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Racing Notebook: TNT announcer Weber is done
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Published: July 2, 2009
■ Play-by-play announcer Bill Weber will not call the last two races of TNT's NASCAR coverage.
Weber wasn't in the booth for last weekend's race from New Hampshire Motor Speedway. TNT said yesterday that Ralph Sheheen will again take his spot, working The Coke Zero 400 in Daytona and the LifeLock.com 400 from Chicagoland.
TNT didn't give a reason for Weber's absence. In a statement Sunday about the New Hampshire race, the network said: "As this is a private issue, it's the policy of the company not to discuss personal matters involving our employees."
■ Glen Wood and Richard Childress, former drivers-turned-owners, are among the 25 nominees for the first NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class.
NASCAR released the two names yesterday ahead of the announcement of all nominees that is scheduled for tonight.
Wood helped pioneer the modern-day pit stop, while Childress shares the record of 11 owner championships in NASCAR's three national series.
The first class, consisting of five members, will be inducted in conjunction with the opening of the Hall of Fame in Charlotte next May.
A 21-member committee selected the nominees from NASCAR drivers, owners and promoters.
■ IndyCar racing's Helio Castroneves narrowly edged NASCAR's Tony Stewart in second-quarter voting for the 2009 Driver of the Year award.
Castroneves, a Brazilian, received 119 points for bouncing back from a legal battle to win his third Indianapolis 500. Stewart, the Sprint Cup points leader, received 116. It was the closest margin in the voting by a national panel of auto racing writers and broadcasters since Stewart lost the overall award to CART's Cristiano da Matta in a tiebreaker in 2002.
Castroneves, who drives for Penske Racing, was acquitted in April of federal tax-evasion charges that could have sent him to jail for up to six years. He missed the first race of the IndyCar season, but won at Indy in May and backed that up with a victory at Texas Motor Speedway in the quarter that ended on June 21.
Castroneves beat Stewart, the 2005 Driver of the Year, and third-place Mark Martin, another NASCAR star, who had 42 points.
NASCAR's Kyle Busch also received one first-place ballot as one of 19 drivers who scored points in the second-quarter voting.
Cup star Jeff Gordon won first-quarter honors.
■ Taylor Earnhardt, the 20-year-old daughter of the late Dale Earnhardt, will be behind the wheel of her father's famed No. 3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet for a demonstration run during this week's Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.
She will be accompanied by her mother, Teresa Earnhardt, president and CEO of Dale Earnhardt Inc., the company she and her husband founded in 1980.
The car, owned by Richard Childress Racing, is the one in which Earnhardt, a seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, got his 76th and final victory at Talladega Superspeedway in the fall of 2000. It has been on display at the RCR Museum since its grand opening in May 2003.
■ The NASCAR Foundation has joined forces with Feeding America for a summer-long food drive aiming to provide 350,000 meals to American children and their families.
In partnership with Feeding America, the foundation has created several opportunities for NASCAR fans to join these efforts, including a track walk at Chicagoland Speedway and an online virtual food drive conducted throughout the summer Sprint Cup schedule.
About 17.9 million low-income children received free or reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program last year, but just 2 million of those children participated in the Summer Food Service Program that provides food to children during the summer months when school is out. As a result, the need at local food banks during these months increases.
The online virtual food drive begins this week and runs through Aug. 31. Fans can visit www.nascar.com/foundation to create a virtual food drive and set goals for number of meals raised.
The NASCAR Foundation Track Walk will also give fans the opportunity to walk a lap around the 1.5-mile Chicagoland oval before the Lifelock.com 400 on July 11.
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