If Dale Earnhardt Inc. [DEI] can keep NAPA as a sponsor for a third car next season, an already topsy-turvy “Silly Season” could get even wilder. DEI Director of Motorsports Richie Gilmore said yesterday the team is negotiating with the auto-parts supplier about staying with the #15 being vacated by Michael Waltrip after 2005. Gilmore said DEI already has lined up a driver to team with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. for the 2006 Nextel Cup season. Gilmore wouldn’t disclose a name but said it was someone prominent on another race team “that’s been on our wish list for some time.”
“[NAPA] has some options with us, Michael and some other race teams,” Gilmore said. “We’ve put about a two-week window on it where they’ve got to make the decision and we’ve got to make a decision and go forward. But we have a driver kind of laid out, and everything laid out.”(Richmond Times Dispatch)
MORE: The rumor mill says Matt Kenseth [#17 DeWalt Ford, contract thru 2006] will be leaving the Roush stable soon and that a spot at DEI [#15?] may be in his future.(RacingOne)(8-5-2005)
UPDATE: DEI’s bid to hold sponsor NAPA to field a third team next season hinges on DEI’s signing one particular, unnamed driver, which DEI executives yesterday said they didn’t expect to happen. Earnhardt said he hopes to have a third team running next season, “But we don’t know quite what we’re going to do with that team.” NAPA could stay with Michael Waltrip, who is finishing his DEI contract, and that could mean Waltrip would be able to field his own Cup team next season.(Winston Salem Journal)(8-6-2005)
UPDATE 2 – Denials: #17-Matt Kenseth and #41-Casey Mears on Saturday denied recent speculation that they would leave their respective teams in favor of driving the #15 Chevrolet at Dale Earnhardt Inc. “Am I going to DEI? No,” Kenseth said following Nextel Cup Series practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I’m happy at Roush Racing.”
“I’ll say right now I’m 99.9 percent sure I’m going to be with Ganassi next year,” Mears said. “We had a meeting a few days ago and everything looks real positive to do something for next year, and right now we’re 100 percent effort to try to make something happen for here, next year, for Ganassi. Without making any announcements, we’re trying to put things together for here at Ganassi.”(NASCAR.com)
DRIVER HINT: Richie Gilmore, vice president of DEI, refused to name the driver, but dropped several hints saying he was currently in the Nextel Cup series, was younger than 30, marketable, and fast in Saturday’s practice sessions. NAPA, the sponsor of that car, could choose to leave DEI and go with Waltrip to his next team. But Gilmore indicated the team would stay if DEI could sign the driver they are eyeing. Should they fail to get him, then DEI will essentially fold the team. Gilmore said Busch Series driver Paul Menard would drive seven Cup events next season, then move up full-time in 2007.(ESPN.com RPM) using the criteria Gilmore mentioned, in thee top 25 in Saturday’s practice, who are under 30 and could be looking at rides: Brian Vickers, Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Kyle Busch. Why no Mears? read above the HINT part where he says he is staying at Ganassi.
UPDATE on HINT: folks at Hendrick Motorsports tell me Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch are both in the middle of multi-year deals with Hendrick Motorsports, so remove their names from the rumor mill.(8-7-2005)
