COCNORD, N.C. — The annual all-star race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway has been renamed again. Known as the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge in recent years, the May 17 event will now be promoted as the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. As well the qualifying race (Nextel Open) has been renamed the Sprint Showdown.
The Pit Crew Challenge will also move from Wednesday night to Thursday night during all-star week festivities. The walls around the 1.5-mile speedway will be painted yellow for the race for the second-consecutive year.

• A graduate of short-track racing like many NASCAR stars, Kyle Busch continues to race on the local level. He left the media tour for Lakeland, Fla., where he raced this past weekend.
“The biggest thing about the short tracks is to try to drive people back to the short tracks and the places that they come from,” Busch said. “A lot of people like to go to the NASCAR races, but where do we come from? We have to support our local racers. I have gotten a lot of support from people that have helped me out to get back to local racing and do what I love to do the most. It is fun to race against the competitors all across the country. It is fun to do that, but most of all it is about helping to get seats in the stands at the local tracks.”

• Jeff Gordon was one of many drivers touting the merits of the Car of Tomorrow.
“By the end of the season, the more testing we did and the more races we ran, the car was feeling more like the old car,” the four-time series champion explained. “The first couple races, we didn’t have the bump stops and the suspension package figured out and we were very hit or miss. Now, we are getting the cars closer to what we need. I am not saying it is 100 percent, but we are much closer.
“I think we will see an awesome race at Daytona and at Phoenix. We really saw the potential for side by side racing.”

• Travis Kvapil will return to full-time Cup Series racing this season after a full season racing in the Craftsman Truck Series for Roush Fenway Racing. This year, he will drive for the Roush-aligned Yates Racing operation.
“The biggest thing I learned was the importance of having the teamwork of a multi-car organization,” Kvapil said.
“Unfortunately, when I was driving for Cal Wells in 2006, we didn’t have any of that. We were a single-car team, manufacturer support was minimal and it was tough to perform and tough to make races. I knew I wanted to be a Cup driver and I knew if I was going to do that I had to align myself with one of the bigger teams. That’s why when Jack (Roush) came to me a year and a half ago and asked me to drive the 6 truck, it was an opportunity I jumped at.”

• Denny Hamlin thinks Joe Gibbs Racing made out like a bandit with the signing of Kyle Busch as its third driver.
“In my opinion, when were looking at all of the drivers, even including Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.), the best possible scenario was to have Kyle over here,” Hamlin said. “I felt talent wise there was no comparison as to who had the most natural talent. He is head and shoulders above where I was at that age and it is only a matter of time before he becomes a champion and hopefully, it will be at Joe Gibbs Racing.”

• Kasey Kahne acknowledged that there were times during the 2007 season when he lost his confidence a little.
“You do lose your confidence once in a while, but then you go out and you win a pole or you race very well,” said Kahne, who went winless in 2007 after taking six victories the previous year.
“There were lots of times we put tires on it and we’d be one of the fastest cars for one or two laps and then be behind. After a while, you realize that there is a lot going on with the tires and the cars and there is not a lot you can do except do the best with what you’ve got.”

• The Media Tour visited the still-under-construction Windshear wind tunnel near the Concord Regional Airport. While it is set to open sometime in April, the facility is the only full-scale single-belt rolling-road wind tunnel in the United States. The facility will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week hosting auto racing teams and automobile manufacturers.

• J.J. Yeley is enjoying life as he prepares for his first season with Hall of Fame Racing after two Cup seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing.
“I’m more excited about my future win the Sprint Cup Series than I ever have been,” Yeley said. “I was with a powerhouse team. Now, I am with a single-car team, but I never felt like I got what I needed as a driver.
“As a single-car team, I get to be more involved with the race car and what needs to be done with it.”

• Richard Childress Racing is getting into road racing. The team is joining forces with team owner Rick Howard to field a Daytona Prototype for a limited schedule in the Rolex Grand American Road Racing Series. The team, which will feature British driver Andy Wallace, will step up to full-time in the series in 2009.

• Asked about his team’s dominant performance, winning half of the 36 Cup races last season, team owner Rick Hendrick replied, “It doesn’t make any difference. That’s history.”

• McDonald’s will serve as the primary sponsor for Elliott Sadler’s No. 19 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Dodge in six Sprint Cup Series races this season. Previously announced Best Buy and Stanley Tools, will also support the team in 2008.

• Ken Schrader has returned to BAM Racing as driver, where he is reunited with crew chief David Hyder. The pair worked together with BAM Racing during the 2005 season. The team hopes to announce a new primary sponsor prior to the Daytona 500.

• While M&Ms is taking over as the primary sponsor on the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet, Interstate Batteries, which is being referred to as the founding sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing, will still be around. Interstate Batteries, which has sponsored JGR since its 1992 debut, will be the official battery of Joe Gibbs Racing and the primary sponsor for the No. 18 for six Cup Series events. Interstate will also be the primary sponsor for two Nationwide Series races.

• Hooters Pro Cup Series driver Trevor Bayne has joined Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as a development driver and will compete in the NASCAR Camping World East Series along with fellow DEI development hotshoes Jeffrey Earnhardt and Jesus Hernandez.

• Five journalists were honored with Rolex watches during the annual Miller Lite Motorsports Journalism Awards of Excellence in honor of Russ Catlin.
Nate Ryan (USA Today) and David Caraviello (NASCAR.com) were honored in the writing classes, while Drew Gallagher (ESPN) and Blair Miller (WSOC-TV, Charlotte) took awards in the broadcast categories. Finally, David Griffin (NASCAR Scene) won in photojournalism.

• Jamie McMurray missed the Media Tour stop at Roush Fenway Racing while serving jury duty.

• Speed honored World of Outlaws champion Donny Schatz with its Performer of the Year award during the Media Tour.