2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series
Template:Future sport The 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season will begin at Daytona International Speedway with the Bud Shootout and will end with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Chase for the NEXTEL Cup will begin with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway. It had been believed that Sprint's merger with NEXTEL would result in a name change for the 2007 season, but Sprint has announced that no name change will take place until at least 2008. [1]
New Cars
The 2007 season will see the return of a non-US automaker, Toyota, that will run cars in the NEXTEL Cup and the Busch Series. Toyota will run the best selling car in the United States, the Camry. Toyota has run trucks in the Craftsman Truck Series since 2003. Michael Waltrip Racing, Red Bull Racing, and Bill Davis Racing have announced that they will use the Toyota Camry next season. The last non-American car to run in a major series was the British-manufactured Jaguar in the 1950's.
NASCAR is also planning to use the Car of Tomorrow in sixteen races in 2007, starting at Bristol. All cars will be using the same templates.
Silly Season
Several new drivers will enter the NEXTEL Cup series in 2007. Todd Kluever will take over the famous #6 AAA Ford from long-time driver Mark Martin, who will run the Truck series full-time in 2007. Paul Menard will switch from a part-time to a full-time schedule in 2007, running the #15 Menards Home Improvement Chevrolet. David Gilliland will drive the #38 M&Ms Ford for Robert Yates Racing. Road racing specialist Boris Said plans to run the full 2007 season in a new Ford team sponsored by SoBe No Fear Energy Drink, which will be affiliated with Roush Racing and carry the #60.
Red Bull Racing Nascar will enter NASCAR for the first time, running two Toyota teams. One of their drivers will be current Hendrick Motorsports driver Brian Vickers, in the #83 Red Bull Toyota. The other driver has not been named, but is widely rumored to be Bill Elliott, who will race Dodges for Team Red Bull in three 2006 races. Elliott was the 1988 champion and thus eligible for the past champions' provisional if a more recent champion doesn't use it, which could help the team in the first six races (the top 35 in 2006 owners' points will be automatically in the field; a new team must race its way in). Robby Gordon and Paul Menard will also carry associate sponsorship from Red Bull.
Casey Mears will replace Brian Vickers in the #25 GMAC Chevrolet. Juan Pablo Montoya, a Formula 1 racer, will replace Mears in the #42 Texaco-Havoline Dodge. Montoya drove for Chip Ganassi Racing in the CART series.
Dale Jarrett and his sponsor UPS are leaving the #88 Robert Yates Racing Ford for a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota, which would be eligible for a past champion's provisional for all races (as Jarrett won the 1999 championship, then known as the Winston Cup). It is uunanounced who the driver is, or sponsor the #88 at Robert Yates Racing. [2] Waltrip also has a third ride, the #00 Domino's Pizza/Burger King Toyota, to fill.
Several driver changes in 2007 actually began towards the end of the 2006 season. Evernham Motorsports released Jeremy Mayfield from the #19 UAW/Dodge Dealers Dodge a week before the AMD at the Glen. Bill Elliott drove the #19 for that race, but he has other commitmments for 2006 and 2007, and will not be the full-time driver. Elliott Sadler, left the #38 M&M's Ford early to replace Mayfield in the #19 for the rest of 2006. This will likely only happen if David Gilliland, who will be driving the #38 next year, is willing to lose his rookie eligibility by running the last few races of 2006 in the #38. [3] However, Mayfield will likely drive the #38 car for most of the remainder of 2006.
Mayfield will be driver of the #36 car in 2007 season for Bill Davis Racing sponsored by 360.
Sterling Marlin's #14 and Joe Nemechek's #01 U.S. Army ride will be owned by Bob Ginn, owner of Ginn Resorts, purchased from MB2 Motorsports, and Ginn's company will probably become the new sponsor on the #14 car. Ginnhas said he would like to expand his team to four cars in 2007, one being the #36 ride.
Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 Cingular Chevrolet, will be looking for a new sponsor if AT&T completely phases out the Cingular brand, as a change to AT&T would not fall under the grandfather clause in NEXTEL/Sprint's sponsorship agreement. Possible candidates are Holiday Inn and the Coast Guard, the sponsors of two of Richard Childress Racing's Busch cars.
DEI, which is already adding a third full-time team in 2007 with Paul Menard, is considering adding a fourth team as well, with Tony Eury, Sr. as the crew chief.
Joe Gibbs Racing is also considering a fourth part-time team with Ricky Rudd has the driver.
National Guard might leave Roush Racing for the #25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in 2007, Roush is waiting to hear from the sponsor, if so Ameriquest might be on the #16 Roush Racing Ford.
Scott Wimmer will return in the #4 Chevy of Morgan-McClure Motorsports but they have yet to find a sponsor.
Races
The 2007 Schedule will open with the traditional Speedweeks events - Budweiser Shootout, Gatorade Duel, and Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway starting February 10 with the 500 February 18, and conclude with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, tenatively scheduled for November 18.
The only changes to the schedule involve the month of July - the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway will be run on July 1, while the Pepsi 400 at Daytona will be run on July 7. The Chicago event will also be sliding back a week, to July 15. This is due in part to the traditional scheduling of the Pepsi 400 around July 4, which falls on a Wednesday in 2007. NASCAR also announced that the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard will be held one week earlier to kick off ABC/ESPN's television coverage.
Schedule
The 2007 schedule was released by NASCAR on August 24, 2006. All races are held in 
. Race names are subject to change.
Car columns legend: (T) Car of Tomorrow, (S) Regular Stock car.
+ — Non-points races.
Rookies
- Todd Kluever, #6 AAA Ford (Roush Racing)
- Paul Menard, #15 Menard's Chevy (Dale Earnhardt Inc.)
- Juan Pablo Montoya, #42 Texaco Havoline Dodge (Chip Ganassi Racing)
- Jon Wood, #?? Ford (Wood Brothers Racing)
Entries
Current car entry list
Television
FOX will carry the first part of the season beginning with Speedweeks at Daytona, and continue coverage up through the Neighborhood Excellence 400 presented by Bank of America held at the Dover International Speedway, with SPEED carrying the Gatorade Duel At Daytona qualifying races and the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge. TNT will carry six mid-season races in June and July including the Pepsi 400. ESPN and ABC will carry the remainder of the season beginning with the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard in late-July and running through the entire Chase for the NEXTEL Cup. ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will carry the entire Busch Series in 2007, while FOX-owned SPEED (with the exception of two races on FOX) continues carrying the entire Craftsman Truck Series.