Flash.(Briefs)

Deal brewing

Fenway Sports Group, led by Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, is talking with Jack Roush about buying into his NASCAR organization. Roush says negotiations are ongoing, and the chances of it happening vary greatly from day to day. In either case, he says he won't sell more than 50 percent of the organization to FSG, a separate entity from the partnership that owns the Red Sox. If an agreement is reached, Henry will be an investor, but won't field race teams.

More complaints

Aston Martin is unhappy with rule changes in the American Le Mans Series that it believes will make archrival Chevrolet virtually unbeatable at Petit Le Mans on Sept. 30. George Howard-Chappell, boss of the Prodrive-run Aston team, claims that the 88-pound weight reduction given to the Corvette C6-Rs will render his DBR9s uncompetitive in the GT1 class. "This is ridiculous,'' he said. "It will make the race at Petit a joke.''

The weight change, which ALMS sanctioning body IMSA made under its performance balancing rules, follows the Mosport race in which the Astons and Corvettes appeared evenly matched. Aston has received a series of performance breaks this year: Its DBR9s have run 198 pounds lighter than the Corvettes since midseason.

IMSA executive director Doug Robinson said: "This was our plan all along. We needed to give Prodrive and Pirelli [on whose tires it runs] a chance to get competitive, but we can't keep them on life support forever.''

On the nose