Stan Herzog of Herzog Motorsports announced Sunday that primary sponsor ALLTEL has decided to leave his #92 BGN team and driver Jimmie Johnson after the 2000 season. The company was expected to renew its sponsorship this past weekend with a plan to expand into Winston Cup in 2001. The deal fell through on Friday when ALLTEL called Herzog and informed the team of its intentions to switch sponsorship to Team Penske in 2001(St Joseph News-Press(MO)). I hear Ryan Newman will drive the Penske BGN car. He has tested Cup and ARCA cars recently and run in a few ARCA races for Penske UPDATE: hmm…hearing now that this will be another Penske Cup team, with Newman driving(7-5-2000) UPDATE 2: not sure if this means anything but….Gregory W. Penske has been elected to the ALLTEL board of directors effective immediately. Penske is president of Penske Automotive Group Inc. of El Monte, Calif., which sells more than 39,000 vehicles annually. Penske Automotive is a subsidiary of Penske Corp., which includes Longo Toyota, the world’s largest retail dealer. Penske also is a director and senior vice president of International Speedway Corp. of Daytona Beach, Fla., and serves as a board member for a number of civic and industry associations(Yahoo Biz) AND Penske Motorsports is planning on expanding its operation and will field a BGN entry next season with Ryan Newman, an open-wheel racing star, ThatsRacin.com has learned. Newman’s team will run a full schedule next season in the BGN with Alltel as sponsor and plans are to move to the Winston Cup series in 2002. John Erickson, general manager of Penske Racing South, said Friday he would not comment on the BGN plans, but did say Newman will drive in four more Automobile Racing Club of America series events this season for the team – Pocono, Talladega, Charlotte and Atlanta. Newman ran in the ARCA race at Michigan for Penske(That’s Racin’)(7-8-2000)
