Moonshine Capital Promotions and promoter Langley Austin will finish their 2014 season, which started at Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, Virginia, at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina.

The first race for Moonshine Capital Promotions at Ace Speedway will be on July 4, with every division that ran at Franklin County Speedway running with the same rules; also, the points accumulated at Franklin County Speedway over the season will add up at Ace Speedway.

The races will be run in addition to races already scheduled to be run at Ace Speedway.

“I just want to see Langley finish what he started at Franklin County,” Ace Speedway General Manager Brad Allen said. “The lights can burn here at Ace Speedway on Saturday nights, too.”

“It’s a great opportunity,” said Austin. “Brad Allen is a stand-up guy, a good friend and one of the best promoters in the business today. He offered to let us come down to Ace and finish our season and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

The deal to run at Ace Speedway comes a week after Moonshine Capital Promotions’ deal with Franklin County Speedway fell through.

The move to Ace Speedway will shake up the standings as well, with Ace being a flat track compared to the high banked surface at Franklin County Speedway.

“We’re just changing venues,” added Austin. “The rules, the points, the track licenses, the purse and everything that we were doing at Franklin County Speedway just moves south to Altamahaw, North Carolina.  It’s going to be a unique situation but we feel that it’s what the drivers and teams deserve.”

The Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston has announced that Bobby Rahal will serve as grand marshal for the event, scheduled for June 27-29.

Bobby Rahal is a former Indianapolis 500 winner and owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the Verizon IndyCar Series, which compete in a pair of events June 28-29 at the 1.7-mile Reliant Park street course.

The three-day event includes the Verizon IndyCar Series, the SCCA Mazda MX 5 Cup and the Pro Mazda Championship. New additions on the Houston circuit this year include the Gulf Coast Vintage Racing Series, which includes sedan and open wheel racing, and the UK-produced Radical Cup.

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum will host “Next-Generation Sprint Car 101: An Evening with McKenna Haase, Kade Higday & Keoni Texeira” on Thursday, June 19, at 7 p.m. 

The program is free and open to the public, and it will be hosted by historian Eric Arnold.

Haase, Higday and Texeira are all rookies in 2014 in Knoxville Raceway’s winged 305-cubic-inch sprint car class. In fact, all three are currently in the ‘top thirteen’ in Knoxville ‘305’ points.

According to museum executive director Bob Baker, “We are very excited to be hosting a ‘Sprint Car 101’ program with three popular and talented next-generation sprint car drivers as the featured speakers. 

"McKenna is just 17 years old, but she has a lot of open-wheel racing experience already. Kade Higday is driver Josh Higday’s son and he brings a lot of East Des Moines area fans to see him race every week. And Keoni Texeira has recently relocated to south central Iowa from Hawaii, so the ‘flyin’ Hawaiian’ always generates a ‘buzz’ with the fans and in the media. It will be fun to hear from a trio of young sprint car drivers that we expect to hear a lot more from over the next many years.”

Those interested in learning more about the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum may visit www.sprintcarhof.com.

Homestead-Miami Speedway announced that Ford Motor Company has extended its partnership with the South Florida motorsports facility in a multi-year deal. Ford Motor Company has been the official entitlement sponsor of Homestead-Miami Speedway since 2002. Homestead-Miami Speedway President Matthew Becherer, Ford Executive Vice President and President of the Americas Joseph Hinrichs, and Director of Ford Racing Jamie Allison made the announcement.
 
“Ford is our longest running partner. We are incredibly proud to continue our mutually beneficial long partnership with Ford Motor Company and look forward to many thrilling moments on and around the track in the years to come," said Becherer. "Ford is the winningest manufacturer since we started hosting NASCAR’s Championships twelve years ago, and it is only fitting that their name is attached to our championship race weekend in November. History will be made and the drama will be at an all-time high this year with the new format in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship during the Ford EcoBoost 400, starting with what will likely be the most compelling qualifying session of the year on Friday night before the Ford EcoBoost 200. I can’t think of a better partner to have than Ford Motor Company as we enter this new era at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”
 
The partnership was announced at Michigan International Speedway, the race track that Greg Biffle gave car owner Jack Roush his 13th victory in Michigan in 2013 aboard a Roush Fenway Racing Ford Fusion. That victory was the 1,000th across NASCAR's three national series for Ford Motor Co., which won the first NASCAR-sanctioned race 65 years ago.
 
