Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) proposed the amendment last year, and it failed. This year, however, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) took it up, and it passed. Kingston called cutting sports sponsorships a “great place to send a signal.”

Bill Young (R-Fla.) did not support the measure because he felt that the military should be visible in the community, but the amended passed on a voice vote.

Should this bill make it through the Senate, the teams that would be affected would be the No. 39 Stewart Haas Racing Chevy driven by Ryan Newman, which is sponsored by the U.S. Army;   the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford driven by Aric Almirola, which will be sponsored by the U.S. Air Force at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway.

It is unclear whether or not the bill would affect the National Guard sponsorship, which appears on the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Technically, the National Guard is not an armed force. It is a federally-recognized militia. That, however, may be a distinction without a difference.

The next step for the bill would be to be voted on by the House. If it passes, then it would move on to the Senate, where it would be assignment to a committee and voted on there. If it passes the Senate, then the differences between the House and Senate versions must be worked out before being sent back to the House and Senate for final approval.

Then it would head to the President for signing into law.

USA TODAY also reported the story.

The game will feature the sport’s top drivers and cars, as well as 23 officially licensed racetracks.

The game is slated to be released later this year, and will be available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii.

Dave Thompson, Executive Producer at Eutechnyx, said:

We set out to reinvent NASCAR gaming last year with NASCAR The Game 2011 – and we’re very proud of it. With our continued enhancements to that game, and our very passionate fans helping guide us, we have an amazing platform to go to the next level with NASCAR The Game: Inside Line. We’ve added a new in-depth career mode and robust online features that include realistic race weekends, and now aspiring drivers can rise up through the ranks, attract sponsors, and upgrade their car’s components in the quest to be the Sprint Cup Series Champion.

Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, said:

As a passionate race fan and performance enthusiast, I am thrilled that Chevrolet will deliver a true rear-wheel-drive NASCAR racecar in the SS that is closely linked to the performance sedan that will be available for sale. The Chevrolet SS is a great example of how GM is able to leverage its global product portfolio to deliver a unique performance experience that extends beyond the track. I am personally looking forward to driving it.

Chevy announced in March that it would not use the Impala in the Cup series, instead opting to develop a new model for Cup competition.

While spokesman Monte Doran said at that time that the new model wouldn’t be derived from an existing model, the SS is said to be based on the Holden Commodore, which was also known as the Pontiac G8.

GM Holden’s Executive Director of Engineering Greg Tyus said:

Holden has a great track record of producing performance cars for GM and the world. We were responsible for the design and engineering of the Chevrolet Camaro, VE Commodore was sold as the Pontiac G8 and we are currently exporting the Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle – so we understand the needs of the North American market.

The Holden Caprice was also said to be a candidate.

Related Stories

• Chevy Working On New Model For 2013 Cup Competition
• Dodge Unveils 2013 Sprint Cup Charger
• Ford Unveils 2013 Sprint Cup Fusion

Kurt Busch got loose and spun, during the closing laps of the race. As Ryan Newman slowed to avoid Busch’s spinning No. 51 Sprint Cup Chevy, he was hit from behind and turned. Both cars made contact with the inside retaining wall, effectively ending both of their nights.

After the cars came to pit road following the checkered flag, Andy Rueger, gas man for the No. 39 Stewart Haas Racing team, confronted Busch’s crew on pit road, shoving at least one of Busch’s crewmen. Rueger was reportedly upset that Busch drove through the No. 39′s pit box after the accident.

As crewmen and NASCAR officials restrained Reuger, one official fell onto the hood of Busch’s car. It is unclear whether the official was pushed or lost his footing, though NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton indicated that he thought the official might have lost his balance.

Busch was found to have violated Section 12-1 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing; reckless driving on pit road during the race; involved in an altercation with another competitor after the completion of the race) of the 2012 NASCAR Rule Book. Additionally, Craig Strickler, a crew member for the No. 51 team, has been fined $5,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until Dec. 31 for violating Section 12-1 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing; interfering with a member of the broadcast media). Strickler covered a TV camera lens with his hand as Busch walked down pit road.

