And the silliness begins

[Elwood]

By Lee Spencer - SportingNews.com

 

Owner Bill Davis is expected to scale back to one Cup team next season. Ward Burton is leaving the No. 22 Dodge, and Scott Wimmer, who is seventh in Busch Series points, is the favorite to take the ride in 2004. Kenny Wallace, who drives Davis' No. 23 in Cup, will drive Davis' Busch car in 2004 with Stacker2 as the sponsor. . . .

 

Silly Season is in full gear, and it might be a busy weekend at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Scott Riggs, who is second in Busch points, might be headed to Dale Earnhardt Inc. and the No. 1 Chevrolet, with a sponsor yet to be determined. Steve Park, who is losing his ride in Richard Childress' No. 30 Chevrolet, started the season in DEI's No. 1. Jeremy Mayfield, who finished third at Kansas City and will take the same car to Charlotte this weekend, is the top candidate for the No. 30. Mayfield currently drives the No. 19 Dodge for Ray Evernham. . . .

 

Kasey Kahne, who is eighth in Busch points, is a candidate to drive one of Evernham's Dodges in Cup next season, but there's a conflict. Sources say Kahne's current contracts include two years with Ford and three years with Robert Yates Racing. Both organizations have nurtured Kahne, whose No. 38 Ford is powered by Yates engines, and are not pleased he is listening to offers outside the Ford camp. Kahne, 23, says he doesn't think there are Cup options for him in a Ford, but Robert Yates says he has a sponsor and plans to run a limited Cup schedule with Kahne in 2004 and full time in 2005. . . .

 

Dave Blaney was back in a Ford at Kansas City-he wrecked and finished last -- but the damage was done the previous week. Because his Jasper Motorsports team carried a Dodge -- it registered 10 more horsepower on the chassis dyno -- to Talladega, Ford terminated its contingency contract with the team. Jasper has a technical partnership with Penske Racing, which fields Dodges, and has built one of the strongest engine programs in NASCAR. There is speculation Jasper will switch to Dodge in 2004, but nothing is official. . . .

 

Brian Vickers, 19, will make his Cup debut this weekend at Charlotte in a Chevrolet prepared by Hendrick Motorsports' No. 25 team. Joe Nemechek is finishing the season in the No. 25, but Vickers, who is third in Busch points, will drive it next season. Vickers' best lap at the track during testing last month was faster than Newman's pole-winning speed for the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

[General Lee 01]

It's way too early for cup talk with Kasey Kahne, (and Brian Vickers for that matter). These owners aren't giving these guys much chance to be competitve in BGN.

 

 

Why on earth did Jasper go back to a Ford? They keep digging themselves in deeper.

 

 

I can see Mayfield in the #30 car. I think that shows the most promise of anything on this story. I'd like to see him back in Victory Lane.

[gave20]

I think those guys can go cup with little BGN experience but to as successful in cup they need the $$. Kenny Wallace for example drove for DEI a few years ago when park was hurt and probably if not did have the best finishes of his career, why? $$ It can make anyone with talent which every driver has (thats the only way they made it to televised racing). Another example, why has DEI dominated restrictor plates...because they formed a trifecta with petree and childress combined resources and dollars spell wins.

[Elwood]

Why on earth did Jasper go back to a Ford? They keep digging themselves in deeper.

My guess would be that they already have the cars. They probably only have on eDodge that they bought for that one race to try it (maybe even leased from Penske) and their backup car that week was probably a Ford they already had. Right now it's probably cheaper to use what they have, even if they kept running Dodge they weren't going to get manufacturere help, so go with the cheapest at this point.