ON MOTORSPORTS News and notes

Tough traveling: After two weeks of racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway, next up for NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers and their teams: a six-week, 12,000-mile road trip. Most of the people involved in the stock-car sport take the grueling travel schedule in stride. "Believe it or not, the only thing that's really detrimental to the team is a week off," said Eddie Jones, general manager of BAM Racing, which fields Dodges for Ken Schrader. "That tends to break our rhythm. If they're not traveling that weekend," he added, "they find some other race to go to: a Busch race, truck race. Some of the drivers will usually find another race to run in if they aren't running Cup that weekend." The Cup series will race Sunday in Dover, Del., then trek to Long Pond, Pa., Brooklyn, Mich., Sonoma, Calif., Daytona Beach, Fla., and Joliet, Ill., before taking one of its infrequent off weekends. "We're racers and we love to race," Schrader said. "Not just the drivers, but the crew as well. We need to race as much as possible, so we look forward to months like June and July when you get to race each weekend."
Still going: Though the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team has struggled this season, Juan Pablo Montoya says he still has every intention of becoming part of the team in 2005. Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner and 1999 CART champion, has driven for Williams-BMW since 2001. The driver from Colombia said he is "100 percent committed to going to McLaren" and is looking forward to it. With 24 points, Montoya is sixth in the F1 season points standings after seven races. McLaren drivers David Coulthard (four points) and Kimi Raikkonen (one point), last year's series runner-up, are 11th and 16th. McLaren is also sixth in the manufacturers' standings with only five points, while leader Ferrari has 106.
Winning ways: American Scott Speed is winning races and gaining attention in Europe. The 21-year-old driver from Manteca, Calif., won two German Formula Renault races last weekend in the Czech Republic and now leads the standings in both the Eurocup Championship and the German Championship. The victories at the Brno circuit were his sixth and seventh of the season. "It is a great feeling to have the lead in both championships now," Speed said. "It was a perfect day -- two races, two victories, the lead in the championship. There's not more to win than that."
Ganassi sued: Prominent auto racing figure Chip Ganassi was accused in a federal lawsuit filed this week of failing to pay his share of a $35 million debt linked to the construction of the Chicago Motor Speedway. The multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by the Chicago-based National Jockey Club alleged that Ganassi failed to adequately fund the project and was trying to duck his share of the debt, according to a statement from the club. The National Jockey Club and Ganassi agreed in 1998 to jointly fund the $70 million conversion of Sportsman's Park in Cicero from a horse track to a dual-purpose complex for both thoroughbred and auto racing, the statement said. Charles Bidwill III, president of the National Jockey Club, alleges in the lawsuit that Ganassi and his company, Ganassi Group L.L.C., reneged on promises made in 2001 to provide funds needed to keep the Speedway operating.
-- Associated Press