Rueger has been fined $5,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until June 27 for violating Section 12-1 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing; failure to comply with a directive from a NASCAR official) for his part in the incident. And, Tony Gibson, crew chief for the No. 39 team, has been placed on NASCAR probation until June 27 for violating Section 12-1 and Sections 12-4G and 9-4A (Crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of his team members).

After months of frustration, Jimmie Johnson gave Rick Hendrick his 200th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, running away from the rest of the field on a green-white-checkered-flag restart that took the Bojangles’ Southern 500 one lap past its scheduled distance.

On Saturday night at Darlington Raceway, Johnson ended his own winless streak of 16 races, a drought of relative epic proportions for the five-time champion. The victory was Johnson’s 56th, breaking a tie with Rusty Wallace for eighth on the all-time list.

Hamlin ran second, followed by Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr.

Johnson won the 199th race for Hendrick, outdueling Kasey Kahne in last year’s Oct. 9 Chase race at Kansas Speedway. In subsequent months, the organization has been tantalizingly close to No. 200 — notably at Martinsville, where Hendrick drivers were running 1-2-3 before a late caution.

On Saturday night, in winning for the third time at the Lady in Black, Johnson finally put the question of the 200th win to rest. After pitting for the final time on Lap 299 of 368, however, Johnson had to save fuel to make it to the checkered flag.

All of Johnson’s 56 victories have come under the Hendrick banner.

“You’ve got to love that man,” Johnson said of his car owner during a celebration in Victory Lane. “He said, ‘Two hundred is great, but let’s go get 250.’ So that tells you where his head is. I love it. Oh, man, what a day!”

In the closing laps, with the outcome in the balance, Hendrick left the pit box and paced up and down pit road.

“I had to get away,” Hendrick said. “They said that we were going to make it (on fuel), but I don’t believe them, you know? Everything has happened backward for us. We’ve run so good this year and then had such bad luck…

“I’m kind of numb, but I’m glad it’s over. I think we’re going to win a few more now.”

Matt Kenseth finished sixth and trimmed the series lead of Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle, who came home 12th, to two points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. remained third in the standings, 14 points back, after a 17th-place result. Hamlin is fourth in points, 17 behind Biffle.

Stewart, himself a car owner, had the highest praise for Hendrick, who picked up his first victory on a shoestring budget when Geoff Bodine won the April 29, 1984 event at Martinsville.

“I think it’s phenomenal, especially with the competition over here getting tougher and tougher,” said Stewart, who lost second position to Hamlin when his car temporarily lost fuel pressure coming to the final restart. “It’s getting harder and harder to win these races.

“Especially for it to happen in the Southern 500 — it’s such a historic race. It’s a pretty cool milestone.”

The co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which gets engines, chassis and technical support from Hendrick Motorsports, chased Johnson in the late stages of the race before the final caution, but Johnson’s Chevrolet was simply too strong.

“I was trying to postpone (No. 200) for another week by trying to get to Jimmie, but I just couldn’t do it,” the reigning Cup champion said. “The closer I got to him, the tighter I got. That was one of the best runs we’d had, but still I wasn’t strong enough.

“He had plenty of car left. He was just riding, trying to save fuel. They won it in dominating fashion. To win a 200th race, you don’t want to back into it. They dominated and took it the way they should.”

Stewart also fields the No. 10 car for Danica Patrick, who started 38th and finished 31st, six laps down in her Darlington Cup debut. The night before, Patrick ran 12th in her first Nationwide Series race at the 1.366-mile track.

“She ran good lap times tonight,” Stewart said. “There was a period in the race when she set her balances at her best — they said she was within a tenth (of a second) of the leaders at that point in the race. So I’m really, really proud of her.”

Johnson, who led a race-high 134 laps, held an advantage of .8 seconds and was saving fuel, when Kurt Busch hit the wall on Lap 361. Ryan Newman checked up behind Busch, only to be turned into the wall by Aric Almirola. Caution flew for the eighth time to set up the two-lap sprint to the finish.

After the race, Newman parked his Chevy near Busch’s and exchanged words with the 2004 champion. Several of Newman’s crew members tried to confront their counterparts on Busch’s team, and the driver himself, but NASCAR officials restrained them.

The hard feelings stemmed from the aftermath of the wreck, when Busch brought his car to pit road for repairs.

