Brewer wants Atwood, needs sponsor

CENTRAL CITY, Ky. -- Casey Atwood's release Monday from Evernham Motorsports immediately put a different spin on Brewco Motorsports' plight.

Brewco owner Clarence Brewer Jr. hopes to continue his two-car operation in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2003 -- he's just unsure what its exact form will be.

	Casey Atwood Credit: Autostock

One thing that is certain is that Brewco is switching manufacturers. The team, which ran Pontiacs at Daytona and Talladega in 2002 and Chevrolets everywhere else, will exclusively use Pontiacs in 2003.

The other thing Brewer would like to do is re-sign Atwood, who scored two victories for him in 1999 as the youngest winner in Busch Series history and also drove for Brewco in 2000.

"I would put Casey in the car right now," Brewer said of his No. 27 machine. "But I don't want to tie up Casey if we don't have a sponsor for him."

Brewer hopes to have one of his drivers in place by the beginning of next week, for his teams that won three races in 2002.

The No. 37 Timber Wolf Chevrolet won at Texas with driver Jeff Purvis, who was then injured at Nazareth Speedway and sidelined for the rest of the season.

Second-year Brewco driver Jamie McMurray improved to the point where he was on the verge of winning on a weekly basis at the end of the season. After he won his initial Winston Cup race in only his second start for Chip Ganassi Racing, McMurray won two of the last four Busch races in the No. 27 Williams Travel Centers Chevrolet.

In September, Ganassi announced McMurray as the 2003 driver of his Havoline Dodge.

Brewer said his deal with Swedish Match's Timber Wolf brand of smokeless tobacco is good for two more seasons on the team's No. 37 cars, but that the No. 27 is unsponsored. He needs drivers for both cars.

Brewer is one of several Busch owners in the position of needing sponsorship to keep his operation intact.

"We're talking to a lot of people," Brewer said. "I don't know how it's going to turn out, but we're just trying to put something together. I'm pretty confident it will turn out fine considering (the quality of) the team.

"Driver-wise, I don't really know," Brewer said. "The 37 car, I'm not sure who we're going to put in it. We're still talking to a few guys, and there are a lot of good drivers out there."

Brewer said he would consider putting Atwood in the 37 and Atwood's release by Evernham ends the immediate uncertainty of the young Nashville driver's Winston Cup future.

"They (Timber Wolf) want to get a driver signed," Brewer said. "The 27 is the team he's (Atwood) from and the people he knows so if we can get a sponsor I'd like to put him in the car."

Elton Sawyer ran Brewco's No. 37 car in the last three races of the season.

"I don't know whether we gave him as good a chance as we needed to," Brewer said. "Elton's rusty -- he hadn't raced in a year -- and I don't know if we gave him a good enough shot.

"We didn't perform like I thought we would. Kevin Lepage got in the car and had a couple poles and ran pretty good. So I don't really know and we're going to evaluate that. Elton is on our short list, no doubt about it."