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Veterans' Charity plans to buy Rockingham Speedway: The troubled Rockingham Speedway could soon have new life. A judge gave owners a Jan. 1 deadline to find a buyer or put the property up for auction in March. A veterans charity called Help-Vets.Org told Channel 9 that it plans to buy the track and the property and turn it into a reintegration center for veterans. "What's key about this property is Camp Mackall, the training center for Special Forces, is six miles down the road -- Fort Bragg is right here," Help-Vets.Org Executive Director Craig Northacker said. Northacker has big ideas for a $50 million investment, including housing, vocational training and even schooling. Richmond County Community College spokesman Andy Cagle told Channel 9 that the office met with Northacker. "RCC has always taught classes in off-campus locations across our service area, and would welcome any viable opportunity to support our veterans, the local economy and continue the rich traditions of racing in Richmond County," Cagle said. City and county officials are skeptical. Richmond County Manager Rick Sago said he hasn't seen any real financing plans. "We'll see when the rubber hits the road what really happens. Bottom line is, it is a speedway, it has been since the '60s and that's what we want is a racetrack," Sago said. "We have talked to JP Morgan Chase," Northacker said. "There is another financing group in Florida, and we're speaking with Royal Bank of Canada." According to Northacker, the group is in the process of getting the property appraised and hopes to close on the property in mid-March. Channel 9 spoke to one of the speedway owners, Andy Hillenburg. He acknowledged conversations with Northacker but said he couldn't comment on the ongoing legal matter.(WSOC)(1-20-2015)

Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas UPDATE: The first NASCAR test of the 2015 season is scheduled to take place Monday when four Sprint Cup Series teams participate in a one-day Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The teams of #41-Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing) and #47-AJ Allmendinger (JTG Daugherty Racing) will be on hand as representatives for Chevy; #20-Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing) is the Toyota entry while Brad Keselowski (Team Penske) and his #2 Ford team will be on hand to round out the test teams and vehicles. According to a Team Penske representative, Keselowski's teammate Joey Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon and several members of the #22 Team Penske group will be on hand as well to help and observe. In previous years, tire tests haven't generated a great deal of interest. Now that NASCAR no longer allows private team testing, however, track time is considered more valuable. Goodyear has scheduled 14 tests for the upcoming season; Monday's trip to Las Vegas is the only one currently on the schedule that does not dovetail with a team test. Others will be either one- or two-day tires tests followed by a single-day team test. For now, only a stop next month at Atlanta will see teams test prior to a Goodyear tire test at the facility. Teams will be given a four-hour window for testing one day before the start of that track's race weekend. A two-day Goodyear tire test will be conducted at the track on March 2-3 after the completion of the Sprint Cup event. In all other cases, the team test will come after the Goodyear test is completed.(NASCAR.com)(1-19-2015)
UPDATE: Monday's Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway took on added importance for drivers #20-Matt Kenseth and #2-Brad Keselowski because of a slew of rules changes put in place this year by NASCAR. Kenseth and Keselowski were joined by fellow Sprint Cup Series drivers #41-Kurt Busch and #47-AJ Allmendinger for the one-day test on the 1.5-mile LVMS speedway. Although all Cup drivers will have to adjust to a number of changes this season, including a reduction in horsepower and a modified aero package, the biggest change will be NASCAR's ban on all private testing in 2015.
"I think any track time you get is really important with the new testing rules, banning all off-season testing, which I think we all like, but you've really got to take advantage of the tests when you get them and try to gather as much information as you can - hopefully useful information that you can use down the road," Kenseth said. "For us, we didn't run particularly well last year and we've got a new nose on the Camry this year and new rules changes and aero package and all that stuff, so we're just trying to get it sorted out and try to find a baseline and hopefully find something that drives good so we've got something decent when we come back here (March 6-8).
Keselowski, the defending winner of both the Kobalt 400 Sprint Cup Series race and the Xfinity Series Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said he agreed with Kenseth. "More so than the changes to the car, the testing ban makes every test you do have that much more critical because you have so much less," Keselowski said. "In that light, a lot of what testing is isn't always developing the car, but you're developing your people, developing your techniques. We added two or three more people to our team so we're trying to develop them and get them up to speed, so it's really a great time for us as a team to have a test."(Las Vegas Motor Speedway)(1-20-2015)