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NASCAR Charlotte Notebook - Friday
Written by: Tom Jensen   
10/13/2005
 
Paul Menard, driver of the NASCAR Busch Series #11 Menard's Chevrolet. (Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) » More Photos

Dale Earnhardt, Inc.'s No. 15 NASCAR Nextel Cup team will campaign a seven-race schedule in 2006, with Paul Menard driving and sponsorship from Menard's, the hardware chain owned by the driver's father. If all goes well, Menard and the team will do the full Cup schedule with DEI in '07.

Menard's first race will be the 2006 Daytona 500, DEI Vice President of Motorsports Richie Gilmore said Saturday night. "We'll kind of see how it goes from Daytona, but it looks like it'll be the big races: Daytona, Indy. We'll run Watkins Glen again, which Paul ran this year and then move him up the next year."

Next year, Menard will also run the full NASCAR Busch Series schedule in a DEI Chevrolet, Gilmore said. "It'll be a lot better for Paul to keep him down there and running him for a championship like we did with Martin (Truex, Jr.). That's where we really feel comfortable."

Gilmore said DEI mulled a third full-time Cup team next year, but instead will run full-time cars for only Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Truex in '06. "We had a couple options that we looked at, but for us we're better off trying to regroup the two teams we have now," Gilmore said.


A high-ranking source close to negotiations said Saturday there was a "50-50 chance" that Kurt Busch will be released from the final year of his contract with Roush Racing and be allowed to move over to Penske Racing South in 2006, where he will replace the retiring Rusty Wallace.

If the deal goes through, Penske is expected to pay Roush a seven-figure sum for Busch's services.


As if they didn't have enough to worry about already given the high speeds at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Nextel Cup teams all of a sudden have a new worry: tires.

Right-rear tires inexplicably began blistering in Friday night's Busch Series races, despite the many caution periods.

Goodyear Marketing Manager Chad Fletcher said that in prior testing and practice there had been no indications of tire problems in either the Busch or Cup series.

"Right now what we're seeing is due to the higher speeds," Fletcher said. "The thing that our engineers are working on right now is to try and diagnose the problem right now to see if it's related strictly to the Busch car and the Busch setup or see if it's something we can translate to the Cup setup."

In previous practice and testing, "Cup teams had no indication of any signs of this type of wear," Fletcher said. "We're not really concerned at this point with the Cup cars."

Mike Bliss in the #0 NetZero Chevrolet. (Photo: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images ) » More Photos

Mike Bliss said Saturday night that two weeks ago he reached an verbal agreement on a contract extension to return as driver for the No. 0 NetZero Chevrolet. On Tuesday, the former Craftsman Truck Series Champion was shocked to learn he was being let go.

"Two weeks ago it was a done deal," Bliss said. "I was going to run the Cup car, and it was a handshake and another contract."

Bliss said he still doesn't know why he was let go, but likely will return to the truck series, where he took the title three seasons ago.

"I feel like I can do this over here. You hate leaving, but it's not my decision, of course. I don't want to leave here like I've failed, because I've always won in everything I've ever been in, and I feel like we're so close here."


NASCAR's proposed team-size cap, which could limit teams to a maximum of three cars in the future, is being at least partially driven by car owners who have struggled to compete with Roush Racing's five-car fleet over the past two-seasons.

"In talking to the competitors, the Robert Yateses, the Chip Ganassis, those guys are saying in their minds, in their opinions, in order to stay competitive and be competitive and stay competitive, they have to look at adding more teams," said NASCAR President Mike Helton. "They really don't want to, but they have to look at that to stay competitive. That is the crux of the whole topic. If they have to have that to be competitive, is that the right thing for NASCAR to allow to happen?"


NASCAR demonstrated its interlocking "uni-template" to at least some of the Nextel Cup teams recently, according to a source who was present at the test.

The uni-template is a series of about 20 slotted individual templates that interlock on top of the car's body to form an exoskeleton. The idea is that with the unit-template in place, NASCAR will be able to check every dimensional and aerodynamic measurement in one fell swoop.

According to the
source who was present at the test, when the uni-template was put on the car, there was "up to half an inch of wiggle room in some of the individual templates."

The bottom line, the source said, was "the uni-template actually gives NASCAR less control" over aerodynamic fudging than the system they have now, since some of the templates can be moved around so much.

Presumably, NASCAR will get around to fixing that prior to the uni-template going into service late next year or early in 2007.

Humpy Wheeler has had a hands-on approach to NASCAR and its stars for many years. (LAT photo) » More Photos

Lowe's Motor Speedway President H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler said the venerable 1.5-mile track, which opened in 1960, will be repaved prior to next year's Coca-Cola 600 in May.

Still undecided, Wheeler said, is whether the track will simply be resurfaced or have its corners reconfigured with multiple angles of banking, a system that has worked well at Homestead-Miami Speedway.


Jimmie Johnson will attempt to come from the back of the field Saturday night to win his fourth straight Cup points race and fifth in six tries.

He will try to do so in a brand-new car, as his previous race-winner has been retired. "It's a good, solid race car," said Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus on Saturday. "We have a lot of confidence in it. We've tested it a couple of times and at the test sessions it's always been fast. The car that we've run here in the past is five years old and five years puts a lot of wear and tear on anything, especially a race car."


Nicorette, a gum designed to help people stop smoking, will be the primary sponsor of Jeff Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo in two races next season and a major associate in the remaining 34 races.


Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s new endorsement deal with XLR8 Energy Chews drew groans and guffaws from some of the growing number of female reporters in the Nextel Cup garage.

Junior showed up for a 1:30 p.m. press conference with two officials of Mooresville, N.C.-based BestSweet, Inc., a Hummer H2 decked out in XLR8 colors and a trio of comely young female models in short shorts and tight t-shirts.

"Geez, what year is it?" asked one eye-rolling female reporter after seeing the models lingering around the mammoth SUV.


One of the major reasons new teams struggle coming into NASCAR Nextel Cup racing is that they massively underestimate the daunting challenges of fielding a competitive race team, everything from securing tens of millions of dollars in sponsor funding to assembling a group of dozens or even hundred of disparate employees into a cohesive team with winning chemistry.

Former Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Terance Mathis announced Friday that he has formed a new NASCAR Nextel Cup team called Victory Motorsports Racing, which will partner with Morgan-McClure Motorsports next season.

Details are scant - neither driver, nor sponsor nor car number were announced - but ambitions are lofty and then some: "The mission of Victory Motorsports Racing is simple, WIN," read the team's press release announcing the venture. "Not only will Victory Motorsports Racing be standing in the winner's circle, but they will also stand there with integrity, equality and respect."

Noble sentiments, unquestionably, but ones that will be exceedingly difficult to achieve. Morgan-McClure hasn't won a Cup race since 1998 and hasn't had a single top-five finish since 1999. Mike Wallace's eighth-place at Daytona in July was the team's first top 10 finish since '02.

Mathis's team is the third to be announced by former pro football players since August: Ex-Dallas Cowboy quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman have formed Hall of Fame Racing, while ex-Oakland Raider wide receiver Tim Brown is trying to start a team with the help of Jack Roush.


Rusty Wallace was inducted into the Lowe's Motor Speedway Court of Legends on Friday. Wallace, an avid pilot, also had a street named for him at nearby Concord Regional Airport.


Quote of the day: "I'm not giving any of them any extra room. I'm out there for me, not for them." - Casey Mears, currently 24th in points, on the 10 drivers competing in the Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup.



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