Hendrick said:

Lowe’s will be back. I don’t know where that came from, but they’ll be back. Wishful thinking, maybe, by some of the other folks, but they’ll be back.

Hendrick did note that the deal with Lowe’s is verbal at this point, but he said it is early and that he’s confident they will finalize it.

But, the team is not worried, as they don’t think it will be too hard to find sponsorship for NASCAR’s most popular driver. Hendrick says there is plenty of interest, but they’re looking for a sponsor who will work with the team beyond 2013.

Hendrick said:

The way we’re positioned, the car is covered until the end of the summer. I don’t have a deadline [for a deal]. I’m not looking at a timeline. I’m looking at the right deal.

He indicated that they’re close on two or three deals but nothing has been finalized.

The National Guard is set to sponsor the No. 88 for 20 races in 2013. Diet Mountain Dew sponsored the car for 16 races in 2012, but announced last season that they would be cutting back their sponsorship. 

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Under the new deal, AARP’s Drive to End Hunger campaign will appear on the car for 22 races annually through 2014.

Jo Ann Jenkins, of AARP, said:

We are excited to build on the great work of these last two years to help the nearly nine million older Americans who face the threat of hunger. With Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick, we have committed champions behind the wheel on and off the track.

Gordon added:

It has been an honor and a pleasure to be part of Driver to End Hunger these last two seasons. I’m excited to keep pushing in the fight against older adult hunger. Going around the country – especially during race weeks – I have been constantly reminded about the generosity of NASCAR fans. I got to see race fans reaching for their wallets, packing meals for local food banks, and texting donations to help millions of older Americans who face the threat of hunger every day.

The National Guard will appear as primary sponsor for 20 Sprint Cup races next season, and will appear as an associate sponsor for the remaining races.

Team owner Rick Hendrick said:

It’s an honor to be associated with the National Guard and its Citizen Soldiers. Like many of the world’s most innovative marketers and leading brands, the Guard sees the opportunities that our sport presents, and they have built a strong effort around it. As we go into 2013 together, we’ll continue to focus on the performance of the program both on and off the racetrack.

Earnhardt Jr added:

Working with the Guard has been incredible. On a weekly basis, we’re interacting with people considering a life-changing decision (to enlist) or who are already serving our country. Their sacrifices are difficult to comprehend, and we feel a lot of pride representing them and seeing first-hand how passionate they are about NASCAR and our team.

Additional sponsorship for the No. 88 next season will be announced at a later date.

In beating Brad Keselowski to the finish of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway by .841 seconds, Johnson won the exhibition event for the third time, tying Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon for most all-time.

Matt Kenseth ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who qualified for the event by winning the preliminary Sprint Showdown.

The All-Star Race win and accompanying seven-figure first prize ended a spectacular eight days for Johnson, who delivered victory No. 200 to owner Rick Hendrick May 12 at Darlington and on Thursday night cheered his crew to its first victory in the NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge in Charlotte, N.C.

All told, Johnson won $1,071,340 for his third win in 11 All-Star starts.

“It means a ton to me,” Johnson said of tying Earnhardt Sr. and Gordon. “Those are two of the greatest drivers that have ever been in a stock car. I want to set my goals high, and I want to be considered one of the best to sit in a stock car, and the only way you can do that is by winning big races and piling up those stats.”

The All-Star Race victory was the seventh as a car owner for Hendrick, who sat on the window ledge and took a ride on Johnson’s winning Chevrolet after the race.

“That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in racing,” quipped Hendrick, who caught his foot in the dash while straddling the window.

Johnson was the first to stake his claim to a top spot in the running order, winning the first 20-lap segment after passing polesitter Kyle Busch for the top spot on Lap 15. In winning the first segment, Johnson earned the right to lead the field to pit road before the final 10-lap dash.

Thereafter, Johnson made frequent pit stops and ran behind the rest of the field to save his car for the finish.

“I let it rip around the top and got to the lead, and we were smart from there and made sure we worked on the car and got it right so we could be there at the end,” Johnson said. “Within two corners tonight — as I was on the outside, which is usually the place you don’t want to be — I knew it was on.

“I was able to get to the lead in that first segment and really set our night in the right direction and have control of the night. Everybody knew that, if you could win that first segment, you could control the night, and we were able to do that starting sixth, so it was pretty awesome.”

Keselowski thought Johnson showed his hand in the first segment.

“He started sixth, I believe, and drove to the lead in 20 laps,” Keselowski said. “I think that’s probably a pretty good indicator of the strength of his car. I don’t believe he passed anyone that was not good. We’ll just leave it at that.

“He passed Kyle, I think Denny (Hamlin), maybe (Kevin) Harvick. (Ryan) Newman. Those aren’t slouches that he passed, and he passed them in 20 laps. I think that’s a pretty good indicator of the strength of his effort. Whether that’s car or driver, I’ll let you all figure that out. That’s a pretty good indicator he was the guy to beat all night.”

Kenseth passed Hamlin with three laps left in the second segment and secured the win in that leg. Like Johnson, Kenseth spent segment No. 3 running at the back while Keselowski and Kasey Kahne waged an intense battle for the win.

Kahne got a strong run from the high line through Turns 3 and 4, but Keselowski held on to win the segment by .006 seconds.

Earnhardt won segment No. 4 by 1.618 seconds over Marcos Ambrose. After the 20-lap run ended, Johnson, Kenseth, Keselowski and Earnhardt entered pit road in that order, took no tires or gas and came out in those same top four positions for the final 10-lap run.

