NASCAR returns to ESPN

It will be good to see ESPN, the sports channel that helped make NASCAR the success it is today, once again carry racing programming starting with the upcoming season.

The network aired 262 NASCAR Cup races over a 20-year period beginning in 1981. A lot of the familiar on-air faces and voices from those and more recent years will be on the broadcast team, including Jerry Punch, Allen Bestwick, Dave Burns, and Jamie Little. Rusty Wallace will also join the team, along with Brent Musburger, Andy Petree, and Dale Jarrett.

And the most recently-announced additions are former championship crew chief Tim Brewer, Marty Smith (a writer for NASCAR.com), Angelique Chengelis (Detroit News Motorsports writer), and Terry Blount and David Newton (both of ESPN.com). Of course, you won't see all these folks only on race day, as ESPN will be adding NASCAR-themed shows such as the daily "NASCAR Now" program and "NASCAR Countdown," a pre-race show that will run before all Nextel Cup and Busch races on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.

"NASCAR Now" will debut on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. on February 17. ESPN2 will also air the Busch Series season-opener at Daytona the same day, and will be the TV home of the series all season.

Popular driver Ward Burton will be back in Nextel Cup for 2007 after a two-year layoff, driving the No. 4 car for the Morgan-McClure team. The single-car team, struggling against the Roush, Hendrick, and Childress juggernauts in recent years, hopes for a resurgence to the glory days of the early 1990s when it won three Daytona 500 races in five years. The team will race with sponsorship from Nashville, Tenn.-based State Water Heaters, but will start the season outside the magic top 35 in points, requiring it to qualify on time for at least the first five races.

Among the awards given at the Nextel Cup banquet in New York recently was the "Most Popular Driver" award, which to no one's surprise went to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Well, even more recently the votes were tallied for the same honor in the Busch Series, and on December 8 Kenny Wallace became the first three-time winner.

A ballot printed in NASCAR Insider Magazine, the official NASCAR membership publication, was the method by which votes were submitted and Kenny Wallace has been named the 2006 NASCAR Busch Series Most Popular Driver. Wallace, as you can imagine, was NOT rendered speechless by the honor, and gave an entertaining off-the-cuff acceptance speech.

INJURY REPORT

The off-season has so far proven more hazardous for NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers than the racing season was. Recently crowned Nextel Cup champion Jimmy Johnson sustained a fractured wrist in a fall from a golf cart during a celebrity tournament in Florida.

Initial reports that Johnson fell when the cart's driver took a sharp turn were later clarified. Apparently Johnson wasn't in the normal seating position, but fooling around on top of the cart when the driver hit a bump and launched him several feet, fracturing the wrist when he landed.

The injury, while not serious, put Johnson out of the Race of Champions, scheduled to be run in France this week. Johnson should be OK for testing prior to the Daytona 500.

And Greg Biffle had a slightly more professional accident while running a tire test for Goodyear at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Biffle suffered a dislocated shoulder, but is expected to be healed in time for the 2007 season-opener.

ANOTHER DYNASTY?

Finally, there have been many racing dynasties over the years, from the Pettys to the Unsers, from Allisons to the Earnhardts, and we may be seeing the start of yet another. Last Wednesday, Jeff Gordon announced that his new bride, Ingrid Vandebosch, is pregnant. So let's see, will that be Jeff Gordon Jr. winning the 2030 Daytona 500 while proud Papa Jeff Sr. calls the race from the ESPN broadcast booth?