The NASCAR Hall of Fame is the ultimate goal for the sport’s greatest.

Annually, the North Carolina landmark is also the aim of drivers throughout the NASCAR weekly and touring series, as the NASCAR Hall of Fame/Charlotte Convention Center will again host the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards and the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Awards.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards will be Friday, Dec. 12, while the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Series Awards will be Saturday, Dec. 13.

“These awards shows celebrate and honor our champions in NASCAR’s weekly racing program and our touring series—two foundational areas of the sport,” said George Silbermann, NASCAR vice president of regional and touring series. “These two events highlight the hard work, dedication and achievements throughout NASCAR, and I’m excited that fans from around the world can share in the experience through our digital platforms.”

Both the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards and the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Awards will be streamed live in English and Spanish on NASCARHomeTracks.com via FansChoice.TV. Saturday’s events will also include a broadcast in French.

It is the fifth consecutive year that the two days of awards will be hosted at the NASCAR Hall of Fame complex, which opened in May of 2010.

The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards honor the 2014 Division I national champion, as well as track champions from 58 tracks across the United States and Canada, state and provincial champions and top rookies. In addition, the national champions from NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Division II through V will be honored, as well as the UNOH Youth Achievement Award national champion.

On the following evening, NASCAR’s touring series champions will be recognized at the traditional NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Awards. Honorees will include the champions from the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1, NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series and the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

On Friday and Saturday morning, respectively, NASCAR will hold the Grand Champions event at the Westin Charlotte—the host hotel for both awards shows. The Grand Champions event recognizes the top points finishers in each series, contingency award winners, and special awards recipients.

Nitto Tire U.S.A. Inc., a manufacturer of off-road and street performance tires, is once again bringing together enthusiasts from across all facets of the automotive spectrum for the 2nd Annual Auto Enthusiast Day this August in Anaheim, Calif., in celebration of all things wheeled, driven and fun.



Building upon the success of last year's show, this year’s event promises to be even better thanks to the selection of a new venue, Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, and summertime date of Saturday, August 2.



“Nitto Tire has always stood apart as a brand dedicated to the automotive enthusiast,” said Harry Kong, Brand Publishing and Social Media Strategist for Nitto Tire. “To us, there is no better way of paying homage to the culture and people who have helped propel Nitto to where it is today than by putting on an event that unites enthusiasts in one massive celebration.”



Auto Enthusiast Day will be jam packed with activities for people young and old to enjoy. There will be a car show for enthusiasts and car clubs to show off their unique and customized rides, a Vendor Midway to check out the hottest new products in the industry, drifting demonstrations by Team Nitto drivers, the “Grappler Town” off-road showcase, raffles for awesome prizes and the chance to win the custom built Nitto Tire Mustang. Team Nitto drivers Vaughn Gittin Jr., Matt Powers, Matt Field, Odi Bakchis, Chelsea DeNofa and Mel Wade will also be on hand signing autographs and showing off their Nitto-equipped vehicles.



The event will take place on Saturday, August 2, 2014, at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, and runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the event is free for everyone and the first 500 car show participants will also receive a free gift for being part of the show. Vendor space is free of charge for companies that want to show off their latest products, but space is limited and will be assigned on a first come, first served basis.



Tickets for Auto Enthusiast Day are available online at http://www.autoenthusiastday.com and interested vendors can reserve their spot by contacting bryan@formulad.com.

The top nine teams in NASCAR have for the first time formed a single entity to collaborate on initiatives and issues facing their sport.

The Race Team Alliance was announced Monday, and Michael Waltrip Racing co-owner Rob Kauffman was elected chairman.

The goals of the RTA include lowering costs for NASCAR teams and creating one voice on issues facing the teams. Kauffman insisted the RTA is not a union.

"Calling it a union would be incorrect. A union would be for employees," Kauffman said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "The right way to characterize it would be a 'business alliance.' Unions are about employees directly trying to negotiate something. The RTA is pooling together to look at things we can be doing better.

"No one is looking to start a fight or be controversial."

The RTA currently includes Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motor Sports, Roush Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske.

Kauffman said the top goal of the RTA, which is operating with bylaws and an executive committee, is to bring in the remaining Sprint Cup teams that are not currently members. The next most important items on the agenda, according to Kauffman, is working on cost-saving initiatives related to travel and buying power for parts, and communicating with one voice to NASCAR the team ideas on testing.

