Dale Earnhardt, Inc.s #15 Cup team will campaign a seven-race schedule in 2006, with Paul Menard driving and sponsorship from Menards, the hardware chain owned by the drivers father. If all goes well, Menard and the team will do the full Cup schedule with DEI in 07. Menards first race will be the 2006 Daytona 500, DEI Vice President of Motorsports Richie Gilmore said Saturday night. Well kind of see how it goes from Daytona, but it looks like itll be the big races: Daytona, Indy. Well run Watkins Glen again, which Paul ran this year and then move him up the next year. Next year, Menard will also run the full Busch Series schedule in a DEI Chevy, Gilmore said. Itll be a lot better for Paul to keep him down there and running him for a championship like we did with Martin (Truex, Jr.). Thats where we really feel comfortable. Gilmore said DEI mulled a third full-time Cup team next year, but instead will run full-time cars for only Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Truex in 06. We had a couple options that we looked at, but for us were better off trying to regroup the two teams we have now, Gilmore said.(Speed Channel)(10-15-2005)
