UPDATE: Now the #90 car
John Andretti will drive the #90 America Online/Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) Chevy for Richard Childress Racing (RCR) in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series’ EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sept. 28. The fourth RCR Winston Cup entry will be a research and development car in preparation for the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Bobby Leslie will be the crew chief and the over-the-wall crew will be RCR’s #21 PayDay NASCAR Busch Series team. Legendary NASCAR team owner Junie Donlavey agreed to allow RCR the use of his famed #90 for the race to tie into the recent introduction of the AOL 9.0® Optimized service, the most compelling upgrade in AOL history.
“John’s current driving situation with DEI was not in place when he committed to drive the fourth car for us at Talladega so I’m glad we were able to work this deal out,” said Richard Childress, president and CEO of RCR. “We’re running the fourth car to get a head-start on the 2004 season so I appreciate John helping us out with the work we’ll need to have done before testing at Daytona in January. Being able to tie AOL and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation together on the car is very important to me personally because of my respect and admiration for everyone in the military, and especially those in Special Operations. We’re just doing what we can to help raise awareness for the group and the work they do to provide college scholarship grants and counseling for the children of Special Operations personnel who are killed in action or training exercises. I also want to thank Junie Donlavey for letting us use his #90. That number has a great history in NASCAR because of Junie, so I hope we can get a good finish for him.”
Andretti was named as the driver of the Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI) #1 Pennzoil Chevy in late August after already committing to drive the RCR entry at Talladega. He has two NASCAR Winston Cup victories, 13 top-five and 37 top-10 finishes since becoming a fulltime Winston Cup driver in 1994 and finished 18th in last year’s EA Sports 500.
. The SOWF began in 1980 as the Col. Arthur D. “Bull” Simons Scholarship Fund and was created after the Iranian hostage rescue attempt to provide college educations for the 17 children that survived the nine men killed or incapacitated at Desert One. A tax-exempt 501 © (3) nonprofit organization, SOWF is dedicated to providing college scholarships and educational counseling to the children surviving Special Operations personnel killed as a result of an operational mission or training accident. These services are provided throughout the United States, or overseas, depending upon where the surviving children reside. To date, 455 children of fallen Special Operations personnel are involved in the program, of which 65 are currently attending college