Of the top four drivers, Keselowski and Kenseth had the freshest tires, having stopped under caution for Greg Biffle’s blown engine on Lap 73. But Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet was the class of the field and pulled away for the win in an anomalous All-Star race that did not see a single caution for a racing accident.

Though Earnhardt transferred into the main event with a decisive victory in the Sprint Showdown, the compelling story of the preliminary event was polesitter AJ Allmendinger’s run from the back of the field to the second transfer spot after pitting with a flat tire coming to green at the start of the race.

Allmendinger took four tires during a pit stop between the Showdown’s two 20-lap segments, and the new rubber paid off. After two cars dropped out between segments and three others went to the rear because of pit road penalties, Allmendinger restarted 13th.

From the drop of the green flag on Lap 21, Allmendinger surged forward, finally passing Jamie McMurray for the second position with a hard run off Turn 2 on Lap 39 of 40.

“Jamie’s real good—he knows how to get around this place,” Allmendinger said. “He kept making sure he got good exit shots. Finally, he just got off the bottom a little bit. At that point, I wasn’t going to lift. I didn’t care if we all wreck, if I got into him or what.

“These guys on this Pennzoil Dodge, this Penske organization, they belong in this race. They deserve it more than I do. I was going to do everything I could to get ‘em in, or I was going to die trying.”

Allmendinger finished third in the fourth segment of the All-Star Race, but a four-tire call on the final pit stop dropped him to the back of the field. Allmendinger charged to 11th before time ran out.

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.

Middlebrook rescinded the points penalties and the suspensions. The $100,000 fine for crew chief Chad Knaus remains in place. Knaus and car chief Ron Malec remain on NASCAR probation until May 9th.

During opening day inspection for the 500, NASCAR officials said that they found modifications on the rear quarter panel, specifically, they had an issue with the C-pillars. 

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby said that the changes to the car were a major violation to NASCAR’s policy banning alterations to the series template. He said suspensions were possible.

About a week and a half later, penalties for the No. 48 team were announced. Knaus and Malec were suspended for six Sprint Cup Series events; Johnson was penalized with the loss of 25 driver’s points; car owner Jeff Gordon was penalized with the loss of 25 owner’s points; Knaus was fined $100,000; and both Knaus and Malec were put on NASCAR probation until May 9th.

HMS appealed the penalty to the NASCAR Stock Car Racing Appeals Panel. The panel upheld the penalty, meaning HMS could appeal to Middlebrook — their last chance to get the penalty overturned.

According to SceneDaily.com, HMS based the appeal on the fact that the C-pillars had previously passed inspection, and that the car never has a template put on it before NASCAR took action.

Middlebrook did not explain why he rescinded the penalties. Nor did he explain why he kept the fine in place, but NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp indicated that the fine is “evidence that there was a rules infraction.”

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Johnson was penalized 25 points and car owner Jeff Gordon was docked 25 owner’s points after the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevy failed a pre-race inspection before the season-opening Daytona 500.

Crew chief Chad Knaus was fined $100,000, suspended six races, and put on NASCAR probation until May 9th. Car chief Ron Malec was also suspended six races.

Knaus will be atop the pitbox at Bristol Motor Speedway while team owner Rick Hendrick appeals the case to National Stock Car Racing Chief Appellate Officer John Middlebrook. That will be the team’s final appeal.

 Hendrick said of the decision:

We’re disappointed with the outcome, but we’re going to go ahead to the next level and present our case one more time. I stand firmly behind our guys. I do applaud NASCAR for a process in which we present our side of things and try to come to a conclusion. For that I’m appreciative of the process in place.

At issue was the team’s C-pillars, which were determined to have been illegally modified.

Related Stories

• Knaus, Malec Suspended; Johnson Loses 25 Points
• No. 48 Team Fails Inspection; Penalties Possible

On Monday evening, the couple was on a Gulfstream 150 registered to Jimmie Johnson Racing II Incorporated that ran off the runway at Key West International Airport. It ran off 100 feet beyond a 600-foot safety area that was completed earlier this year.

The Hendricks were taken to the hospital and had minor injuries. The pilots were also taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.

Upon hearing the news, HMS driver Dale Earnhardt Jr said:

It was a real big scare. Very frightening to hear. ’I'm very glad that he and everybody appears to be OK.

Hendrick and Earnhardt Jr have been working on this extension for quite some time, and the news is not too suprising.

Team owner Rick Hendrick said:

We’re excited to have everything formalized and announced. Junior and I had a handshake agreement months ago, and we let other people work out the finer points from there. It was as simple and smooth as it gets.

Earnhardt Jr added:

It’s great to have it all wrapped up so quickly and far in advance. Rick and I were on the same page from the first time we talked about it, so there wasn’t any sense in waiting. There were never any questions or hesitations from either of us. It was just, “Yeah, let’s do it.”  I’m really happy at Hendrick Motorsports and enjoy working with everyone here. The team’s been very competitive this season, and we’re all excited about the direction of things. I want to make sure we’re giving our fans something to cheer about for a long time.

The new is sure to upset a small contingent of  Earnhardt Jr’s fans because they believe that Hendrick is not interested in seeing Earnhardt Jr succeed on the track. They contend that Hendrick is only interested in Jr because of the sponsorship money he brings in.

Still, this outcome is probably the most logical because of the lack of competitive Chevy rides out there, and the fact that Earnhardt is not interested in bringing his JR Motorsports Nationwide Series team to Sprint Cup.