DEI seals 5-year deal on No. 1 car: DEI will run the No. 1 Chevy with Snap-
On as the sponsor with John Andretti for several events and road course
expert Ron Fellows for Watkins Glen and Sonoma.
Apparently, DEI has sewed up a five-year deal starting in 2005 with Bud
Light as the primary sponsor on the No.1 car. No driver has been named, but
word is that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. would like to see Martin Truex, Jr. spend
another full season in the Busch series before moving to Cup sometime in
2006.
Stewart on Indy: It wasn't a big deal: Tony Stewart just wants to race.
Stewart thought it might be a hoot to jump in AJ Foyt's Indy ride and make
a few laps at the Brickyard last weekend. The media seemed to make more of
a brouhaha out of it then what it really was. Although there was talk
between Foyt and Stewart of perhaps further exploration of the Indy 500 if
the run was particularly good, but a call from General Motors squashed
those talks.
Stewart strongly denied that the incident was any kind of publicity stunt.
Stremme not happy at Ganassi?: Busch series driver David Stremme, who is
under a development deal with Ganassi racing, is reportedly unhappy with
his progress at that organization.
Stremme looks to step up to the Cup series next year, with or without the
help of Ganassi.
New Ford engine on the No. 21 this weekend: The new Roush/Yates Ford engine
will get track time this weekend under the hood of Ricky Rudd's No. 21
Ford.
Ford has been in development for several months working on the new Ford
engine program. The 600-mile race at Lowe's Motor Speedway seems the best
place to perform a litmus test on the new cylinder heads before the Roush
and Yates teams complete the full engine package.
Biffle/Busch kiss and make-up: After a wild weekend on-track at the All-
Star event, where Greg Biffle and ten other cars were wrecked by Kurt
Busch; it seems at least Biffle has buried the hatchet with his teammate,
although there still appears to be some bad feelings.
"He felt really bad about what happened," said Busch. "He wrecked a lot of
race cars besides ours and he felt that he had more ability than what he
showed there when he made contact with the back of our car. That's not what
he had planned and that wasn't the outcome he had planned. Obviously, he
misjudged by a lot and he's got to personally pay the price for that
himself."
Busch hopes that Biffle can let the incident go and they can move forward
from here, "We discussed things on the phone and that helped solidify
things. It's been real easy to work through this because of how long I've
known Biffle and with our relationship in the truck series and then moving
into the Cup deal.
So, we've got things ironed out."
Double Duty update: Robby Gordon completed 20 laps of practice for the
Indianapolis 500, with a top speed of 214.630 mph, before leaving Indiana
to practice his main ride, the No. 31 RCR Chevrolet for the NEXTEL Cup
series event in Charlotte.
Of his run, Gordon was so-so on the results, giving a small shrug and
stating, "We're okay."
