April 1, 2001
- RIR Testing: #28-Ricky Rudd and #88-Dale Jarrett are testing at Richmond International Raceway on Tuesday and Wednesday.(Richmond Times Dispatch)(4-1-2001)
- Geoffrey Bodine in the #75 car? UPDATE: Driver Geoffrey Bodine says he’s ready to go racing again if he can get a ride in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Bodine is working on a deal that could put him behind the wheel of the dormant #75 Galaxy Motorsports team for the second half of the Winston Cup season. The #75 team released driver Wally Dallenbach after failing to land a sponsor for this season. But Bodine says that owner Darwin Oordt is negotiating with a potential investor. Bodine also is interested in broadasting and has interviewed with NBC and TBS(Elmira Star Gazette/Speedway Scene). Also hearing from another source that the #75 Team has closed up shop, but have not confirmed that(4-1-2001)
UPDATE: Geoffrey Bodine and an “investment partner” are in the process of deciding whether to acquire an existing NASCAR Winston Cup operation or to start from scratch by assembling a team and a fleet of rolling stock. Last week they toured Galaxy Motorsports; but after that visit, talk is they are more seriously considering building their own team since the most critical element of a team is its personnel and Galaxy currently is down to about three employees in the shop. One of the most pressing considerations right now is sponsorship, but the plan would be to align Geoffrey’s new operation with brother Brett’s Brett Bodine Racing team to cooperate on sharing test information and other technology transfer without having the administrative tangles of a true multi-car operation(NASCAR.com Buzz)(4-1-2001) - Green in the #30 AOL car: Richard Childress announced the races Jeff Green will be running in the #30 (AOL) Winston Cup car this season. Green will attempt to make his (2001 Cup) debut at California Speedway on April 29. He also will run the races at Dover (June 3), Chicago (July 15), Indianapolis (Aug. 5), Bristol (Aug. 25), Richmond (Sept. 8) and Lowe’s (Oct. 7).(Richmond Times Dispatch) AND Richard Childress Racing Saturday named 2000 NASCAR Busch Series champion Jeff Green as the driver for the #30 America Online NASCAR Winston Cup team for a limited schedule this season. Childress said plans for the 2002 season and beyond will be forthcoming(NASCAR.com)(4-1-2001)
- #97 Sponsor? UPDATE 7 Sunday Announcement? heard nothing: rumor floating around that Newell-Rubbermaid may be a sponsor for the #97 Roush Racing team and driver Kurt Busch. But sources with the team say they have not heard that at all(3-5-2001)
UPDATE: actually hear the sponsor will be Sanford with their Sharpie Marker Line being featured, Sanford is owned by…..Newell Rubbermaid. An announcement could come in Texas in a few weeks, if that is the sponsor. Sharpie will also be the title sponsor of the race at Bristol in August, the Sharpie® 500(3-6-2001)
UPDATE 2: Roush Racing, which fields four Winston Cup, two BGN and two CTS teams, has had several high-profile sponsors and two dot-com companies leave or reduce their participation because of economic reasons. Despite losing companies like Northern Light, Exide and John Deere, Roush has been able to find new sources of cash, company president Geoff Smith said. Smith said he expects to add sponsors for rookie Kurt Busch’s #97 Winston Cup car and for one of the two trucks. Gain detergent recently agreed to back Jeff Burton’s Busch car(Atlanta Journal Constitution)(3-7-2001)
UPDATE 3: the weeks Speedway Scene mentions Pizza Hut as a possible sponsor for either the #97 or one of the Roush CTS teams(3-10-2001)
UPDATE 4: Roush Racing President Geoff Smith expects to announce a sponsor for Kurt Busch’s Winston Cup team and the truck team of Chuck Hossfeld at Bristol. He would neither confirm nor deny that the sponsor would be Sanford, the company that manufactures Sharpies. Earlier this year it was announced that Sharpie would sponsor the August Bristol race(Winston Cup Scene need to be a subscriber to read online)(3-15-2001)
UPDATE 5: hearing the announcement will probably be at Texas and not Bristol that Sharpie®/Sanford/Newell Rubbermaid will be Kurt Bucsh’s sponsor. Hearing the car will be primarily black with a white hood having “Sharpie” in black letters with a blue Sharpie pen underneath it on the hood. The lower left side of the car is blue … the lower right side of the car is red (almost like somebody’s been scribbling on it with a … Sharpie) or an all black with a red “Rubbermaid” logo. Sharpie is on the quarter panels and Paper*Mate is on the deck lid(3-22-2001)
