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By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
April 29, 2004
9:54 AM EDT (1354 GMT)
MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- Dale Earnhardt Incorporated owner Teresa Earnhardt will host the third annual "Dale Earnhardt Day," a 12-hour birthday celebration for the late seven-time NASCAR champion, on Thursday at DEI's headquarters.
This year's theme will involve Earnhardt's legacy at Daytona International Speedway, where he scored a track record 34 victories -- including the 1998 Daytona 500 -- before he was killed in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
For the first time since Earnhardt won the 1998 "Great American Race," his Harley J. Earl trophy, emblematic of the race's winner, will be on display at DEI, along with a helmet signed by Earnhardt's entire crew from that day.
Three other Daytona 500 trophies, won this year by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and in 2001 and 2003 by Michael Waltrip, will also be on display at the event, which opens at 8 a.m.
Teresa Earnhardt plans to address fans in attendance on the headquarters' lawn.
As part of a special promotion with the American Forests, the "Spirit of Liberty Bell" will be on display. The bell is an exact replica of the original Liberty Bell and was made in the same foundry.
Attendees will again be allowed into DEI's private interior showroom to view various racecars, photos and other memorabilia displays.
There will be a free shuttle between area hotels and DEI's headquarters throughout the day.
On Wednesday, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications Jim Hunter defused a misunderstanding that appeared in print following events last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, specifically investigating the use of green-flag finishes in the Craftsman Truck Series with the possibility of their deletion.
"There is no effort going on right now to do away with having green-white-checker finishes in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," Hunter said. "What the reporter failed to say was that when we instituted that in the Truck Series, most of its races were on short tracks.
"And I said that we would have to look at that at some time in the future."
The Truck Series has grown to include races at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5-mile track; two-mile tracks at California and Michigan; and many 1.5-mile facilities.
On the 25-race 2005 Craftsman Truck Series schedule, only seven races are conducted on short tracks. In 1996, the second year of Truck Series competition,
14 of 24 races were on short tracks.
Larry Foyt, whose on-again off-again Nextel Cup Series career has been mostly off this season due to lack of sponsorship, hopes to compete in his first Indianapolis 500 next month.
Foyt, 27, hopes to compete alongside his nephew, A.J. Foyt IV, in a second car fielded by his father, four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt.
Larry Foyt tested at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday during the Indy Racing League's annual "Rookie Orientation Program." He ran a total of 59 laps and reached speeds more than 210 mph.
"It's the coolest day of my life," Foyt said after stepping out of the team's back-up car, the No. 14T Conseco Dallara/Toyota. "It was everything I thought it would be (because) this is such a special place.
"I've been coming here since I was born and when I was growing up I used to wonder, 'Can I do it?' Today I got to do it. We ran 210 and I know I can go faster (because) we had a lot of downforce on the car because my dad just wanted me to get comfortable."
Both Foyts were scheduled to test in Indy's open test Wednesday and Thursday, and Larry's famous father said he was pleased with Larry's Indy debut.
"He could have gone faster but I didn't want him to push it," A.J. said. "The idea of today was to just get acclimated because it is so different from what he's been used to driving.
"He had tested an Indy car at Colorado and Texas about five years ago and passed his rookie test (at Indy) but then I put him in the stock cars. He never gave up his hope of driving in the Indy 500 though."
BACE Motorsports, which earlier this season put its NASCAR Nextel Cup Series team on the shelf due to lack of sponsorship, has done the same with its No. 74 Busch Series car.
Tony Raines took over the car's driving duties from Damon Lusk at Bristol last month. The car has a 20-race sponsorship from the Outdoor Channel but has competed in some races without sponsor decals.
That ended this week when BACE did not file an entry for the Stater Bros. 300 at California Speedway. Owner Bill Baumgardner will seek primary sponsorship to finish out several open dates on the 2004 Busch Series schedule.
BACE plans a two-week hiatus from the series, returning in Outdoor Channel colors for the Funai 250 at Richmond International Raceway on May 14.
"When Bill and Brian (Baumgardner) approached me about returning to the seat, we discussed that we would only run races in which we had sponsorship," Raines said. "With no legitimate shot at a championship this season, we will only compete in events where we are partnered with a corporation.
"Everyone here wants to be at the track competing every weekend, but we need additional sponsorship to be able to do that."
Raines hasn't given up on a possible return to the Cup ranks, where BACE has yet to make a start this season while it continues its sponsorship search. In 2003, Raines scored 15 top-25 finishes in 35 starts, highlighted by a sixth-place finish at Rockingham and a 13th-place run in the season finale in Homestead.
"Without a doubt I would love to get back behind the wheel of a Cup car," Raines said. "The Baumgardners are still committed to returning to the Nextel Cup Series to pick up where we left off last season -- running competitively in the top 20 and threatening the top 10 as we build our program.
"The cars are ready at the shop and we're discussing the most appropriate races to run later this season to assist our efforts in attracting a sponsor a return to a full Nextel Cup schedule in 2005."
Installation of the new Steel And Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers is slated to begin the week of May 10 at Texas Motor Speedway. The project is scheduled to take two to three weeks and will be completed in time for the June 12 Bombardier 500k Indy Racing League event, which will run in conjunction with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series' O'Reilly 400K.
The barrier will be installed around portions of the 1.5-mile track at a cost of approximately $1.7 million to complete. The work will be done at night to avoid conflicts with the speedway's schedule of on-track events.
"We are pleased the SAFER barriers will be in place before the IRL race," speedway president Eddie Gossage said. "It's unfortunate that it couldn't happen before our NASCAR Nextel Cup event back in April, but the engineers that developed the SAFER barriers only recently completed their survey."
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