Jeb Burton will make his CWTS debut in the Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway at the end of March.

Trip Bruce, who worked with Burton during his days driving the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Sprint Cup car, will serve as crew chief for the No. 27. Burton has won five career Sprint Cup races including the 2002 Daytona 500, and four Nationwide Series wins.

Veteran crew chief Gil Martin will be atop the pit box for Gaughan.

Gaughan said:

RCR has top-notch equipment and teamed me with a winning crew chief in Gil Martin. Everyone deserves a second chance and I am ecstatic that my second chance in the Sprint Cup Series is in the #33 Chevrolet with RCR.

Gaughan will also drive 18 races for RCR in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series with sponsorship from South Point.

Elliott Sadler will drive the No. 33 Cup Chevy in the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway.

TOR team owner, former CWTS, Nationwide, and Sprint Cup Series driver Stacy Compton, said:

It has always been our objective to grow the team and this is just the next step in that plan. We have a great group of partners behind us and feel like we are taking all the right steps to build a very competitive Sprint Cup team.

There has been no word from the team on sponsorship or a potential driver, but the team indicated that it has partnered with one of its “long-time supports” for a handful of events this coming season. Last season, the team’s No. 60 truck featured sponsorship from Fuel Doctor and Red Bull, while its No. 66 truck featured sponsorship from GoPro, the National Watermelon Promotion Board, and a few other sponsors. Fuel Doctor seems the most like the sponsor the team referred to in its release.

Cole Whitt and Justin Marks drove for the team last season. Whitt recently signed on to drive the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy to replace Aric Almirola, who left to join Richard Petty Motorsports after AJ Allmendinger left to take over driving duties of the No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge vacated by Kurt Busch. Whitt could be the top candidate to drive TOR’s entry.

Other drivers without rides for next season are Brian Vickers, Landon Cassill, Travis Kvapil and JJ Yeley.

KBM is still seeking sponsorship for the remaining races on the schedule.

Leffler said:

As a racer, your ultimate goal is to win races, and driving the No. 18 Dollar General Tundra for KBM is definitely an opportunity where I expect to achieve that goal. Kyle has put together a first-class organization that builds top-notch equipment. I’m honored that he has the confidence in me as a driver to come in and carry on the winning tradition that his team has established. Dollar General is one of the premier sponsors in our sport and I’m looking forward to representing them on and off the track.

Reutimann said:

The Truck series is where I got my start. It’s a very competitive series, and I am thrilled to have this opportunity to run some races with a good team that is in the process of building. There is definitely the potential to run well (at RBR Enterprises). I wouldn’t have accepted this opportunity if I didn’t believe that. It’s going to be a challenge, but I like the fact that they are committed to bringing the best piece to the track at the races we run instead of taking less than our best to every race.

Reutimann’s crew chief will be Jason Overstreet. The two worked together previously at Darrell Waltrip Racing and Germain Racing.

Overstreet said:

Having worked with David and having a great working relationship with him definitely flattens the learning curve. We have a lot of experience working together, so we have already hit the ground running and can’t wait for Daytona to get here.

Reutimann has signed on to drive for Tommy Baldwin Racing in the Sprint Cup next season.

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 88 last season, left the team to drive Richard Petty Motorsports’ legendary No. 43 Ford in the Sprint Cup Series.

Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr said:

Cole is the guy we wanted, and we’re lucky to get him. He’s got raw, untapped talent, but we are most impressed with his ambition. I sought advice and input from people I respect in the industry, and the overwhelming consensus was that Cole has the potential to do great things in this sport.

The signing of Whitt completes JRM’s driver lineup for 2012, with Danica Patrick driving the No. 7 and Dale Earnhardt Jr driving select races in the No. 5.

Whitt said:

This is a big opportunity for me, and I’m happy to be a part of the JR Motorsports team. I’m grateful to Dale, Kelley and everyone at JR Motorsports for giving me this chance. It’s an honor to work with the Eurys, and I will do everything in my power to put this No. 88 team where it belongs in Victory Lane.

In other JRM news, the team signed crew chief Bruce Cook to serve in the same role for the No. 5 Chevy. Cook joins JRM after serving as crew chief for Kevin Harvick Inc.’s No. 2 CWTS Chevy in 2011. That team won the owner’s championship in the CWTS. Cook helped the team win six races this season. He also was the winning crew chief for the N’wide season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, with driver Tony Stewart.