UPDATE 6: Roush Racing’s sponsorship announcement set for Sunday at Texas will include programs for both the #97 Ford Taurus driven by Kurt Busch as well as one of Roush’s two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series programs, which have run sponsorless for rookie drivers Nathan Haseleu and Chuck Hossfeld this season(NASCAR.com Buzz)(3-30-2001)
UPDATE 7: There was a morning news conference at which team owner Jack Roush announced that beginning with next weekend’s race at Martinsville, Kurt Busch’s #97 Fords will be sponsored by the Newell-Rubbermaid organization through the Sharpie brand of permanent markers and Rubbermaid home products. The company will also sponsor Chuck Hossfeld’s #50 team in the Truck series(That’s Racin‘)(4-1-2001) - AMS Not Happy UPDATE: Atlanta Motor Speedway executives are not happy with Fox officials for changing the on-air name of the Cracker Barrel 500 three weeks ago. Fox declined to mention Cracker Barrel as the race sponsor, instead calling it a Winston Cup race ‘presented by UPS.'(Winston Salem Journal)(3-31-2001)
UPDATE: The Winston-Salem Journal reports that “Atlanta Motor Speedway executives are not happy with Fox officials for changing the on-air name of the Cracker Barrel 500 three weeks ago. Fox declined to mention Cracker Barrel as the race sponsor, instead calling it a Winston Cup race ‘presented by UPS.’ ” Sorry, folks, but this is inaccurate. Fox did indeed mention Cracker Barrel by name as required by contract. Lap 35 – 36:42 into broadcast: Mike Joy – “Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500”, Lap 188 – 2:08:42 into broadcast: Mike Joy – “Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores 500”, Lap 305 – 3:34:54 into broadcast: Mike Joy – “Cracker Barrel 500”, There may have been one more, but the tape was reviewed quickly by MotorsportsTV. Actually, Fox’s primary use of the UPS tie-in was “NASCAR on Fox presented by UPS,” never attributing race title sponsorship to UPS. This is very common on TV sports now. That’s a far cry from title sponsorship. The key point though is that Fox did mention Cracker Barrel as they were required to in Atlanta(MotorsportsTV)(4-1-2001) - Boycott Unlikely, but…: A comment made by reigning Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte last weekend at Bristol has mushroomed into reports that drivers are considering a boycott of the April 22 race at Talladega. Labonte said last week that he had heard talk that some sponsors had told their drivers they would support them if they didn’t want to go to Talladega because NASCAR plans to use the same rules there that were used there last fall and at Daytona in February. There is virtually no chance any such boycott could materialize, of course. Late last year, before a return trip to New Hampshire International Speedway where Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin had died earlier in the season, drivers floated the same kind of suggestions to put pressure on NASCAR to change the rules(see full story at That’s Racin’)(4-1-2001)
- Pemberton may sit out UPDATE no Texas: Robin Pemberton, crew chief for Rusty Wallace’s #2 Miller Lite Ford, was not with the team Friday at Texas. Pemberton was, instead, back home in the Charlotte area undergoing medical tests to seek the cause for the fatigue he has been feeling in recent weeks. “I was really feeling pretty normal as far as being run down and stressed out – just like about 400 other friends of mine feel like every day,” Pemberton said. “But my doctor didn’t like the way I was looking and he told me to come in for some tests.” Pemberton had a heart stress test before last week’s race at Bristol and then had a heart catheterization. Those tests did not reveal any blockages. On Friday, he was having his carotid artery checked. Pemberton wouldn’t rule out coming to the race on Sunday. If he doesn’t, team general manager John Erickson said that Jeffrey Thousand would likely be on top of the team’s pit box on Sunday communicating with the driver(That’s Racin’)(3-31-2001)
UPDATE: Rusty Wallace’s crew chief, Robin Pemberton, opted not to fly to Texas yesterday. Pemberton has been undergoing a series of medical tests, but he had considered joining the team in time for today’s race. Now he is taking the weekend off and planning to be back with Wallace next weekend at Martinsville(Richmond Times Dispatch)(4-1-2001) - Family OK: A family of six is recovering after inhaling fumes from an motorhome heater that appears to have kicked out some carbon monoxide gas at the Texas Motor Speedway. The family was in the motorhome which was parked in the infield. Three ambulances took them away from the Speedway for treatment. Doctors say they are going to be OK.(AP/ESPN)(4-1-2001)
- Harvick Wins at Texas: results at That’s Racin’: Jani-King 300 results(4-1-2001)
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