GEARING UP

What’s happening in motor sports heading into this weekend:

1. The IndyCar Series said the largest opening-day field in seven years is entered for the season’s first race Saturday night at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway, reflecting the merger in open-wheel racing.

The series’ sanctioning body, the Indy Racing League, recently absorbed the Champ Car World Series, and several Champ Car teams have joined the IndyCar Series.

Some 26 cars are entered for the race, the most for a season opener since 2001.

Dan Wheldon of Target Chip Ganassi Racing is the defending winner at the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami oval, where 20 drivers competed last year.

2. The open-wheel merger has sparked a dispute between Australian Craig Gore and Derrick Walker, principals of the former Champ Car team called Team Australia.

After the merger, Gore said Team Australia would move to the team of KV Racing Technology to compete in the IndyCar Series. KV Racing is co-owned by former Champ Car principal Kevin Kalkhoven and former racer Jimmy Vasser. The team’s drivers are Australian Will Power and Spaniard Oriol Servia.

Walker cried foul, saying the switch came after Gore defaulted on his financial commitments as Walker’s business partner. Walker alleged that Gore still owed him more than $1.5 million. But Gore denied any wrongdoing, saying that he met all commitments and that “I relish the opportunity to have my day in court.”

3. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is back from a two-week Easter break with a race Sunday at its shortest track, the 0.526-mile Martinsville (Va.) Speedway.

Reigning Cup champion Jimmie Johnson has won the last three races at Martinsville, but neither Johnson nor his three other Hendrick Motorsports teammates has yet to win a race this year.

Early results indicate more parity in NASCAR after Hendrick dominated last year. Penske Racing’s Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500 and Carl Edwards of Roush Fenway Racing won the next two events. Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing then took Atlanta, and Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing won the most recent race in Bristol, Tenn.

At the moment, the only Hendrick driver in the top 12 in points is the team’s newest member, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is fifth. The top 12 after 26 races qualify for the series’ Chase for the Cup playoff over the final 10 races to determine the champion.

4. Dietrich Mateschitz, owner of the Red Bull energy drink company, said his firm plans to sell its half ownership of the Formula One team Scuderia Toro Rosso, whose drivers are Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel.

Toro Rosso, Italian for “Red Bull,” is a secondary team to Red Bull’s primary Formula One team that has drivers David Coulthard and Mark Webber. Gerhard Berger, Toro Rosso’s other co-owner and operating chief, said the sale wouldn’t occur this year and that no immediate changes were planned for the team.

5. The NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown, a race at Irwindale Speedway that brings together the nation’s top drivers in NASCAR’s developmental series, is being moved to late January next year from its former date in mid-October.

The showdown is now scheduled Jan. 23-24 at Irwindale’s half-mile oval, and the weekend also will include two support races of late-model stock cars.

Late-models also are scheduled Saturday night at Irwindale and, in other local racing Saturday, sprint cars head the multi-race lineups at Ventura Raceway and Perris Auto Speedway in Riverside County.

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THE RACES

NASCAR SPRINT CUP

Goody’s Cool Orange 500

When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 12:30 p.m.); Sunday, race (Ch. 11, 10:30 a.m.).

Where: Martinsville Speedway (oval, 0.526 miles, 12 degrees banking in turns), Martinsville, Va.

Race distance: 263 miles, 500 laps.

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

Kroger 250

When: Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 7 a.m.), race (Ch. 11, noon).

Where: Martinsville, Va.

Race distance: 131.5 miles, 250 laps.

INDY RACING LEAGUE

GAINSCO Auto Insurance 300

When: Today, qualifying, 3:30 p.m.; Saturday, race (ESPN2, 5 p.m.).

Where: Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 18-degree banking at bottom, 19-degree banking in middle, 20-degree banking at top), Homestead, Fla.

Race distance: 300 miles, 200 laps.

NHRA

O’Reilly Spring Nationals

When: Today, qualifying, noon; Saturday, qualifying, 9:15 a.m. (Part I, ESPN2, 1:30 p.m., tape; Part II, ESPN2, 7 p.m., tape); Sunday, eliminations, 9 a.m. (ESPN2, 1:30 p.m., tape)

Where: Houston Raceway, Baytown, Texas.

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All times Pacific

Associated Press

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STAT OF THE WEEK

Dan Wheldon, above, of Target Chip Ganassi Racing has won the last three IndyCar Series races at Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of Saturday night’s season opener.

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LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

Cristiano da Matta, after test-driving a Grand-Am sports car 19 months after nearly being killed when his race car hit a deer that wandered on the track at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.:

‘I still know how to do this, I remember this very well.’