The last time Brian Johnson Jr. was at Martinsville Speedway, he sat in the stands, eating a hot dog and watching a 2003 NASCAR race.

The next time the Machesney Park man is at the famed half-mile track, he’ll be behind the wheel of a NASCAR Camping World truck, making his series debut March 27.

“The biggest thing is getting seat time,” he said. “Our goal is to keep the truck in one piece and come out of there with a top-15 finish.”

Johnson hopes to also drive the truck race the next week in Nashville and maybe several more during the season for Ray Hackett Racing. The first-year team contacted Johnson after seeing him in the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown in January at Irwindale, Calif.

- RRStar.com

Jennifer Jo Cobb

You can’t help but notice her with her good looks, that mane of red hair, and those piercing eyes.

Jennifer Jo Cobb has a game plan, with her commitment to race her own team full-time in the Camping World Truck Series, and it’s one she’ll win in the end.

Cobb’s a 36-year-old racer who grew up around the sport and has been racing intermittently since she was 18.

She’s worked hard funding her racing, trying to make her way in NASCAR, racing in the Nationwide and Truck Series and running ARCA races.

Cobb’s mostly run the Kansas races on her home track in all three series, but that all changed over the offseason heading into 2010.

She purchased the total assets of Circle Bar Racing’s No. 10 team, with the help of investors, forming a alliance with Mike Harmon.

- Bleacher Report

The IndyCar Series could be racing in China as early as 2012. Terry Angstadt, president of the series’ commercial division, said early talks have began to try to take the series to the Asian country in the next few years.

He said officials have been to China two or three times already for negotiations and met with high-level government officials.

“We are not there yet,” he said.

“It’s something for at least two years in the future, maybe three.”

Angstadt said China makes perfect sense from a strategical point of view because it has a good economy, a relevant emerging automotive industry and a big sports base.

- Malaysia Star

Sarah Fisher

Sarah Fisher Racing will field Graham Rahal in Fisher’s Dallara-Honda in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Fla., (March 28) and the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (at Barber Motorsports Park on April 11). Rahal, whose only IndyCar win came at St. Pete in 2008, will miss this weekend’s season opener in Brazil because the rising star was left rideless by departing sponsors — which new Indy Racing League CEO Randy Bernard said wasn’t good for the sport.

Fisher said she convinced sponsor Dollar General to buy into replacing her with Rahal, son of the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner, because he matches her all-American reputation.

“It was the only reason we were able to do it,” Fisher told USA TODAY in a phone interview Wednesday.

She will return at Kansas and run seven more ovals this season (along with teammate Jay Howard running five races). Rahal could do another road course with the team, but Fisher hopes his results at St. Pete and Barber help snag another ride.

- USA Today

Brian Scott

“Last Monday (March 1), my wrist was evaluated by a highly regarded specialist in New York,” Scott said. “A high-resolution CT scan shows that it has healed to 85 percent. I will need to keep it braced and work on range of motion. However, there is nothing to hinder my commitment to my sponsors AccuDoc Solutions, StopRepairBills.com, BigSpot.com and the No. 11 Braun Racing Toyota team. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support.”

- Pit Road Scene

NASCAR has suspended two crewmen for violating its substance abuse policy, including the former brother-in-law of Jeremy Mayfield.

William David Keith, a spotter for David Gilliland in the Sprint Cup Series, is one of the two crewmen and was suspended Tuesday. Keith is also a former winner in the ARCA Racing Series.

Keith gave a deposition in Mayfield’s legal battle with NASCAR, claiming he witnessed Mayfield using methamphetamines several times. Mayfield became the first driver last May to be suspended under NASCAR’s toughened drug policy.

Matthew Huffstetler was the other crewman suspended. He works for Daisy Ramirez Motorsports in the Camping World Truck series.

- SI.com

The 2010 season has provided both ups and downs for the five drivers that make up the Nationwide Series’ 2010 rookie class. Of course the the season is only three races old and some ups and downs are to be expected the first year out.

So far into the young season, things have been mostly up for rookie of the year candidate James Buescher. He started off his 2010 campaign with a strong top-10 run that resulted in an eighth-place finish in the season-opener at Daytona. He did fall victim to an on-track accident in his most recent race, last weekend’s Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he’s still just outside the top-10 in points, holding down the 11th spot on the strength of that Daytona top-10 and his 13th-place finish a week later in Fontana.

- Full Story by Amanda Vincent – Louisville NASCAR Examiner

What a difference a year makes!  I know that it is early in the season, but Joey Logano looks like a brand new driver out there on the track.  Although, Logano won a rain-shortened race last season in New Hampshire, most of his rookie season was spent learning on the track.  Heading into this season most people thought he would improve and consistently run in the top-twenty, but I don’t believe they knew that he would be this good.  In just three races, he has one top-five finish and two top-ten finishes which is impressive for anyone let alone a nineteen year old.  At this point last year, Logano was thirty-sixth in points but this season he is eighth.  If Logano keeps on racing like he has so far, he should make the Chase which would be quite an accomplishment for him to do so in just his second season.

