GEARING UP

1 NASCAR and the Petersen Automotive Museum are throwing a free block party in Los Angeles for fans who want to watch the Daytona 500 on a big screen Sunday.

The event will include not only a jumbo TV monitor but also racing simulators, food concessions and music near the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.

The museum is opening a “NASCAR: 60 Years” exhibit today, and it also will be free Sunday.

The eastbound lanes of Wilshire will be closed in front of the museum, between Fairfax and Orange Grove Avenue. The event starts at 10 a.m. and the 50th running of the Daytona 500 starts at 12:30 p.m.

2 Every time Mark Martin drives into Daytona International Speedway, there’s a not-so-gentle reminder of how he missed winning the 500 by a few feet last year.

On the back of the main-stretch grandstands hangs a giant banner showing a photo finish of the race, with Martin’s car side by side with -- but just short of -- winner Kevin Harvick.

But Martin said the banner doesn’t bother him.

“I don’t replay it in my mind,” he said. “I’ve said it a hundred times, or a hundred thousand times, I’m very proud of the effort that my team made last year. And so, that’s that.”

3 A federal judge denied a request by IndyCar Series team Rahal Letterman to block driver Scott Sharp from racing elsewhere, but the judge also said he believed the team would win its breach-of-contract suit against Sharp.

Sharp sued the team for allegedly failing to spend enough money and take other steps to make him more competitive last year.

Rahal Letterman countersued and sought an injunction to block Sharp from driving elsewhere. But Sharp then agreed to drive for Highcroft Racing in the American Le Mans Series.

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan in Miami denied Rahal Letterman’s request but said, “It seems to me that [Sharp] has knowingly breached one agreement in order to enter another.”

4 When it comes to promotion, NASCAR and its corporate sponsors are seldom at a loss.

Consider Harlequin, publisher of romance novels, and Office Depot, lead sponsor of Carl Edwards’ car in the Sprint Cup Series.

The companies announced a contest in which the winner will have his or her wedding proposal written on the back of Edwards’ No. 99 Ford in the series’ All-Star race May 17 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. Couples wanting to renew their vows also can enter.

5 In local racing, late-model stock cars head multi-race programs tonight and Saturday night at Perris Auto Speedway in Riverside County.

Brad Garrett, who played older brother Robert on “Everybody Loves Raymond” and now has his own show “‘Til Death,” will give the start-engines command as grand marshal of the Auto Club 500 at California Speedway on Feb. 24.