here is a wild one, hearing the Ultra Motorsports #2 CTS team will become a two truck team in 2001 with Dennis Setzer driving the 2nd truck and having Mopar as the sponsor. Supposedly, both CTS teams will switch to Dodge and…get this….the #7 Ultra Motorsports Winston Cup team, with driver Michael Waltrip, may switch to Dodge. Interesting as they are presently switching to Ford from Chevy starting at Talladega for the rest of 2000 and are buying Fords for showcars…plus, the thought was that ten Winston Cup cars/teams were Dodges goal for 2001 and they have reached that(8-28-2000) UPDATE: The Ultra Motorsports Truck team will switch to Dodge in 2001, Dennis Setzer is supposedly going to drive the truck unless he moves up to BGN or Cup. The #2 Ultra Motorsports CTS team will switch from Fords to Dodges. Mopar will be the sponsor of Setzers team and Setzer’s crew cheif, Howard Comstock is expected to switch to Ultra Motorsports. Mopar, Setzer and Comstock all were with KMotorsports the last two years. Ok, as for the Cup team? Ultra Motorsports owner, Jim Smith, says that the move to Dodge trucks will not affect his Winston Cup program, which is converting from Chevy to Ford at present and will start running Fords at Talladega in Oct 2000(Winston Cup Scene Print Version)(8-31-2000) UPDATE: Dodge Motorsports and Ultra Motorsports announced Thursday they have formed an alliance whose goal is the 2001 CTS championship. Ultra Motorsports, which currently fields the #2 Team ASE Ford for Mike Wallace in the CTS and #7 NationsRent Chevy for Michael Waltrip in the Cup, will field a two-truck Dodge factory-supported team from its race shop in Mooresville, NC. Team ASE will remain as primary sponsor on the #2 truck while Mopar sponsorship and the number “1” will move to the other truck(NOL). No mention of the Cup team changing(9-7-2000) UPDATE 2: Jim Smith, owner of Ultra Motorsports, Thursday announced plans to expand to a two-team operation in Craftsman Trucks and to change over from Ford to Dodge. He also indicated his Winston Cup team, the #7 with Michael Waltrip, could expand and join Dodge as well. The announcement said only that Ultra will have the #1 and #2 Trucks next season. Dennis Setzer drives the #1 this season for the Keselowski team, and it appears that Ultra and/or Dodge somehow will take over the Keselowski’s assets. Smith said the idea is to continue with Wallace and Setzer in Trucks, but that nothing is assured yet. The complication, he hinted, is his Winston Cup effort. This summer, Smith bought the #7 from Jim Mattei and converted the cars to Fords. Smith has indicated he may run Wallace in a second Cup car next year, which could skew the picture in Trucks. Waltrip is said to be solid(actually signed thru 2001). How about Dodges in Cup? “There’s a good chance we could go with the Intrepid,” Smith said. Dodge officials have said 10 teams is the maximum the “factory” effort will support, and Dodge already has a roster of 10 for its 2001 Cup debut. Dodge officials say all teams are welcome to run the car(in part from SpeedVision)(9-8-2000)
