■ Indy star Helio Castroneves and his sports agent, Alan Miller, are facing charges of tax evasion, and that has some in the NASCAR garage wondering what's going on, particularly since Miller is an agent for some NASCAR drivers as well.
"It's certainly shocking," Jimmie Johnson said. "Alan has been my attorney since I was 15 years old.
"He'd been a great friend and has helped me with a lot of different things.
"I have an outside tax group that I use, so he really is my attorney. As of now, everything is still the same.
"I'm learning a lot as time goes on here, and there is still a lot to be investigated and covered. So I'll certainly keep my eyes on the subject and trying to figure out what's going on.
"I've got a business to run and need to protect myself and my family, and with everything I've done with Alan, he has respected my thoughts and me as a driver, as though he was a parent. He has really done a phenomenal job for me. And we've been together since I was 15 or 16 years old, and I've never seen anything out of character from him.
"So I'm shocked.
"I know he is shocked.
"As time goes on we'll all learn and understand more. I'm just holding tight right now and making sure that when I start making decisions on what's going to happen, that I have all the information."
■ Dale Earnhardt Jr. may be the most popular driver in NASCAR, but that doesn't make it any easier when he walks into a corporate board room to pitch sponsorship for his Nationwide series team.
And times are tough all over.
Earnhardt said that means gambling on racing newcomers might not be in the cards for a while.
"It is harder now to pull a guy out of the Super Late Model series, a guy who has never been on a radial tire, and plug them in," Earnhardt said. "Even though those guys would eventually make it at this level without a doubt -- they are talented -- but you can't afford to go through the learning curve with them.
"You can't afford that learning curve with them.
"Like Clint Bowyer: How many cars did he wreck his first season? I think half the garage didn't think Clint was going to make it, he was backing in the wall so much.
"But somebody has to go through that process with him until he gets out the other end of it and becomes the race driver he is today.
"But the economy the way it is now, you can't hardly afford to do that anymore."
Little wonder that Kenny Wallace said his brother, Rusty, might be wooed out of retirement to get back in a ride.
Sponsorship is tough to get right now, all the way around.
■ The sport's annual testing and evaluation session is set for next week at South Boston Speedway, with 26 promising young drivers from all over the country putting their skills on the line, hoping to be among the 14 earning a sponsored ride in NASCAR's development series next year.
NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program was created in 2004. and 22 drivers have gone through the program. The 2008 class has been particularly successful, with 14 wins at various tracks around the country. And Paul Harraka won NASCAR's Late Model championship at All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif., the first diversity driver to win a title.
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