NASCAR Has announced 28 drivers who will go to Japan: See the list and the story atNASCAR teams set for Coca-Cola 500K.(NASCAR Online)(9-2-98)Testing news for Wednesday: Goodyear Tire tests at Atlanta, fast times: #18-Bobby Labonte 185.728mph, #6-Mark Martin 183.820mph and #24-Jeff Gordon 182.009mph.(RPM2Nite) – Rusty Wallace, Ken Schrader, Buckshot Jones (Stavola Bros. Chevy) and Barry Bodine(#7 NCTS) all tested at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway(SC)(MRM)(9-2-98)Tony Raines will drive the #19 Yellow Freight Kurt Roehrig owned Ford at Charlotte in the Cup race. Roehrig said that his team will run in the Truck, BGN and Cup series in 1999 with an announcement coming in a few weeks.(RPM2Nite)(9-2-98)I hear Todd Bodine will run for the BGN Championship in the #30 car in 1999 and has no plans to go to the #81 Filmar Cup team(9-2-98)Chip Ganassi, the most successful owner in CART the last two-plus seasons, is mulling a plunge into the world of NASCAR’s Winston Cup circuit. He says he has had exploratory talks with a couple of NASCAR owners but stresses that he won’t join the stock-car crowd unless everything – read sponsor and driver – is in place. He wants no part of the drip-drip scenario some would-be Winston Cup owners find themselves in after announcing their intention to field a team. He says he could see it happening for the 2000 season.(USA Today)(thanks Scott for the heads up)(9-2-98)UPDATE 2: Rumor of another Winston Cup team forming – no crew chief or driver has been announced as yet. There are three owners involved with this team – all which are from Florida and have been nicked named “The Sunshine Boys”. The name of the Team is RDJ Motorsports. They are hoping to announce the team at Daytona in October.(8-30-98)The team plans to run Fords(9-1-98) – More news on this: The team is called RDJ Motorsports. The R in RDJ is for Reggie Crumbton, the D is for David McComb and J is for Jim McComb, the owners of RDJ Motorsports and William Archabald has been retained as Team Manager. All owners and current retained employees have a sunshine state
(Florida) connection. They hope to be running with the number 34 and Ford. Talks continue for position of crew chief and driver.(9-2-98)UPDATE 2: The release is official – Kenny Wallace announced on Monday that he will be leaving the FILMAR Racing #81 team at the end of this season. He also announced that he would be joining a 2nd team that will be formed by a current NASCAR Winston Cup Series operation in 1999. He would not disclose the identity of that operation(psst…..Andy Petree), but said an announcement with the details will be coming shortly. Wallace got his release Sunday morning and says he and Filmar owner Filbert Martocci will remain friends.(NASCAR Online)(8-31-98) – Kenny Wallace will make an announcement on RPM2Nite Wednesday, Sept 2nd. He will also have two guests with him.(RPM2Nite)(9-1-98) – The announcement has been postponsed due to leaglities, RPM2Nite hopes to have him on Thursday night for the announcement.(9-2-98)UPDATE: I hear once again that Home Depot will be Stewart’s Winston Sponsor and the car will be the #20 Pontiac. Expect an announcement soon.(8-15/27-98) – I hear it is a three year deal and will be announced Thursday(Tony Stewart also mentioned this during a race on ESPN2 Thursday night)(9-2-98) (09-02-1998)
