April 15, 2000
- Ray’s 2nd Driver UPDATE: Ray Evernham said Friday he hopes to be able to announce the driver for his second Dodge Winston Cup team for the 2001 season during the circuit’s visit to Charlotte at the end of May(That’s Racin’)
UPDATE: Ray Evernham doesn’t know where the recent round of rumors started, but he’s focusing on only one driver to team with Bill Elliott on his two-car Dodge team next season — BGN driver Casey Atwood. On Friday afternoon, Evernham talked with Atwood and his BGN team owner Clarence Brewer. Evernham admits he is talking with Brewer about a possible BGN team for 2002 but has no intention of keeping the 20-year-old Atwood in the series next season(Times-Dispatch)(4-15-2000) - Cope: Derrike Cope left the #15 Moore-Fenley Motorsports team on Thursday and is being replaced by Ted Musgrave this weekend. “I had an opportunity to leave and felt like that was in my best interest to do so,” Cope said(Times-Dispatch)(4-15-2000)
- Benson to F1? naaaa….. what does Johnny Benson plan to do on his first off weekend since the NASCAR Winston Cup teams reported to Daytona on Feb. 9? Benson plans to go to a Winston West test in Fontana, CA on Tuesday and Wednesday then fly to Silverstone, England to attend Sunday’s British Grand Prix Formula One race. Benson attended the Spanish Grand Prix in 1998. Benson will run in the Winston West race at California the same weekend as the Cup race in the #50 Tyler Jet Motorsports Chevy. Crew Chief james Ince thinks it is a good way to learn the track. Benson is going to the F1 race for fun(see full PR at the Tyler Jet Motorsports site)(4-15-2000)
- Common Templates: Winston Cup series director Gary Nelson said Friday NASCAR was “backing off” the idea of common body templates in favor of continuing to keep all manufacturers as equal as possible aerodynamically on the track. See full story at That’s Racin’: Nelson says common templates on back burner by Jim Utter(4-15-2000)
- Top 25: #24-Jeff Gordon qualified outside of the top 25 for the first time since Oct 1998 in Charlotte, a streak of 47 races. Also failing to qualify for the top 25 for the first time this year(making all the races) are #18-Bobby Labonte(46th) and #25-Jerry Nadeau(28th). Only two drivers have made ALL nine Cup races and qualified for all the races in the top 25: #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr and #31-Mike Skinner(4-15-2000)
- Rookies do Good: Six of the Rookie of The Year candidates made the field in 1st round qualifying: #8-Dale Earnhardt Jr.(6th), #32-Scott Pruett(15th), #92-Dave Blaney(16th), #27-Mike Bliss(18th), #9-Stacy Compton(22nd) and #90-Ed Berrier(23rd). Only #17-Matt Kenseth failed to qualify on day one, he was 35th(4-15-2000)
- Talladega Speed: Jeremy Mayfield’s pole speed at Talladega was the fifth slowest pole speed in the history of Talladega and the first at less than 190 mph since 1976(NOL/ESPN2 Qualifying) and was the slowest pole-winning speed at Talladega since David Pearson drove his Mercury to the top spot at 184.926mph — in 1974(News and Observer)(4-15-2000)
- M&M’s: Ken Schrader is relaying a message to his competitors for this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway via Red, the M&M Character on the back of his No. 36 Pontiac. Red is holding a sign with a simple but clear message for the other 42 cars racing side-by-side at the Winston Cup Circuit’s fastest track. Red’s words of advice: “Don’t Read…Draft!”.(IMG Motorsports-Charlotte)(4-15-2000)
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