Texas Motor Speedway announced its 2013 season schedule this week and also unveiled its “No Limits” Wild Asphalt Circus marketing theme for next year.

The theme comes with a new logo and will be heavily incorporated into the speedway’s marketing and advertising materials, souvenir merchandise, tickets, signage, web site and the overall fan experience. 

In addition to the wild race action on the asphalt, fans also will be treated to a wide range of entertainment associated with the theme that will range from the newly formed “No Limits” Thrill Riders to high divers to popular musical acts.



A sneak preview of the “No Limits” Wild Asphalt Circus for fans will come at the upcoming AAA Texas 500 NASCAR triple-header weekend scheduled for November 1-4.

Outside of the circus-themed ambiance for next year, Texas Motor Speedway’s 2013 season schedule will consist of its three customary weekends in their traditional dates and featuring NASCAR’s three premier series and INDYCAR.



April’s Texas 500—formerly the Samsung Mobile 500—and November’s AAA Texas 500 will once again serve as signature events on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, as will the Firestone 550 on the IZOD IndyCar Series calendar.



The Texas 500, set for April 13, will anchor Texas Motor Speedway’s season-opening NASCAR doubleheader race weekend that is scheduled as the first Saturday night event of the Sprint Cup Series season. The three-day race week opens with practice sessions for both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series on Thursday, April 11.

SportsDay Qualifying Days Powered By The Dallas Morning News for both series will be held Friday, April 12, and the day’s on-track activities will be highlighted by the running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 Nationwide Series race that evening. The race action will culminate with the Texas 500 on Saturday, April 13, which will fall on the same weekend as The Masters golf tournament but will not conflict due to the evening start time.

Despite speculation about its future at Texas Motor Speedway, the IZOD IndyCar Series will return for its 17th season with the Firestone 550 on Saturday, June 8. The event will be an IndyCar/NASCAR doubleheader weekend as the IZOD IndyCar Series will be paired with NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, a combination that has been together since the speedway opened in 1997.



Qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino 400 will be held Thursday, June 6, while qualifying for the Firestone 550 will take place Friday, June 7. The Firestone 550 pole qualifying will be immediately followed by the running of the WinStar World Casino 400 that night, setting up an all-evening race weekend.

The race weekend concludes Saturday, June 8, with the running of the Firestone 550— “America’s Original Nighttime IndyCar Race”—on the speedway that has hosted the most IndyCar events (23) in the history of the series.



The Texas Motor Speedway season closes with its busiest race week of the season as all three NASCAR series (Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series) visit October 31-November 3 for the AAA Texas 500 event.

The AAA Texas 500 serves as the eighth race in the 10-event, playoff-style Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup while the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge Nationwide Series race and WinStar World Casino 350 Camping World Truck Series race could be pivotal in the championship aspirations for their respective series contenders as the season winds down.



The race week opens with two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series practice sessions on Thursday, October 31, and is followed with a day that features all three series on track. SportsDay Qualifying Days Powered by The Dallas Morning News for the Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino 350 and Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 will be held on Friday, November 1. The day also will include two NASCAR Nationwide Series practices for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge and culminate with the WinStar World Casino 350 being run that evening.



The Nationwide Series takes center stage Saturday, November 2, as SportsDay Qualifying Days Powered by The Dallas Morning News will take place in the afternoon and be followed by the evening running of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge race. The day also will feature Sprint Cup Series “Happy Hour,” with the final two practice sessions being run in preparation for the next day’s AAA Texas 500.



The weekend and Texas Motor Speedway race season will conclude Sunday, November 3, with the running of the AAA Texas 500, the eighth race in the 10-event Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship format.

Official start times for each event will be announced at a later date.

Larry Fisher has been named executive director of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California at the Fairplex in Pomona, California.

Fisher is a longtime automotive enthusiast, holding membership in the Society of Automotive Historians and himself a collector of vintage autocycles, motorcycles and microcars. Most recently, Fisher was an interpretive, planning and experience design consultant providing expertise to cultural heritage institutions, parks and attractions.

He served as CEO and executive director of the Herreshoff Marine Museum/America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Providence, Rhode Island. Fisher also was a consultant to the president on the creation of the Experience Design Department for The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

In his new position, Fisher will be responsible for administrative operations and fundraising efforts for the museum, which is located on the grounds of the LA County Fairplex complex, also home to historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

He will also be responsible for the overall management of the museum’s two biggest fundraising events: the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion presented by AAA at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion presented by Automobile Club of Southern California at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California.

Fisher has more than 20 years of experience working in the museum and exhibition field in senior-level positions as well as consultation.

During the recent five-race, five-track swing through Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin for rounds five through nine in the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s Cup, series and track officials were able to finalize plans and have three important announcements about upcoming events over the next three weeks.

