NASCAR Cup Series

Richard Petty Motorsports and its partner Smithfield Foods announced today that the Petty Blue tradition and heritage will return for the majority of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season in 2013.

Jeremy Clements, a driver in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, has been indefinitely suspended from NASCAR for violating the sanctioning body’s Code of Conduct.

Carl Edwards will return to the Subway Fresh Fit 500 where he has one pole, two top-five and five top-10 finishes. This will be Edwards’ ninth start in the spring Phoenix race.

After being based 11 days in Daytona Beach, Fla. for the season opening Daytona 500, Kurt Busch returns to his racing roots for a pair of Sprint Cup races in two of the most famous desert cities.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. will continue its successful relationship with Hendrick Motorsports after signing a two-year contract extension that secures the full-season primary sponsorship of the No. 48 NASCAR Sprint Cup team and five-time series champion Jimmie Johnson in 2014 and 2015.

SEASON DEBUT: At Daytona International Speedway in the inaugural races of the 2013 season, Toyota driver Kyle Busch gave the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Camry its first victory when he won one of the qualifying 'Duels' last Thursday. In the Daytona 500, veteran driver Mark Martin registered a third-place result in the 55th running of the Daytona 500 and rookie Alex Bowman (third) and Parker Kligerman (fifth) earned top-five results in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) race at Daytona.

Stenhouse on Phoenix: “I am looking forward to racing the No. 17 Best Buy Ford at Phoenix. We haven’t finished worse than ninth in the Nationwide series there, so hopefully we can keep that streak going. We don’t have much practice time in Phoenix so we will rely heavily on our short-track testing we did in the off season. Phoenix is a tough track, so we will work on getting our Best Buy Ford to handle through the corners. I think we will have a solid finish at Phoenix.”

Aric Almirola heads to the one-mile Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway 13th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings following a 13th-place finish in the Daytona 500. The 28-year-old driver will make his fifth Sprint Cup start at the track. He looks to best his career, track-high finish of 12th place, which he posted last spring with the No. 43 Farmland Ford team, in Sunday's Subway Fresh Fit 500.

Beginning at 9 a.m. CT Thursday, Texas Motor Speedway is offering the "Dale Jr. $88 Special" to give fans a double dose of NASCAR's most popular driver when the Texas 500 NASCAR doubleheader weekend arrives April 11-13 at "The Great American Speedway!"

Labonte has 28 starts at PIR, three top-five and nine top-10 finishes. The 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has led eight races for 68 laps. His average finish is 18.2. The Corpus Christi, Texas-native is currently 14th in the points standing