Successful El Paso businessman Gregg Jackson is leading a $100,000 effort by local businesses to sponsor a race car that will attempt to qualify for NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 this summer. The El Paso NASCAR Race Car, a 2004 Dodge Intrepid scheduled to be driven by 55-year-old stock car veteran Geoffrey Bodine, features a paint scheme centered on the city’s new tourism slogan — El Paso: Do Texas Different. The car, which will test next month and try to qualify three days before the Aug. 8 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, begins a six-week tour of local businesses and sponsors today at Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino. El Pasoans will be offered the opportunity to sign the hood of the car for $50. Proceeds will go to the Fort Bliss Families Fund, which benefits children of soldiers killed in Iraq. A news conference announcing the race team’s plans, including coming appearances and events, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday at the El Paso convention center. El Paso’s at-the-track NASCAR effort will be led by team owner Gary Trout of North Carolina, a friend of Jackson’s who helped put the unique deal together. Dodge engines will be provided by Ray Evernham, one of NASCAR’s biggest names. Bodine, preparing earlier last week to run another car [#98 Ford] in the NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway today, sounded confident in the “El Paso” program. Trout “has bought some really good stuff from Ray Evernham,” said Bodine, who is scheduled to attend a hospitality event for sponsors at the convention center on July 21. “I’m real confident we’ll be in the field.”(full story – long – at the El Paso Times) and see another site: www.suncityracing.com, where you can find out more on the team, which will run the #34 Dodge and the crew chief is Geoff Kaeser.(6-20-2004)
