR , said Sammy Johns, RPM s Vice President of Operations and Competition. We are very disappointed that one of our employees did not meet our expectations and we completely support NASCAR , their policies and final decisions when it comes to the Substance Abuse Policy.
Johns, a former Sprint Cup crew chief in his own right (most notably with MB2 Motorsports), will take over as Aric Almirola virtual tour homes s crew chief starting this weekend at Talladega and will remain in the position for the foreseeable future.
One former Sprint Cup veteran will get another shot at the sport s top level while another sits on the sidelines with health virtual tour homes issues. Elliott Sadler, Brian Vickers teammate virtual tour homes this season with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Nationwide Series will fill in for the ailing virtual tour homes driver in Cup for the final four races this season. Sadler, who will drive Michael virtual tour homes Waltrip Racing s No. 55 Aaron s Toyota takes over the seat beginning next Sunday at Martinsville.
Sadler s partnership with MWR is a bit intriguing considering he was an original driver picked, back in 2012 to run the No. 55. Back then, Mark Martin was competing in the majority of races but no longer wanted full-time work; Sadler was the number virtual tour homes one pick to fill out the schedule. virtual tour homes However, his association with both Richard Childress Racing and Chevrolet, at the time nixed the deal as they didn t want him running for a different manufacturer on the Cup level. (Sadler, back then was running for a Nationwide Series title in RCR s No. 2 Chevrolet). As a last-ditch option, MWR turned to Vickers whose performances in the last two seasons have earned him the ride full-time virtual tour homes beginning in 2014.
Sadler has three wins in 431 career starts on the Cup level. He earned a 40th-place finish in his lone Cup start this season, crashing out in a No. 81 fourth Joe Gibbs Racing entry at Kansas back in April.
After Michael Waltrip Racing announced they would cut down to two full-time cars (Nos. 15 and 55), plus a currently unnumbered R D team for 2014, Martin Truex, Jr. and crew chief Chad Johnston were released from their contracts effective the end of November. Truex had already been told that he could look elsewhere and if he found a better deal, MWR would not stand in the way.
With the No. 56 team officially done for 2014, it didn't take all that long for Truex to land somewhere virtual tour homes else in the Sprint Cup garage. FOXS ports.com's Lee Spencer is reporting that Truex signed a contract that will see him move over to the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet starting with the 2014 season. Truex would replace Kurt Busch, who previously announced a move to a new, currently unnumbered fourth car from Ste