Gathering Speed

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Getting up to speed with the annual Sprint Media Tour Presented by Lowe’s Motor Speedway:

• Tony Stewart’s new Stewart-Haas Racing operation looks a lot more like a legitimate contender than many folks expected. Stewart, who came on board late last year as co-owner of the perpetually downtrodden Haas CNC Racing, was confident and relaxed at Wednesday’s Media Tour stop, as were co-driver Ryan Newman, crew chiefs Darian Grubb and Tony Gibson, and team manager Bobby Hutchens.

With no track time until Daytona, no one yet knows who will walk the walk instead of just talk the talk once the racing starts, but these guys had a quiet confidence about their prospects and appeared to have their act very together.

Then again, with Stewart signing a personal services agreement with Burger King — bye, bye Subway — there could be some weighty issues to discuss as the long season wears on.

• Team owner Rick Hendrick had his squad build him a two-seat Car of Tomorrow with an opening driver-side door, all the better to squeeze his 58-year-old body into the car. But Hendrick is looking a lot trimmer these days, as new kid on the team and noted fitness fanatic Mark Martin has gotten Hendrick to lose 20 pounds already, with a total goal of dropping 40.

Hendrick’s employees presented their team boss with a race car dubbed “Dusty,” a lovingly restored Chevrolet Lumina Sprint Cup car built on chassis HMS-001, the first Hendrick car built in house way back in 1989.

• In one of the more bizarre announcements of the day, Armando Fitz said he has sold his former Fitz Motorsports team to developer Arthur Shelton, who has renamed it Trail Motorsports LLC. Chase Austin was announced as the driver of the team’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entry, with Jarit Johnson, little brother of Jimmie Johnson, slated to drive for the team in the NASCAR Camping World East Series.

No driver was announced for the team’s Nationwide entry, nor were any sponsors introduced. Sources say the team is considering renting out the ex-Petty Enterprises, ex-Robert Yates Racing shop in Mooresville, N.C.

• Motorsports Authentics, the NASCAR souvenir company, made a surprise announcement that president and CEO Mark Dyer left the company effective immediately.

• Speedway Motorsports Inc. founder and chairman O. Bruton Smith has urged local blackouts for NASCAR Sprint Cup races that don’t sell out. There is absolutely no likelihood of that happening. End. Of. Story.

• Nature abhors a vacuum and so, too, do NASCAR Sprint Cup fields. Among the latest drivers looking to qualify for the Daytona 500 are Kelly Bires and Mike Skinner. Kirk Shelmerdine, who won four Sprint Cup championships when he was crew chief for the late Dale Earnhardt, said he will attempt to run the full Cup schedule with Toyotas purchased from the old Bill Davis Racing team. BDR alumnus Tommy Baldwin is also hoping to run the full schedule with Scott Riggs as a driver. With the dearth of full-time teams, expect other racers to step in and field cars to fill Sprint Cup fields as the season wears on.

• Thursday will feature the Ford stop on the Media Tour, and then we presumably will get clarification on whether Yates Racing will campaign two cars or three. Right now, the team is committed to running the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing-owned entry with Bobby Labonte and sponsor Ask.com, as well as Paul Menard in the No. 98 Menard’s Ford. David Gilliland, who drove the No. 38 for the team last year, has been released, while Travis Kvapil’s No. 28 so far has only been listed with a five-race deal.

• Last and most certainly least, there were a few newly thickened heads of hair on Wednesday’s stops. TJO will name no names, but suffice to say Propecia appears to be the hot ticket in NASCAR for 2009.