BEACH PARTY

Juan Pablo Montoya teamed with Scott Pruett and Salvador Duran to win the Rolex 24 at Daytona in his first attempt, overshadowing Pruett, who won for the first time after many years of competing in the twice-around-the-clock event.

CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS: Max Papis (right) crowns Tony Stewart after Stewart's IROC victory at Daytona Int'l Speedway in July 2006. (Erik Perel/HHP Photo)

OVER AND OUT

After 33 years, the International Race of Champions went out of business after a title sponsor did not materialize. By the end of the year, the cars had been sold and the final chapter in the glorious history of the series that pitted the world’s best drivers in identically prepared cars was over. Tony Stewart, who won the title in 2006, will go down in history as the final IROC champion.

NICE TRY, MARIO

Racing legend Mario Andretti made an attempt to broker an open-wheel summit with representatives from the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series, but the talks broke off before they started, leaving little hope that the two series will ever unite. If Mario Andretti can’t make it happen, who can?

Ashley Force

HOT COMMODITY

Ashley Force was voted Hottest Female Athlete by an Internet poll on AOLSports.com.

HOME RUN

The inaugural World Finals at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway was one of the most successful first-time events in recent memory. The Nov. 1-3 event featured the World of Outlaws sprint cars and late model series racing on the same card for the first time. A sold-out crowd for Saturday night enjoyed some of the best racing ever seen at the track, and the event was televised live on Speed, marking the first time the WoO LMS appeared on live television.

Jacques Villeneuve

FENDERED

A trio of Indy 500 winners will be migrating to stock-car country in 2008. Defending Indy winner Dario Franchitti will join another former Indy winner, Juan Pablo Montoya, with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, while 1995 500 champ Jacques Villeneuve (right) will race for Bill Davis Racing, and 2006 Borg-Warner trophy winner Sam Hornish, Jr. shifts from the Penske Racing Indy car team to the Penske Racing NASCAR operation.

OVERSEAS: Mario Dominguez leads a group of cars during the Belgian Grand Prix. (Champ Car Photo)

UPGRADE

National Speed Sport News unveiled the redesigned Web site, nationalspeedsportnews.com, in July.

TROUBLED WATERS

While Sebastien Bourdais earned his fourth-straight Champ Car World Series title, the series had more than its share of hardships during the 2007 season. Months before the season began, Ford withdrew its support of the series and then races in Korea and China and on the streets of Denver, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz., were cancelled.

A.J. Foyt

MILESTONE

A.J. Foyt (left) celebrated his 50th anniversary of competing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

BIG WINNERS IN 2007

Chili Bowl: Tony Stewart
Rolex 24 Hours: Scott Pruett, Juan Pablo Montoya and Salvador Duran
Daytona 500: Kevin Harvick
12 Hours of Sebring: Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Warner
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach: Sebastien Bourdais
Colossal 100: Scott Bloomquist
Indianapolis 500: Dario Franchitti

AT&T will continue its sponsorship of Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 through the 2009 season. (Erik Perel/HHP Photo)

LOUD AND CLEAR

After a series of lawsuits and court hearings, NASCAR, Sprint Nextel and AT&T came to an agreement that will keep AT&T as sponsor of Richard Childress Racing’s No. 31 for two more years.

GIRL POWER

Erica Santos became the first female winner in the history of the Northeastern Midget Ass’n July 10 at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway.

TRYING SEASON

It was a difficult season to say the least for 14-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force. Force saw his friend and teammate Eric Medlen succumb to injuries suffered in a crash while testing in March. Force then had his qualifying streak snapped at 395 races and did not win until the first weekend in July. But things got worse. Force failed to qualify for the U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend. Finally, he was seriously injured in a violent crash at the Texas Motorplex in September. Force missed the rest of the season with a broken ankle, a severe laceration to his knee and a variety of injuries to his fingers and hands.

