Notes: Wimmer keen for new season with RCR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- More than anything, Scott Wimmer thought he wanted to run a full Nationwide Series schedule this season with Richard Childress Racing, but on the eve of 2008, Wimmer's satisfied to defend Childress' owners' title in what was previously the Busch Series.

Wimmer got his season in RCR's No. 29 Chevrolet off to a healthy start by turning the seventh-best single-car lap in the Nationwide Series' Preseason Thunder session at Daytona International Speedway, which ended Tuesday.

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Wimmer said he lobbied to do his 23 races in the 29, teaming with his 2007 co-driver, Jeff Burton, and doing the other 12 Nationwide events "in another RCR car, but we just really couldn't get the right situation put together."

Wimmer said he's hoping to get some starts in RCR's fourth Sprint Cup team, the No. 33 Chevrolet that may appear at Speedweeks in the hands of former RCR crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine.

"Richard's [Childress] talking about running that fourth Cup car quite a bit," Wimmer said. "So I think he kind of wants to start building a team for that instead of sinking a lot of time and effort into another [Nationwide] Series program.

"Either way I'm excited, because he always has a pretty good plan worked out for me and has a lot of interesting things going on, but right now it looks like I'll just be running 23 Nationwide races and hopefully I can talk him into running a bunch of Cup races, because I think it's real important to have four teams."

Wimmer is enthused about possibly defending RCR's owner title, but he's most enthralled with his veteran teammate, who won five times last season.

"To be teamed up with Jeff Burton and to be running with him again is huge," Wimmer said. "Last year was the first time I've had a teammate, in the six or seven years I've been in NASCAR, so it was a big help for me and hopefully I can learn a lot more from him this year and maybe move into a full-time deal in '09.

"It's a really exciting year for us [but] it's going to be a tough one because there's a lot of great teams out there. David [Reutimann] is coming back and running a full season, along with [2007 champion] Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer [plus David Ragan].

"There are a lot of great race teams, so it's going to be tough to repeat that [owners' championship], but hopefully me and Jeff can get started out here at Daytona well and finish strong all year long."

ESPN's TV gang on the prowl

Rusty Wallace was only one member of ESPN's 2007 TV crew that participated in the network's return to live NASCAR broadcasting last season who was at Daytona for Nationwide Preseason Thunder.

Wallace, who owns a two-car team in the series, was partly on hand for two days for that purpose, but he also said he was scouring the garage doing research for his work with the network that will again broadcast the entire Nationwide schedule.

"Right now, I can't talk about what we'll be doing," Wallace said. "But I'm also down here for ESPN, going around observing and getting used to all the new faces and names. [Allen] Bestwick was here [Sunday] afternoon and I think [Dale Jarrett] was walking around [Sunday] afternoon."

ESPN spokesman Andy Hall confirmed that Bestwick and Jarrett, who were used in a variety of roles by the network last season, were at the track as were pit reporters Dave Burns, Shannon Spake and Mike Massaro; and that Hall thought Brad Daugherty would be down, as well.

Wallace said the crew was aware of fans' criticisms of certain aspects of the broadcasts.

"Right now we're just trying to make everything better for the whole entire team," Wallace said. "We've listened to what the fans have said and we're trying to make the pit studio real strong and we're just trying to do the best we can.

"All I can tell you is we sit and listened to what everybody said, and with all the talent that we've got, moving people around and adjusting and trying to get to be the best we possibly can [be]. ... It's all good, I know that." (Continued)