#1-Martin Truex Jr. said he is closer to deciding whether he will be back with Dale Earnhardt Inc. next year. And that’s about all he’d say about his future on Friday at Pocono Raceway. DEI plans to pick up its option on Truex for next season but they have yet to come to terms. “Yeah I’m closer [to deciding] – what else do you’ve got, there’s got to be something we could talk about that is better than that,” Truex said after qualifying. He later added, “You’ll know soon. It’s coming.”(SceneDaily)(8-12-2008) UPDATE: hearing that Truex is talking to Richard Childress Racing about the 4th team ride and a deal could be reached soon.(8-3-2008) UPDATE2: on SPEEDtv’s NASCAR Raceday, it was reported that Truex Jr. said he is getting closer to re-signing with DEI.(8-2-2008) UPDATE3: Richard Childress is still looking for the right driver to add to his Cup team. He said earlier this year that Richard Childress Racing plans to add a fourth Cup driver for next season, joining Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer. But the search has dragged on longer than Childress expected. “You’ve got to find the right person,” Childress said Sunday. “You don’t want to mess up the other three (teams). But we’re still working on it and I think we’ll get it done in the next couple of weeks.” Two of the leading candidates for the RCR ride appear to be Casey Mears, who will leave Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the season, and Martin Truex Jr., whose future at Dale Earnhardt Inc. remains up in the air.(AP/ESPN.com)(8-4-2008) UPDATE 4: #1-Martin Truex Jr. finalized an agreement on Wednesday to return to Dale Earnhardt Inc. next season with other longer-term plans in place, sources close to the situation said. Truex will discuss his joining forces with DEI on Friday at Watkins Glen International. The deal ends speculation that Truex would leave the company he has been with since making the move from Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Nationwide Series team in 2004. He has been linked most strongly with the #12 car at Penske Racing, #4 at Stewart-Haas Racing and #33 at Richard Childress Racing. The organization is also negotiating a long-term deal to keep Paul Menard, who has improved from 34th in the points standings last season to 28th.(ESPN.com)(8-6-2008) UPDATE 5 – Truex re-signs with DEI: Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #1 Bass Pro Shops. Max Siegle, President of DEI, John Story, VP of Motorsports Operations for DEI all met with the media at Watkins Glen and discussed contract renewal, the state of DEI and plans for the future, and more. The transcript in part: ON RE-SIGNING WITH DEI: TRUEX JR: “I’m excited and I’m glad to put an end to all the rumors and get rid of all the speculation and solidify my position at DEI. I’m looking forward to running the Bass Pro Shops #1 the rest of this year and next year. I’m looking forward to doing great things with the company and moving forward. This season has been kind of up and down for us, but I really believe in my race team. I believe in the things we’re doing at the shop that we can contend to win races and get back to the forum we had last year. I’m looking forward to starting that off this weekend here at Watkins Glen. We’ve run well here in the past. I’ve always had good success here in everything we’ve ever driven. Last year was a really good race for us here, probably one of the best I’ve ever driven at this race track. So I’m looking forward to the weekend. So hopefully we’ll start this thing off and have a good run this weekend and keep things going throughout the rest of the season and get prepared good for next year.” SIEGEL: “We’re very excited to have Martin back for 2009. And as he said, he’s a very important part of our program and he knows how much we appreciate him and all of our drivers at DEI. We’ve been focused on the long-term future of the company and putting a lot of resources in the competition area. John Story and the rest of the management team have done a tremendous job at elevating all of our programs and we’re excited to give him all the support that we can to compete for a championship.” IS IT A ONE-YEAR DEAL AND CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT LED YOU TO YOUR DECISION TO STAY WITH DEI? TRUEX JR: “Yeah, it’s through 2009 for right now and a little bit down the road we’re going to look at doing some long-term stuff. Right now we just really want to focus on getting the performance back that we had last year and that we had at the beginning part of this year. I think a lot of it has been distraction. As much as I hate to admit it, it’s been hard. It’s been tough dealing with all the rumors and quite frankly, I think a lot of people have been very critical of DEI for the wrong reasons; for reasons that I don’t think were fair to them or anybody that works at that company that puts their heart and soul into what they do. ON THE FUTURE OF DEI: STORY: “As far as our 2009 program, obviously our goals have not changed. Four cars is our objective for next year: Certainly the #1 with Martin, the #15 with Paul Menard, the #8 with Aric Almirola, and Regan Smith in the #01. But we are all still working to round out sponsorship on the #01 car. The goal remains to run all four teams next year.”(in part from a team Chevy/GM PR)(8-9-2008)
