GEARING UP

1 The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is off this weekend for Easter, but some of its drivers will compete in a Nationwide Series race in Tennessee.

NASCAR’s second-tier series holds the Pepsi 300 on Saturday at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway, where Cup driver Carl Edwards of Roush Fenway Racing is the defending winner.

Another Cup driver, Kevin Harvick, holds the early points lead in the Nationwide Series over Clint Bowyer, his teammate at Richard Childress racing. But Harvick isn’t scheduled to drive Saturday.

2 Hall of Fame Racing, a single-car Cup team that fields the No. 96 Toyota driven by J.J. Yeley, named Steve Boyer as the car’s crew chief, succeeding Brandon Thomas.

The team hoped for a strong start after hiring Yeley this season to succeed Tony Raines. But Yeley is struggling after five races; he’s 31st in points and has yet to finish a race in the top 10.

Jeff Moorad and Tom Garfinkel, who own the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, bought control of Hall of Fame Racing last year from former NFL quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman.

3 Fresh from winning the “Dancing With the Stars” competition on TV, Helio Castroneves says he’s ready to win this third Indianapolis 500 and his first IndyCar Series title.

The Brazilian driver for Team Penske also applauded the recent merger of the Indy Racing League with the Champ Car World Series but said the reunion wouldn’t boost the popularity of open-wheel racing overnight.

“It’s not going to happen this year,” he said during a visit to Los Angeles this week to promote the new season of “Dancing.” “But I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not a train.”

The ebullient Castroneves, 32, won the dancing show with partner Julianne Hough based on viewers’ votes.

He marvels at the attention he still receives from strangers who watched the show and said he just focused on “doing each [dance] as though it was going to be the last.”

Is he interested in an entertainment career after his racing days are over? “After -- that’s too away for me,” he said.

4 Irwindale Speedway opens its 10th season Saturday night with a new name, Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, and a multi-race program.

Late-model stock cars and trucks head the lineup at the half-mile track, which former NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip and others have called one of the best short-track facilities in American motor sports.

General admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $5 for children ages 6-12, with children 5 and under free. Parking is $5.

5 The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will continue through at least 2015 after the Long Beach City Council renewed the city’s contract with the race’s operator, the Grand Prix Assn. of Long Beach.

This year’s race, on April 20, will be the last involving the Champ Car World Series, which is being absorbed into the Indy Racing League. But the IRL plans to add the race to its schedule starting in 2009.

The race is held on a 1.97-mile temporary street course that includes Shoreline Drive, and it is preceded by three days of racing and practice involving several other series, as well as a celebrity race.