Sponsorship woes may hinder Elliott's schedule

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Sponsorship may limit Bill Elliott's 2004 Nextel Cup Series schedule, team owner Ray Evernham said Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.

Evernham said all he could confirm this season for Elliott, the 1988 NASCAR Cup champion, was three events: The Feb. 7 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona and Nextel Cup races at Las Vegas and Texas.

Evernham said lack of sponsorship was tying his hands in terms of planning any further.

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"Right now we can't go much further until we get something (sponsorship) solid," Evernham said. "I can afford to run the car three or four times, but we've got to find somebody who's willing to step in and spend some time with Bill over the next two or three years.

"Even though Bill doesn't want to run a full schedule, he doesn't want to completely retire, so I'm going to do everything I can to put him in a racecar."

Evernham also said although he had done a one-race experiment in the Busch Series with Jeremy Mayfield, which resulted in a fourth place finish at Rockingham last fall, he did not immediately foresee running Busch races this season.

	Ray Evernham says he's still working on getting Elliott more sponsorship. Credit: Autostock

"That car was actually a borrowed car," Evernham said of the Dodge used by Mayfield in the Target House 200. "We'd like to find some Busch races for Jeremy, but right now the big focus is on getting Bill's program in order.

"Until we do that, we're not going to be able to focus on the Busch program. I enjoyed the Busch program and someday I'd love to have a Busch program, but right now we've got to focus on Bill's program for next year."

When he announced in New York City last December that he was stepping back from a full-time schedule, Elliott said he would like to run up to 15 races per season for the next several years.

Evernham said Elliott, who will work as Kasey Kahne's advisor for many of the early-season races, likely would not do more than 15 races no matter what the sponsorship program is.

"Anywhere between 10 and 15 races would be great," Evernham said.