Bill Davis sells NASCAR race team

Just a month removed from his first NASCAR championship, but hampered by the current economic crisis, owner Bill Davis has sold his race team and engine company. Mike Held, a California businessman, and Marty Gaunt, vice president at Bill Davis Racing, bought out the veteran owner. The duo said Monday they've also taken control of profitable Triad Racing Development, which supplies engines, chassis and bodies to customers from all three of NASCAR's top series. Davis, who has been in NASCAR for more than 20 years, won his first championship this season with Johnny Benson in the Truck Series. He also won the Daytona 500 with Ward Burton in 2002. But Davis lost his Sprint Cup Series sponsor and has been unable to secure funding for 2009. Benson also announced before last month's title-clinching finale that he would not return to BDR next season. Read more here.

-- The Associated Press