BRITNEY RACES TO NASCAR
Pop Star In Racing Flick

Ever sit on the couch on your porch on a Sunday morning, unable to decide if you and your cousins should spend the day watching Britney Spears videos or catching the latest NASCAR race? Have we got a movie deal for you.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (aka NASCAR) and Britney Spears Productions (aka guess who?) today announced plans for a "dramatic feature film" to star the 20-year-old popster and to be set in the burn-rubber world of stock-car racing.

The flick is the first for Spears' self-titled production company. It's also the first to be sanctioned by NASCAR.

While Tom Cruise's 1990 ode to the Daytona 500 crowd, Days of Thunder, got a lot of assists from the racing world, and featured cameos by several drivers (including track icon Richard Petty), it wasn't made with NASCAR as a producing partner.

The Spears-NASCAR flick will tell the tale of a race-team owner's daughter (read: Britney) who "uses her knowledge and experience in the family business" to coax a retired driver to return to the circuit, presumably for One Last Big Race!

In its press release announcing the film, NASCAR went out of its way to note that Spears will not play a driver herself. (Well, the tracksuits are so confining and non-midriff-baring...)

The film is expected to feature footage of real races, as well as real drivers and, yes, even real team owners! Can real tobacco-chewing scenes be far behind? We think not.

"Our goal is to create a film that honestly portrays the spirit of NASCAR," Ann Carli of Britney Spears Productions said in a statement.

James V. Hart will pen the script. Based on his résumé, Hart should have little trouble blending the worlds of Spears and stock cars. This being, after all, a man who's written everything from Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula remake to Muppet Treasure Island.

No word yet on a director, a title, a planned release date or a planned start date.

We do know the boa-charming crooner will be tied up with her pop-star life through July 22 when her current U.S. tour is scheduled to wrap in Dallas--power outages like the one that cut short a gig in Lubbock, Texas, Friday night, notwithstanding.

Justin Timberlake's ex made her film debut earlier this year in the coming-of-age road-tripping comedy-drama Crossroads. The movie wasn't exactly embraced by critics (or, judging by its $37 million take at the U.S. box office, audiences), but it was far from an outright Glitter bomb. In fact in several reviews, Spears' performance was even judged better than the movie itself.

The Britster's NASCAR credentials go back to her birthright: She's a Louisiana native, home to the Bayou Speedway and countless Winston Cup aficionados.

Spears also served as grand marshal for NASCAR's Pepsi 400 race in 2001. rand mshal for NASCAR's Pepsi 400 race in 2001