Franchitti will make his move to stock cars Friday

The 2007 Indy 500 winner has joined NASCAR’s Chip Ganassi Racing.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dario Franchitti’s much-anticipated move to stock cars will begin Friday with an ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The 2007 Indy 500 winner and IndyCar Series champion has agreed to a multi-year deal to replace David Stremme in the No. 40 Dodge for NASCAR’s Chip Ganassi Racing, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity because the deal had yet to be announced.

An official announcement is expected today at Ganassi’s race shop in North Carolina. Ganassi also fields Nextel Cup cars for rookie Juan Pablo Montoya, another former open-wheel driver, and Reed Sorenson.

Franchitti is expected to get some much-needed seat time in stock cars by running a series of races, including ARCA, Busch and Cup, before the end of this season, much as Montoya did in 2006 after leaving Formula One.

Nationwide to sponsor series

NEW YORK — NASCAR was finalizing a deal Tuesday night with Nationwide Insurance to sponsor its No. 2 series beginning in 2008, The Associated Press has learned.

Nationwide will replace Anheuser-Busch, which has sponsored the second-tier Busch Series for 26 seasons but said earlier this year it would end its entitlement deal at the conclusion of this season.

The deal with Nationwide is estimated to be seven years at $10 million a year, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who requested anonymity because the deal had yet to be completed. A-B was paying roughly the same amount, and NASCAR initially had sought an increase in the price of the series.

But despite a flurry of early suitors, NASCAR was unable to secure sponsorship in a search that has stretched nearly 10 months. A deal with Subway appeared to be imminent in August, but never materialized.

That opened the door for Nationwide, which presented an offer late last week. Subway also re-entered the picture, but NASCAR instead moved ahead on Nationwide’s offer.

Allstate is the official insurance company of NASCAR, but this new sponsorship deal will likely require Nationwide to take over that role.