According to the report, Senna has ruled out IndyCar because his family would not let him race in that series.

With Gaughan comes sponsorship from his family’s South Point Hotel & Casino for most of the events; he will be sponsored by Menards for two Nationwide races.

Gaughan said:

The last few years, I have been racing for teams that try to buy their engineering or equipment from organizations as great as RCR, but doing that is never the same as racing for RCR. I have always steered away from switching to a part-time schedule in the past but I had to look at where I would have the best opportunity to win races again and the opportunity to race for Richard Childress is one I couldn’t pass up. By sharing the Nationwide Series seat with RCR’s Cup Series drivers, I know I’m going to be in the best equipment in the garage and have the best opportunity to win races to get myself back to where I want to be and that is to compete full time again.

Team owner Richard Childress said:

Brendan is a proven race winner and [NASCAR West Series] champion so we’re excited to have him driving for RCR. He will be a great addition to RCR’s overall driver lineup as we re-launch our NASCAR Nationwide Series program and continue the strength of our Camping World Truck Series program in 2012.

In the Nationwide car, Gaughan will drive at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Dover International Speedway, Phoenix International Raceway, and five other races yet to be announced. In the CWTS, Gaughan will drive at Daytona International Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and three other races yet to be named.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR Vice President of Competition, said:

The instant replay system that Telestream will be providing NASCAR next season will enable our officials to perform their jobs in an even more efficient and time-sensitive manner. Having instant access to that many camera angles featuring such high quality video will be a terrific addition to our race weekends.

NASCAR called the event with 15 laps left with Sauter in the lead and Dillon in 10th place, giving Dillon, 21, the youngest champion in series history, a six-point edge over Sauter in the final series standings.

Dillon is the first driver in series history to win the rookie of the year title in his first full season and the series championship the following year.

“I remember my first championship with Dale Earnhardt,” said team owner Richard Childress, Dillon’s grandfather. “I had the same feeling tonight watching my grandson.”

“You can’t go out of the truck series any better than this,” said Dillon, who will graduate to the Nationwide Series with RCR next year.

Denny Hamlin finished second in the No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports truck, followed by Kevin Harvick, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Joey Coulter, who won the 2011 rookie of the year title. Coulter is a teammate of Dillon’s at Richard Childress Racing.

Early in the race, patience was a virtue for Dillon, who steered clear of potential complications and found a comfortable place to run at or near the back of the top 10.

As the race progressed, so did Dillon, who had worked his way into the second position behind Sauter before Ross Chastain’s spin on Lap 96 caused the fourth caution of the evening. The subsequent restart, however, brought more stress than Dillon ever could have expected.

Dillon fell back to 15th, fearing that he might have a problem with the right front fender on the No. 3 Chevrolet. Shortly thereafter, Sauter clinched most laps led, putting Dillon in danger of losing the championship if he lost more positions by the end of the race.

But Dillon drove back to the 10th position before rain halted the race on Lap 119 of 134 with Sauter in the lead.

“The fender got bent in—I don’t know how it happened,” Dillon said. “I didn’t hit anybody on the track, but I think it happened on pit road. We got real tight once I got back there (in traffic). I think it was more on the conservative side when I was three-wide. We were three-wide in the middle, and to force a spot right there was not worth it.”

Sauter, who won his second race of the season and the fourth of his career, wasn’t aware of how far behind Dillon had fallen on the restart.

“I had no clue,” said Sauter, who won more than one event in a season in a top NASCAR touring series for the first time in his career. “Not one time tonight did they tell me where the 3 truck was. It didn’t really matter where he was running. We knew what we had to do, and that was lead the most laps and win the race.

“It’s a huge accomplishment, coming out here and doing what we needed to do. Six points is a bummer. You can think back on the season—dominating Kentucky, broke an axle, 20 to go, leading the race; ORP (Indianapolis), leading the race, flat tire; the lane violation at Texas, 22 points; six points at Pocono. You can go down the list—but everybody can. That’s just racing.”

Notes: Greg Biffle and Travis Kvapil won rookie of the year honors and truck series championships, but not in consecutive years. Biffle accomplished the feat in 1998 (rookie) and 2000. Kvapil was rookie of the year in 2001 and champion in 2003. … Harvick had clinched the owners’ championship with his No. 2 truck before the series arrived at Homestead.