Assistance for displaced NASCAR workers

News and notes from a NASCAR Monday:

The motorsports employment task force being set up by the North Carolina Motorsports Association has set up a program for displaced NASCAR team workers who are having credit and mortgage problems.

The workers can get help through United Family Services’ office in Cornelius. UFS is a non-profit dedicated to assisting families in need.

Unemployed race team workers can contact UFS at 9624 Bailey Road, Suite 290, Cornelius, N.C. 28031, or call (704) 655-8745.

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Kyle Busch is the winner of the fourth quarter Pocono Spirit Award from the National Motorsports Press Association for his donation of $100,000 to Sam Ard and his family after Busch’s win in the Nationwide Series race at Texas this fall.

Ard, a two-time series champion, suffers from both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, creating large medical bills.

“Sam Ard is one of the pioneers of this (series), and to be tied with at 10 wins is something that’s pretty spectacular and really, really special to me,’’ Busch said after the win. “I’m going to try to help him out and see what I can do. It’s not much, but it’s something that can try to help.’’

Juan Pablo Montoya, the late T. Taylor Warren and Richard Childress won the awards in the first three quarters of 2008. The year’s overall winner will be announced at the NMPA convention in January.

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Carl Edwards didn’t win the Race of Champions event Sunday in London, but the runner-up in this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series did make it to the semifinals and scored a big win along the way.

Edwards defeated retired Formula One champion Michael Schumacher of Germany in the quarterfinal round before losing to David Coulthard in the semis. Coulthard then lost in the best-of-three final to Sebastian Loeb on the course inside London’s famed Wembley Stadium.

Schumacher helped lead Germany to the title in the team portion of the event.

While in England, Edwards also received an award sponsored by Tag Heuer. It was set up this year to determine, by statistics, the best racing driver in the world. A team of eight jurors analyzed the weekly performances of more than 150 drivers in F1, NASCAR and the World Rally Championship before selecting Edwards.

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Red Horse Racing has made it official. Johnny Benson will drive a No. 1 Toyota for that team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2009, joining David Starr’s No. 11 Toyota as a teammate. Benson won the 2008 Truck Series title will Bill Davis Racing.

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Here are your Martinsville hot dog fabulous fun facts for the day.

The track reports that it sold 93,000 of its famous hot dogs during the two Sprint Cup races this year. OK, that’s a lot of hot dogs, but track public relations man Mike Smith took it a step further.

Using 6 inches as the measurement for each dog Smith – who admits he had help from somebody who can add and multiply – says that comes out to nine miles of Jesse Jones wieners, or 18 laps of the Martinsville track.

And no I, personally, did not account for an entire lap by myself.