JR Motorsports secures sponsorship in 2nd series

The JR Motorsports team picked up some sponsorship in the Nationwide Series on Wednesday when GoDaddy.com expanded its involvement.

GoDaddy.com will be the primary sponsor on 20 Nationwide Series races for JR Motorsports and seven Sprint Cup races with Hendrick Motorsports. It also will be an associate sponsor on Mark Martin’s No. 5 Sprint Cup Chevrolets.

GoDaddy.com will sponsor Earnhardt Jr. in two Nationwide Series races in the No. 5 Chevrolets. It will be on Brad Keselowski's No. 88 Chevrolets for 18 Nationwide races and seven Sprint Cup races in the No. 25 Chevrolet. Lance McGrew will be crew chief for that Cup effort.

Keselowski's Nationwide car now has sponsorship for the full season. Unilever is on the car for 11 races and Delphi Corp. is on for six.

Cars and stars

Darrell Waltrip and Dierks Bentley are among the latest additions to the lineup for the Sprint Sound & Speed festival this weekend in Nashville.

The event begins Friday at the Sommet Center with a concert featuring Montgomery Gentry, Rodney Atkins and Julianne Hough. Saturday includes an entire day of autograph sessions, live auctions and show-car and sponsor displays at the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Nashville.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Petty, Michael Waltrip, Ray Evernham and David Stremme will be joined by Waltrip, Ernie Irvan, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Brad Keselowski, Burney Lamar, Wayne Taylor, Max Angelelli, Brian Frisselle and Doug Herbert. Bentley is part of the list of country music celebrities now scheduled to attend.

Tickets are available through www.ticketmaster.com or at www.soundandspeed.org. Proceeds go to Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Briefly

Darlington and Talladega have announced ticket price reductions for upcoming events. Darlington has lowered prices to $35 for nearly 9,000 seats for the Southern 500 in May. Talladega has cut prices on 20,000 tickets in the Gadsden and Lincoln grandstands to $40 for the AMP Energy 500 on April 26.

... General Motors has renewed its sponsorship of Daytona International Speedway and the Daytona 500 on a year-by-year basis but at a significantly reduced rate, the Detroit News reports.

... Scenedaily.com reports that Dover has torn down its inside wall on the frontstretch and replace it with one that includes SAFER barriers. The track will also slightly widen its pit road and add a 43rd stall to it. In the past the 42nd and 43rd cars in the starting lineup had to share a pit stall because there were only 42 spots on pit lane.

... Another National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel team announced it was shutting down Wednesday as David Powers Motorsports and Caterpillar announced they had agreed to end Caterpillar’s sponsorship of the team for driver Rod Fuller. Team owner David Powers said he is selling the Top Fuel and show car program assets.

"During these difficult times, I need to focus on homebuilding," Powers said. "During my 26 years in the homebuilding industry, these are the most challenging times I've been through." Fuller finished sixth in the 2008 standings.