JIMMIE JOHNSON TO HIGHLIGHT FOUNDATION AT WATKINS GLEN

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (Aug. 2, 2016) -- Six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson will wear the Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope, which features five charities working to improve K-12 public education, this weekend during the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International. In addition, his No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet will feature a special Jimmie Johnson Foundation 10th Anniversary paint scheme.

"I am proud to highlight the great work of these charities on my Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope this weekend," Johnson said. "Because of the generosity of our amazing partners, Chandra (wife) and I have been able to support some incredible schools and non-profits in the 10 years since we launched the Foundation. We'd like to thank Lowe's for allowing us to run the Foundation paint scheme for the eleventh time and Blue Bunny for sponsoring the Helmet of Hope program again this year. We are so grateful."

The Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope program allows fans and consumers across the country to nominate and vote on not-for-profit (501c3) organizations that support K-12 public education. Each of the recipients was also awarded a $25,000 grant and a Blue Bunny Ice Cream party.

The 5 recipient charities are:

ArtWell in Philadelphia
Carlos Gilbert Elementary Parents! Teachers! Kids! in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Change for Kids in New York
Inside the Outdoors Foundation in Costa Mesa, California
Mercy Child Advocacy Center in Sioux City, Iowa

"We are extremely proud to once again support the incredible work and commitment displayed by each of the organizations to assist K-12 public education," Wells said. "The passion around the mission of each of these organizations is evident through the rallying of their supporters to vote and ultimately secure additional needed funding. It never ceases to amaze me at how creative and driven all of the organizations are to securing the votes needed."

In addition to the Blue Bunny Helmet of Hope program, the Foundation operates the Champions Grant program in partnership with Lowe's, which provides cash grants to schools in the Johnson's hometowns and where they currently live; Team Up For Technology, a $48,000 technology makeover open to schools nationwide; and the Jimmie Johnson Foundation Wellness Challenge, a series of three athletic events in Charlotte, N.C. as well as a virtual triathlon. To date, the Jimmie Johnson Foundation has contributed more than $8.8 million to schools and non-profits across the country.

Tony Stewart teams with Coca-Cola for Bobby Allison tribute in final Southern 500

Tony Stewart‘s last shot at conquering the Southern 500 will be a tribute to a driver and paint scheme combination that did it twice.

Stewart, who retires from Sprint Cup competition after this season, will make his final start at Darlington Raceway in a Coca-Cola sponsored homage to Bobby Allison’s Southern 500 winning cars from 1971 and 1972.

The car was unveiled Wednesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, which Allison was inducted into in 2011. Stewart has been sponsored by Coca-Cola his entire

Sprint Cup career, which began in 1999.

“Tony Stewart is a real racer who would’ve fit right in during the time I raced in NASCAR,” Allison said in a press release. “He’s a perfect fit for this Coca-Cola Chevy. I know what car I’ll be watching in the Southern 500.”

The paint scheme on the No. 14 will include Coke’s slogan from the 70s – “The Real Thing” – and gold wheels and cubic-inch displacement boast on the hood, just like Allison’s car did.

Darlington is one of two tracks Stewart has not won at in Sprint Cup competition. The other is Kentucky Speedway.

In 23 Sprint Cup starts, Stewart has never led more than 10 laps at Darlington. Allson led 558 of the 734 laps available (76 percent) in the 1971 and 72′ Southern 500s. The 1983 Sprint Cup champion won at Darlington five times. Stewart has finished third in the Southern 500 twice.

“Races at Darlington have been pretty tough for me,” Stewart said in a press release. “We’ve had some decent runs there, but it just seems like you really have to put everything together the whole day. If you can say you won a race at Darlington – that’s a feather in your cap because you conquered something that’s very hard to obtain. That’s something to be proud of, knowing that you’re in a group of drivers with names like Allison and Pearson and Petty –the pioneers of our sport.”

Stewart’s final Southern 500 can be seen on Sept. 4 on NBC.

Rookies make NASCAR history with weekend sweep of national series

If it wasn’t for quite a bit of fog, last weekend’s slate of NASCAR action likely wouldn’t have been that different from many race weekends the last two decades.

Fog forced NASCAR to halt the Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway 22 laps from its scheduled distance, giving the win to Chris Buescher, one of the Rookie of the Year contenders. That sealed a milestone that had never been accomplished since the Camping World Truck Series debuted in 1995.

Buescher’s win meant Rookie of the Year contenders in all three national series – Sprint Cup, Xfinity and the Camping World Truck Series – swept the weekend.

