Dodge will hold their long-awaited Winston Cup press conference at the North American International Auto Show in DETROIT 7:00am on Tuesday, January 11, 2000. According to a source at DC, they had originally planned to use this conference to announce Dodge’s Winston Cup program, but due to intense media scrutiny, they decided to let the cat out of the bag back in October. This doesn’t mean Dodge won’t have anything interesting for Tuesday’s press conference – the Buzz is that they’ll use the event to unveil the first Winston Cup Intrepid race car. The biggest news, though, will be the announcement of Dodge’s second factory team. Petty Enterprises is the leading contender. If Petty does indeed get the second Dodge Team, his drivers will most likely be Kyle Petty, John Andretti, and Adam Petty. Hearing that Ray Evernham will have a special announcement about his Dodge team. The Buzz is that he’ll reveal who will be driving his two Intrepids in 2001. No word who the rookie will be, but there’s been much speculation about the identity of the veteran driver. The latest Buzz is that it will be former Winston Cup champion Bill Elliot. The scenario has Elliot, who currently owns his own team, selling out to Ed Rensi (owner of the #25 Dura Lube Busch Team) after his contract with McDonald’s expires at the end of the 2000 season(Car and Truck Buzz) NOTE: been told by Elliott sources that he will not be the driver, is not selling his team after the 2000 season, so we’ll see. The only rookie I have heard mentioned is Casey Atwood, but he is signed with Brewco through 2001. Also for info on the Auto show see: Auto.com or WXYZcars(1-10-2000) — UPDATE: I hear Ray Evernham WILL NOT announce either of his 2001 drivers at the Dodge announcement — UPDATE 2: and he did not(1-11-2000)
