ROUNDUP News and notes

Hard hit: Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the few NASCAR tracks yet to be fitted for the new energy-absorbing SAFER barriers -- as Joe Nemechek found out first hand last Saturday night. After being hit by rookie Scott Wimmer in turn one on the half-mile oval, Nemechek's Chevrolet slammed hard into the concrete wall. The veteran racer came away with a bruised left foot and left-side soreness to his neck, shoulder, hip and knee, although he plans to race this weekend at California Speedway. "I took a good lick, I felt it," Nemechek said. "The car hit driver's side first but, luckily, it wasn't flush. The car did what it was supposed to do." As for Bristol's walls, the track is expected to install SAFER barriers before its first race in 2005.
Prime time again: Sunday's Nextel Cup Pop Secret 500 at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., starts at 7 p.m. Get ready for more prime-time Cup races. Prime-time races, preferably on Sundays, are appealing to NBC and Fox. The races can attract larger audiences than daytime races. Both networks are still losing money on their NASCAR contracts, which expire in 2006 for NBC/Turner and '08 for Fox. Joining Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., in lighting up the night could be Dover (Del.) International Speedway Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.
Earnhardt memory: Rusty Wallace and the late Dale Earnhardt were friends and racing rivals. When Wallace announced Monday his plan to retire after next season, he said Earnhardt's death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 shook him up and made him think about retiring. Wallace has a lot of Earnhardt stories. Here's one: During a race at Rockingham, N.C., Wallace was leading, and Earnhardt was trying to get back on the lead lap. "We were flying into Turn 3," he recalled. "I lost the car and got into his quarter panel and he slid sideways. I'm totally on the brakes trying to get stopped and let him save it. I looked up and saw the whites of his eyes. His eyes got so big. He burned rubber all the way down [the track] trying to run through the side of me." Instead of hitting Wallace, though, Earnhardt drove into Sterling Marlin's car.
Combined dispatches