"Roger Penske's thought was 'Let's go for the low hanging fruit,'" said Kauffman, who retired at the end of 2012 from Fortress Investment Group, where he was one of three founders.

Kauffman said the RTA also will discuss health care and benefits for employees.

"One of the projects out of the chute is all of these teams get a lot of hotel rooms on a weekly basis — well, gaining a hotel partner might help with that cost and provide some flexibility," he said. "When you put a lot of smart people in the room, you can come up with a lot of smart ideas. Right now, I don't think we even know how much we all spend in total on parts. Or how many employees do we all have?"

NASCAR chief communications officer Brett Jewkes said the sanctioning body had few specifics on the RTA's "structure or purpose," so it would be inappropriate to comment on the group.

"NASCAR's mission, as it has always been, is to create a fair playing field where anyone can come and compete," Jewkes said in a statement. "Our job is to support and strengthen all of the teams, large and small, across all of our series and we'll continue to do that. NASCAR is a unique community with hundreds of stakeholders. They all have a voice and always will."

Kauffman several times likened the RTA to the Formula One Constructors Association, which was a group of F1 teams that formed in 2008 to give the teams a united voice in negotiations with the FIA and the Formula One Group.

FOTA's original aim was to negotiate the terms of the new Concorde Agreement, the commercial contract that governs the championship. FOTA was disbanded earlier this year.

The formation of the RTA comes as NASCAR enters next season with a new $8.2 billion television package. Teams currently get a portion of the money from the TV package, but Kauffman said renegotiating the teams' cut was not on the current agenda.

"We're going to focus on things we can do ourselves and doesn't require a lot of outside help," Kauffman said. "Some of those topics are behind our control. If some of those stakeholders want to have conversations, we'd be happy to do that.

"But it's the things we can do ourselves—we don't need anyone's approval to work on our travel or optimize our buying or promoting—that we need to focus on right now."

Longtime The Charlotte Observer reporter Tom Higgins has been named the recipient of the 2015 Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. Higgins was the first beat writer to cover every race on the NASCAR schedule, a role he held from 1980 until his retirement in 1997.
 
He will be honored during NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony festivities on Jan. 30, 2015 and featured in an exhibit in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina.
 
Higgins’ professional newspaper career started in 1957 at the weekly Canton Enterprise in North Carolina. While at the Asheville Times in North Carolina, he covered racing for the first time. Higgins joined the sports staff at The Observer in 1964 as an outdoors writer and soon began covering stock car racing as well. He has continued to write motorsports nostalgia columns for the newspaper and its website ThatsRacin.com since his retirement.
 
“Tom Higgins helped establish what it means to be a NASCAR beat reporter,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “For more than five decades, his words have told the story of NASCAR, and the people and emotions that define the sport. He has been much more than a reporter to those in the NASCAR industry – serving as friend and confidant to competitors, administrators and his fellow journalists.” 
 
Higgins, affectionately known as “Pappy,” won the International Motorsports Hall of Fame Henry T. McLemore Award for lifetime achievement in motorsports journalism in 1980, the NMPA George Cunningham Award as writer of the year in 1987 and was named the NASCAR Bill France Award of Excellence winner in 1996. He was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame in 2011. He is also a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel.
 
Higgins was among eight nominees voted upon by a panel comprised of NASCAR and NASCAR Hall of Fame executives, journalists, public relations representatives and former drivers. The Squier-Hall Award was created in 2012 to honor the contributions of media to the success of the sport. Legendary broadcasters Ken Squier and Barney Hall, for whom the award is named, were its initial recipients.
 
The other seven nominees were:
 
Norma “Dusty” Brandel, the first woman to report from inside the NASCAR garage
 
Russ Catlin, one of the best-known early racing writers and historians, served as editor of Speed Age Magazine
 
Shav Glick, covered motorsports for the Los Angeles Times for 37 years, bringing NASCAR coverage to the West Coast
 
Bob Jenkins, served as the lead NASCAR lap-by-lap anchor at ESPN from 1982-2000.
 
