ShareThisKurt Busch and Tony Stewart will drive in Sunday's Daytona 500 while on NASCAR probation for their Friday night altercation. How that affects what happens on the track remains to be seen.NASCAR officials vow to "redefine" probation this season.Kevin Harvick, one of the few ever suspended by NASCAR (a one-race sit-down, for a flippant attitude a few years ago at Martinsville), is taking NASCAR's words warily:"If it's clear, and everybody understands where they're coming from, that's the main thing, that we have consistency. Five years ago I was the whipping post. It's different, to see the rules all of a sudden change. So as long as they're consistent, I don't have a problem with it."Did NASCAR do right by just giving Busch and Stewart a slap on the wrist?"I think it should have been this way for a long time," Harvick said. "Unfortunately, it cost me thousands of dollars to be true to myself, and when I'm mad, be mad. I'm not smart enough to figure out how to say the politically correct answers. So I've just said whatever I want."Now it's come full circle -- now they need those personalities, they need those people to be who they are, and it's a little bit funny."-- Trisha Yearwood has been picked to sing the National Anthem for Sunday's Daytona 500.Yearwood will also be part of the pre-race show, with Brooks & Dunn, Chubby Checker, Michael McDonald, and Kool & the Gang.-- The business model of a NASCAR stock-car team has never been more in flux than now.And now two of the sport's newest team owners, Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel, who bought the Joe Gibbs' satellite operation from previous owners Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, have added a "board of advisors."That board will include corporate-sponsor-types Bob Damon, the president of Korn/Ferry International; Tom Davin, the CEO of Panda Restaurants; Mike Gray, a recent president and CEO of Sweet Life Enterprises; Ken Kendrick, the managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks; Bob Piccinini, the chairman and CEO of Save Mart supermarkets; Stephen Prough, a retired chairman and CEO of Long Beach Acceptance Corporation; Conrad Wetterau, the president and CEO of Quality Beverage; and Mark Wetterau, the chairman and CEO of Golden State Foods.-- One of Toyota's best drivers at Daytona, in terms of speed, is Dave Blaney, who nearly won at Talladega last fall."We had a chance at the pole," Blaney said. "A great car and a really good engine. We're having fun, no matter what. It's a lot nicer to have something that's a little speedy, a lot more peace-of-mind."One Toyota driver on the hot seat, though, is newcomer Jacques Villeneuve, who will likely have to race his way into the 500, because his qualifying run wasn't as fast as he'd hoped. "We thought we would be quicker," he said. "When you have to qualify on time, it makes it difficult, because even if you're quick but not quick enough, you might have a bad qualifying race and not make the show." (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Harvick urges consistency on discipline: Other notes
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