Ford Motor Company’s agreement with Homestead-Miami Speedway is a five-year deal with an option to renew for an additional five years. Other details were not disclosed.
 
Ford will continue to introduce fans to its award-winning product line, such as F Series trucks, Mustang, Explorer and Fusion through a 20,000-square-foot display during Ford Championship Weekend Nov. 14-16. Ford also uses the official pace car program as an opportunity to showcase its latest products, and will announce the unique pace vehicle for the Ford EcoBoost 400 later this year. Among the pace vehicles in recent years include the Fusion Hybrid, the Bullit Mustang, a Ford Police Interceptor and the “hero Mustang” from the movie “Need for Speed.”
 
“Extending this long-term sponsorship agreement with Homestead-Miami Speedway is great opportunity for Ford,” said Hinrichs. “The Ford Championship Weekend has been a very successful event for us over the past 12 years, especially the chance for the fans to take part in our interactive consumer display with our latest production cars and trucks.   With the exciting changes to NASCAR’s Chase playoffs this year, we know this should be a big weekend for all of us.”
 
Throughout Homestead-Miami Speedway’s 13 years of hosting championships in NASCAR’s premier series, Ford has dominated the Sprint Cup Series scene. Winning seven of the thirteen Ford EcoBoost 400 races, Ford is the winningest Sprint Cup Series manufacturer at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Five of those race wins came in consecutive years, with Greg Biffle winning in 2004, 2005 and 2006, Matt Kenseth winning in 2007, and Carl Edwards winning in 2008.
 
The Ford EcoBoost 400 will again serve as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship race. However, for the first time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history, four drivers will battle it out for the title, after surviving a grueling nine-race elimination series in the Chase For The Sprint Cup, before making their way to Homestead-Miami Speedway to compete for the championship. Driving in a race-within-a-race, the four drivers will compete in a full 43-car field, and fans have the opportunity to be a witness to the historic finish to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season that can only be seen at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

PFC Brakes has been named the official brake supplier for 2015 Indy Lights Series.

The new Dallara IL-15 car will be equipped with a full PFC brake package that features shape optimized 6-pot monobloc calipers, PFC discs, and PFC pads specifically for Indy Lights demands.

The brake disc assemblies will feature PFC’s patented V3 attachment system which eliminates all hardware for a simple and robust method of attachment reducing the overall weight and providing an easy, quick change.

Testing of PFC pad compounds to complement the Cooper tires has been ongoing for 2014 with two compounds available to suit road courses, street courses and ovals.

Ray Fox, one of NASCAR’s premier engine builders, car owners and crew chiefs during the early years of the sport, died Sunday at Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was 98 years old.

Reports indicate Fox was hospitalized recently and was battling pneumonia.

Fox began his career in NASCAR as an engine builder. He built an engine for Fireball Roberts to race in 1955 on the Daytona Beach Road Course, building it in eight hours the night before the race. Roberts went on to win the event using the motor Fox built, but the car was later disqualified by NASCAR for illegal parts in the engine.

Fox later built engines for car owner Carl Kiekhaefer, who used Fox’s engines to win more than 20 races during the 1956 season. In 1960 Fox built a car for car owner John Masoni that Junior Johnson raced to victory in the Daytona 500.

In 1962 Fox began fielding his own cars in what is now known as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. A long list of legendary names drove cars for Fox, including Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Buddy Baker, Buck Baker and more.

Fox ended his lengthy career in NASCAR in 1996 after working as a technical inspector for the sanctioning body since 1990.

“We are saddened by the news of the passing of Ray Fox. Ray was a legendary wrench man who led Junior Johnson to victory in the 1960 Daytona 500 and also called Daytona Beach home,” said Daytona Int’l Speedway President Joie Chitwood III. “Since his retirement, he was a frequent visitor at the track and his presence will be missed. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the Fox family.”

Formula One legend Michael Schumacher, who suffered serious head injuries in a skiing accident last December, is no longer in a coma and has left the hospital according to his manager.

