K&N to be title sponsor for top developmental series

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR announced on Thursday that K&N Engineering, Inc., will be the title sponsor for NASCAR's top developmental series, formerly known as the Camping World Series East and West, beginning in 2010.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series will continue to crown champions through separate schedules on the East and West Coast. The seven-year agreement illustrates NASCAR's commitment to the grassroots foundation of the sport.

• NASCAR Home Tracks

"K&N is a company that epitomizes the spirit of NASCAR," said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. "The developmental series are a tremendously integral part of the past, present and future of NASCAR -- from the great champions throughout the years to the pipeline of tremendous racers that have made their way up the NASCAR ladder to our national series.

"Having a company with the dedication to the sport and the automotive industry that K&N does speaks volumes to the importance we place in the series."

The Pro Series encompasses NASCAR's oldest stock-car series in the West, which dates back to 1954, and the East that has evolved from the former Busch North Series. It runs on a challenging combination of speedways, short tracks and road courses.

K&N Engineering is the inventor of reusable cotton gauze filter technology for automotive applications and has grown from a family-run business to a global company, tracing its involvement with NASCAR back to the days of supplying parts for the Sprint Cup Series races at the old Riverside Speedway.

K&N will make its on-track debut as the series entitlement sponsor at the 2010 Toyota All-Star Showdown -- NASCAR's prestigious postseason event which has earned the moniker of the "Daytona 500 of short-track racing."

The event will be Jan. 29-30 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale and will air live on SPEED and Sirius.