- Full Story by Tim Gunter – SportsRadioInterviews.com

The Victory Junction Gang Camp kicked off its “Keeping the Dream Alive” campaign on Monday with an announcement that Sprint Cup Series driver and Nationwide Series team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. has committed to donating $1 million to build and maintain The Dale Jr. Corral and Amphitheatre on the camp’s campus in Randleman, N.C.

“There are many reasons why we wanted to get involved with Victory Junction and build this amphitheatre, and it starts with the tremendous impact the camp has on these kids,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s incredible how one week changes lives.” - Full Story by Amanda Vincent – Louisville NASCAR Examiner

Jeff Gordon used to be NASCAR’s golden boy but not anymore.  Jimmie Johnson has taken that title away and has ran with it since his arrival on the Sprint Cup Series scene back in 2001.  Johnson has forty-nine Sprint Cup victories and four consecutive championships to Gordon’s thirty wins and he won his last of his four titles back in 2001.  It was Gordon that recommended Hendrick Motorsports to offer Johnson a driver development deal with the potential of advancing to a full-time driver in 2002.  I guess I could say, be careful for what you ask for because Gordon groomed Johnson so well, he might never get that elusive fifth Cup championship.  At one point, it seemed feasible that Jeff would catch Richard Petty’s and Dale Earnhardt’s record of seven titles but at the age of 38, Gordon can just about forget that milestone.  Sunday’s race was just a microcosm of what Gordon has been through since 2001. – Full Story by Tim Gunter – SportsRadioInterviews.com

John Wes Townley

His team owner, Richard Childress, said in a statement late Saturday the matter would be handled internally.

How NASCAR will handle it – if at all – remains a mystery.

Late Saturday, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston offered a statement:

“NASCAR is aware of the situation. We have met with the driver and addressed the matter with him directly.”

No other details were provided.

Townley, who turns 21 – legal drinking age – on Dec. 31, was cited on Thursday by law enforcement authorities in Nevada. The Nationwide Series began on-track activities at 11 a.m. Friday local time.

“John Wes is very aware that he made a serious error in judgment. Drivers are human and make mistakes like everyone else,” Childress said.

“However, we do not condone his behavior and will be handling it as an internal matter at RCR.”

- News & Observer

IZOD IndyCar driver Graham Rahal may follow in the footsteps of Danica Patrick and Nelson Piquet this season.

Rahal, who parted ways with Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing last season, is reportedly checking in with NASCAR to see about a possible ride in the stock car series.

Piquet, who left Formula One behind, drove in the season-opener NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Daytona and Patrick, still a fulltime IndyCar driver, is competing in 12 Nationwide race this season.

With no ride for the upcoming IndyCar season, the Columbus, Ohio native is apparently exploring his options.

“Every minute going by and by seems to cause more of a concern,” Rahal told The Indianapolis Star. “I should be (testing IndyCar at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama).”

- AHN | All Headline News

Carl Edwards is on a roll so far in 2010. A runner-up finish in the Drive4COPD 300 season-opener in Daytona gave him the second position in the Nationwide Series points standings, and he took over the points lead with last weekend’s fourth-place run in the Stater Brothers 300 at Fontana. He looks to already be in championship form only two races into the season, but are there too many distractions heading into Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?

He already had the task of getting reacquainted with crew chief Drew Blickensderfer. Edwards and Blickensderfer have worked together previously in Nationwide Series competition, but Blickensderfer moved to the Sprint Cup Series last year to assist the efforts of fellow-Roush Fenway Racing driver Matt Kenseth. After the Daytona 500, Blickensderfer was replaced by veteran crew chief Todd Parrott atop Kenseth’s pit box, so he now returns to Edwards and the No. 60 Nationwide team. - Full Story by Amanda Vincent – Louisville NASCAR Examiner

This weekend may provide a homecoming for Kyle Busch as both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series head to his hometrack, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Even so, is this weekend a race weekend that Busch is looking forward too, at least as far as Nationwide competition is concerned?

“Winning at every track is a big deal, but I think for Kyle, winning out there is even a bigger deal,” crew chief Jason Ratcliff said. - Full Story by Amanda Vincent – Louisville NASCAR Examiner

Carl Edwards is doing it and has been for several seasons. Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard are doing it. Mike Bliss and Michael McDowell have expressed interest in wanting to do it if sponsorship deals come through that would enable them to do it. Will Kevin Harvick do it again? Do what? Compete full-time in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series.

Back in 2001, Kevin Harvick began the season with sites set on competing for the Nationwide (then Busch) Series championship. With the death of Dale Earnhardt in that year’s season-opening Daytona 500, Richard Childress Racing hit the fast forward button on Harvick’s NASCAR career. Harvick, not willing to give up on his goal that year of winning the Nationwide/Busch Series title, embarked on a season of full-time double-duty. - Full Story by Amanda Vincent – Louisville NASCAR Examiner