Service set Friday morning for Martinsville's Dick Thompson

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Sprint Cup Series practice sessions canceled

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Both Sprint Cup Series practice sessions have been canceled at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday due to persistent rain showers in the area.

NASCAR officials still hope to be able to run the Kroger 200 Camping World Truck Series race at the track later this afternoon. It is scheduled for a 12:30 p.m. start on Speed.

Think fast: What do champs name their babies?

The top-five names that four-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and is wife, Chandra, might ponder as they anticipate the birth of their first child this summer:

1. Chase Time to honor the playoff system that helped make dad what he is today (and pay for those piano lessons, ponies and braces in a few years).

2. Chad In honor of the uncle/crew chief. Hopefully, the kid will have the sense of humor to one day change his last name to Quatro Ocho.

NASCAR seeks recruits at JCSU

The NASCAR College Tour visited Johnson C. Smith University last week, and a group of about 50 students gathered at Biddle Hall to hear from African Americans the stock car racing company hopes represent a significant part of its future.

There was Marc Davis, a 19-year-old driver and team owner in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. There was Arionne Allen, a 23-year-old who went through NASCAR's Diversity Internship Program. There was Mike Phillips, a senior manager for track services, who helps run emergency crews at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

For the past nine years, NASCAR has sent a team of officials every year to historically black colleges and universities. The goal is to recruit minorities into a sport that hasn't always welcomed them.

Durham mourns first black fire chief

Funeral services for Nathaniel Louis Thompson, one of Durham's first black firefighters and the city's first black fire chief, were held Saturday at New Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Fuquay-Varina.

Thompson died Monday at Duke Medical Center. He was 77.

He became a Durham firefighter in 1958 and worked his way up the ranks to assistant chief in 1978. When the city split its Public Safety department into separate police and fire departments in 1985, Thompson became interim fire chief. Three months later, he got the job for keeps. "That's been one of my career goals," he said at the time.

Niece's transplant surgery takes priority for team owner

HOMESTEAD, Fla. Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick wasn't on hand for Sunday's Sprint Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

He remained in North Carolina while his niece awaited a liver transplant.

Alesha Gainey, 29, is the daughter of the team owner's late brother, John Hendrick, who was among those killed in a 2004 plane crash near Martinsville, Va.