The seven-time world champion’s manager did not say when he was released from University Hospital in France, but said he will now “continue his long phase of rehabilitation.”

“His family would like to explicitly thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months,” read a statement. “The family also wishes to thank all the people who have sent Michael all the many good wishes to Michael. We are sure it helped him.”

Schumacher, 45, was placed in an induced coma after falling and hitting his head on a rock during a family ski trip last December. The German’s medical team began reducing his sedation at the end of January.

With seven drivers’ titles, 91 Grand Prix victories and 68 pole positions, Schumacher remains the most successful driver in Formula One history. He retired at the end of the 2012 season.

The National Dirt Racing League (NDRL) recently introduced their Engine Builder of the Year program and title sponsor, Total Seal Piston Rings.

The program is aimed at rewarding the engine builders who have such a large stake in the success of the racers that compete with the NDRL. It will also offer up some bragging rights in addition to cash and prizes that are being awarded.

“We wanted to give the engine builders some recognition and some show of appreciation for giving these guys what they need to be successful. The program awards consistency, but it also rewards winning. We are very happy to be able to give something back to those guys. They deserve some credit for all that they do,” said NDRL Marketing Director Jason Babyak.
 
NDRL partner Total Seal Piston Rings will become the program’s title sponsor. Total Seal is used by almost every major engine builder in the Dirt Racing market.

“The engine builders are obviously some of Total Seal’s core customers, so it was a win-win for them and for the NDRL. We are proud to have Total Seal on board and to represent their brand through the Engine Builder program,” Babyak added.

Additional sponsors of the Engine Builder of the Year program include High Velocity Heads, Dyers Top Rods, Cometic Gasket, K1 Technologies and JE Pistons.

Participating engine builders accumulate points based on performance of the drivers that race their engines. A win is good for 10 points, while a top 5 is worth 5 points. A top 10 finish is good for 1 point, and a fast time garners 3 points.

A running tally is published after each event, and at the year's end the top 3 finishers will all receive cash and prizes for their efforts.

The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) will honor the legacy of its visionary co-founder John Bishop throughout the 2014 season and next year’s running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
 
Bishop, who co-founded IMSA in 1969 with his wife Peggy and Bill France Sr., died June 5 in San Rafael, California, due to complications from a recent illness. He was 87.

All IMSA competitors will run a special decal for the remainder of the season in memory of Bishop, who will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in August. In addition, a celebration of the life and career of Bishop is being planned for the week of the Rolex 24 next January.
 
The family is asking that donations in Bishop’s honor be made to the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, New York.

Road America has announced a new sponsorship agreement with RaceQuip, a manufacturer of high quality auto racing safety equipment, as its new safety partner.

RaceQuip’s safety apparel and gear will be available for purchase at Road America’s Paddock Shop and RaceQuip will also have a presence on-site at Road America events through venue signage while displaying its full line of products for competitors at many Road America events.

In addition, RaceQuip representatives will be on hand at various events to answer questions and provide support to the race teams and attendees who are interested in, or use RaceQuip safety equipment.

"RaceQuip produces a wide range of auto racing safety gear for both the professional and club racer. This diversity in our product line allows us to cater to the full spectrum of racing participants regardless of sanction or series," said Patrick Utt, RaceQuip president. "We are very excited to be working with Road America and offering our products to such a wide competitor base at Road America events."

First introduced in 1975, the RaceQuip brand has built a reputation for manufacturing and distributing high quality auto racing safety equipment at affordable prices. In 2006, the Safe-Quip and RaceQuip brands were joined together under Vesta Motorsports, USA to offer expanded US manufacturing capabilities and further compliment the line of value-priced, quality built SFI rated auto racing fire retardant suits, shoes, nomex gloves, Snell SA helmets, and SFI & FIA seat belts & harness sets.

The SFI and FIA certified auto racing and motorsports safety gear manufactured by RaceQuip is designed for use in many racing series and sanctions, such as: IMSA, ARCA, Chump Car, Lemons Racing, NASCAR, NASA, NHRA, NMCA, NMRA, NTPA, SCCA and SVRA.