How a NASCAR race car gets its colors

   Joe Gibbs Racing gives us a look at Kyle Busch's 2013 No. 18 Toyota Camry as well as how the paint scheme is put on the car.

    Check out JGR's time-lapse wrap video to see how this Gen-6 NASCAR Toyota Camry got its colors.

Auto racing's All-America team

   The American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Ass’n has announced its annual All America Team, which the group has done every year since the conclusion of the 1970 season.

    A unique team of special drivers representing multiple forms of professional motorsports is elected each year by AARWBA. The association’s members vote on drivers within their participating categories of racing and the top two from each discipline are elected to the first team.

The 2012 All-America first team:

Open wheel: Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will Power

Road Racing: Teams of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas and Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr

Short Track: Bryan Clauson and Donny Schatz

Stock Car: Brad Keselowski and Jimmie Johnson

Drag Racing: Antron Brown and Jack Beckman

Touring Series: James Buescher and team of Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal

At-Large: Johnny O’Connell and Tristan Vautier

Rising Star: Courtney Force


The 2012 All-America second team:

Open Wheel: Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon/Helio Castroneves (tie)

Road Racing: Chris Dyson/Guy Smith (team) and Ryan Dalziel

Short Track: Bobby East and Darrell Lanigan

Stock Car: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Clint Bowyer

Drag Racing: Tony Schumacher and Ron Capps

Touring Series: Ricky Johnson and Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner (team)

At-Large: Frank Manzo and Jimmy Owens

Dale Jarrett's son to play baseball with Charlotte 49ers

   Zach Jarrett, the son of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Jarrett, was one of eight baseball players signed by UNC Charlotte during the early commitment period for the 2014 season.

    Jarrett, 17, played third base for the Hickory High (N.C.) Red Tornadoes for coach David Craft, and was a prep teammate of current 49er Tyler Barnette. He also was a participant in the State Games after an All-Northwestern Conference season and a second-round appearance in the state playoffs. He posted 15 RBI in 62 plate appearances with a .355 batting average. He was also rated as a national "high follow" by Perfect Game Crosschecker.

    A two-sport star at Hickory, Jarrett was a member of the varsity basketball team which finished as the state runners-up in the 3A classification.

#NASCAR No. 2 sports trend on Twitter in 2012

   In 2012, NASCAR partnered with social media juggernaut Twitter, solidifying an upward trend that has seen Twitter explode across the NASCAR scene over the past two seasons. That partnership has led to the hashtag #NASCAR rating as the number two highest trending sports topics of 2012.

   Read more here: http://thespeedzine.com/2012/12/17/nascar-number-two-sports-trend-on-twitter-in-2012/

Some really Loopie NASCAR awards

   For the sixth consecutive season, NASCAR has pored over a season’s worth of Loop Data and filtered out the top statistical performances of the 2012 season. After a painstaking review, a select committee created awards to recognize those drivers who numerically excelled this season. Those awards have evolved into arguably the most coveted prize in all of NASCAR. They are – and this is – The Loopies.

   Loop Top Dogg: This award yearly goes to the driver who led the most Loop Data categories. Winner: Jimmie Johnson (led 13 of 15 categories).

   Quantity of Quality Award: This award goes to the driver who led the Sprint Cup Series in Quality Passes, which are passes of cars in the top 15 while under green flag conditions. Winner: Brad Keselowski.

   Most Improved Driver: The driver with the biggest improvement in Driver Rating from 2011 to 2012. Winner: Greg Biffle (85.9 to 99.5).
  
   Least Improved Driver: The driver with the biggest drop in Driver Rating wins this Loopie, and it goes to Carl Edwards – with an asterisk. Edwards actually only had the third-biggest drop – 16.8, from 101.0 in 2011 to 84.2 this season. But it was the biggest drop among drivers who didn’t switch teams.

   Coffee’s For Closers Award: The “Closer” statistic measures the positions gained or lost in the last 10 percent of races. The top Closer this season: Ryan Newman, who improved 68 total positions in the last 10 percent of races this season.

   Worst Closer Award: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt lost 41 spots in the last 10 percent of races this year, among the worst of any driver.

   Stefan Kretschmann Lifetime Achievement Award: Stefan Kretschmann works for Stats, LLC in Chicago, and is considered the godfather of Loop Data. We started this award last season to honor a driver who has been statistically strong throughout the Loop Data Era (2005-present). Jimmie Johnson took home the inaugural Lifetime Achievement trophy. The 2012 winner is Kyle Busch, who has landed an unparalleled 20 perfect Driver Ratings of 150.0 throughout NASCAR’s three national series.

Tony Stewart smokes competition again

   Tony Stewart returned to his short-track roots Saturday, winning the feature in the third annual Battle at the Center on the one-sixth mile indoor Mini Magic Mile at the Southern Illinois Center.
  
   The 41-year-old from Columbus, Ind., led all 40 laps in the non-points event organized and sanctioned by the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series. It had 67 entries and brought together many of the best drivers in Midget racing and several more major short-track series

   Andrew Felker of Carl Junction, Mo., this season’s POWRi National Midget champion, finished second and POWRi veteran Tim Siner of Dupo, Ill., was third.

   Stewart won USAC Midget championships in 1994 and 1995 and was USAC’s Triple Crown (also taking the national Sprint Car and Silver Crown) champion in 1995 before moving on to win titles in the IndyCar Series title in 1997 and NASCAR Sprint Cup in 2002, 2005 and 2011.

   “It was a lot of fun,” Stewart said. “I was happy with it. We heard this was a good event last year and decided to run it to get ready for the Chili Bowl (run in Tulsa, Okla., Jan. 8-12). We didn’t run very good in the Chili Bowl last year."

Martinsville Speedway president getting on-track taste of Daytona

   Clay Campbell is not just the president of a race track, he's a client as well.

   Campbell, president of the prestigious Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, took his first laps around Daytona International Speedway’s legendary 2.5-mile tri-oval during Automobile Racing Club of America series testing on Friday.

   Campbell is testing a Spraker Racing Ford with a Roush Yates engine and plans to enter ARCA's Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 season opener in February at Daytona.

   “I’ve been doing various types of racing for 20 years and if you had the opportunity to do something bigger, I think anybody would jump at the chance,” Campbell, 52, said.

   “Anybody that would have the opportunity to run Daytona, you would be crazy not to. The history, the tradition, this is the ultimate as far as motorsports goes."

   Campbell has raced go-karts, Late Models and ran a majority of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races in 2011.