Bob Moore, spent more than 20 years as a NASCAR beat writer including stints with the Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Charlotte Observer
 
Benny Phillips, spent 48 years covering NASCAR for the High Point (N.C.) Enterprise, 27 years for Stock Car Racing and 12 years on TBS
 
T. Taylor Warren, best known for his three-wide photo of the 1959 Daytona 500 finish, he covered every Daytona 500 until his death in 2008.

In a thrilling side-by-side final round duel with longtime rival Ron Capps, NHRA Funny Car icon John Force picked up his 140th career win on Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

In the championship round, Force powered his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang to a performance of 4.113 seconds at 317.27 mph while Capps, who was making his third runner-up finish at Norwalk, had a run of 4.135 at 305.56 in his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger.

Force, the reigning Funny Car world champion, earned his first ever win at Norwalk and second of the 2014 season. Force outran Cruz Pedregon, Ohio native Chad Head and Tim Wilkerson to reach the final round against Capps.

“It was special to me,” said Force. “I’ve come to this track for decades. I’ve won here at the Night of Fire races. Robert [Hight] and my daughter Ashley [Force Hood] have won here. I keep coming back here. The Bader family is P.T. Barnum doing this year-round, 90-some race a year. They light the fire under those fans. Look at the crowd on Friday night and that whole fireworks show. I’ve been real lucky in my career and you want to win them all, but I really wanted this win.”

His fellow John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight maintained the points lead in the super-tight Funny Car class, while Force, the No. 2 event qualifier, jumped to second in the Mello Yello points standing.

“It’s a really great show, and I’m just excited to be a part of it,” said Force. “We raced some great kids: Capps, Cruz, Wilkerson, Chad Head. We gave them some good racing. Hey, we got the win. I’m just glad to get that one out of the way. Now I’ll try to get my second win here.”

Pirelli will test a new larger Formula One tire at Silverstone next week that the company says would make the sport more relevant to ordinary road users and could be the shape of things to come.

Grand Prix cars currently use 13 inch tires but Pirelli said in a statement they would demonstrate an 18 inch design "to showcase the way that Formula One could look in the near future."

As part of the test, a 2014 Lotus equipped with fully functional concept tires will lap Silverstone next Wednesday.

"Larger wheel and tire sizes reflect modern market trends," Pirelli said. "With the adoption of a larger size invariably leading to even greater technology transfer between Formula One tires and road car tires."

Pirelli said the 18 inch tire would pose technical challenges, particularly relating to the car's suspension, and smaller sidewalls would also lead to reduced space for their own branding.

The company's motorsport director Paul Hembery pointed out that many other motorsport series already used the larger size of tire and wheels and there was scope to go even bigger in Formula One in years to come.

The new Formula E electric series due to start up in September uses 18 inch Michelin tires as do all Le Mans 24 Hours prototype and GT cars.

The third instance of the same suspension pieces falling off of the Dallara DW12 chassis since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 10 has led the chassis manufacturer to commission a redesign of the related components.

Team Penske's Will Power, who was running in third place during the final laps of Sunday's Shell & Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston, was forced to surrender his position after the camber shims in his right-rear suspension fell out, leading the right-rear upright/tire to move in an uncontrolled manner. With the rear of his car often steering the front inside the tight confines of the 1.6-mile street course, Power slowed the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Chevy out of safety concerns, falling to 11th on the final lap.

Penske teammate Juan Montoya and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing's Josef Newgarden encountered the same issue during the GP of Indy, which utilized tall, aggressive curbing in certain sections. It's believed the Houston layout, which is known for being the bumpiest circuit on the Verizon IndyCar Series calendar, also played a part in the issue that befell Power. The reason behind Team Penske encountering the issue on two of the three occasions is currently unknown.

Teams have been permitted to use slotted camber shims, which are machined washers featuring a groove cut in them to allow faster camber changes. Slotted shims can be installed and removed by loosening the nut that retains the threaded suspension upright clevis, which connects the upper a-arm to the upright. (In simple terms, a solid shim looks like the letter "O," while the slotted versions, with the groove cut to slide over the clevis, look like the letter "C"). If the nut holding the clevis to the upright loosens while on track, or the clevis is bent enough in an impact, the slotted shims could fall out, which happened again at Houston.

Starting at this weekend's 500-mile Pocono event, "teams are required to use solid camber spacers, rather than slotted shims, during the race," according to an update sent to IndyCar teams.

