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Tough year.
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| Bill Davis (right) saw his team fail to win for the first time since 1999. Credit: Autostock |
After seven successful seasons and five trips to Victory Lane, Burton left Bill Davis Racing with five races remaining on the 2003 slate, without a top-five to his credit and ranked 20th in the standings, to join forces with Haas/CNC Racing and drive the No. 0 entry.
Speculation ran rampant as to the exact reason the two sides opted to split, but the glaring reason was reportedly a falling out between Burton and his team, and differences of opinion regarding racing philosophies.
Burton will remain in the No. 0 in 2004, making way for young Scott Wimmer to carry the Bill Davis Racing banner in the Winston Cup ranks. Wimmer competed in six Winston Cup events in 2003, finishing ninth at Phoenix to earn 17 percent of the organization's top-10s for the season (one of six).
Wimmer's methodical driving style should be a perfect fit for crew chief Frankie Stoddard, who enjoyed years of success with driver Jeff Burton, who has a similar approach.
"Certainly 2003 was a big disappointment for all of Bill Davis Racing," Davis said. "But, the end of the season we got a fresh breath of air with the addition of Scott Wimmer.
"We finally have a driver that is capable of communicating to the team what the car needs. We feel that the entire team had better morale and more ambition to work when Scott came on board.
"The final four races gave us a glimpse of where we can see ourselves next year. We ran like the No. 22 should run every week and we're all excited about where we can go in the future."
As frustrating as Burton's season was, the second Bill Davis Racing team car, the No. 23 Stacker 2 Dodge driven by Kenny Wallace, was worse. Wallace entered the year in what he considered his most stable Winston Cup experience to date, but failed to finish in the top-five and had just one top-10 finish all season.
He finished 30th in the point standings, his worst points finish following an entire Cup season since 1998, when he finished 31st overall in Filbert Martocci's No. 81 entry.
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| Crew chief Philippe Lopez (left) with Kenny Wallace Credit: Autostock |
Subsequently, the decision was made to run Wallace in the NASCAR Busch Series in 2004. Winston Cup plans are to run Wimmer full time in the No. 22 Dodge, and Bill Davis Racing hopes to secure a second sponsor and therefore have funding to field a second Winston Cup effort.
"The Busch program was a big disappointment," said Davis of Wimmer's Busch Series season, in which he finished ninth overall with one victory and four top-fives. "I hate we couldn't give Scott the things he needed to get the championship he deserved.
"He had proven he was capable of running like a champion and I think we all let him down. I hope we can get things turned around for Kenny Wallace and that team so they can run as well as Scott should have."
Bill Davis Racing will also field a pair of Toyota teams in the Craftsman Truck Series. At the Toyota press conference in Homestead, Fla., two weeks back, Bill Davis Racing general manager Mike Brown said the team would field the two CTS teams with Toyota, but that sponsors, truck numbers and drivers would be named later.
Team sources said Bill Davis Racing would continue to run Dodges in the Winston Cup ranks.
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