IRL Team owner Tom Kelley said plans are under way to expand Kelley Racing with a one-car team in NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series, starting with the 2001 season. Kelley said no official announcement is expected until next spring, when sponsors will be identified. Jim Freudenberg, general manager of Kelley Racing, said the team is looking for a race shop in the Charlotte, NC, area. Team representatives contacted veteran NASCAR owner-driver Ricky Rudd about buying the assets of that team before it was sold to Robert Yates Racing as part of his agreement to drive there next season. Both Kelley and Freudenberg stressed that the new Winston Cup team will not dilute Kelley Racing’s commitment to its IRL program. While Kelley and his father, Jim, basically financed the IRL team out of their own pockets for the first two years, Tom Kelley said that won’t be the case should they decide to run in NASCAR. Kelley Racing is the third open-wheel team this year to announce intentions to branch out by adding a stock car division. Fellow IRL owner A.J. Foyt and Cal Wells, an owner in the rival CART series, have both made headlines with deals in the past two months. Unlike Wells, who drew the ire of the NASCAR community by supposedly “stealing” sponsors away from veterans like Rudd and Bill Elliott, the Kelley team would be backed by sponsors who would be new to the Winston Cup series, Freudenberg said. The Winston Cup team would become the third branch of Kelley Racing, joining the IRL team and a new American Speed Association team that was announced over the weekend. Mark E. Dismore, whose father, Mark, was the first employee of Kelley Racing, will drive a Chevrolet in the series for the 2000 season. The monster.com-sponsored car will be based in Fort Wayne. Ron Heck, the former crew chief for the elder Dismore’s IRL car, will help oversee the new ASA program. Mechanics at all of the Kelley auto dealerships will be invited to work on the car as an introduction to stock car racing(in part from the Fort Wayne News Sentinel )
