Raikkonen adds another Charlotte race

   Apparently Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed his first race at Charlotte Motor Speedway so much he's coming back for a second.

   Fresh off a 15th-place finish in Friday night's NASCAR Trucks Series race at Charlotte, the former Formula One champion will also run in next Saturday's Nationwide race at the track, driving the No. 87 fielded by Nemco Motorsports, several sources familiar with the decision confirmed on Saturday.

 

   Raikkonen drove a Truck fielded by Kyle Busch Motorsports on Friday night. KBM will work with Raikkonen in the Nationwide race but the car will come from Nemco.

 

   Busch, himself, actually made his Nationwide debut with the same team in the same race eight years ago, while he was under contract with Hendrick Motorsports.

 

   Raikkonen has never tested a Nationwide car. He did two, one-day tests in the Truck prior to his debut.

 

   "(It) was a good learning experience and hopefully he learned enough (Friday) that will help him for next week and we’ll try to make the transition a lot easier for him as best we can,” Busch said Friday night following his Truck win.

Harvick gets a probation reminder

   During his media availability on Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kevin Harvick said he was still confused as to whether he was on probation in Saturday night’s all-star race.

   NASCAR quickly cleared it up.

   Before he was allowed on the track for practice Friday, Harvick was called to the NASCAR hauler where spokeswoman Kristi King said he received a reminder his probation covered the all-star race and what it entailed.

   Asked Friday how he would approach a situation in which he ended up racing Kyle Busch for the all-star win, Harvick said, “I’m still confused on whether I am on probation or not on probation. So, I can’t answer that, I don’t really know.

   “I’m just going to race and see what happens.”

   Busch and Harvick were both placed on probation through June 15 and fined $25,000 for actions on pit road following the Cup race at Darlington, S.C., two weeks ago.

   At the time there was some confusion by the drivers whether probation covered non-points race, but NASCAR has said repeatedly that it does.

Kyle Busch, Speedway Children's Charities honor Zahra Baker

   Zahra Baker will get another visit to Charlotte Motor Speedway thanks to Kyle Busch.
  
   Busch and his Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck team are teaming up with Speedway Children's Charities to pay remembrance to the 10-year-old disabled girl from Hickory, whose body was found dismembered last year.

   Zahra's name and picture will be placed above the passenger side window of Busch's No. 18 Toyota which will run in Friday night's NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The speedway will also observe a moment of silence in her honor before the start of the race.

   "The story of Zahra Baker's tragic murder really hit home with KBM and the Kyle Busch Foundation," said Busch. "We wanted to do something special in her honor and felt that the truck race at Charlotte Motor Speedway was the perfect opportunity."

   One of the last times that Zahra was seen in public was at the Starkey Hearing Foundation "Get in Gear to Help Children Hear" event hosted by Speedway Children's Charities at CMS last May. She was one of 75 underprivileged children and adults throughout the Carolinas given the gift of hearing at the event.

   Speedway Children's Charities has invited several of the hearing–impaired children who attended last May's event to take part in Friday's pre-race activities. The children will stand next to Busch and his No. 18 Toyota during pre-race and following the moment of silence, release balloons in honor of Zahra.

   Speedway Children's Charities has also donated tickets for these children to watch the race from the grandstand along with residents of the Church of God Children's Home, a primary charity of the Kyle Busch Foundation located in Kannapolis, N.C.

   "Zahra will never be forgotten," Busch said. "She will always be in our hearts."

ESPN will try 'split screen' in NASCAR Chase races

NASCAR fans are going to see more racing than ever on their TVs this season.

ESPN on Tuesday announced its telecasts of the 10 Chase for the Sprint Cup races will use "NASCAR NonStop," a commercial format that will bring more racing action to viewers.

ESPN's commercial breaks will feature a split-screen format - showing the advertisement on the left side of the screen and racing on the right.

ESPN's scoring ticker also will continue to move across the top of the screen, allowing fans to follow the running order during the breaks.

"I've watched the format on the open-wheel races for years, I think we all have. I'm not sure if it will move the meter to bring more fans in, but I think for the dedicated fans watching you don't want to see the breaks, you want to the race continue," said five-time reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

"I think it's a great perk and should be really helpful for our fan base during the Chase races."

NASCAR NonStop will take effect at or near the halfway point of the race, with the first half of the race presented in the traditional commercial-break format.

"Since we returned to NASCAR racing in 2007, one of the most common questions from our fans has been 'Why don't you do the commercials side-by-side?'" said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president of content.

