Dale Jr. would rather look out for No. 1

   It's no secret Dale Earnhardt Jr. is no fan of the new two-car drafting tandems that currently dominate the racing at Daytona and Talladega. He has said many times that he preferred racing in the large pack of cars to having to depend on another driver for much of the race in hopes both get a good outcome.

   On Friday at Daytona International Speedway, Earnhardt expanded a little on his reasoning, basically indicating that the two-car drafts goes against what he believes is the bottom line in racing - looking out for No. 1.

   “I’d rather have control of my own destiny and be able to go out there and race and just do my own work and worry about my own self. It’s really weird and kinda wrong on some levels to race that way and to think like you think. You take care of somebody and you feel this obligation to take care of them and then worry about having them take care of you and how that makes them feel," he said.

   "Been growing up all these years racin’ for number one-lookin’ out for number one. Doing my job. This is what I need to do. I need to do this to get up through the pack. This is how my car drives and now you are doing it so different. Your thought process and everything you think about during the race is nothing near that. It is just different and weird. It won’t be like that forever I assume and hopefully I am alive and still racin’ when it goes back to the way it was because I just really enjoy lookin’ out for number one, man.

   "If you had a car that drive up through there and you were smart about drafting and knew what you were doing, you could make some cool things happen and that was pretty fun.”

Replay Trevor Bayne's surprising Daytona 500 win

   Race fans can re-live Trevor Bayne's upset win in the 2011 Daytona 500 and get a glimpse of never-before-aired footage by watching a NASCAR Media Group-produced special on Thursday night.

   The one-hour documentary, titled "Daytona 500: The Inside Story," will air on Discovery's HD Theater at 9 p.m. Eastern.

   The show includes highlights from the week of tributes to the late Dale Earnhardt, who died in a last-lap wreck in the race 10 years earlier, as well as Bayne's improbable victory which made him the youngest winner in the history of the event.

  

Hard liquor about to hit the NASCAR sponsorship road

   What was once a sponsorship boon in NASCAR appears set to disappear.

   When NASCAR lifted its long-standing ban on hard liquor sponsors beginning with the 2005 season, it produced an influx of several lucrative deals from Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and Crown Royal, among others.

   On Tuesday, Diageo, the parent company of Crown Royal, announced it was ending its sponsorship relationships with NASCAR and Roush Fenway Racing's No. 17 team driven by Matt Kenseth following the 2011 season.

   Crown Royal is the last remaining hard liquor sponsor in the Sprint Cup Series following the infusion of new sponsors six years ago.

   "We have developed strong relationships with the people at both organizations - they have not only been fantastic business partners, but have also become our friends. We thank them for working with us throughout the years to showcase the importance of our social responsibility initiatives," said Yvonne Briese, vice president of marketing for Diageo.

   "We look forward to a strong finish to the 2011 season and like the many fans we’ve gained along the way, we’ll never stop rooting for the No. 17 car on its way to Victory Lane."

   Prior to the 2005 season, NASCAR teams were allowed to advertise beer and malt beverages such as Smirnoff Ice but not hard liquor. The ban was in place in part because of an agreement then among major television networks to turn down hard-liquor commercials.

Can Stewart get revenge and a title?

   Obviously Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers may be seeing more of each other on the track given their run-in at Sonoma, Calif. From his comments, Stewart doesn't plan and letting anyone get away with much of anything in the coming weeks.

   Is that necessarily the best position for Stewart considering he still has a lot of work to do to secure a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup?  Jeff Gordon isn't so sure.

   "The only thing I'll say is if you're going to try to win a championship, those types of situations are, in my opinion, going to hinder you from doing that. If you start getting into a battle with a guy, especially if it's somebody that is not in championship contention, you know, then what happens is you're not going to win. It's going to be a lose for you and everybody," he said. "If it's somebody that's in the championship, then you guys have to figure out how to settle it, whether it happens on the track or off the track.

   "If you're that upset at what happened, and you see that guy again before the race is over, you're still upset, depends on how your fuse is. Some people have short fuses and some people have long fuses. I got into a battle with Tony Stewart before. That's not a guy I battle with anymore. We had our situation. I'm so glad that we resolved it fairly quickly. Nobody has more respect for one another out there than me and Tony because I've been on the other side of it with him when he can get mad. He's not a guy that you want to have gunning at you. He's a great race car driver, he's smart, he can get really mad. We'll see how this one turns out."

Hamlin wins 1st of season

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Denny Hamlin won for the first time this season as he edged Matt Kenseth in Sunday's Heluva Good! 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.

Kyle Busch, Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, was third. Paul Menard was fourth and points-leader Carl Edwards was fifth. Edwards now has a 20-point lead over Kevin Harvick.

Hamlin, who finished second in the Chase for the Sprint Cup last season, hadn't won since Texas in November 2010, 16 races ago. -- David Scott

Edwards takes Michigan Nationwide race

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Carl Edwards won Saturday's Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway, outdistancing second-place and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the process.

"We needed about a 15-lap run at the end going green," said Stenhouse, who takes over the points lead with the second-place finish. "We just weren't fast enough for Carl."

Reed Sorenson, who was the points leader entering the race, finished 11th.

Kyle Busch was third and pole-sitter Paul Menard fourth.

The Nationwide Series heads to Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis., next week. -- David Scott

JGR teams changing oil pans

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Joe Gibbs Racing's three Sprint Cup teams -- Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano -- didn't submit their oil pans for approval earlier today at Michigan International Speedway.

The JGR cars changed their oil pans to something legal by 12:30 p.m., when Cup practice started for Sunday's Heluva Good 400.

NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp said the oil pans will be looked at early next week at the R&D center in Concord and that the teams could face penalties. -- David Scott