Long, Kimmel bring Winston Cup field to 43

LONG POND, Pa. -- Despite only 41 cars initially entering the race, there will now be a full field of 43 cars in the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday.

Carl Long and Frank Kimmel made last-minute decisions on Thursday to officially enter the NASCAR Winston Cup Series race.

	Carl Long

Long, driver of the No. 85 Ford, decided to leave his Concord, N.C., shop at 3 p.m. on Thursday for the trip to Pocono. He and a friend traded off driving the Mansion Motorsports hauler during the 10-hour trek.

"We took off about 3 p.m. yesterday when we saw on NASCAR.com that there were only 41 cars entered," Long said, while preparing his car in the garage area. "So we brought up the car we used at Charlotte a few weeks ago and headed on up here.

"I drove about six hours of the trip up here. We only have four guys here right now. Myself, my dad, the guy who works on the car normally and a buddy of mine are all that we have here. He was the only one who got off work to come up here."

As far as a pit crew during the race on Sunday, Long said he'll cross that bridge after qualifying on Friday. He said he hopes to get some ARCA crew guys to help out.

Long has driven in five Winston Cup Series races since 2000. He failed to qualify for this year's Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola Racing Family 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Kimmel, driver of the No. 46 Advance Auto Parts Ford, was already at Pocono for the ARCA 200. Currently leading that series points battle, he also opted to enter the Winston Cup Series race on Thursday.

"We heard yesterday that they (NASCAR) was short a car or two so we asked if we could join in," Kimmel said, while helping his crew prepare the car for qualifying. "It just works out good for us and NASCAR both. We just wanted to make sure they had a full field.

"It's a lot of work for the guys because we weren't ready to do this. But what else you going to do on Sunday?"

Kimmel drove the No. 26 Ford in five races for Haas Carter Motorsports when he brought sponsorship to the team. With only 43 cars in the field, it guarantees that Kimmel will make his sixth start of the year.

For the race, Kimmel and the No. 46 Ford team will use the car brought as a backup. The car was built by Roush Racing and required a few electronic changes to it for the Winston Cup race.

Most ARCA teams drive cars that were once Winston Cup cars.

"I was proud our body made it through inspection," Kimmel said. "Some minor things had to be changed. We had a fuel cell that was a little too old and the rules are different for some of the electronics on the car.

"We attempted the Atlanta and Charlotte races last fall with this car. We didn't make those races, so we just kept it as a back up."

If Long and Kimmel hadn't stepped up, the race would have started with the 41-car field, as registered on Wednesday. Since the 43-car field was mandated in 1998, no regularly scheduled Winston Cup event has started less than that number.

The last event with a starting field of fewer cars than the entry blank called for was the fall event at Dover in 1996 when 41 cars ran in the race that called for 42 starters. Eleven races in 1996 had short fields, and three of them -- events at Michigan, New Hampshire and Indianapolis -- were actually short two cars each.