By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
News and notes from the first week of 2013:
Travis Pastrana will make the move to full-time NASCAR racing in 2013, driving Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 60 Ford Mustang in all 33 events on the NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule.
“I am extremely excited about making the move into full-time NASCAR competition in [...]

RacinToday.com
NASCAR announced Tuesday several revisions to its Competition personnel structure.
The following changes will take effect in 2013:
– Joe Balash, who has served as the NASCAR Nationwide Series director since 2004, will be assuming a new role as International Competition Liaison. This position will be the NASCAR point of contact for competition-related matters relative to the [...]

By John Sturbin | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Elliott Sadler and his primary sponsor have found a new home at Joe Gibbs Racing for the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series season.
Sadler, NNS championship runnerup by 23 points in 2012, will drive the No. 11 Toyota Camry next year with primary sponsorship from OneMain Financial, a personal loan solutions company. [...]

RacinToday.com
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won his second straight NASCAR Nationwide Series championship by finishing sixth in the season-ending  race Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Regan Smith drove the No. 5 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to victory, beating polesitter Kyle Busch to the finish line by 1.375 seconds.
Brendan Gaughan finished third in the race, followed by Sam Hornish Jr. and [...]

Joey Logano got his ninth victory of the season Saturday as he dominated the Great Clips 200 Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.
Logano out-fought new Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Brian Vickers over the final laps to get his first at PIR.
“To finally win at Phoenix is awesome,” Logano said. “I feel like I’ve been close [...]

RacinToday.com
Kevin Harvick easily won Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
The Richard Childress Racing driver crossed the finish line 1.628 seconds ahead of 18-year-old Ryan Blaney, who made the most of a pit stop for tires on Lap 178 of the 200-lap event.
Polesitter Kyle Busch finished third.
Ricky Stenhouse [...]

Reigning NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. currently is second in the point standings, six behind leader Elliott Sadler of Richard Childress Racing.
Stenhouse padded his NNS points lead with a sixth-place finish last November for Roush Fenway Racing at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, site of Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts [...]

JR Motorsports announced it has reached an agreement with Regan Smith to drive the team’s No. 5 NASCAR Nationwide Series entry full time in 2013.
General Manager Kelley Earnhardt Miller said Smith will make his JRM debut this year, as the company will field three teams for the Nov. 17 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Smith [...]

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. blew past Kyle Busch’s fuel-spent Toyota Camry for the lead as the two drivers headed for the checkered flag and went on to win Saturday’s Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway.
The last-lap pass capped a wild comeback for Stenhouse, who had to come from [...]

By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
RacinToday.com
NASCAR officials on Tuesday unveiled a number of competition changes for the 2013 season, the most significant of which is a new qualifying format in the Sprint Cup Series.
That new format marks a return to the past as automatic entry into race fields by the top 35 cars in owner [...]