“The 39 (Newman’s) guys were mad because Kurt burned out of our pit stall, and I don’t know if they were still there working or whatnot,” said Nick Harrison, Busch’s crew chief. “Their gas man came down there raising hell and wanting to fight Kurt.”

“It’s crazy, pit road,” said Tony Gibson, Newman’s crew chief. “Things happen, and everybody’s emotions run high. It’s a hot night. Everybody settles down and talks about it. We’re all good. We can’t control drivers. Nothing against the team — none of those guys. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

The race was an anomaly. In a track known for wild action, this year’s Southern 500 ran caution-free for the first 172 laps, through three cycles of green-flag pit stops.

By the time NASCAR called the first caution, for debris in Turn 2, Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet had emerged as the dominant car, having opened a lead of more than five seconds over Kyle Busch, who was running second when the yellow flag was finally displayed.

Yes, Logano drove away from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin after a green-white-checkered-flag restart to win his second straight race in the series and third of the season.

But Logano got the opportunity for his 12th career victory only after a well-intentioned bump went awry and wrecked championship contender Elliott Sadler on a restart with five laps left in regulation distance.

“Obviously, this win was a little bittersweet — you don’t want to win ‘em that way,” said Logano, who called Sadler after the race to apologize and left a voice mail. “Your heart drops. You know he’s running for points.

“Your heart drops a little bit, but at the same time, you’ve got to put it behind you, go out there and do your job and win the race.”

Hamlin, who complained of an engine problem during the final two laps, finished .256 seconds behind Logano in the runner-up position. Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Sam Hornish Jr. and rookie Austin Dillon, as the race went four laps past its scheduled distance of 147 laps.

Danica Patrick finished 12th and Travis Pastrana 17th, both on the lead lap in their Darlington debuts.

Logano was trying to push Sadler and keep him in the lead on a restart on Lap 143, but Sadler’s No. 2 moved up the track to the right and turned across the nose of Hamlin’s Camry, which was running in the outside lane.

After slamming into the wall near the entry to Turn 1, Sadler’s car was too hobbled to continue, leaving him in 24th place at the finish and dropping him to 23 points behind series leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who started on the pole and finished sixth.

“I was trying to help him,” Logano said of the contact with Sadler’s car. “Two restarts before that I successfully helped him and got him out front. The next restart was the same situation — he was first; I was third — and I started to push him.

“He did take two tires, so I think he spun his tires some, and I was trying to shove him ahead. . . . He may have been trying to go up in front of Denny, or he was spinning the tires, and I had him crossed up, but once he turned sideways, I couldn’t get off him.”

Sadler’s crash caused the sixth caution of the race and forced overtime, with the field taking the green flag on Lap 150. Logano powered past his teammate into the lead.

“We lost a cylinder, and that’s why we didn’t take off,” said Hamlin, who led 103 of the 151 laps. “We just can’t keep dominating these races and not win ‘em.”

Hamlin led Kurt Busch by more than five seconds when the right-front tire on Busch’s No. 54 Toyota blew on Lap 126, shooting the nose of the car into the outside wall. The resulting caution brought the top cars to pit road, with Sadler grabbing the lead with a two-tire stop under the yellow.

Before the caution, the fourth of the race, Hamlin had dominated. Busch took the lead briefly with a bold three-wide move on a Lap 51 restart, but Hamlin regained the top spot on Lap 53 and began to pull away.

His advantage over Busch grew to nearly seven seconds through a cycle of green-flag stops, before Busch’s tire blew to bring out the yellow flag. Ultimately, Busch recovered to finish eighth, despite the damage his car suffered when he hit the wall.

MysticArt Pictures, which is handling casting for the show,  is looking for aspiring IndyCar and NASCAR Drivers who wish to pursue their dream.

For more information, click here. To apply, click here.

The possible number change, however, may be temporary, as it may only be run during the Sprint All Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 19th.

Update: Roush Fenway Racing announced that it has reached a multi-year agreement with Fifth Third Bancorp that includes a four-race, primary sponsorship deal to appear on Matt Kenseth’s No. 17 Sprint Cup Ford. The car will run the No. 17, despite rumors indicating there would be a number change.

Fifth Third will be the primary sponsor for the following races: the Sprint All Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway later this month, the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway in June; the Crown Royal’s “Your Hero’s Name Here” race at Indianpolis Motor Speedway in July; and the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway in August.