The events scheduled for Saturday, August 25, at the Red River Valley Speedway and Sunday, August 26, at the Huset’s Speedway have been taken off the schedule. USMTS officials received word last week that the Huset’s event was being canceled, which left a single one-day show in West Fargo, North Dakota.

After conferring with Red River Valley Speedway promoter Donny Schatz, it was decided that in the interest of the travelling teams that the show at RRVS would reluctantly be canceled. Plans to return to the state-of-the-art facility in 2013 are in the works.

The Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s Cup event at the Ogilvie Raceway in Ogilvie, Minnesota, last Wednesday, August 15, was halted by rain just prior to the main event for the USMTS Modifieds.

This event will be completed on Friday, September 7, prior to the running of the USMTS National Finals event that weekend. Therefore, fans attending the Friday night show will get to see double features.

The show on Saturday, September 8, will be the final event on the USMTS National Championship Series campaign and will end with the crowning of the 2012 USMTS national champion. This year’s champ gets $30,000.

With a gap in the schedule on August 30, it was annonced that Jackson Speedway in Jackson, Minnesota, would pick up the date to host the Hunt for the USMTS Casey’s Cup Series.

The event will be part of a doubleheader with the Fairmont Raceway on Wednesday, August 29, which is located just 30 miles west of Jackson in Fairmont, Minnesota. Both shows will include the Iron Man Challenge featuring USRA Stock Cars and USRA B-Mods.

Fans can get a two-day ticket for both shows for $25 by emailing fairmontraceway@yahoo.com. Two-day tickets can also be purchased this Friday at Fairmont or Saturday at Jackson during their regular weekly shows, or next Wednesday at the Fairmont USMTS event.

National Performance Warehouse Companies (NPW), with seven operations in Florida and California, has added a new location to its footprint with the acquisition of Karbelt Warehouse in Ajax, Ontario.

Karbelt is a respected name in the Canadian performance market, dating back to 1952.
 


Commenting on the deal, Larry Pacey, president and CEO, said, “We said we would grow by acquisition. We continually prospect for the best fits for our business model and the Karbelt availability came at the right time, in the right business and in the right location. This is another anchor from which we can continue to expand.”
 


NPW says it expects additional growth to come by way of expanding the line offerings, deeper inventories, expanding the geography serviced and increasing promotional activities.

As with other NPW acquisitions, the current sales and warehouse staff of Karbelt are being retained to continue to service their customers. NPW said it believes the relationships the company and its current staff has with its customers and vendors are critical to their success.
 


For more information on NPW, visit www.enationalperformance.com.

In a move that promises to accelerate the growth of its branding initiative in the northwestern US, VP Racing Fuels, Inc. has announced that RE Powell Distributing Company has signed up for VP’s new program to brand fuel stations with the VP Racing Fuels brand.

“As RE Powell partners with VP’s team, I am confident this new program will be a success for the dealer who is looking for differentiation as well as our company which is looking to provide the best solutions to each of our customers,” said Justin Christensen, RE Powell’s Director of Marketing and Sales.
 
Over many years of distributing VP’s race fuel products, RE Powell has come to appreciate working with VP’s impassioned experts and forged a strong relationship with the VP team.

“That’s why we were very excited when VP approached us with the opportunity to strengthen its presence by branding VP retail locations,” said Christensen. “In our eyes VP’s brand program creates the best of both worlds—a first class “branded” image AND the pricing flexibility that comes along with unbranded fuel supply. The bonus of the program is the incredible credit card-processing program that will save our customers hundreds if not thousands of dollars each month.”
 
Christensen recently introduced the VP brand program to its retail fuel dealers at its annual customer conference, along with the VP “Fuel Cage,” a program providing for the retail sale of VP’s high performance race fuels in 5-gallon pails.

“I was confident it would make a ‘splash,’ but we were not prepared for the level of excitement it generated - nearly every one of our unbranded customers and even some of our branded customers were immediately interested in the opportunity.”
 
RE Powell is a privately owned distributing company based in Grandview, Washington, and servicing the states of the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and portions of Canada, including more than 300 retail dealer sites in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

For more about RE Powell, visit www.repowell.net.
 
VP Racing Fuels is best known as a leader in race fuel technology. VP is the Official Racing Fuel of NHRA Championship Drag Racing, American Le Mans, World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Late Model Series and Rally America, among more than 60 VP-sponsored series and sanctioning bodies.
 
VP’s product line also includes SEF Small Engine Fuels, formulated specifically for 2-cycle and 4-cycle portable gas-powered equipment and PowerMaster hobby fuels for R/C Racing. More information is available online at vpracingfuels.com, seffuels.com or powermasterfuels.com.

IndyCar has modified the activation delay to the overtake assist for GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at the raceway in Sonoma, California, trimming the interval from 5 to 3.5 seconds.

