park on pole

[gomick]

how about casey atwood - 5th on the grid!

[Lee]

Park and Casey both did well. I'm not suprised at Atwood's run, I've been watching him since his first Busch race, and the kid can drive. Ray Evernham is one of the best crew chiefs going, and is great with young drivers. Casey will be tough in the Rookie of the Year battle next year, the only thing that might hold him back is the fact that Dodge is running all new engines, cars, and equipment. There will be bugs to work out of the new gear, so that might put a damper on his season, but he definatly has the talent. I work about 3 miles from the Lockheed wind tunnel, in Georgia. This is where NASCAR does alot of their testing. I've talked to members of Evernham's crew, and seen the cars, on several different occasions. They said that they are expecting a good year next season, but know that they will have a few problems to work out next year. Should be a good year.

[gomick]

isnt there a fair few teams running dodge cars in 01 - hope this dont mean that one of pontiac,chevrolet or ford are thinking of pulling back there commitment to the series.

[Lee]

gomick,
I've been following this series, under it's various names, Strictly stock, Grand National, and finally Winston Cup, since 1958. You know the old saying about history repeting itself? I think we might be seeing the start of this. In 1964, GM pulled out of racing. They cited a number of reasons, but the fact was that they did not have the performance necessary, and were incapable of competing head on with Ford and Chrysler! Chrysler's 426 hemi completely shocked and stuned GM, as did Ford's ability to compete with Chrysler. GM, notiabily Chevy, couldn't compete, and quit. GM didn't come back until 1971, when NASCAR restricted (with restrictor plates and rules detremental to Ford and Chrysler, ane extreamly bias toward Chevy) the compitetion enough so as to allow Chevy to be competitive! Nonwithstanding the strong showing of the Gibbs cars this year, as the rules get closer and closer to equal, GM falls further and further behind! Now, with Chrysler's inpending return, It is my prediction that, within 3 to 5 years, and I wouldn't be a bit supprised if it were accually 1 or 2 years, you will see GM; just as in 1964, quit. As an avid Ford fan, I say good riddens! Ford and Chrysler can engage in a "Clash of the Tidans" all out war, just like the period of 1964 -1070, which produced the greatest racing of NASCAR's history.

As to the teams running Dodges next year, Ray Everham will be running 2 cars, to be driven by Bill Elliott and Casey Atwood. Petty Enterprises, in a return to Chrysler, will field 3 cars, to be driven by Kyle Petty, John Andretti, and Buckshot Jones. Bill Davis will run 2 Dodges with Ward Burton and Dave Blaney as drivers. Stacey Compton will drive a Dodge for Melling Racing, and SABACO will field 2 dodges for Sterling Marlin and an unnamed driver, I've heard it will be Ted Musgrave or Rick Mast.

[gomick]

is gibbs the only pontiac runner?, when you say gm, you mean chev dont you....

[Lee]

It's kind of hard to say. I'm sure you know this, General Motors has 5 different divisions of cars, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac. Buick and Olds were involved in racing up through the early 90s, but in the early to mid 90s, GM cut back to just Chevy and Pontiac. Oddly, the same thing happened in the 50s and early 60s. Just like this year, and last, Pontiac has had the least representation. I think Gibbs' team will be the top Pontiac team next year, The team that Ken Schreader (sp) and Johnny Benson will run Pontys, as well as A.J. Foyt, and the team that had the Viagra sponsorship (the # 27 car), that Mike Bliss drove for (Viraga will of course be moving to Jack Roush and will become Mark Martin's sponsor) this year. I think thats about it for the Pontiacs, except for a couple of one off entries that appear for selective races throughout the season. As for Chevy, the usual suspects, the teams of Richard Childress Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Hendricks Motorsports, and Morgan McClure will be the top Chevy teams. I don't know If I'm right about my predictions, but seeing that GM has scaled back, wheather intentional or not, and I think it is a bit of both; I just noticed the trend seem so similar to what happened in the early 60s, that I think we are seeing history repete itself. I guess time will tell. Take care.

[gomick]

lee, i didnt realize that gm owns chev and pontiac , thanks for clearing that up

[BMWRacerITS]

Lee-

Not to mention that Chevy and Pontiac will both be retiring their Camero and Trans-Am lines in the near future. Save for the Corvette, these were the only real "sportscars" that GM produced.

I only put sportscars in " " because they are still built more for straight line thrills than anything else. They both handle like a pig.

At least Chevy is competing in the Sportscar racing arena with its LeMans Vetter to challenge the dominate Vipers in the GTS class.