A NASCAR driver’s wife was injured in North Carolina while participating in a practice race for spouses and girlfriends of pro drivers, according to officials.

Katie Kenseth—wife of Matt Kenseth—crashed while driving into a Bandolero car at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. She was practicing for a charity event, the Better Half Dash charity.

Bandolero cars are small race cars that are used by beginners.

Katie’s car crashed into the wall, and her husband instantly rushed to her side. She was carried out from the track on a stretcher, and she was rushed to the nearest hospital.

According to reports, Mrs. Kenseth suffered from a broken scapula, some bumps, and bruises.
 

Everyone, drivers and teams alike, are expecting an ugly race to happen at Martinsville Speedway. According to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch, the track simply refuses to rubber up, causing a lot of stripped tire marbles being left on the track and causing immense danger for drivers.

Busch says that "it's going to be insane," adding that "there's going to be a lot of hurt feelings and a lot of beat-up fenders." Meanwhile, Earnhardt explains that "if you got in the marbles, it would ruin you," adding that "once you got in the marbles, you ruined that set [of tires]. I mean, there is no way to get them off. We don't go fast enough here to really grind them off. It was messy. It was just real messy all day."

A couple of weeks earlier in Bristol, the same problem had occurred. Fortunately, NASCAR tire sponsor Goodyear decided to switch tires in order to help with the situation.
 

Fox Sports Chairman David Hill seems to have been slightly disenchanted with NASCAR races, saying that the sport has been "too much of a good thing." In an interview at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Hill says he finds the race duration far too lengthy, adding that the time spent on watching a single race could easily be devoted to more worthy endeavors in an audience member's life.

The sports channel chief says he would rather see a NASCAR race that extends for up to three hours at the maximum, not including the usual 40 minutes of pre-race coverage plus 20 minutes of interviews and footages of events after the race.

Hill adds that shorter race duration would also mean less gas consumption for each team. Unfortunately, when asked whether he tried proposing such terms to NASCAR officials, Hill says that they aren't willing to negotiate even with a television network official as notable as him.
 

Danica Patrick said that she will compete in the first four NASCAR Nationwide Series in 2011.

Last Friday, she made the announcement before racing at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Patrick raced a limited Nationwide schedule for this season. She plans to drive for the same team—JR Motorsports—for next year’s NASCAR Nationwide series.

“I know we're all anxious to get the whole schedule put in place, but I'm extremely excited to be able to confirm our participation in the first four races of the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series season,” said Patrick.