12/7/03……….. Chance II Motorsports, a spin-off company of Dale Earnhardt Inc. owned jointly by Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr., will be running a full schedule for the 2004 Busch Series season.

This was good news for Martin Truex Jr., who piloted the entry on a part time basis during the 2003 Busch Series season. He will be racing for the 2004 series championship with a full time ride in the No. 8 Nabisco sponsored Chance II Chevrolet.

Although Truex only competed in six 2003 Busch Series events, he garnered two top five and three top ten finishes, closing the season with two consecutive second place finishes. If that doesn’t make the young 23 year old driver eligible for a chance to compete for the Busch Series championship, then I don’t know what would. I have to hand it to Dale Jr., he certainly has an eye for talent, and I think he and Teresa are making the right choice in changing the Chance II team to a full schedule.

Now that Truex will have full rein with the No. 8 Chance II Chevrolet, Dale Jr. will be driving a second Chance II entry in the Busch Series restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega to defend his 2003 season wins at those venues.

There’s an interesting rumor going around concerning Kerry Earnhardt, Base Motorsports, and Smith & Wesson. The rumor has Earnhardt piloting the No. 74 BACE Motorsports Chevrolet with Smith & Wesson as the primary sponsor.

First of all, I don’t understand why Bill Baumgardner would waste his time with Kerry Earnhardt, a driver who has shown no promise what-so-ever in his trials and tribulations on the race track. Just ask Armondo Fitz and Terry Bradshaw (Fitz/Bradshaw Motorsports), owners of the No. 12 Chevrolet that was plagued by wall-whacker Earnhardt for a season and a half before he finally got the boot. Most of you will remember the TV commercials that Bradshaw and the older Earnhardt brother did for the long distance phone company that sponsored the car. When Earnhardt was dumped, so were the commercial advertisements!

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have it in for Kerry Earnhardt, he seems like a real likable sort of guy, but he just isn’t a race car driver. Just because your name is Earnhardt, doesn’t mean that you are destined to drive a race car. Dale Jr. is a rare example, following in his father’s footsteps, as well as Dale Jarrett followed in Gentleman Ned’s footsteps. On the same token, if you put Dale Jarrett’s brother Glen in a racecar, he has trouble finding pit road, if he can actually make it around the track. Glen tried and failed, ending up as a race announcer, and a real good one too, although he kind of fell through the cracks and pretty much lost his footing with the new TV deal a couple of years ago.

Actually, if the truth be known, Kerry’s sister Kelly is somewhat better on the track than he is, but she was relegated to manage her younger brother Dale with his efforts in Cup racing. Kelly may also have some part in trying to advance Kerry in his Busch Series efforts. Kerry recently did a promotional for Smith & Wesson and has been acting as the companies’ spokesman around advertising connected with the racing venues.

Given this fact, maybe Bill Baumgardner is just as happy to take Smith & Wesson’s money to sponsor the No. 74 Chevrolet, and let the older Earnhardt brother tear them up. Who knows, maybe he’ll get the hang of it one of these days and make a liar out of me. It’s been known to happen, but I feel that I’m safe with this one.

The Busch-whackers are lining up for the upcoming Hershey’s Kisses 300 Busch Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. seems to be the most prominent, trying to defend his race winning title in the opener three seasons in a row.

Naturally, you’ll find Michael Waltrip with his Aaron’s Rents No. 99 Chevy, and this year Mark Martin is going to try to win a race in the Busch Series that he’s never been able to win. Martin has the Busch Series win record of 45 victories, but the Daytona opener isn’t one of them. You’ll also find Joe Nemechek driving his No. 87 Chevy entry and of course Kevin Harvick who will be trying to win the Owner’s Championship once again for Richard Childress Racing (RCR).

A big thank-you was bestowed upon Johnny Sauter for his help in winning the Owners Championship for Richard Childress. Childress chose Sauter to fill the vacancy in his No. 30 AOL sponsored Cup entry. It appears that Sauter will be joining the 2004 rookie class in the Cup Series, an honor well deserved. A lot of fans, including yours truly, think he did a great job a couple of seasons ago when he started out for RCR in the No. 2 AC/Delco Chevy. I was disappointed to see Hornaday get that ride instead of Sauter. Now Sauter will be moving up over Hornaday!

12/14/03……….. I’m sure that most of you are aware of the schedule change for the Busch Series at the Milwaukee Mile for the June race. The 2004 schedule previously listed the Busch race for Sunday, June 27th, but the race has now been moved up one day to a night race on Saturday June 26th.

The speedway has advertised that it’s sending season ticket holders notification of the change, but if you have tickets and aren’t a season ticket holder, you may not be notified.

I’m sure this will create some hardships for some fans that aren’t able to make it to the speedway on Saturday night as opposed to Sunday Afternoon. You can rest assured that it doesn’t matter to the Milwaukee Mile speedway officials who are doing their best to cow-tow to NASCAR and the TV networks who make more money with the evening prime time advertising as opposed to Sunday afternoon advertising.

I’m not surprised to hear that Cup crew chief Gary Cogswell has hired on with Fitz/Bradshaw Racing to head up the No. 12 Supercuts Chevrolet that will be driven in 2004 by veteran Busch Series driver Tim Fedewa. Fedewa was hired as driver of the No. 12 after Kerry Earnhardt got the boot.

Cogswell was crew chief last season on the No. 54 Bel-Car Racing’s Ford. The Bel-Car team has recently disbanded because of the lack of sponsorship for the No. 54 as the former National Guard sponsor has moved over to Roush Racing’s No. 16 Ford driven by Greg Biffle. Sam Belnavis, part owner of the Bel-Car team, has taken a position with Roush Racing as director of Roush’s diversity programs. I never heard of any diversity programs at Roush Racing, but apparently there will be some effort from the financially beleaguered team to try to advance minorities in racing.

Cogswell joins the slew of Cup Series personnel who have moved down to the Busch and Craftsman Truck Series in order to secure full time employment in NASCAR racing. You can look for the possible emergence of former Cup drivers Johnny Benson and Steve Park in the Busch Series sometime during the 2004 season.

Fitz/Bradshaw Racing also named Jay Guy as the crew chief on its No. 14 Chevy which is being driven by Casey Atwood for the 2004 series. Atwood was once with Evernham Motorsports in the Cup Series, but was let go before this past season got underway. Jay Guy was formerly the crew chief on the No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac fielded by MBV Motorsports and driven by Johnny Benson. The No. 10 Cup team let Benson go at the end of the 2003 season and hired former Busch Series driver Scott Riggs, who brought his crew to Cup with him from the No. 10 Nestles Ford.