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Kerry Earnhardt to run the Nextel Open:

May 18, 2004 at 12:00 AM
  • #33-Kerry Earnhardt will pilot chassis #112 from the Richard Childress Racing stable at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the Nextel Open. This is the same car Kevin Harvick drove to a 13th-place finish in February at Rockingham. Harvick also raced this car last season at Texas (3/30/03), California (4/27/03) and Michigan (6/15/03). The NASCAR NEXTEL Open will be Earnhardt’s second Cup Series start of 2004 for RCR. His most recent appearance came last month at Talladega where he qualified 36th and finished 35th. While the end result was a less than desirable outcome, Earnhardt was running inside the top-15 when he was tapped by another car and spun into the inside retaining wall, ending his day 63 circuits short of the scheduled 188 lap distance. Earnhardt will sport a special paint scheme this weekend highlighting Bass Pro Shops support of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Earnhardt tested chassis No. 93 May 10-11 at LMS in preparation for the NASCAR NEXTEL Open. Earnhardt also tested at Michigan International Speedway last week in preparation for the Sirius 400, June 20. The NEXTEL Open will be Earnhardt’s second NASCAR Cup attempt at LMS. He attempted to make the UAW-GM 500 in October 2002 with FitzBradshaw Racing, but missed the field due to lack of owner championship points after rain washed out qualifying. Earnhardt won the 2001 EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts 100 ARCA Series race at LMS. Additionally, he made two other ARCA starts at the suburban Charlotte track, recording second and 20th-place finishes.
    Crew Gary Cogswell says: “Kerry and I have tested together twice at two different tracks and I think I have a pretty good direction as to what I need to give him so he can drive the car hard. I’m eager to go this weekend. Kerry is really motivated. He knows he has a chance to drive a quality car with a lot of support behind him to help him run well. As far as expectations go, we just want to be able to race. We want to win, but we’re not going to put the cart in front of the horse. To me, if we can run the whole race competitively – if we can pass cars, if we get passed that’s ok, as long as we can pass too. If we can stay out of trouble and run all the laps we’ll call it a good day.”(RCR PR)(5-18-2004)