Nutrition53 will appear as primary sponsor in 10 races: the Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Bank of America 500 Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Pocono 400 and the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway, the Coke-Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the Sylvania 300 and the New Hampshire 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and the AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor speedway.

The company will also appear as an associate sponsor for the remaining 26 races.

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Waltrip said:

I am thrilled to drive the #30 Toyota for Swan Racing and the chance to win a third Daytona 500. Reuniting with Tony Jr. and Steve Hmiel brings back a lot of good memories and is going to create new ones.

Brandon Davis, CEO of Swan Energy Inc., an independent oil and gas company, bought Inception Motorsports in the offseason and rebranded it Swan Racing.

Davis said:

Swan Racing is here to compete and to build a championship contender. This one-race partnership with Michael puts a two-time champion behind the wheel and the #30 in the mix at the Daytona 500.

David Stremme will regularly drive the car following the one-off deal with Waltrip. He said:

This is a great move for Swan Racing. Michael and I have been friends for a long time. We got to talking last year and from my perspective I thought this would help to further our relationship with Toyota and be a good building block for Swan Racing.

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Swan Racing owner Brandon Davis said:

We have a long-term vision for Swan Racing and the addition of Tony Jr. is another step in that process. Tony brings a world of experience to Swan Racing and will be part of our long-term success.

Eury Jr said:

I am looking forward to working with David Stremme behind the wheel and with competition director Steve Hmiel.

Hmiel added:

Tony Jr. has pretty much done it all from tire changer to crew chief. His experience and knowledge will be pivotal to the success of Swan Racing.

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Swan Racing is here to race competitively every week  the days of starting and parking are over. I am confident that we are putting together the personnel to one day produce a championship contender.

Davis has hired Steve Hmiel to be Swan Racing’s director of competition. Hmiel brings a wealth of experience with him to Swan Racing, serving as crew chief for drivers such as Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr, among others. Hmiel served in a similar role with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

The No. 64 Camry will appear in select races for the remainder of the Nationwide Series season, with Reutimann, David Stremme, and Jason Bowles sharing driving duties. Aspen Dental will appear as primary sponsor in four races: Michigan International Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and Bristol Motor Speedway. Stremme is expected to drive three of those races.

Bowles will pilot the No. 64 Aspen Dental Camry in the race at Watkins Glen. Bowles will also pilot the car at Road America and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with sponsorship to be announced later.

Additional races may be added with Reutimann behind the wheel.

No word on whether Flatout Flatbread will appear on the car beyond this weekend’s race.

Stremme will also drive the No. 70 in the Bubba Burger 250 at Richmond International Raceway on April 29th.

Stremme said:

We’re going to pick our shots this season, earn respect and establish ourselves as a competitive race team. Then we’ll make a points run in 2012. The exciting thing about Inception is that everyone involved is experienced in the sport. I think this will be a good deal. We all share a common belief system about how to build and operate a successful race team. 

Stremme said:

We always had to do more with less, but in the last month and a half, ownership hasn’t really wanted to make things better. Bill Jenkins has not been willing to make the correct decisions, and it has affected the performance of the team. We’ve barely been making it to track the last few weeks. At Pocono, we didn’t even know if we were going to have tires to race on.

He then told Jenkins that if things weren’t going to change, he didn’t want to stay with the team. Jenkins and Stremme sent a timeline to find another driver, according to Stremme. But, he started looking for a replacement right away, Stremme said.

For his part, Jenkins said:

We are in a funding fight every day, and we haven’t been able to fund the team at the level David expected. We’ve had some good things happen, and some bad things. We had to pull a sponsor off the car two weeks ago (GTW GPS) after a conflict emerged between their products and Sprint. We were counting on them to help get us over the hump, but those are the bumps in the road that you hit.

This news comes a week after Boris Said indicated that he would not drive for Latitude’s No. 26 team because Jenkins did not pay him. Stremme indicated that he, too, had not been paid.

Patrick Carpentier has been tagged to replace Stremme during this weekend’s Carfax 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Top 5: Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Jimmie Johnson.

Kurt Busch, Jeff Burton, Juan Montoya, Clint Bowyer, and AJ Allmendinger finished sixth through 10th.

Notables: Sam Hornish (11th), Carl Edwards (12th), Joey Logano (13th), Ryan Newman (14th), David Reutimann (15th), Matt Kenseth (17th), Dale Earnhardt Jr (19th), Martin Truex Jr (25th), Kasey Kahne (27th), Greg Biffle (28th), Mark Martin (29th), Jeff Gordon (32nd), and Jamie McMurray (36th).

While Hamlin and Busch completed a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2, their teammate Joey Logano had issues with Kevin Harvick on lap 199. Logano passed Harvick on the outside. When they reached the corner, Harvick kept on the gas and the two made contact.

Logano slid through the corner before eventually spinning out. After the race, Logano attempted to confront Harvick on pit road. Crew members kept them apart.

After the incident, Logano said:

[I was] racing the No. 29 and he let me go in the middle of the straightaway and decided to dump me in the next turn. I don’t know what his problem is with me but it’s probably not his fault. His wife wears the fire suit in the family and tells him what to do. It’s probably not his fault.

Harvick said:

I got into him here going into [Turn] 3 and he just races with not giving people any respect and not much room. So we just wound up getting together. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it goes.

Logano finished 13th while Harvick finished fourth.

During the green-white-checkered finish for the Logano-Harvick incident, Kasey Kahne attempted to get to the inside of his Richard Petty Motorsports teammate AJ Allmendinger. Allmendinger moved down to block him, sending Kahne into the grass.

Kahne hit a puddle and then began to spin up towards the outside wall. He slid in front of Mark Martin and Greg Biffle, and the three cars made contact. Sending Kahne up into the air. Martin Truex Jr, who was behind Martin and Biffle, had nowhere to go and he hit the three crashed cars. Jeff Gordon, who was a little ways behind the incident couldn’t get slowed before driving into Kahne.

Marcos Ambrose turned to avoid the crashed cars and he hit Ryan Newman. The two went into the grass and they spun, though Newman quickly recovered and drove away with damage.

Elliott Sadler also got into the grass to avoid the wreck and he spun back onto the track into Biffle. At the same time, David Ragan and David Stremme attempted to avoid the crashing cars of Kahne and Jeff Gordon but drove into Salder and Biffle. The wreck ended the race, as Hamlin took the white flag before it happened.

Afterwards, Kahne said:

I don’t know what A.J. was doing there. I don’t ever really talk to him much, but you can bet I’ll be talking to him this week.

Allmendinger took responsibility for the wreck, saying:

I’m not really sure what happened. Kasey had such a run on me, and I went to defend. By the time I defended, he was in the grass. That’s my bad. I feel bad about that — I really do. It is what it is, though.

Tony Stewart also wasn’t happy with the restarts at Pocono. He said:

I’ve seen some of the worst driving I’ve ever seen in my life in a professional series right here [Sunday]. So for anybody that’s looking for drama for the next couple races, start looking because I can promise I’m going to start making the highlight reel the next couple weeks.