Auto racing notes: ex-NASCAR stars on track, in booth at Bristol

The longtime stars of NASCAR taking part in Saturday night’s charity race at Bristol Motor Speedway won’t just be on the racetrack.

ESPN2 will have live coverage of the event that includes former driving greats like Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Harry Gant and Rusty Wallace. And calling the race from the booth, along with Dr. Jerry Punch and former champion Dale Jarrett will be Jarrett’s dad, two-time series champion Ned Jarrett.

Ned Jarrett, who worked in television after retiring from racing, left the booth at the end of the 2000 season. He returned briefly to help call part of a Nationwide Series race at Charlotte on ESPN2 in 2007, working alongside his son for the first time.

“I’m really excited about working with Dale and Jerry in the booth again,” the elder Jarrett said. “I had a lot of good times over the years with Jerry when we were both working with ESPN, but I only had that one experience with Dale. This is a little more special because of the type of race that it is and I’ll be talking about many of the guys that I used to talk about when I worked for ESPN. That makes it even more exciting.

“I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for fans,” he added. “I expect these drivers are going to have fire in their eyes. They certainly have some age on them, some of them more than others, but they still believe that they can do it, and I believe they can do it.”

Others in the race, all former winners in NASCAR competition at Bristol, include two-time champion Terry Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Jimmy Spencer, Phil Parsons, L.D. Ottinger and former NASCAR Nationwide Series champions Jack “Iron Man” Ingram and David Green.

The charity event will be aired at 3 p.m., following ESPN on ABC’s coverage of the Nationwide race at Bristol.

HELPING TEEN DRIVERS: NASCAR Sprint Cup stars Kasey Kahne and Reed Sorenson are working with Allstate this spring, visiting high schools in race markets to encourage communication between parents and teens on safe driving.

Allstate says car crashes are the No. 1 cause of fatality among teenagers in American, with nearly 5,000 teens dying each year and 375,000 more injured as a result of careless driving.

To help lower those numbers, Richard Petty Motorsports drivers Kahne and Sorenson are lending their names to the Allstate Teen Safe Driving Pit Stop. The program asks teen drivers and their parents to sign a contract that establishes safe driving guidelines for the youngsters.

Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kahne and the crew on his No. 9 Dodge will wear a specially designed wrist band with the message “TN-165” to honor and remember the 165 teenagers in Tennessee who lost their lives in car crashes in 2007.

ADDING DRIVERS: Dale Earnhardt Junior’s JR Motorsports will split the driving duties for its No. 5 NASCAR Nationwide Series Chevrolet among five drivers.

Joining previously announced Earnhardt and Mark Martin in the car for a 21-race schedule this season will be two-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Scott Wimmer. Among them, the five drivers account for 91 Nationwide victories in 636 starts.

Earnhardt has already driven the No. 5 Chevy in two events this year, finishing seventh at Daytona and fifth at Las Vegas. He is scheduled for five more, starting with the April 4 race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Martin, who holds the Nationwide record for wins with 48, will drive the car on May 1 at Richmond International Raceway. He earned JR Motorsports its first-ever Nationwide victory at Las Vegas last March.

Wimmer will compete in six events in the car, Newman in four and Stewart in one.

“This No. 5 team carries a strong tradition and a lot of expectations, and we are fortunate to attract such quality talent to help carry on that tradition,” Earnhardt said. “We had a similar setup with this team last year, and we were able to go to Victory Lane twice. Obviously, with this driver lineup, there’s no reason we can’t exceed last year’s win total.”

The driver additions cover the entire series except for the road races at Watkins Glen and Montreal. Earnhardt said driver plans for those events will be announced later.

TODT RESIGNS:Jean Todt resigned all of his positions with Ferrari on Tuesday, concluding a 16-year career with the automaker highlighted by his direction of the Formula One team.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo made the announcement at a board meeting IN Maranello, Italy.

“Jean Todt was a key figure in the history of Ferrari over the last (16) years,” Montezemolo said in a statement. “His ability and passion defined his work and earned respect and affection from the entire company and all the Prancing Horse’s fans.”

Todt had been a special adviser to the racing team for the last year after a short stint as Ferrari’s CEO. He previously handed over his position as director of Ferrari’s Formula One team to Stefano Domenicali.