As the checkered flag waves over the Nextel Cup finale at Miami-Homestead Speedway on Sunday, some 400 racing stock cars will flood the market, as they will no longer be eligible to compete in NASCAR’s premier series. Today’s Car of Tomorrow becomes the official vehicle for what will be known in 2008 as the Sprint Cup series. Principal market for these used racers is the ARCA RE/MAX Series, which, for this reason, should enjoy an improved look come the ’08 season. Savvy team owner Richard Childress isn’t selling all his old Cup cars, keeping some to use in developing drivers from the Busch East and other area series. Childress said prices have suddenly dropped as low as $30,000 for a race-ready Cup car. And Chevy’s latest RO7 engine has left teams with a surfeit of the older, no-longer desired, SB2 engines. Childress said he is now faced with getting rid of 150 of the old SB2 units. Small-time teams are hoping that reports of a coming new series using cast-off Cup cars are more than just a rumor. However, some team owners remind us that many parts on current Cup cars can be used on the Car of Tomorrow, which will be standard equipment at all Cup tracks next year. Some teams with ample garage space say they will store unusable and unsold cars in hopes they appreciate in value for eventual sale to collectors.  

Back in the 1950s, when Vince Piggins was running things racing at Hudson (before his switch to Chevrolet) a race-ready Twin-H Power Hudson Hornet could be ordered from the Hudson Motor Car Co. at low prices. Can’t recall if race-ready Corvettes were ever available from Chevrolet during the Corvette Challenge years, but the Ford Motor Co. is now offering Mustangs, specially built for racing in one of its factories. Price for an FR500S racing Mustang, which is the official mount for the newly announced Ford Racing Mustang Challenge series, is $75,000. We’re told 77 examples of this new FR500S have already been built and are getting racing seats, shoulder harnesses etc. at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. Other race-ready Mustangs which can be ordered at Ford dealerships include the FR500GT — for Rolex Grand-Am competition — and the FR500GT3 for European FIA GT3 racing.

A remembrance of the life of Shav Glick, the late Los Angeles Times sportswriter, will be held this Friday, the 16th from 3 to 5 p.m. in the main lounge of the Athenaeum at Caltech, 551 South Hill Ave. Pasadena, Calif. All are invited.

Fans of sports-car racing should know that every Wednesday afternoon Speed Channel airs races taped at the SCCA’s National Road Racing championships recently conducted at Heartland Park in Topeka. The weekly Wednesday afternoon airings are scheduled to continue through mid-January.

It was a busy — but quiet — Sunday at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway as Indy 500 winners Al Unser, Sr. and his older brother Bobby participated in a Meet & Greet session organized by New Mexico governor Bill Richardson as part of his Richardson for President campaign.

Dan Wheldon’s “Victory Doughnut,” the tire marks left on the Indianapolis Speedway’s racing surface after his 2005 Indy 500 triumph, are the basis for an exhibit of interest at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Artist Ingrid Calame, with the help of a 12-person team, expanded the concept of Wheldon’s skid marks into a series of large-scale drawings and paintings entitled “Traces of the Indianapolis Speedway,” now on exhibit through March 16,  2008. The exhibit touches on many of the best Indy 500s on record and includes pit stops and crashes. The museum is at 4000 Michigan Road and admission is free. 

Kyle Busch isn’t looking at “vacation time” after the Nextel Cup season ends with Sunday’s Homestead, Fla., race. Busch will tow his personal late model to Pensacola, Fla., for the 40th annual Snowball Derby in early December.

Eyes always open. Chip Ganassi, who with Felix Sabates owns teams that race in Nextel Cup, Busch GN and Grand Am, has signed Englishman Alex Lloyd to a driving contract. Lloyd, who won eight of his 16 starts on his way to the 2007 Indy Pro Series championship, is expected to partner Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon on Ganassi’s 2008 Indy Racing League team.

Wrong medicine. The cholesterol-lowering drug driver Bill Elliott was taking is now being blamed for his 1993 competitive downturn. Elliott recently said he felt much better after getting off the drug, and that his racing suddenly improved.

For many years auto race lovers have looked forward with great interest to the Thanksgiving night midget racing classic that the late oil magnate Earl Gilmore initiated in 1934 at his built-for-midgets Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles. Over the years this great off-season event has moved from So-Cal track to So-Cal track, and this year returns to the banked and paved Irwindale Speedway. But on the dirt oval at California’s Willow Springs Raceway near Rosamond, the vintage midgets of the WRA will see action on Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Now that NASCAR crew chief Tony Eury, Jr. left DEI early for Hendrick Motorsports and a job overseeing the car Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will drive next year, he was asked if there were notable team-to-team differences. “Yeah,” Eury replied, “There’s lots more people here and I now wear my shirt tucked in. I also got a haircut,” he said at the recent Atlanta test of his new No. 88 Chevy.

It’s only money. Before the recent Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta, which he won, NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson announced he would give his prize money to the American Red Cross to benefit those Californians affected by wildfires that spread havoc in his home state. His No. 48 Kobalt Chevy won $349,561. Name drivers usually get 50% of the prize money when their car wins, 40% otherwise. At least, that’s the way it used to be.

National Speed Sport News can not only be seen, but heard on the Internet. Thanks to an arrangement with RaceFanRadio.com, National Speed Sport News reporters, including staffers Mike Kerchner, John Clayton, Sheena Baker and Liz Mellott can be heard reporting auto racing news on the National Speed Sport News report, which airs hourly on RaceFanRadio.com.

Old friend Tim Sullivan is recovering in Daytona’s Halifax Hospital following a bout with pneumonia. Get well soon, Tim.