Fan perk or budget cut at LVMS?

You can design the program cover for the Sept. 26 NASCAR Camping World truck race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

If you win, you get four suite and Neon Garage passes to the one-day event.

Is the speedway reaching out to the arts community or just trying to save a buck?

It currently doesn’t have a sponsor for the race so every penny saved counts.

Upcoming contests could be for ambulance driver, announcer and pilot of the medical helicopter.

For information on entering the contest — the one for the cover design — go to lvms.com. Contest runs from Saturday to Sept. 1.

Must supply your own crayons.

Never swear on the life of your kids, wife

Juan Pablo Montoya loves his family.

That’s why he never should have swore on their lives in a televised interview that he did not speed on pit road during Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Swear on your dog, your sponsor or someone you don’t like.

NASCAR data showed Montoya twice exceed the 55-mph pit road speed limit by 5 mph when he pitted late in the race while leading.

His lead was about 5 seconds at the time he pitted and he was dominating. He led 116 of the first 125 laps — including a race-record 59 consecutive at one point.

He never should have come close to speeding.

And he never should swear on the lives of loved ones.

Brickyard no longer in good hands

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is shopping for a sponsor to back its Cup race next year.

Less than 24 hours after Sunday’s Allstate 400 at Indy, the insurance company said it will not continue as the event sponsor.

"The contract was up and we're always reviewing our properties and how they perform," Allstate spokesman Raleigh Floyd said. "We enjoyed working with them, and the fans are probably the most loyal in sports, but our other sponsorships were just performing a little better."

Add the Brickyard to a list of tracks, including Las Vegas Motor Speedway, that do not have sponsors for the 2010 Cup season.

Good day for Goodyear

After last year’s nightmare when Goodyear tires couldn’t last 20 laps, the tires held up very well on Sunday at Indy.

Longtime veteran Jeff Burton said he had full fuel runs of 33 to 35 laps on the tires in testing without a hint of a problem. Jeff Gordon said it was time to forget last year's indelible race image — caution flags because of excessive tire wear.

It seems many fans remembered. Although the crowd was estimated at 180,000 there were a lot of empty seats. A lot.

Roll, Indy, roll

The Indy Racing League announced a deal Monday that will put the open-wheeled cars at Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park track starting in April 2010.

IRL officials said the Alabama track is getting a spot that opened when Detroit lost its race. The rest of the 2010 IndyCar Series schedule will be announced Friday.

It probably won’t return to Richmond, Va., or The Milwaukee Mile.

Barber and IRL officials claim more than 20,000 turned out for IndyCar testing in March at the Barber track, a 2.38-mile, 17-turn circuit. If that attendance is accurate it was one of the IRL’s best attended events of this year.

Car wreck: You can’t quit watching

We saved this item for last so if you’re tired of reading about NASCAR and Jeremy Mayfield you can exit now. But if you like staring at the aftermath of a car wreck, read on:

NASCAR accused Jeremy Mayfield of lying to a federal court about the chronology of a second random drug test, offering to provide an audio tape of the conversation in which Mayfield was told to submit a sample. The driver says the telephone call went to voicemail.

The accusation came Monday in court filings that ask U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen to lift the July 1 injunction he granted Mayfield so he could return to racing.

NASCAR provided a transcript of the actual conversation between Mayfield and Regina Sweeney, an employee of Aegis Sciences Corp., which runs NASCAR's drug-testing program. NASCAR said it would provide the recording upon request.

"I'm calling on behalf of NASCAR who has requested that you take a drug test today within the next two hours ... and I was going to help find you a location that you could go to based upon where you are right now," Sweeney said in the transcript.

"Right, well I'm gonna have to -- let me talk to my attorney first. ... So, and I'll get back with you," Mayfield is quoted as replying.

According to Mayfield's affidavit from last week, he was in a meeting and did not receive the message until 2 p.m. and it was 2:44 p.m. when he was finally told what laboratory to go to -- making it impossible for him to meet the testing deadline.

"Mayfield appears to have completely ‘forgotten’ that he had a live conversation with Ms. Sweeney ... in which she advised him he could go to a testing place ... the address of which Mayfield did not take down because he wanted to talk to his attorney first," the filing said.

NASCAR's filing Monday also contends that in addition to the eyewitness account from his estranged stepmother, Lisa Mayfield, it has several other witnesses willing to testify about Mayfield's methamphetamine use if subpoenaed.

"Mayfield has apparently contacted at least one witness to convince the witness that despite her recollection, he never used drugs," the filing said.