HOT SCHATZ

Donny Schatz became the first to win the Knoxville Nationals, Eldora’s Kings Royal, the Williams Grove National Open, the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup at Lernerville and the Williams Grove Summer Nationals all in the same season.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton became the first black driver to win a Formula One event when he topped the Canadian Grand Prix in June. (Steve Etherington Photo)

SPYGATE

The McLaren Formula One team was fined a record $100 million for its part in a spying scandal, which saw it receive proprietary information regarding Ferrari’s Formula One car.

SOLD!

• The National Hot Rod Ass’n professional racing divisions were sold to HD Partners, separating NHRA’s professional operation from its non-profit membership program. The sale was estimated to be worth $121 million. Tom Compton will continue as president of the newly created NHRA Pro Racing.
• Speedway Motorsports, Inc., headed by its chairman O. Bruton Smith, paid $340 million to purchase New Hampshire Int’l Speedway from the Bahre family.
• Former race-car driver Andy Hillenburg paid $4.4 million to Speedway Motorsports, Inc. to purchase the dormant North Carolina Speedway. Renaming the 1.017-mile oval Rockingham Speedway, Hillenburg has ARCA RE/MAX and Hooters Pro Cup series events set for 2008.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series will be retitled the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2008 thanks to the 2006 merger of Nextel and Sprint. As well, Anheuser-Busch is gone after 26 seasons sponsoring the Busch Series, and Nationwide will debut as sponsor of NASCAR’s junior circuit, now known as the Nationwide Series, in February. Finally, 2008 will be Craftsman’s final year sponsoring NASCAR’s Truck Series. The sanctioning body is currently courting replacements for the Sears-owned tool manufacturer.

DAY AT THE BEACH

The IndyCar Series tested on the road course at Daytona Int’l Speedway in January. It was the first Indy car test at the track since 1959.

SORELY MISSED

Bill France, 74
The son of NASCAR founder William G. France, William Clifton France died June 6 at age 74 after a long battle with cancer.
He is remembered as an innovator and the man who took NASCAR from a Southern-based sport and made it an international sensation.
Wally Parks, 94
Parks founded the National Hot Rod Ass’n in 1951. The one-time editor of Hot Rod magazine took drag racing from a street sport and transformed it into a multi-million dollar corporate sport. Parks died Sept. 28.
Eric Medlen, 33
One of Funny Car racing’s rising stars, the son of master mechanic John Medlen died from injuries he suffered while testing at Gainesville (Fla.) Raceway. Medlen’s death led to several monumental safety modifications for the Funny Car division.
Benny Parsons, 65
The 1973 NASCAR champion succumbed to complications of cancer in January. A successful race car driver, Parsons became even more well known for his work as an analyst on ESPN, NBC and TNT’s coverage of NASCAR racing.
Bobby Hamilton, 49
The 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, Hamilton died of cancer in early January.
A former short-track racer from Tennessee, Hamilton was a winner in all three major NASCAR series.
Bruce Kennedy, 53
The husband of International Speedway Corp. executive Lesa France Kennedy was killed when the plane he was in crashed into a Florida neighborhood in July.
John Blewett III, 33
The third-generation modified driver was killed in an accident that ironically also involved his brother, Jimmy, at Thompson (Conn.) Int’l Speedway in August.
Mike Swims, 42
Longtime dirt-late-model racing promoter Mike Swims lost his battle with cancer in September.
Others
Nick Fornoro, Billy Hagan, Dave Helm, Frank Riddle, Joie Ray, George Tatnell, Scott Seaton, Dennis James, Morris Metcalfe, Colin McRae, Ray Cooper, Shav Glick, Ted Hollingsworth, Robert Knievel.

David Reutimann scored Toyota's second Busch Series victory in October at Memphis Motorsports Park. (Getty Images)

OUT OF THE BOX

Toyota’s first season in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series was a struggle. It did not win a race and Dave Blaney was the only Toyota driver to finish in the top 35 in points. The Toyota effort will be bolstered by the addition of the Joe Gibbs Racing and Hall of Fame Racing teams in 2008. Toyota won a pair of NASCAR Busch Series races, with Jason Leffler (O’Reilly Raceway Park) and David Reutimann (Memphis Motorsports Park) each taking short-track triumphs.

