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JOLIET, Ill. -- While the NASCAR Sprint Cup series began the second half of its 36-race season Saturday night, the race marked the sixth event of the season for the Wood Brothers.

The team scaled back to a partial schedule this season because it was unable to find enough sponsorship to run the entire year. This marks the first time since 1984 the team hasn't attempted to run a full schedule.

Eddie Wood, co-owner of the team, says that the team has added one race -- the Charlotte fall race -- giving it 13 for the year. The team's next race is Indianapolis in two weeks and then the team will skip two races before returning to Michigan in mid-August.

"It's really working out for us," Wood said. "Just like everybody else in here, we send out (sponsorship) proposals everyday. Literally. If something turns up to where we get another chunk of money, we'll add races, accordingly. But we won't run races if we don't have the money to support it and do it correctly."

Bill Elliott finished 16th at Michigan and 15th at Charlotte in the team's last two races before Saturday night.

WARNING: NASCAR officials warned drivers before Saturday's race that they'll begin scrutinizing restarts more.

Saturday marked the sixth race for the new double-file restart rule where the lead lap cars line up double-file at the front of the field.

NASCAR's rules state that the leader must be the first driver to cross the start/finish line on a restart.

In some cases, the leader hasn't been the first but the car that passed him has allowed the leader to regain the spot. Such actions won't work anymore.

"The grace period is over," David Hoots, event director, said during the drivers meeting.

FUTURE STILL IN THE AIR: Brad Keselowski's racing team for 2010 is still undecided.

The 25-year-old Keselowski hoped a recent meeting with team owner Rick Hendrick would answer some questions about where he'd be racing next season. Keselowski wants a full-time ride next year, and he's optimistic he can stay affiliated with Hendrick Motorsports. He discussed several possibilities with Hendrick, though no final decision was reached.

"I have some preferences, but I haven't gotten very far with them," Keselowski said. "I'm not really close on anything."

Keselowski was making only his seventh Cup start of the season Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway. He qualified 29th and had Tony Eury Jr., as his crew chief. Eury was calling the shots for the first time since he was ousted as Dale Earnhardt Jr's crew chief in late May.

NASCAR's four-car limit means Hendrick doesn't have an open seat for 2010.

No matter where he ends up, Keselowski felt he would have a full-time ride next season.

"I feel pretty confident that's the way it's heading," he said. "It would have to be a big problem to come up for that not to happen."

ATTENDANCE DECLINE: Officials on International Speedway Corp.'s conference call with investors this week say they anticipate admissions revenue for the year to be off 15 percent.

Also, ISC officials said that they've been in discussion with a few interested parties about selling the Staten Island land that they had hoped to develop into a race track in the shadow of New York City. ISC officials say they are hopeful to sell the land by the end of the year.

PIT STOPS: Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray are scheduled to do a two-day Goodyear tire test Monday and Tuesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway in preparation for the Labor Day weekend night race there. &ellipses; Saturday night marked TNT's final Cup broadcast of the season. ESPN begins its broadcast schedule of Cup races in two weeks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@ news-record.com