Round-up: Gordon in for Skinner...

Skinner suffered concussion and a broken ankle when a tyre blew out during Sunday's race at Chicagoland. Gordon raced the number seven Ultra Motorsports car, formerly driven by Mike Wallace, at Sears Point and Chicago but has been granted permission by Ultra owner Jim Smith to jump ship for the weekend.

Gordon, who started the season at Morgan-McLure Motorsports but was subsequently sacked, was scheduled to drive selected Busch Grand National series races for RCR later this season. Skinner is expected to miss at least two races and was scheduled to undergo an operation on his ankle on Tuesday.

The number 96 PPI Motorsports car of Andy Houston will be absent from the next two rounds of the NASCAR Winston Cup. After a string of poor results, the McDonald's-backed team is believed to be regrouping and will return in time for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis on August 5. Houston's best finish this year was 17th at Martinsville.

Johnny Benson has said he expects some flared tempers at New Hampshire this weekend: "The track is so narrow that there isn't a lot of room to pass and that makes for some interesting racing. Tempers can be short there because you have a lot of cars fighting for very little room on a narrow slick track. Sometimes you can get into someone and turn them and not even mean to. The post race discussions are always fun at New Hampshire!"

Jimmy Spencer topped the times as NASCAR Winston Cup runners stopped off at Indianapolis for testing on Tuesday. Spencer's 50.687s (177mph) was three-tenths quicker than Jeff Gordon. Dale Earnhardt Jr set his fourth fastest time of 51.304s in the afternoon, which just pipped Jeff Green and Jason Leffler.