CUP: NASCAR Notebook

R.I.P. IRWINDALE — While NASCAR teams and fans are eagerly awaiting getting back on track this week at Daytona International Speedway, there’s lots of other NASCAR-related news early in the week, not all of it good. The highly regarded Irwindale Speedway in Southern California announced Monday that its 2012 racing schedule had been cancelled and the track is being dismantled, according to media reports.

Opened in 1999, the Irwindale complex featured half-mile and one-third mile oval tracks, as well as a dragstrip. From 2003-2011, the track hosted the Toyota All-Star Showdown, which brought together the best NASCAR short-track racers from across the country. Winners of the event included Joey Logano and David Gilliland, now both NASCAR Sprint Cup regulars.

Irwindale also hosted the Turkey Night Grand Prix, a Thanksgiving race for USAC Midgets, as well as drifting, model-car races and other events. Late last year, NASCAR dropped Irwindale from its 2012 K&N Pro Series West Series schedule, an omen of bad times ahead for the track.

STEWART STEPS UP — Last season, Tony Stewart said that winning his first World of Outlaws winged sprint car race over the summer was one of the factors that gave him the confidence to go out and win his third NASCAR Sprint Cup championship later in the year.

So for Stewart’s competitors, that probably means they ought to be worried about the fact that the driver known as “Smoke” has done it again. Saturday night under the lights at Sylvania, Ga., Stewart took home the winner’s $5,000 purse for capturing the All-Star Circuit of Champions-sanctioned 30-lap main event at Screven Motor Speedway. Stewart, the 2011 SPEED Performer of the Year, passed pole-sider Jason Sides in the closing laps to get the victory, much to the delight of the crowd.

LARSON LEAPS AHEAD — Young Kyle Larson, who this year will drive for Rev Racing in the NASCAR K&N Pro East Series, won his stock-car racing debut at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway on Saturday. The 19-year-old driver took his first and only lead on the 100th and final lap to win the 10th Annual Pete Orr — Orange Blossom late-model race.

BUD SHOOTOUT TRIVIA — The Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway kicks off the 2012 NASCAR season. The race will be 75 laps, 187.50 miles. Here’s some event trivia: