Top stars to perform at Winston Cup banquet

LOS ANGELES -- Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor James Woods, Grammy Award-winning musician Sheryl Crow and multi-platinum rock group Third Eye Blind will perform at the 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Awards Ceremony on Friday, Dec. 6 in New York City.

	Sheryl Crow is no stranger to NASCAR. Credit: Autostock

"We are thrilled that we have a star-studded line-up for this year's NASCAR Winston Cup Series awards ceremony," said Paul Brooks, vice president of broadcasting, NASCAR. "These stars from the entertainment world are fans of NASCAR and the awards ceremony is sure to be entertaining and exciting for our fans, drivers, teams, and everyone involved in our sport."

The 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup Awards Ceremony will be held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and televised live on TNT from 8-10:30 p.m. ET. The ceremony will celebrate 2002 Winston Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and recognize the top-10 drivers and the NASCAR Raybestos Rookie of the Year Ryan Newman.

James Woods will be the Master of Ceremonies. Woods, whose credits include "The Onion Field," "Casino," "Any Given Sunday," "Ghosts of Mississippi" and the upcoming USA Networks film, "Rudy!," previously hosted the "NASCAR Night in Hollywood" 50th Anniversary Celebration.

Sheryl Crow will perform two songs during the ceremony. Crow served as Grand Marshal of this year's NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway in April and performed a short concert during the live NBC pre-race show at Talladega Superspeedway in September.

ROCK AND ROLL Watch Sheryl Crow's performance at the EA SPORTS 500 at Talladega! Play video  •  Rocker Crow among the growing NASCAR faithful

She worked with NASCAR to include "Steve McQueen," the latest release from her album, "C'mon, C'mon," in NASCAR's "How Bad Have You Got It?" campaign, and featured Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the making of the "Steve McQueen" music video.

Multi-platinum rock band Third Eye Blind will also perform. They are currently working with NASCAR to include the new single "Faster" from their upcoming album "Crystal Baller" in NASCAR's "How Bad Have You Got It" campaign.

NASCAR has also hired Joe Bolster as the writer for the Ceremony. Bolster's writing credits include "The 69th Annual Academy Awards," The ESPY Awards and E! Entertainment Television's "Talk Soup". Bolster, also a stand-up comedian, has appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with David Letterman" as well as several specials for Showtime, Comedy Central and MTV.