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It is normally a quiet time at this point of December in the NASCAR world, but the public relations and marketing staffs of NASCAR and some teams seem to be busier this year than in the past.
Driver changes and little lies are keeping the image keepers occupied as more details surface from earlier incidents.

New drivers, new babies and new details on old stories are helping keep the NASCAR talk going around the water cooler.

The big news this week is the return of Ricky Rudd, maybe to the famous No. 28, in the Nextel Cup Series. Robert Yates Racing announced Rudd will be one of the drivers replacing Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler in the driver’s seats of the two Yates’ cars.

The word is still mum on what number Rudd will use, but rumors have been going around that Yates may bring back the No. 28 for his Ford. Rudd will not be a stranger to the No. 28. It was the number on the side of Rudd’s car when he drove for Yates from 2000 to 2002.

Jarrett jumped the Yates’ ship to help Michael Waltrip have a champion’s provisional starting spot with his new team of Toyotas next season. Jarrett won the championship for Yates in 1999. He finished 23rd in the point standings this year and only registered four top-ten finishes during the season. Sadler will be in the No. 19 for Ray Evernham in the upcoming season.

Rudd sat out the 2006 season. He had raced for three decades in the Winston/Nextel Cup cars when he decided to take a career pit stop at the end of the 2005 season. He had finished 21st in the point standings driving for the Woods Brothers team in 2005.

Yates returning to the No. 28, instead of No. 38, would be a welcome sight from some of his older fans. Davey Allison made the No. 28 famous in the late-eighties until his death in 1993. The Yates operation changed the number on the car to 38 after Rudd left Yates in 2002.

Rudd’s Winston/Nextel Cup scorecard credits him with 875 starts, 23 wins, 194 top-five and 373 top-ten finishes. He finished in the top-ten on the point chart in 19 of the 30 seasons he has competed.

The Jimmie Johnson image keepers had a little repair work to do after the truth surfaced concerning the champion’s broken wrist. The first news about the incident was that Johnson had fallen out of a golf cart. It was later released that Johnson had actually been on top of the cart’s roof when he fell off.

Jeff Gordon is not wasting any time getting his family off and running. Gordon, who ran off to Mexico to marry Ingrid Vandebosch on November 7, announced last week that the happy couple is expecting their first baby in July.

Remember that wreck NASCAR CEO Brian France had back in November? The details of an internal investigation concerning how the matter was handled are coming out now from Daytona Beach Police. It turns out a citizen had dialed 911 to report France was driving erratically and had side-swiped a parked car and tree as he drove to his condo.

The police have not released some details not included in the original incident report. The internal affairs probe results say France admitted having a few alcoholic beverages before his drive home and that one of the officers questioning France at his condo about 20 minutes after the tree incident said she smelled alcohol on him.

Daytona Police Chief Mike Chitwood says France was not charged because he was already in his condo when officers arrived and none of the officers witnessed France drinking and driving.

France told the police he had spilled a “Coke” he was drinking when he struck the tree with his Lexus sedan.

The police department has now implemented some new procedures for officers to use as a result of questions arising from the incident.

The Richard Childress Racing PR crew might be delivering some Christmas goodies to their neighbors around their racing complex in Welcome, North Carolina. Some of the residents living near the race shop and museum have been complaining about the noise.

It seems an expansion project resulted in some trees being cut and that reduced the buffer area between the race shops and subdivision near the Childress operation. Richard has promised to work with the neighborhood to address their concerns.

The decal companies will get some extra business after the 2007 NASCAR season. Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal is reporting Busch beer may not return as the sponsor for what is now called the Busch Series.

Wal-Mart, Subway and Samsung are among the companies that might take over sponsorship of the series that ran 35 races this year. Busch has been the sponsor of the series since 1982.