hearing Busch Series driver, David Gilliland has signed with Robert Yates Racing to run in Nextel Cup in 2007, no word if it is the #38, #88 or #90. Supposedly the announcement will come at Indy next week.(7-28-2006)
UPDATE: All signs are indicating that former Chino Hills resident David Gilliland will drive a NASCAR Nextel Cup car for Robert Yates Racing next season. In addition to a morning Internet report that said Gilliland has signed a deal with Yates, industry sources said Gilliland and Yates will announce their partnership during the upcoming race weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway confirmed a Yates news conference scheduled for 1:15pm local time on Friday, Aug. 4. Gilliland did not return a phone call today, but said Thursday, “We’re getting close on a few really good offers.” Asked if something was likely to be done in the next week, Gilliland said, “Yeah.” A secretary at RYR said team owner Robert Yates and son Doug Yates were not in the team’s race shop today, which marked the beginning of the final Cup off-weekend of the season. Yates spokeswoman Rhonda King said, “We have nothing confirmed to announce at this time.” Sources said Gilliland is likely headed to the #38 M&M’s car being vacated by Elliott Sadler at the end of the season. Gilliland attended the Nextel Cup race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday and “showed up for an interview on Speed (Channel) while eating a bag of M&M’s and proclaiming they were his favorite candy,” according to a report by the network’s Tom Jensen.(San Bernardino County Sun)(7-29-2006)
UPDATE 2: hearing the #28 could return to RYR with Gilliland driving and M&M’s sponsoring, the 2006 #38 owners points going to the #28 [first 5 races of 2007],(7-31-2006)
UPDATE 3 Postpones Press Conference: been told the Robert Yates Racing Press Conference at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been canceled for this weekend, it was scheduled for this afternoon around 1:00pm/et, supposedly to announced David Gilliland as a new driver for one on RYR Cup teams, no word why it was canceled. Confimed from sources at the track that the press conference has been canceled and will end up being held later in August.
UPDATE 3a: Despite postponing a Friday afternoon press conference in which Robert Yates Racing was expected to introduced David Gilliland as the driver of its #38 Ford for next season, nothing has changed with the team’s plans to hire the driver. The announcement will come later this summer, once all the details of the contract can be finalized. “We’re just trying to get all of our ‘i’s’ dotted and ‘t’s’ crossed before we announce our new driver,” co-owner Doug Yates said Friday. “I think everybody knows who it is. We just want to make sure everything’s right. We’re looking forward to our future. It’s just the timing. We’re trying to do a lot of things really fast, as everybody knows, and sometimes when you do that you just have to take your time and make sure you get it all right. There’s no change in the direction for us. The timing just didn’t work out for today.”(SceneDaily.com)(8-4-2006)
