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Charlotte NASCAR Notebook - Friday
Written by: Ben Blake   http://www.racer.com
05/15/2003
 
You may have noticed in watching Friday night's Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte that the No. 50 Truck of Jon Wood was painted plain yellow, without its two-year, U.S. Navy sponsor ID.

Earlier in the day, Roush Racing, owner of the No. 50 and the No. 99 (Carl Edwards) Trucks revealed that Navy recruiting no longer would be associated with the trainer program. The Navy, through the Campbell-Ewald marketing agency, has declined to renew the sponsorship, instead (apparently) higher-level opportunities.

"The Navy, through General Motors' lead agency, Campbell-Ewald, submitted bid criteria to us only two weeks ago, that had no chance of being fulfilled by the Jon Wood's Craftsman Truck team," said John Miller, director of sponsor development for Roush Racing. "The criteria were clearly targeted to allow the winning bidder to be only by a Winston Cup or Busch team."

The Navy recruiting effort now appears to be directed toward the next NASCAR levels, either Busch and/or-eventually, Winston Cup. Word on the street is that FitzBradshaw Racing, which fields the No. 12 Busch cars for Kerry Earnhardt, could inherit the Navy sponsorship, under the assumption that Campbell-Ewald steps it up to the $4m annual Busch level.

The guess here is that Navy recruiting hopes to match, at some level, what Army recruiting has done in Winston Cup with the MB2 team. The armed forces apparently see a fertile recruiting ground among NASCAR customers and are determined to spend tax dollars to express availability. The Marines and Air Force also are involved in Busch sponsorship.

Casey
Atwood, in limbo after a poor rookie season with Ray Evernham, is believed to be the top candidate for the Navy sponsorship, which naturally targets young men of about Casey's age.

BUSCH SERIES POINTS LEADER Todd Bodine, who qualified second for Saturday night's Winston Open race, has transportation arranged for the conflicting Busch stop Saturday afternoon at Nazareth, Pa.

Bodine, who drives for the Herzog-Jackson Busch team, led in points most of the early going and stands just 5 marks behind leader David Green. He also drives in Winston Cup for the No. 54 National Guard team. Qualifying for the Nazareth Busch race is set for Saturday afternoon, with the race Sunday. Bodine believes he could make the race (unless looming weather concerns interfere), but not qualifying.

As a result, Mike McLaughlin will qualify the No. 92 car at Nazareth. Bodine would fly to Pennsylvania in time for Sunday's race, taking over the car and starting at the rear, due to the driver change.

Also on the hook is Mike Wallace, drawn into Winston Cup action as relief driver in the No. 01 MB2 car after regular driver Jerry Nadeau was injured at Richmond. Wallace's regular job is as driver of the No. 4 Biagi Brothers Busch car. He qualified the No. 01 fourth for the Winston Open. Tim Fedewa is standing by at Nazareth in case Wallace can't make the trip.

"You just can't throw that away," said Wallace, who is 13th in Busch points. "You wonder why we both want to go to Nazareth and start in the back of the field. We ought to just let Mike and Tim qualify and run the race."