A total of 90 seconds will be afforded drivers, with a maximum of 15 seconds per activation. There’s no recharge time between activations.

“All parameters of the Push-to Pass system can be tailored to fit any circuit that play host to IZOD IndyCar Series races,” said IndyCar Director of Engine Development Trevor Knowles. “Sonoma has shorter straightaways than what we had at Mid-Ohio, so we’ve adjusted the parameters of Push-to-Pass to fit this particular circuit. But the principles for use that were in place for Mid-Ohio have remained the same for Sonoma.”

The overtake assist feature, introduced to the series in 2009, allows a driver to add turbocharger boost and additional RPMs with the press of a button on the steering wheel. When the system is engaged, the turbocharger boost increases to 161 kPa with an additional 200 RPMs on the 2.2-liter V6 engines supplied by Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus.

The system has been utilized at Toronto and Edmonton with the activation delay introduced at Mid-Ohio. Teams had the opportunity to test the system with the delay during the private test day at Sonoma on August 17.

The Grand Prix of Sonoma is scheduled for August 24-26.

NASCAR and FOX Deportes have announced that they are teaming up to provide the sport’s most expansive Spanish-language broadcast offering ever with coverage of 15 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races as well as original programming, daily news segments and weekly updates starting in 2013.

Of the 15 race broadcasts, FOX Deportes, the No. 1 US Latino Sports network, will carry live six NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, including, for the first time ever, a Spanish-language broadcast of NASCAR’s biggest race, the Daytona 500 (Sunday, February 24).

In addition to the 15 Spanish-language race broadcasts, FOX Deportes will also produce and air a series of original NASCAR programs focused on engaging the Latino fan base. This series will be complemented by daily NASCAR news segments in the No. 1 rated US Latino sports news franchise, Central FOX.

FOX Deportes coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing gets under way Saturday, February 16, with coverage of the Daytona Shootout, a non-points race from Daytona International Speedway that unofficially kicks off the 2013 season. In addition to the Daytona 500 a week later, FOX Deportes will also broadcast live in Spanish four additional races from Auto Club Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

In addition to the six live and nine live-to-tape race broadcasts, the four 30-minute original programs that will air early next year will highlight NASCAR’s storied history and personalities that make NASCAR one of the most popular sports in the world.

Veteran tech inspector Dave Brenn has been named IMCA’s director of division development.

In addition to helping develop and enforce rules in all sanctioned divisions, he’ll visit IMCA tracks and attend trade shows as part of his full-time responsibilities.

An East Coast native now from Junction City, Kansas, Brenn raced in the street stock class at his hometown Plaza Speedway for five seasons before stints on a pit crew and as a track announcer.

He began teching at Salina Speedway in 2002. Brenn currently works at Salina and Thunder Hill Speedway in Mayetta, Kansas.

Brenn will continue his tech inspection role at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals, the Duel In The Desert and other special events around the country.

For more information, visit imca.com.

Robert Jaramillo has been named Director of Contingency Sales for the International Hot Rod Association, IHRA Vice President Skooter Peaco announced.

Jaramillo will take on the new role in addition to his current position as Sales Director for IHRA's in-house publication Drag Review Magazine. Jaramillo will continue to service contingency and DRM accounts from his office in La Verne, California.

In his new position, Jaramillo will provide contingency outreach for the IHRA and its various racing series including the Nitro Jam and Summit Pro-Am presented by AMSOIL tours.

He can be contacted at rjaramillo@feldinc.com or 909/392-5800.

The NASCAR Foundation has announced Lorene King will serve as its new executive director.

The announcement was made Monday during the unveiling of the new The NASCAR Foundation emblem at the International Motorsports Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, marking the foundation’s official headquarters move to the birthplace of NASCAR.
 
King, who assumes her duties immediately, joins The NASCAR Foundation after having served seven years as senior director of corporate alliances at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where she developed, coordinated and executed successful fundraising and cause marketing strategies like the annual Thanks and Giving campaign, a leading initiative for the organization. During her tenure at St. Jude, King also helped lead integrated program analysis and strategic planning.
 
The move marks a homecoming for King, who grew up in the Daytona Beach area. As executive director, King will report to the foundation’s Board of Directors and will oversee the organization’s efforts to increase volunteer opportunities, and steer charitable giving on behalf of The NASCAR Foundation.

Initiatives that will continue to grow under King’s leadership include The Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award, Speediatrics, NASCAR Dreams and NASCAR Day. The foundation will continue to maintain a strong presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, to serve teams, drivers and industry members with their charitable endeavors.
 
From 1996-2005, King served as senior director of legal and estates and trusts and as director of gift planning programs at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She graduated from the University of South Alabama and earned an MBA from the University of Memphis.

She continues to serve as an advisory board member and mentor for the Memphis Institute for Leadership Education. King also serves on the board of directors for the University of Memphis’ Fogelman College of Business and Education.