MILLER'S LAP AROUND NASCAR: Time to dine

For the second straight year, NASCAR’s most popular driver won’t be taking the stage when the sport hands out the big checks and celebrates its 60th anniversary Friday night in New York City.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has been voted the most popular driver by fans each season since 2003, finished 12th in the final standings of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and per NASCAR rules, only the top 10 drivers are recognized at the Sprint Cup Awards Banquet.

The banquet is held annually in the New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria to culminate NASCAR’s “Champions Week,” which sees its top drivers awarded at the banquet on television shows and other media outlets.

A freak brake problem in the season’s final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway led to the cancellation of Earnhardt’s plans to attend the banquet for the first time since 2006. Prior to the problem, he was in solid position to maintain or gain on his pre-race 10th-place standing.

In 2008, Earnhardt moved to Hendrick Motorsports after a tumultuous split with Dale Earnhardt Inc. – a team run by his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt and created by his late father Dale Earnhardt. The new team helped the younger Earnhardt snap a 76-race winless streak at Michigan in June between 10 Top Five and 16 Top 10 finishes.

Texas track cuts prices, seats

Only in NASCAR racing can a track promoter find a way to cut ticket prices and the number of available seats and still make more money.

That is exactly what Texas Motor Speedway’s Eddie Gossage has done in an effort to make the track’s product a little more valuable.

The Fort Worth track announced Monday that it will remove some 21,100 seats in favor of building an ultra-luxurious row of parking spots for 74 high-end motor coaches at a going rate of $15,000 per year. Included in the price is a large parking spot overlooking the track from the backstretch, full concierge service, electronic amenities, pre-race pit passes and anything else one might expect at such a hefty cost.

But race fans out of the price range also gained from Monday’s announcement because some 1,080 backstretch seats will be sold for $20 each – likely the cheapest adult admission rate for any Sprint Cup race.

The track’s new seating capacity will now be just more than 138,000, some 50,000 more seats than the new Dallas Cowboys stadium being built in nearby Arlington that will host the 2011 Super Bowl.

Dropping the Green Flag: Awards Banquet

What: NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet
When: 9 p.m. Friday
TV: ESPN Classic
Location: Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City

Miller’s Preview: The awards banquet will put a period on the 2008 NASCAR campaign just in time for teams to start getting ready for the 2009 opener in Daytona Beach, Fla., in February. Drivers normally aren’t too comfortable behind the podium, thanking friends and sponsors from a teleprompter, but the event is always worth a solid laugh or two thanks to a slip of the tongue. In 2006, driver Kyle Busch wrongly referred to his girlfriend Erica as Eva – the name of his brother’s girlfriend. Oops.