Officials of Rusty Wallace Racing, LLC and representatives of the team’s former developmental series driver, Chase Austin, announced that the parties have mutually agreed to end their nearly two-year relationship, effective immediately. Noted RWR team owner, Rusty Wallace, “Chase is a great kid and he has the talent and potential to be a really good race car driver with enough seat time. He’s well-spoken and seems to understand the sponsorship end of this sport a lot better than most drivers his age. Atreus Homes had originally agreed to provide sponsorship for Chase to run a partial Nationwide Series and ARCA schedule this year. Unfortunately, with the housing market the way it is, Atreus couldn’t provide the funding they had originally promised for Chase’s program. It wasn’t anything to do with Chase or our team at all; it just came down to the economic issues that are affecting the entire housing industry right now. We wanted to give Chase a chance to pursue other opportunities for the future and with it getting late in the season, we decided to go ahead and allow him to do so. We have continued to honor the financial commitments we made to Chase and wish him the best going forward.”(RWI PR)(9-21-2008)
