USA TODAY's Nate Ryan reports NASCAR driver and team owner Tony Stewart "will be in the driver's seat of a commercial Coca-Cola will launch during Sunday's Daytona 500 that will feature a heavy social media component." The ad shoot, "which occurred last month at Charlotte Motor Speedway," includes drivers Danica Patrick, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle and Denny Hamlin. It is titled "Family Road Trip," and features "moments that were ad-libbed between takes of an ad in which Stewart drives his peers in an SUV" (USA TODAY, 2/22).
FIT FOR THE KING: Martinsville Speedway and STP on Thursday announced a multiyear deal for title sponsorship of the track's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series spring race, making it the STP Gas Booster 500. At the race, which this year will be held on April 7, STP also will serve as a co-primary sponsor (along with Jani-King) of Richard Petty Motorsports' No. 43 Ford driven by Aric Almirola. The paint scheme will commemorate the first time the STP logo was on Richard Petty's car in '72 (THE DAILY).
EXPLODING ONTO THE SCENE: Daytona Int'l Speedway announced that its July 5 NASCAR Nationwide Series race will be rebranded as the Subway Firecracker 250. The track's annual summer Sprint Cup race held some version of the "Firecracker" moniker in its title from the inaugural race in '59 until '88. The summer Nationwide race at DIS had been called the Subway Jalapeno 250 since '09 (THE DAILY).
