it was reported on Speed Channel’s coverage of the Memphis Truck Series race by Ray Dunlap, that Robert Huffman, driver of the #12 Darrell Waltrip Motorsports Toyota in the Truck Series, would be replaced for the final ten races of the 2005 season with a Nextel Cup regular with “a clean uniform” but the driver couldn’t be named due to contract issues. Word is that Bobby Hamilton Jr. could be the driver, not sure if that means Hamilton Jr. leaves the #32 PPI Racing job or will run double duty…but Chevy in Cup and Toyota in Trucks, both teams factory backed, seems unlikely.(7-23-2005)
UPDATE: Hamilton Jr. will run the #12 Toyota for DW in all but one or two races. Hamilton Jr. will do double duty, running the #32 car in all but one race as Ron Fellows will run the #32 car at Watkins Glen, so Hamilton will be free to run the #12 Truck at Nashville on the same weekend.(7-24-2005)
UPDATE 2: Joe Ruttman joined several Truck Series drivers in a Toyota test session at Nashville Superspeedway, and Ruttman hopes the “audition” will land him a ride as Darrell Waltrip’s new driver. Bobby Hamilton Jr. also is on the list of possible replacements for Robert Huffman, who was released from Waltrip’s #12 Toyota Tundra race truck last week. In the spring of 2001, Ruttman, at age 56, became the oldest winner in any of NASCAR’s top divisions when he won a truck race at Colorado Springs. Waltrip said he has a list of possible replacements for Huffman, “and Joe is on the list. He’s here to impress me, and he’s got that opportunity.” Huffman’s replacement will join #17-David Reutimann in the Waltrip stable. Reutimann, seventh in the standings, said he would be delighted to have Ruttman as a teammate.
Waltrip can empathize with Ruttman’s desire to keep racing. Since retiring from Nextel Cup at the end of the 2000 season, the three-time champion has raced occasionally in the truck series. Yesterday, Waltrip said he intends to run one final race, Oct. 22 at Martinsville, Va., and then retire for keeps. “I know I said that last year,” said the 58-year-old Waltrip. “But after qualifying was rained out I wasn’t able to get in the lineup, so that doesn’t count. This time I really mean it it’s my last race.”(Tennessean)(7-29-2005)
