Hendrick tops team-value list

Roush drops to 2nd in Forbes rankings

Hendrick Motorsports has passed Roush Fenway Racing as the most valuable team in NASCAR, according to Forbes' annual rankings.

Hendrick is valued at $335 million, Forbes announced Tuesday in New York. Roush Fenway, which topped the list in the first two years of the rankings, is second at $313 million.

Joe Gibbs Racing ($184 million), Gillett Evernham Motorsports ($150 million) and Richard Childress Racing ($130 million) round out the top 5.

Three Hendrick drivers top Forbes' list of the highest-paid drivers. Jeff Gordon ($32 million) narrowly edged Dale Earnhardt Jr. ($31 million). Jimmie Johnson ($23 million) is third, followed by Tony Stewart ($19 million), who races for Gibbs.

ALONSO NOT SURE IF HE'LL STAY AT RENAULT IN 2009: Fernando Alonso is not sure if he will stay with Renault after this season.

The two-time world champion, who has had a disappointing year since returning to the French team, said Monday in Madrid, Spain, that he'll make a decision after the Formula One season ends.

"I do not know what will happen," the Spaniard said. "The car has improved a little, and I hope that by the end of the year we will get on the podium ... At the end of the year I will have to make a decision, and we will see where Renault is."

Alonso is ninth in the standings with nine points. Polish driver Robert Kubica leads with 42 points for BMW Sauber, four ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Last season, Alonso partnered then-rookie Hamilton at McLaren where the drivers' relationship deteriorated as the Briton continued to chalk up podiums.

In an acrimonious season, McLaren was fined $100 million in a spying scandal and docked all of its constructors points.

Alonso returned to Renault last November without a third straight world championship.

AERODYNAMICS CHIEF QUITS RENAULT: Dino Toso is leaving Renault after five seasons as head of the Formula One team's aerodynamic technology.

Renault has won two F1 constructors' titles and never finished lower than third since Toso took charge of the department in 2003.

Renault won in 2005 and 2006 but has slipped to seventh in the 10-team standings with only nine points leading into the eighth of the 18 grand prix races this season.

The team released a statement Tuesday saying Toso would be "seeking new challenges in motorsport" after delivering the revised aerodynamic package which should help the new R28 be more competitive against the leading cars before the end of the season.

"My passion for motorsport has always centered on innovative aerodynamics and been motivated by a thirst for competition," Toso said in the statement. "I'm looking forward to tackling new challenges that will allow me to fully express my technical creativity in the years ahead, and take me back to what I love most: the thrill of competition."

Dirk de Beer will replace Toso as head of Renault's aerodynamics department.

SECOND MAN DIES AFTER BEING HIT BY TRUCK OUTSIDE NHRA RACE: A Muskogee, Okla., man who was struck by a pickup truck outside an NHRA race in Kansas has died.

Kristi Pankratz, a spokeswoman for the Topeka, Kan., police, confirmed Tuesday that James C. "J.J." Jenkins, 52, was the second person to die from injuries sustained when a truck hit pedestrians who were walking back to their car after the NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka on June 1.

Jenkins' wife, Joy, told the Muskogee Phoenix her husband suffered a major brain stem stroke Saturday and died at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

Judy Brewster, 55, of Muskogee, died at a Kansas hospital shortly after the accident.