The Palms Casino in Las Vegas will host Michael Waltrip's Celebrity poker Tournament on January 31st at 7pm. Featured in the tournament will be NASCAR drivers Michael Waltrip, Kyle Petty, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Elliott Sadler, Casey Mears and Dale Jarrett. Proceeds will benefit The Victory Junction Gang Camp.

Bill Elliott plans on racing a bit more this year compared with 2004. He hopes to run 10-12 events this year and he's starting with the Bud Shootout behind the wheel of the #39 Coors Dodge with a paint scheme the looks like his car from 1985. Chip Ganassi is fielding the shootout car for him, but Bill will run most of the races with Evernham Motorsports.

Jan 20, 2005

Kyle Petty finally has a crew chief for his #45 Dodge. Paul Andrews will head up the Georgia-Pacific Cup car this year. He won the championship with Alan Kulwicki in 1992 and has 12 wins, over 75 top 5's, and 150 top 10 finishes.

Carl Edwards #99 team picked up another sponsor to go along with Office Depot. The Auto Club Group in the midwest has signed on to be the primary for 3 races this year. Since they're based in Michigan, they'll be on the car for both of those races, as well as Chicagoland.

Hendrick Motorsports announced that two drivers will split the duties for the #5 Busch Series car. Open wheel stars Blake Feese and Boston Reid will wheel the car for a minimum of 13 races each and will instead compete to win the owners championship this year. Kyle Busch will also drive the car in select races.

PRESEASON THUNDER
Joe Nemechek and Scott Riggs dominated the speed charts again in the morning practice session.

In the afternoon the top 5 looked like this.
Jimmie Johnson, Robby Gordon, Joe Nemechek, Johnny Sauter, and Scott Riggs was on top with a speed of 186.097mph

Jan 19, 2005

Robby Gordon Motorsports announced yesterday that Fruit of the Loom is making the move to the Cup series for 9 races in 2005. They will also sponsor Robby for 1 Busch Series races as well at Daytona. His Cup debut with them will be in the #7 on April 3rd at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Lucas Oil Products is on board to sponsor the #4 Morgan McClure Motorsports Cup car for the entire 2005 season. Now they just need a driver to make it go in circles.

NASCAR has introduced a new Hologram program in order to fight piracy of their license merchandise. The hologram will allow you the fan an easy way to see if what you are buying is the real deal.

Jeff Gordon will again co-host 'Live with Regis and Kelly' on January 26-27th. Jeff is a veteran host of the show already with 5 times under his belt. This time he's on board for 2 shows in a row with Kelly Ripa.

PRESEASON THUNDER
In the morning session yesterday the top two teams were teammates. Scott Riggs was fastest at 185.109mph, and Joe Nemechek was second with a speed of 184.816mph.

In the afternoon session Joe was on top of the speed charts, and Riggs was second.

Jan 18, 2005

Robby Gordon ended up finishing 12th in the Dakar Rally driving his VW Tourag. Robby won 2 of the 16 stages during the race, but had multiple problems and was 21 hours behind the winner.

Fox Television will broadcast the first points race ever outside the U.S.. The Mexico 200 Busch Series race goes down on March 6th at 3pm Eastern.

Watkins Glen International is getting a $4.5 million upgrades, which includes changing all the tire barriers, fencing and widening of some areas. Many of the changes came from the Indy Racing League who will race there for the first time later this year, but NASCAR will benefit from these changes as well.

This weeks schedule at Daytona International includes Cup cars that finished with even owners points last year (like Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, and Matt Kenseth) The Busch Series get the track starting next weekend.

Jan 17, 2004

Roush Racing has two primary sponsors for their new truck series driver Todd Kluever and the #50 Ford F150. First is World Financial Group which will be on the truck for 15 races this year, and the second is Shell Rotella T will ride on the truck for 10 races.

Terry Labonte has been chosen to be inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame. The Texas native will be entered during a ceremony on April 14th at the Texas Motor Speedway. The Iceman will only be running in 10 races this year, and Kyle Busch has take over the #5 ride full time for 2005.

PRESEASON THUNDER | CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES.

The track saw a rain out on Saturday, and an extended session was allowed last night. NASCAR is also allowing teams to get some track time today to make up from Saturday.

This weeks schedule at Daytona International includes Cup cars that finished with even owners points last year (like Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, and Tony Stewart) Jan 22-24 The Busch Series get the track starting next weekend.