April 5, 2000
- Good News: Bill France celebrated his 67th birthday Tuesday buoyed by good news about his health. France, diagnosed with cancer in December, has made significant progress with treatments to defeat the life-threatening disease. He stopped short of saying he was completely cured. See full story at Speed Magazine(4-5-2000)
- Bliss News/Foyt Driver UPDATE Bliss in Fuller Out: SpeedVision reports that Dick Trickle apparently will drive AJ Foyt’s #14 Conseco Pontiac at Texas. The team is looking at candidates for the ride. Looks like Mike Bliss, who started the year in the Foyt cars, will not return. Meanwhile, talk bubbled that Bliss could end up in the #27 Eel River Racing Viagra Pontiac if rookie Jeff Fuller’s fortunes do not improve. Bliss and team manager Barry Dodson worked well together in CTS and Bliss drove the car late in 1999 and was to be their 2000 driver when he opted for the Foyt ride before Ell River found a sponsor(3-27-2000)
- UPDATE: Eel River Racing Team owner Jack Birmingham announced that Mike Bliss will drive the team’s #27 Pontiac at Martinsville(Keystone Marketing) no idea if this is long term or just at Martinsville(4-5-2000)
- Martin Paint: Mark Martin will again carry the colors of MaxLife in this Sunday’s Goody’s Body Pain 500 at Martinsville, VA on the #6 Valvoline Ford. MaxLife is a new motor oil from The Valvoline Co. intended for high-mileage vehicles(Valvoline Newsletter)(4-5-2000)
- TV Ratings: The DirecTV 500 at Texas ratings on Sunday were a solid 6.0 overnight with a 15 share for the CBS Sports telecast. According to Nielsen Media Research, that rating represented an 11-percent increase over last year’s 5.4 with a 14 share(SpeedVision)(4-5-2000)
- Bodine on Montel: #60-Power Team’s Geoffrey Bodine will be in New York City on Wednesday to appear as a guest on an upcoming episode of the Montel Williams Show. The nationally televised talk show is hosted by Montel Williams, the 1996 Emmy winner for “Outstanding Talk Show Host”. Bodine will be on the show to talk about his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wreck at Daytona. Bodine suffered multiple injuries in the wreck and is currently undergoing physical therapy. He is expected to return to the driver’s seat of the Power Team Chevrolet within the next month. One of the major topics of discussion during the show will be the safety of the cars and trucks used in NASCAR competition. A show truck will be on hand at the taping to allow Bodine to explain in detail the safety features of a race vehicle. The episode of the show that Bodine will appear in has not been assigned an airdate as of yet. However, it is expected to be aired within the next two to three weeks. Please consult your local listings for more details(PowerTeam Page)(4-5-2000)
- Burton Honored: Ward Burton, whose Wildlife Foundation supports and encourages the preservation of the natural habitat on both private and state-owned land throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, is the first quarter nominee for the NASCAR True Value Man of the Year Award. True Value, the Official Hardware Store of NASCAR, is once again sponsoring the NASCAR True Value Man of the Year. The award is designed to honor a driver not only for their accomplishments on the track but for their community service contributions and charitable efforts(Ward Burton Site)(4-5-2000)
- Steele Out?: Hearing #82 ChannelLock/SABCO driver may be replaced. A spokesman for the team confirmed that an announcement is due soon, possibly within the next day or so, about Steeles future with Team SABCO. Steele, who was signed by Sabates late last year, has qualified for just two of seven Busch Series races this season, finishing 23rd at Daytona and 34th at North Carolina Speedway(goracing)(4-5-2000)
- Grubb Sits out a few: Grubb Motorsports announced plans to withdraw from the nextthree Busch series events. The team will not travel to Nashville, Talladega, or California in an attempt to regroup their efforts and come back at Richmond with a stronger, more focused team. This in no way has to do with the performance of the team so far in 2000, team manager, Franklin Butler asserted. “We’ve had a decent season, but we’re 37th in points and I think the whole team feels that if we can sit out a few races and really focus on building cars and getting caught up, then we’ll have a lot better results come summer time.” Crew chief Bobby King said that the team would use the time off to do some additional, extensive testing. “We’re going to test at Richmond for sure. We’ll probably also test at Charlotte to make sure our speedway car is competitive down there.” Wayne Grubb will use some of his time off to attend a road coarse driving school in Phoenix. “You know, of course I hate not going to races, but in the long run, I think it’s the best thing for the team. We’ve been running in the top 25 this season, which is good. But none of us are really satisfied with that. We want to run in the top 15 or the top ten. And taking this time off to refocus, I think will allow us to do that. “Before any rumors get started, I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Grubb Motorsports is not shutting down, we’re not giving up,” Bill Grubb said. Wayne Grubb and Grubb Motorsports will return to Busch racing on May 5th, at the Richmond International Raceway, the team’s hometown(Grubb PR)(4-5-2000)
- Wind Tunnel for the BGN UPDATE: NASCAR will take three cars from Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 BGN race to the wind tunnel in Marietta, Ga., for testing this week. The cars impounded belong to race winner #60-Mark Martin, #61-Hut Stricklin and #87-Joe Nemechek(That’s Racin’)(3-13-2000)
UPDATE: hear the BGN wind tunnel tests was that the the Roush Fords were 20 percent better than others(4-5-2000)
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