Hello Nascar fans. Hope everyone is having a great last weekend before Thanksgiving. Let’s see what we got going on this weekend.
Ray Evernham has announced that he has sold most of his share of Gillette Evernham Racing and plans to buy a small track so he can get back to “grassroots” racing. He and partner Bob Mack are purchasing an existing small track called the East LIncoln Speedway located in Lincolnton, North Carolina. He says the track has a family atmosphere that he would like to preserve for future families and fans to enjoy. The speedway has been in operation since 1991. Evernham who won three titles with Jeff Gordon wants to retire from the highest level of the sport to concentrate on the small track racing. Evernham helped make Dodge a contender again in Nascar when he formed his team in 2001 and signed his team to drive Dodge cars.
Matt Kenseth has signed a multi year extension to his contract with Roush Fenway Racing. Kenseth who won the 2003 Nascar championship, has raced under the banner of Roush Fenway since 1998 and is the driver who has been with Roush the longest. Jack Roush said that Matt was a true champion and that they were honored to have him in their stable of drivers. Roush also recently resigned Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle which means that one driver will find himself looking for another ride as Roush cuts back to comply with Nascar’s four car cap for owners. Speculation is that the driver that would need to leave would either be Jamie McMurray or David Regan.
James Hylton, 74, and rookie of the year for 1966, will make an attempt to start in the 2009 Daytona 500 . That would make him the oldest driver ever to run in the Daytona 500 if he makes it into the starting lineup. Hylton is trying to fulfill a promise made to fans in 2007 and cut short due to some bad luck. Hylton ran a full series schedule for ARCA in 2008. He qualified for and ran in the Nationwide Series July 4th, 2008 race at Daytona making him the oldest driver ever to start a Nationwide series race. His career began back in July 1964 and made his debut racing in and finishing 19th at a race held at Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Virginia.
Furniture Row Racing, who sponsored a car for Joe Nemechek this past season has bought out the remaining contract from their driver. They also announced that there would be a limited run season for the Furniture Row Racing Team. The contract they had with Joe called for a full season schedule and they are not able to fulfill that part of their obligation to the team and their driver. All this is an effort to scaleback in the face of this unstable economy.
Robbie Gordon is headed south of the border for the 41st annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000. Gordon who is no stranger to the race, has three victories under his belt. This year’s ride is the 77 Chevrolet CK 1500 trophy truck. Gordon says this years race is very technical, tough, and very fast as well. According to Robbie that plays right in to their teams strengths. The Baja 1000 is the world’s longest dirt race. The course this year is right across the northern Baja California Peninsula covering 631.34 miles through rugid mountain and rocky desert terrain. The race begins and ends in Ensenada.
Well that’s about all for this week. Here’s hoping everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving Day and a safe and happy holiday week. Until next time Nascar fans!
Nascar Dude says
Lots of stuff happening for a week that NASCAR didn\’t even have a race. It seems like our sport is now a year round event
Lorri says
i guess they use their “down” time to do all this kind of stuff. i was surprised about ray evernham getting out of the big leagues for small track stuff. i never would have guessed he wanted to do something else. as long as its what is best for him and the organization, i guess it will be ok.