The feat was started by William Byron, who won in the Truck series. It was his fifth win of the year, which set a Truck series record for rookies. Later Saturday night, Erik Jones led 154 laps at Iowa Speedway en route to winning his third race of the year.

Then Buescher’s team gambled on Monday during pit stops, putting his No. 34 Ford out front just in time for fog to cover all of Turn 1.

Buescher was the first rookie contender to win a Sprint Cup race since Joey Logano did at New Hampshire in 2009. Before that it had only been four times since 2005: Kyle Busch at Phoenix (2005), Denny Hamlin in Pocono I and II (2006) and Juan Pablo Montoya at Sonoma (2007).

Buescher’s win was also his first Sprint Cup top-10 finish, which came a week after his career-best finish of 14th at Indianapolis. The Prosper, Texas, native is one of just five drivers to have earned their first top 10 via a win.

Before him it was Trevor Bayne (2011), Brad Keselowski (2009), Jamie McMurray (2002) and Mark Donohue (1973).

NASCAR announces four staff changes among business leadership

NASCAR announced the appointments of four positions in its “business executive team” Wednesday.

It named Steve Phelps – the sport’s “top officer” in its Charlotte, North Carolina, office – as the new executive vice president and chief global sales and marketing officer. Phelps will oversee global marketing, partnership and series marketing, business development, integrated marketing communications, licensing & consumer products, and NASCAR digital media.

A press release says Phelps will “lead a strategic global marketing effort” in order to “transition International admirers of the sport into more engaged, passionate fans.”

The remaining staff changes:

Jill Gregory, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer – Will oversee brand and consumer marketing, brand platforms, entertainment marketing, driver marketing, team marketing, social media and analytics and insights.

Gregory joined NASCAR in July 2007 after working in executive roles at Bank of America and Sprint. She was among the inaugural group of executives honored as “Game Changers” in 2011 by Sports Business Journal, recognizing the top female executives in the sports world.

Norris Scott, Vice President of Analytics and Insights (new position) – Will oversee  consumer research functions at NASCAR including social analytics (NASCAR Fan & Media Engagement Center), digital research, sponsorship valuation, and media and market research.

Lou Garate, vice president of partnership marketing –  Has been with NASCAR for almost 10 years, working closely with official partners such as Chevrolet, Ford, Goodyear, MillerCoors and Toyota. Has developed partner assets including the Coors Light Pole Award, Coors Light Silver Bullet Bash, NASCAR Evening Series and Victory Lap fueled by Sunoco.

“We’ve been bold in our efforts to modernize and diversify our business and executive team, and these changes further reflect that fact,” said NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France in a press release. “Today’s announcement underlines the importance that NASCAR puts on specific areas of our business, and has been done in sync with structure and personnel changes made last month in the racing area.

“I’m delighted to see the growth of a number of our colleagues throughout NASCAR. All changes announced today will pay significant and immediate dividends for the sport.”

STEWART UNVEILS SPECIAL COCA-COLA LOOK FOR DARLINGTON

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tony Stewart joked that "I can't remember what I had for lunch most days" but the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion said he can recall the first time he saw Bobby Allison race.

"It was at Scottsburg, Indiana," Stewart said Wednesday during an appearance at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. "They ran Late Models, Street Stocks and Bombers or something like that that night.

"It was him in a Coke-sponsored car. He was running around the bottom the whole time; I was yelling 'Run the top!' I wanted to see him run the top once. But he was set up for the bottom I'm sure and I remember he ran eighth.

"That was probably 30-35 years ago but I can remember it."

Stewart will pay tribute to the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver during this year's Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway with a throwback paint scheme similar to that run by Allison between 1970-73. The car was unveiled for the first time at the Hall Wednesday.

Stewart's No. 14 Chevrolet will bear the Coca-Cola logos and feature the same red and gold paint scheme that adorned Allison's familiar No. 12 entry.

"I knew Bobby because he was a NASCAR driver. My family, we barely could afford to race the go-karts we were racing let alone go do something else. ... So I went with a buddy of mine; I didn't know Bobby was going to be there that day. But out front of the race track on the marquee it said Bobby Allison was racing and the date and I thought 'Wow, that's going to be cool.'

Some two dozen throwback schemes for this year's race, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 4, have been announced. Track officials say they expect the entire field to feature a nod to the past in some form or fashion.

Allison won 84 times in NASCAR's premier series and won the championship in 1983. He won the Southern 500 at Darlington four times, twice (1971-72) while running the red-and-gold scheme.