"We're very pleased to be able to do it now with NASCAR NonStop and showcase the advertiser while still showcasing the race."

During Sunday's Cup series telecast from Dover, Del., Fox used a split-screen format for the first time, for its final commercial break. The move was praised by fans.

Skipper said ESPN worked with NASCAR to create the new format and that the change had been planned for months.

"ESPN's NonStop format will ensure our fans maximize their viewing experience during the most intense and thrilling time of the season - the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup," said Paul Brooks, president of NASCAR Media Group.

The final 17 races of the Cup will be televised on ESPN networks, with 14 on ESPN and three Saturday night races - including the October Chase race at Charlotte Motor Speedway - on ABC.

Roush plans to test Bayne before his return to NASCAR

   Roush Fenway Racing plans to test driver Trevor Bayne this week in preparation for what it hopes is his return to the race track at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

   Bayne, 20, entered the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., two weeks ago to undergo tests for symptoms originally thought to have been related to an insect bite for which he was hospitalized briefly last month.

   He was released last week still receiving treatment for blurred vision - the result, doctors said, of an “inflammatory condition.” He has missed the last three Nationwide Series races.

   "I can't say definitely (Bayne will return at Charlotte) because I don't have the right pay grade and education for that but he is making progress and his symptoms are by and large gone," said team owner Jack Roush.

   "His blurred vision is by and large gone but we are going to take him to Gresham (Motorsports Park) in Georgia to give him some laps to see if he is comfortable and then report back to the doctors and NASCAR to see what they think."

   Roush officials said earlier this week they hoped Bayne would be able to compete in next Saturday's Sprint All Star Race at Charlotte as well as the Nationwide race in Iowa.

   Bayne qualified for the all-star race by winning the season-opening Daytona 500, driving the No. 21 Ford for the Wood Brothers.

Furniture Row Racing: NASCAR's version of the Denver Broncos

   Regan Smith received a lot of attention from the media and fans for his surprise win in last Saturday's Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. His Furniture Row Racing team, which is headquartered in Denver, Colo., didn't go unnoticed, either.

   On Thursday, team owner Barney Visser received a congratulatory phone call from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. The following message was posted on the governor's Twitter account on Thursday: "Gov. Hickenlooper today called Furniture Row team owner Barney Visser to congratulate the team on the big win last week. Well done! #nascar"

   Smith was asked Friday at Dover about the recognition he and his team has received in Colorado.

   "We’ve worked very hard within Colorado to say hey, we’re Denver’s and Colorado’s race team and to have the governor call is neat. That means a lot to us. Denver has really kind of taken us under their arm and it’s been really neat to see what the media out there has done," he said. "They certainly give us attention like they would give the Broncos or the Avalanche and I wouldn’t have guessed that’s how that would go for when I first went to work for Furniture Row Racing.

   "It's been neat to see. We talked with them all throughout the off-season and the start of this year and I was out there three weeks ago. And they said well, we’ve been qualifying good, when’s the first win going to come? And we kept saying we’ve got fast race cars, we just need to focus on finishing them off and getting top 10’s. So to get to take the trophy back and show it off there is meaningful and to have the governor call is really cool.”

Dale Jr.'s take on NASCAR probation

   While unveiling the new giant HDTV at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Tuesday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was asked about a variety of topics, including his take on NASCAR probation.

   Both Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were fined $25,000 and placed on probation through June 15 for their post race altercation on pit road following Saturday night's Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

   With many race fans - and media - still wondering exactly what probation means, Earnhardt weighed in as well:

   “Probation doesn’t change the way you drive, because you’re still going to drive hard, and you’re still going to race as hard as you can. It’s obvious when things are intentional and things aren’t. As far I understand it, if you go out there and race hard … and say they get into the same situation that happened before the checkered flag (at Darlington) - I don’t think anything would happen to them. But if they go out of the box and do things that are detrimental, then I think the probation becomes a problem. When you’re a driver, you’re cognizant of that," he said.

   "You can still race hard and get in your fair share of scrape-ups on the race track, when you’re racing. That’s part of the race in-between flags, but it’s the kind of things that happen after the race that I guess they don’t like.

     “Probation works as it’s intended to work. I think that NASCAR wants you to do whatever you think you’re capable of doing in between the flags. They’ve really went to penalize someone for anything that happened between the green and the checkered flag. It’s always everything that happened after that. They’re not going to come and do a judgment call on what happened on the race track. There’s too many variables involved, and the drivers are there now to police themselves during that period."