hearing that Mark Martin will announced his 2007 plans on Friday morning [Oct 6th] at Talladega….however, hearing part of his 2007 plans include running some 2007 Nextel Cup races in the #01 Chevy [MB2 is NOT changing to Fords] with MB2 Motorsports….the sponsor would NOT be the U.S. Army. Supposedly current #01 driver, Joe Nemechek would move to a different car number for MB2 Motorsports.
From Two Weeks Ago: hearing that Regan Smith, currently driving the #35 McDonald’s Ford for Team Rensi in the Busch Series, will go to Ginn Motorsports [#01-Joe Nemechek and #14-Sterling Marlin] in 2007 to run a Cup/Busch schedule.(9-19-2006)
UPDATE: nascar.com has something posted on this: Mark Martin will drive the #01 Chevrolet part time for the 2007 Nextel Cup season, multiple sources close to MB2 Motorsports told NASCAR.COM on Thursday. It is believed that Martin will run 22 races for the team. Busch Series driver Regan Smith will drive the remaining 14 Cup races, the sources said.(10-5-2006)
UPDATE 2: Team owner Jack Roush, who has fielded a Ford for Martin in NASCAR’s top series since 1988, is expected to make the announcement Friday at 10:30am/et at Talladega Superspeedway. MB2 general manager Jay Frye has scheduled a news conference for later Friday morning at the Talladega track. Martin reportedly will share the ride in the #01 Chevrolet with rookie Regan Smith, a 23-year-old regular in the Busch Series, a source told The Associated Press. Joe Nemechek, currently racing in the #01, will remain with MB2, but will move to a third team entry, while Sterling Marlin will stay in the team’s #14 Chevy. Roush team president Geoff Smith said several weeks ago that the team would definitely not field a Cup car for Martin in 2007 and that it was close to completing a deal with Martin to drive a Roush truck. But that deal apparently fell apart after the MB2 ride became available. The source said it was unclear if Martin might also drive in the truck series in 2007, along with the MB2 ride.(ESPN.com)(10-6-2006)
OFFICIAL: Mark Martin announced today that he will continue in the Nextel Cup Series next season, driving the #01 MB2 Motorsports Chevy on a limited basis in 2007. I consider Mark Martin a personal friend and over the last 20 years we have had a fantastic relationship professionally and personally, Roush said. Mark will always hold a special place in my heart and a special place in Roush Racing, and I truly wish him all the best in his future plans.
Jack Roush and I have enjoyed a very special relationship for the past 20 years, said Martin. Jack afforded me the opportunity to chase my dreams, and there is no way to put in words what he has meant to me, my life and my career. The deal to come back with Roush in the #6 with AAA really worked out great and gave me one of the best and most rewarding years of my career, AAA has been great to work with and its really been awesome to work on such important issues. Im really glad I was able to come back a year and help those guys and Jack out, and we are going to do everything we can to keep chasing after that Nextel Cup for the next seven races.
“When Mark finally reconciled his somewhat conflicting desires, he settled on staying in Cup and running a 20-race schedule. We had no way of accommodating that desire since all of our Cup programs were previously committed,” said Roush Racing president Geoff Smith. And, NASCAR team limits prevented Roush Racing from putting together an additional team for Mark, so in the end Mark had to move on – in order to stay in the Cup series. He’s meant a great deal to this organization and we certainly wish him the best in whatever he chooses to do down the road.” Martin reiterated that his focus over the next seven races will remain on the Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship. Our focus is on winning this championship, Martin said. Ive been fighting this fight in the #6 car for 19 years now, and we arent about to give up anytime soon. Its the complete focus of our attention, and well fight down to the very end for it.(Roush Racing Site/PR)
#17 Ownership no idea how this effects the ‘ownership’ of the #17 Ford. Mark Martin is listed as the owner, but supposedly only in name only, would assume Jack Roush will be listed as the owner in 2007, until hear different…no idea.(10-6-2006)
