Auto

NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP — The lure of $2.50 per gallon gasoline wasn’t big enough to create traffic jams Tuesday, but motorists who lined up were surprised by who was providing service with a smile.

“I don’t usually get this kind of service,” said Debbie Eichholtz of Northville, as NASCAR race driver Stephen Leicht washed her windshield and topped off the tank on her minivan.

(More in ‘NASCAR driver pumps discounted gas, promotes race’…)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Control cables were broken in the NASCAR plane that crashed into two suburban homes, killing five people earlier this month, federal investigators said Tuesday.

It wasn’t known whether the cables broke before or during the crash, though, and the cause of the July 10 crash in suburban Sanford remained unclear, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Inspectors found numerous separations in the cables running through the right wing and forward fuselage of the twin-engine Cessna 310, according to the NTSB.

Witnesses had reported seeing smoke trailing from the plane as it sped low over the neighborhood and seeing its wings “rocking” before it sharply banked and slammed into the homes, the report said.

The crash killed both people aboard, NASCAR Aviation pilot Michael Klemm and Dr.

(More in ‘Cause of NASCAR plane crash still unknown’…)

ROCHESTER HILLS — In NASCAR, there’s an image of the laid-back Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his buddies hanging out at his place in Mooresville, N.C., playing with go-karts and racing simulation video games until way too late on most nights.

Well, Brad Keselowski is living the dream. The Rochester Hills 23-year-old isn’t just the kid Earnhardt picked to drive his JR Motorsports Busch series stock car.

(More in ‘Rochester Hills racer wants to make most of driving for Earnhardt Jr.’…)

ROCHESTER HILLS — NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., has signed Brad Keselowski to drive one of his own race cars starting this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

The three-race deal between Earnhardt’s JR Motorsports and the 23-year-old Rochester Hills native was announced Tuesday afternoon in Mooresville, N.C.

“I’ve watched Brad for a while, and he’s shown a lot of promise in the few Busch races he’s run,” Earnhardt Jr.

(More in ‘NASCAR’s Earnhardt signs Rochester Hills driver’…)

SANFORD, Fla. — A small plane carrying the husband of a NASCAR executive crashed into two houses while trying to make an emergency landing Tuesday, killing five people and starting fires that seriously burned three others, authorities said.

NASCAR confirmed that Dr.

(More in ‘Fla. plane crash kills NASCAR exec’s husband, four others’…)