DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- America's Racing Team launched Friday at Daytona International Speedway with more questions than answers about its short term future, but team principals hope race fans will soon help to fill in the blanks.

ART has done a year's worth of market research that's convinced the primary partners that fans will support the concept, through which they hope to enter a No. 76 car in the 2011 Daytona 500 -- and they've enlisted former Red Bull Racing competition director Elton Sawyer as their competition advisor.

Now, in addition to securing a technical alliance with what they call one of the two or three biggest Cup teams and the accompanying manufacturer connection, getting into one of two shops that would be close to their eventual ally and signing a driver, crew chief and team members -- all that remains is for the fans to put their money where their mouths are.

With the announcement, the team is in the unique position of planning to race, but having nothing yet securely in place. However, in a statement the group said it was committed to competing in the 2011 Daytona 500.

"Racing in 2011 is not dependent upon corporate sponsors coming on board right away," the statement said. "We can't ask for our partners to be a part of a team that will not race. The level that we race at will be dependent on our support from the fans and sponsors, but we will definitely be putting a car on the track for the Daytona 500 next February."

At this point, if the money is in place to at least get started, Sawyer's role is perhaps the most critical.

"They've asked for some help on the competition side, in an advisory role, and I can do that," Sawyer said. "It's exciting and it's cool to see that even through some tough economic times you've got companies and people that still want to pursue NASCAR Sprint Cup racing.

"Just to be able to say I've been through that process, of building a team from the ground up -- and I tell people all the time that that experience was really cool, in that you started with a clean sheet of paper. On the flip side, it was a clean sheet of paper, so having been part of everything from creating processes and procedures, it was a great experience." (Continued)