He was released on May 7th, and is expected to make a full recovery. But, because he suffered a concussion, he must be cleared by a doctor with at least five years experience with sports-related head injuries before he can get back into a race car.

As a result, McClure will miss this weekend’s Nationwide Series race at Darlington Raceway.  Jeff Green, the 2000 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion and teammate to McClure at TriStar Motorsports, will drive the car.

Busch had pushed Keselowski to the lead on Lap 193 of 194 in a race that went six laps past its scheduled distance at the 2.66-mile track. The two cars ran bumper-to-bumper until Turn 3 of the final lap, when Keselowski entered the corner high and dived to the bottom of the track, separating his No. 2 Dodge from Busch’s No. 18 Toyota.

After he ditched his dancing partner, Keselowski pulled away to win by .304 seconds, a relative whipping at a track where wins typically are measured in thousandths of seconds.

The victory was Keselowski’s second of the season, second at the 2.66-mile track, the sixth of his Sprint Cup career and the first for Dodge at Talladega since Dave Marcis took the checkered flag 36 years ago.

Matt Kenseth, who led the field to the final restart on Lap 193, came home third, followed by Kasey Kahne and series leader Greg Biffle. Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Trevor Bayne, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton completed the top 10.

Conventional wisdom says that the driver running second on the final lap has a much better chance to win a restrictor-plate race than the driver who is leading, but Keselowski had thought long and hard about what he would do.

“I had this whole plan if I ever got in that situation where I was leading,” Keselowski said. “I thought about it and thought about it — dreamed about what to do — and sure enough, going into (Turn) 3, it was just me and Busch. And I knew the move I wanted to pull.

“. . . I went into Turn 3 high and pulled down off of Kyle and broke the tandem up. That allowed me to drive untouched to the checkered flag. It wasn’t easy to convince myself to do that, but it was the right move. I’m glad it worked.”

After the race, Busch wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

“I got to Turn 3, and I got disconnected from him, got unhooked,” Busch said. “I hated that happened — thought we had a shot to win that thing. I’m not sure he (Kesleowski) did anything.

“If he did, he’s pretty smart, but I think our stuff just came unplugged.”

Keselowski’s victory ended a wild final quarter of the race, which produced four cautions in the final 45 laps.

As the field began a round of green-flag pit stops on Lap 143, a massive chain-reaction wreck in Turn 3 eliminated a handful of contending cars, including the No. 24 Chevrolet of pole-sitter Jeff Gordon.

Contact between the Ford of Aric Almirola and the Chevrolet of Dave Blaney triggered the crash, which also collected Martin Truex’s Toyota, Carl Edwards’ Ford and Juan Pablo Montoya’s Chevrolet, among others.

“It was like a wreck at a stoplight,” Edwards said. “Everybody started checking up and hitting each other.”

With the herd thinned considerably, Paul Menard led the field to a restart on Lap 151. Hamlin, who had regained a lost lap as the highest scored lapped car when NASCAR called the caution on Lap 143, surged to the front, where he swapped the top spot with Brad Keselowski.

Kenseth restarted at the back of the field under a penalty for pitting too soon under the Lap 143 caution, but he quickly worked his way forward, wresting the lead from Denny Hamlin on Lap 167, with the Dodges of Keselowski and AJ Allmendinger lined up behind him.

Five laps later, Hamlin found an opening between Kenseth and Keselowski and took second, but a Lap 175 wreck that started when Casey Mears cut a tire, scrambled the field for a restart with nine laps left in regulation.

As the field crossed the finish line on Lap 181, contact from Keselowski’s Dodge sent the Chevrolet of Kurt Busch spinning into the inside wall at the entry to Turn 1. Kenseth led the field to a restart on Lap 185.

The green flag lasted only moments. As soon as the cars crossed the start/finish line, Hamlin ducked to the inside, and Allmendinger tried to block the middle lane. The nose of Hamlin’s car, however, was already inside Allmendinger’s bumper, and contact between the two cars started a wreck that ruined the chances of Hamlin, Menard, Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Michael Waltrip.

Note: Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman both exited the race with oil pump problems and finished 35th and 36th, respectively.