NASCAR Cup Series

With pre-season testing kicking off in Daytona this week, the time has come to begin previewing the teams that will be running in the Sprint Cup Series in 2013. Since every team has not announced their plans for 2013, we will preview the 14 teams that have announced their 2013 plans.

NASCAR fans will get their first glimpse of the new sixth-generation NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars on the storied Daytona International Speedway for three days this week at Preseason Thunder, the unofficial on-track start of the 2013 NASCAR season.

Like many others, Grant Galloway grew up with dreams of someday racing at the top levels of NASCAR. The 18-year old Indiana native is getting close to achieving this dream with his sights set on competing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2013.

2013 is already an award winning year for Kansas Speedway as NASCAR’s Medical Liaison Department awarded Kansas Speedway’s Infield Care Center with the 2012 Team Work Award at the NASCAR Summit in Concord, N.C. yesterday. The award is given to an infield care center that demonstrates excellent team work on a daily basis as well as excels during the most medically challenging event.

Turner Scott Motorsports announced today that the team has named Scott Zipadelli as crew chief for the No. 31 BRANDT Chevrolet in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS). Zipadelli, a NNS veteran, has served as crew chief for 190 events in the series, earning one win, 12 top-five and 47 top-10 finishes. The East Haddam, Conn. native earned his first career win in 2010 with Boris Said at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

After completing its most successful season in 2012, the three Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota teams are ready to start the 2013 season with the annual three-day Daytona Preseason Thunder test at Daytona International Speedway. Highlighting the test that begins Thursday will be the drafting of the new-look Gen-6 production modeled racers that make their competition debut in the 55th annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 24.

From Homestead to Las Vegas, a bevy of NASCAR awards have been given out in the past two months. And this past weekend, a few more accolades were distributed to a number of industry personnel who are integral to every NASCAR race weekend.

While 2012 has been a year of change for NASCAR driver David Ragan, including getting married in the off-season, 2013 will be the year of motivation for the 27 year old behind the wheel of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion.

BRANDT, a leading agriculture retailer and manufacturer of agricultural specialty products, announced today its return to Turner Scott Motorsports as the primary sponsor of the No. 31 BRANDT Chevrolet driven by championship contender Justin Allgaier. BRANDT is committed to being the primary sponsor for at least 26 of the 33 scheduled NNS races in 2013.

The holidays are in the rearview mirror and that means the NASCAR Sprint Cup season is beginning to fill our windshields. The Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway is just three months away. The Sprint Cup teams are heading to Daytona to shake down the new 2013 cars, preparing for the 2013 Daytona 500 on February 24.