NASCAR preview

NASCAR Nextel Cup is back this weekend with tomorrow's Bud Shootout leading up to next week's Daytona 500. The major change for the 2007 season is Toyota's entry into Nextel Cup. There are 61 entries at the Daytona 500 and only 43 spots. It's going to be more competitive just to qualify for races and no one really knows how Toyota will do. Only Dale Jarrett & Dave Blaney are guaranteed spots and next Thursday's Duel 150s are going to be very intense. The other thing is the introduction of the Car Of Tomorrow at Bristol. That will be completely integrated by next season. NASCAR made a couple of tweaks to the Chase format mainly that 12 cars will qualify for the Chase. Juan Pablo Montoya's performance will be a big story too.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the biggest story in NASCAR this week. His contract with Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) is finished at the end of this season. He could leave. He has not had a cordial relationship with stepmother and DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt. He had a meeting with her, longtime DEI president Richie Gilmore and newly hired president of global operations Max Siegel. It looks like Siegel could be a key figure in the negotiations because he's new and adds a fresh perspective. Who is Max Siegel? Despite his name, he's black and his background is the black gospel music business. He's the former president of Verity Records & Tommy Boy Gospel Records. So as a marketing guy, he seems to understand that letting Jr. leave would be a public relations nightmare for DEI. Jr. told the media yesterday that he has asked for majority ownwership of DEI. Is the relationship between Jr. & Teresa so bad that she won't do that? Who knows but Siegel could be the right guy to smooth things over. This will be very interesting.

I'm looking forward to the 2007 NASCAR season because for the first time, Canadian NASCAR fans will get to see all the races in the top three series. That's because TSN has agreed to carry Busch Series races for the first time. There's no doubt that they wanted the Montreal race and NASCAR told them they had to take all the races. ESPN is showing the Busch Series in the US so if NASCAR & ESPN hadn't twisted TSN's arm, we wouldn't have got to see any of the races. I don't know if they're showing the races live. I'm looking forward to the 2007 season. It should be fun as usual. Here's a recent clip of Dale Earnhardt Jr. defending Teresa Earnhardt after Kevin Harvick called her a "deadbeat owner".