Carpentier committed to NASCAR, hopes to stay with GEM

Patrick Carpentier says that he should know by Aug. 15 what his future with Gillett Evernham Motorsports holds, but the NASCAR rookie isn't obsessing over his contract status at this point. Instead, he's focusing on running in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series races on the road course at Watkins Glen International this weekend, a pair of events in which he expects to perform well.

Carpentier finished second in the Nationwide Series race on the road course in Montreal last weekend, so he's already primed for a winding track. He says that he and his team have been steadily improving over the course of the last five weeks and that could pay off for them this weekend.

As to his contract status, Carpentier's future with the team seems to hinge on sponsorship for his No. 10 car.

Asked what could be the largest factor in the process, the former open-wheel driver frankly assessed the situation.

"Money," he said. "You know how racing is, it's always guided by sponsorship. They've done an amazing job this year to get my car sponsored. I think they've found like $5 million in sponsorship during the year, so it's a lot. It's quite an achievement. … I think I'm going to stay there, but you never know in life and it's racing, so things change pretty quickly." More at Scenedaily.com