GONE FOR NOW

After eight seasons at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there will be no United States Grand Prix in 2008. Speedway officials and Formula One czar Bernie Ecclestone could not come to a new agreement. IMS will host a Moto GP (motorcycles) round for the first time in 2008, and officials remain hopeful that Formula One may return to the Hoosier state in 2009.

JOINT OPERATION: Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (right) and Mark Martin found themselves teammates after the DEI-Ginn merger in July. (Alan Marler/HHP Photo)

MERGING LANES

With the costs of racing in the Nextel Cup Series getting higher and higher, several prominent teams found investment partners or merged with other operations. With a large investment by John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group, Roush Racing became Roush Fenway Racing. Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillett, Jr. bought an interest in Evernham Motorsports, making it Gillett Evernham Motorsports. Ginn Racing ran out of money and merged its operation with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., and Michael Waltrip Racing secured the financial support of investment banker Robert Kauffman. As well, Arizona Diamondbacks executives Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel purchased a controlling interest in Hall of Fame Racing.

DANCING KING

Two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Helio Castroneves was invited to participate in the ABC television series “Dancing with the Stars.” Castroneves’s exuberant personality took the world by storm. His athletic talent did, too, and along with partner Julianne Hough, Castroneves claimed the “Dancing with the Stars” championship.

BREAKTHROUGH: Clint Bowyer was the sleeper in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, finishing third in the series standings. (Autostock Photo)

MAKING A MARK

A number of new drivers burst upon the scene, making their marks in new places. Among them were Clint Bowyer, Michael McDowell and Robert Doornbos. Bowyer won his first Nextel Cup race and finished third in the standings. McDowell was the leading winner in the ARCA RE/MAX Series, winning the rookie-of-the-year award and earning a Nextel Cup ride with Michael Waltrip Racing. Finally, Doornbos, a former Formula One pilot, won two Champ Car World Series events and finished second in the standings.

QUOTABLE

“I don’t care how many bus jumps we have, how many armored invasions with Cobra choppers and ‘American Idol’ sweethearts, if the race stinks, forget it.” — Humpy Wheeler, Lowe’s Motor Speedway General Manager

“Being the first woman to beat dad? I think it’s the funniest thing I have ever heard. He’s got all these daughters and he’s been racing all these years and no woman has ever beaten him before.”— Ashley Force

“I felt like ‘Days of Thunder.’ I just closed my eyes and drove through.” — Tony Kanaan at Texas Motor Speedway

“Second place would have felt the same as chopping off my arm today. I wanted to win. That’s all.” — Carl Edwards after breaking his 52-race winless streak at Michigan

“This one is for every one of the fans in the stands that pull for me every week and take all the bull— from everyone else.” — Tony Stewart

“It looks like you better not bring the wrong brand of tissue to blow your nose or you’ll get a $100,000 fine.” — Bobby Allison

“If I didn’t know what I was doing, then I wouldn’t have won the Indy 500, the CART championship and Formula One races.” — Juan Pablo Montoya

“That’s what you get when you qualify bad. You start in the back with all the donkeys and the guys that can’t drive.” — Greg Biffle

“I was sitting in the car on pit road and an ARCA official asked me if I spoke English. I told him that I do. Then, he said, ‘You speak English really well.’” — Dario Franchitti on his stock-car debut at Talladega in October

MOTORING ON

The Porsche Cayenne V8 made its Grand Am debut in the Sunchaser 1000k and went the distance at Miller Motorsports Park, powering the Spirit of Daytona Fabcar driven by Guy Cosmo, Marc-Antoine Camirand and Doug Goad.

RECORD SETTER

Jeff Gordon won his 77th Cup race at Talladega in early May, breaking a tie with Dale Earnhardt for sixth on the all-time list. Gordon finished the season with 81 career triumphs.

Jon Stanbrough in victory lane at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway in July (Gordon Gill Photo)

STANDING TALL

Jon Stanbrough won 30 non-winged sprint-car races.