UPDATE: John Andretti is expected to drive the fourth Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevy at Daytona. A technical alliance is in the works that would partner Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins and Andretti with EGR for Daytona and beyond, The car’s number and sponsor should be announced later this week. Andretti, 45, who won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona in 1997 driving for Cale Yarborough, has raced for Jenkins the last two seasons but would not comment on the current negotiations. Andretti admitted that after four seasons, Jenkins has wanted to expand his involvement in racing but wasn’t entirely sure to what extent. “We’re good friends and we work together on a lot of things,” Andretti said of Jenkins. “(The future of the team) all depends on what Bob can do because sponsorship right now is limited.” In 2009, Andrett’s plans will not be limited to NASCAR. “The Indy 500 is not going to go off my radar screen,” Andretti said. “I can’t imagine not doing the Indy 500. I’ve had so much fun at Indy the last two years.”(FOXSports)(1-27-2009)
UPDATE 2: hearing that the 4th team will use the #15 and the owners points from the #15 DEI team and be affiliated with Front Row Motorsports and supposedly the #34 Front Row Motorsports team will run with Tony Raines driving.(1-28-2009)
UPDATE 3: John Andretti will drive the #34 Window World Earnhardt Ganassi Racing Chevy in the Daytona 500 on February 15th. Andretti will have a technical alliance that partners Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins and Andretti with EGR for Daytona and beyond, Ganassi sources confirmed on Friday. Window World [which was also announced as Terry Labonte’s sponsor on the #66 Toyota], based in North Wilkesboro, N.C., is a residential replacement window company with more than 200 distributors nationwide.(FoxSports)
UPDATE 4: Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s fourth car in the Daytona 500, the #34 Chevy, will actually involve a partnership with owner Bob Jenkins’ Front Row Motorsports and one of its drivers, John Andretti. An EGR spokesman said the collaborative effort would be only for the Daytona 500, and that the car would be a guaranteed starter via points accrued in 2008 by one of EGR’s cars that won’t compete this season. Those include the #01 and #15 that were fielded last season by Dale Earnhardt Inc. and the #41 fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing. The #41 has been registered to Jeremy Mayfield in 2009 for his Mayfield Racing Enterprises, but the points didn’t go with the number, according to a Mayfield spokesperson. EGR this season will field full-season efforts for the #1, #8 and #42 Chevrolets. During Speedweeks, EGR’s Steve Lane [was the #40 crew chief for Ganassi in 2008] will be the crew chief for the #34 and EGR crewmen will be among those tending the car. During the past five seasons, Jenkins and his son, Brad have fielded between one and three car numbers each year in the Cup Series, including the #34 and #37 cars the past two seasons. In that time the Front Row teams have made 52 races, but have never been guaranteed starters, except in the case of a rainout.(NASCAR.com)
UPDATE 4.5: The team will be guaranteed a spot in the Daytona 500 because it will have top-35 owners points from last year, although it was unclear whose points it will have. Whether the alliance will continue beyond the Daytona 500 is still to be determined. “We believe this is the beginning of a long-term partnership that will provide a technical platform for our team,” Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins said. “After being in last years Daytona 500 with John Andretti, I realized that with the right alliance and adequate resources, we could put ourselves in a position to have a front-running car.” Front Row Motorsports also announced that it plans to run the entire Nationwide Series with driver Tony Raines behind the wheel.(SceneDaily)(1-30-2009)