A previous revision to the system was made by Dallara where a tab-and-pin locking method was implemented to secure the shims on the upright. Some teams requested permission to create a locking method of their own, which was denied by the series, citing the need for Dallara to produce uniform updates for the paddock.

Dallara is now working on a revised clevis/camber shim retaining method which could be made available to teams ahead of the next street race in Toronto on July 19-20.

Formula E will have a "Fan Boost" system, a system in which fans can vote online before each race to determine which three fan favorites will be allowed one 90-hp boost during the race.

The boost will increase the power of the electric car from 133 kilowatts (180 hp) to 200 kilowatts (270 hp). Voting is expected to close just before the start of each race.

"As our first race draws closer, it's fantastic to see the new era of motorsport come to life. Next month, will see our first [public] test days where we already have 3000 members of the public registered to come and see but also hear what we believe will be the future of motorsport," said Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag.

The Formula E Series will make its racing debut on Sept. 13 in Beijing.

Daytona International Speedway and USG Corporation, a building products company, have become “We Built Daytona” partners, joining three other companies in the expanding marketing platform as part of the unprecedented $400 million Daytona Rising redevelopment project.

USG will help put the finishing touches on the interior of the new DIS frontstretch and their USG Securock Glass-Mat Sheathing will be prominent throughout the exterior of the project. Approximately 30 acres of USG’s wallboard and about 140,000 square feet of USG Ceilings panels will be installed in the new interior.

“USG is honored to be a partner in this very exciting, high profile project that is reinventing DIS just as USG is reinventing itself with a new brand, new energy, and new focus on innovation,” said Greg Salah, USG General Manager, Wallboard and Surfaces. “The spirit that prevails at DIS echoes that of USG, heralded by characteristics like teamwork, competition, high performance, comebacks, and winning at the highest level.”

The “We Built Daytona” platform is designed specifically for partners involved in the construction of DAYTONA Rising and enables them to showcase their involvement through a marketing presence (once their role in the project begins). Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

In addition to USG, the new partners include Sherwin-Williams, Big Ass Fans, and ROSSETTI. The four companies join Kingspan, a market leader in sustainable building product technology, who became the first “We Built Daytona” partners in February. Kingspan’s North American headquarters are located in DeLand, Fla.

“We’re excited to welcome these partners as part of our ‘We Built Daytona’ platform,” said DIS President Joie Chitwood III. “As leaders in their respected industries, we are proud to have the best products, and the best manufacturers and companies, featured throughout what will be the first motorsports stadium anywhere in the world.”

Following construction, partners can feature products in-use at the new DIS, providing them with a real-time showroom. Additionally, partners will receive special recognition as “We Built Daytona” partners within the facility, along with brand exposure opportunities via digital display boards and corporate hospitality opportunities for entertaining guests during major events.

Matco Tools, a manufacturer and distributor of high-quality automotive technician tools and equipment products, and Don Schumacher Racing have agreed to extend their partnership through the 2017 racing season.

Matco will be the primary sponsor of DSR’s Top Fuel Dragster and will participate in all 24 races during each of the 2015–2017 seasons. Behind the wheel of the Dragster will be the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel World Champion driver Antron Brown.

“The team at Matco Tools is thrilled to extend our partnership with Don Schumacher Racing and we look forward to continued success on the race track. We’re seeing a lot of great races in 2014 and are eager to keep the momentum going,” said Tim Gilmore, president of Matco Tools.

Brown and the Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster frequently make visits to schools throughout the nation and spend time talking with future technicians who anticipate the start of their careers, making them an asset on and off the race track.

“For Matco Tools, it goes beyond winning at the track; it’s also about building relationships with future automotive technicians and mechanics and showing them that we support them as they embark on their new career paths,” said Gilmore.

Brown has 29 NHRA Top Fuel victories to his name, including four this season. He is currently second in the NHRA Top Fuel championship standings.

“It’s great that we’ll be working with Matco Tools and its distributors for several more years,” Brown said. “I couldn’t imagine what it would be like not to visit tech schools with Matco and not to have the distributors, their families and customers with us at the races. It’s a fantastic partnership and we’re going to continue to race hard and dig deep to try and bring another championship home for Matco.”