But what helped make the Hueytown, Alabama-based driver a fan favorite was his willingness to go race anywhere, at any time. Race fans that were not able to travel to Daytona or Darlington, Bristol or Riverside could see Allison compete at the tiny half-mile tracks across the Midwest and Northeast.

Stewart, Allison said, is cut from the same cloth."

I appreciate his enthusiasm for the sport, his ability, his willingness to go anywhere anytime and run different kinds of tracks, different kinds of equipment," Allison, now 78, said. "I ran different kinds but I never really got into the dirt Super Mods or anything. I did run them just a little … never dug into that, which he has. And he's won. I won in quite a few, but not all of them. I look at that and really appreciate him."

Allison spent his entire driving career darting between weekly short-track events while competing in NASCAR's premier series."I felt like any lap was just more experience, more training for me," he said. "Also any differences helped me adjust when the track changed, the weather changed. So much of that would throw the drivers; it helped me adjust to whatever went on anywhere I was racing."

Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, will retire from Sprint Cup competition at season's end. It's a fitting way, he said, to honor Allison in what will be his final Southern 500 start.

"He was fierce in a race car," Stewart said. "You knew that if he was out there … you were going to have to be on your game to beat him that day.

"(Darlington) is one of two Cup tracks that we run that I've not won a Cup race at … this is my last chance to cross another one, and a big one, off the list. And it's going to be in a really cool car too."

JEFF GORDON TO FILL IN FOR DALE JR. IN NEXT TWO RACES

RELATED: Latest updates, timeline on Dale Jr.

Jeff Gordon will be behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet for the next two races as Dale Earnhardt Jr. continues to recover from concussion-like symptoms, Hendrick Motorsports announced Tuesday.

Earnhardt Jr. underwent further evaluation Tuesday at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program, according to the team, and posted an encouraging tweet later Tuesday evening.

"We have a break in the schedule after Watkins Glen, so the extra week of recovery time will certainly be a benefit," team owner Rick Hendrick said in a press release. "Dale will be back when he's ready, and we're looking forward to that happening, but the priority continues to be his health and well-being. We'll keep our focus on that and let the doctors guide us."

RELATED: Read more about Junior's recovery here

Gordon will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series comes to Watkins Glen International for the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen this weekend (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Watkins Glen will be his 800th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start.

Following an off week, Gordon will then pilot the No. 88 at Bristol in the annual night race on Aug. 20. 

Watkins Glen and Bristol are the fourth and fifth races, respectively, that Earnhardt Jr. will miss due to concussion-like symptoms. Junior opened up about his recovery, the process, protocol and much more on this week's edition of "The Dale Jr. Download."

Last weekend at Pocono Raceway, Gordon indicated he looked at his stint in the No. 88 "as a very temporary thing" but is willing to remain in the role "as long as they need me."

The four-time series champion later added: "I wouldn't be here in Pocono if I wasn't committed to be there for Hendrick Motorsports and this team in any way that they need me. I think there is a balance between trying to make this transition. First of all, you want Dale to have the comfort of knowing that somebody is there for him. He doesn't have to worry about that aspect of it through this process. 

"… Then there is the side of who is the best person to be in the car to get the most points. And then there is the sponsorship side of it as well. So far, from what Rick (Hendrick, team owner) is telling me, that seems to be me. That is why I was at Indy and that is why I'm here."

Gordon has driven the No. 88 the past two races at Pocono (27th) and Indianapolis (13th). Alex Bowman drove the car at New Hampshire to a 26th-place finish. 

In his career, Gordon has four wins in 23 starts at the New York road course and nine total road-course wins in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He also has five wins at Bristol.

First practice at Watkins Glen is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET Friday on NBCSN, when Gordon will climb into the No. 88 for the third consecutive week -- one day after his 45th birthday.

WOOD BROTHERS REVEAL BLANEY'S DARLINGTON SCHEME

Wood Brothers Racing revealed their Darlington throwback scheme for Ryan Blaney on Tuesday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, in an event that was live streamed on NASCAR.com.

Photo credit: Wood Brothers/Ford Motorcraft

The look that their No. 21 Ford will sport for the 2016 Bojangles' Southern 500 (Sept. 4, 6 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is reminiscent of one David Pearson drove during the 1976 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

During that year, Pearson won 10 races, including the Southern 500 at Darlington. The Wood Brothers must be hoping some of that success will carry over to Blaney, a Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate.

Blaney is tied with Trevor Bayne for 17th place in the point standings, 28 points behind Kyle Larson, the final driver in the provisional Chase Grid. Blaney's one career Sprint Cup appearance at Darlington came last year when he started ninth and finished 30th.