Jim Lampley and Sam Posey give the call for ABC.

Both drivers suffered concussions with Power breaking two veterbra in his back.  Philippe underwent surgery for a broken left foot.

The report says that Philippe lost control exiting turn 3 on the road course and then was struck by Viso’s car and then finally by Power.

I also have to give a shout out to that super-hot Ford Thunderbird pace car.

Near the end is a look at Rick Wilson’s stock car career in a nutshell.

Calling the race for ESPN are Bob Jenkins — who has a propensity for getting worked up it seems — and Ned Jarrett.

NASCAR expects to phase in the new car over 5 or 6 races in the 2010 season before employing the car full-time in 2011. The Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota manufacturers have not officially announced which model they intend to submit for the new car design, however Dodge is rumored to propose its Challenger brand for 2010. NASCAR is interested in differentiating body styles from its highly-criticized Sprint Cup COT. According to a release made available from NASCAR.com, the new Nationwide car will sport a rear spoiler (rather than a wing) and a spring front suspension (rather than bump stops).  The front splitter will apparently carry over from the Sprint Cup COT.

Ford Motorsports claims the Mustang has accumulated over 2,000 professional race victories. The fifth-generation Ford Mustang has enjoyed success in the KONI Challenge, SCCA Speed World Challenge and Formula Drift events. Ford has competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series since its inception in 1982 under various brand names: Fairmont (1982-1986), Mercury Cougar (1984), Thunderbird (1987-1997), Taurus (1998-2005), and Fusion (2006-Present).

Click here to read the press release from Ford Racing.

Here’s my take on it: I think this is a great step in the right direction for NASCAR and the car manufacturers.  It seems that NASCAR is taking a conservative approach with the new car’s debut; I think they could have been more aggressive though.  While it’s certainly an improvement over the Sprint Cup COT — “let’s just put headlight decals on the thing and pretend it’s a stock car” — they could have gone a little further and allowed a more stock body and — dare I say — allowed the various makes to have different downforce numbers.

Why not take the guts of the COT platform (e.g., the frame, etc.) and throw a fully stock body on top of it?  Drop in a front valence and rear spoiler for safety and then let them drive it.  No headlight decals allowed.  Whoever builds the better car wins.  And it would be great to have something that handles dramatically different than the Sprint Cup cars to throw those drivers for a loop.  Let the manufacturers duke it out for a little added drama.

We’ll see how it goes.  It has to be better than the Fusion.

The Indy Racing League held a practice session on the 2.38-mile road course in March 2009. At 45 feet, the track is slightly wider than Watkins Glen International. Officials are hoping to draw 100,000 spectators over the three-day weekend.

The Barber Motorsports Park is located about 50 miles west of Talladega Superspeedway, where NASCAR typically races on the last weekend of April.

Click here for the official press release.

RCR has had a poor season so far in 2009 and Harvick is mired back in 25th in the point standings, pretty much putting him out of contention for the championship. Meanwhile Tony Stewart has had a remarkable season with his new team, posting fifteen Top-10s and two wins. Stewart leads the driver standings by 175 points over Jeff Gordon. The NASCAR Sprint Cup season passed the halfway point after Sunday’s race at Chicagoland.

Harvick stepped into the RCR #29 team after Dale Earnhardt was fatally injured at Daytona in 2001. The team changed numbers from 3 to 29 out of respect for Earnhardt. In just his third start for the team, Harvick posted his first win in a photo finish at the Atlanta race in March.

Harvick has not won a Sprint Cup race since the 2007 Daytona 500.