Biffle out, Spencer in......Hamilton Fastest

H

HardScrabble

Guest
The trucks are at Charlotte for testing, this should have been the second day but rain canceled all of yesterday and most of today.

Greg Biffle was slated to run the #7 Ultramotorsports Dodge and a press conference announced. Within an hour it was announced that "sponsor conflicts" would not allow it. Story is the sponsor who would not allow it is Ford. Grainger and Jack Roush had given their blessing to the deal prior to the original announcement.

Story now is that Mr Excitement, Jimmy Spencer, will pilot the truck in next week's race at Charlotte.

Rich Bickle may get a shot at the race as well. According to Truckseries.com NASCAR veteran short-track ace Rich Bickle will be driving the No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports entry.

In practice Bobby Hamilton was quickest. Another Winston Cup veteran, Ken Schrader was second quick. The top ten unofficial test speeds:

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
1. Bobby Hamilton, 171.958; 2. Ken Schrader, 170.875; 3. Jon Wood, 169.795; 4. Brendan Gaughan, 169.758; 5. Rick Crawford, 169.412; 6. Ted Musgrave, 169.380; 7. Kevin Harvick, 169.263; 8. Travis Kvapil, 169.173; 9. Jason Leffler, 169.078; 10. Dennis Setzer, 168.676.
 
I started to post yesterday about Biffle running the truck race...glad I didnt now.

Jack has been pretty free with Greg since last year when Greg ran a few Cup races.IMO,the Ford camp has been diminished with the departure of Penske and the 'weakened' Yates team.Apparently,they want to keep a tight grip on the Roush guys.They know they just let 'Gordon-gate II'occur with Kyle Busch defecting.Still surprising news though,in that the Car maker itself got involved. :eek:
 
I think Ford is still a bit miffed with Chrysler over the Penske deal.

As I got the story, Penske wanted something like 25 mill to make a deal with anyone. Ford had offered 20 mill and had an "understanding" that the Dodge boys would offer no more than that. They did; Ford claims they got no chance to counter; and the rest is history.
 
HS,your input is always helpful.

Not really surprised that Mopar spared no expense to snag Penske.Face it(No disrespect to the other Dodge teams)Ryan Newman is a hot property right now.The higest profile Dodge driver without doubt.At least he will be soon.
Seems like the manufacturer's can be pretty 'dog-eat-dog' sometimes.And I have been very reluctant to mention it on here,can't appear to be 'whining',but Fomoco is certainly at a weak point this season.The loss of Penske was bad enough,but arch rival Chevy snared Gibbs.The math is bad for the Oval:Dodge gets Newman,Chevy gets Tony.Not even mentioning the loss of Cal Wells and Craven,the sheer number of Ford teams is down quite a bit this year,and of the remaining teams only 5 or 6 have a real chance at doing much.And only about 2 that can put up BIG numbers.

The bright point is that Ford has often played the 'underdog' role pretty good.At least Roush still bleeds Ford Blue.
 
My heart bleeds for Ford.....Not! The reason Penske went with Dodge is the fact that they are backed by Daimler. Daimler wants a championship soon, if you think about how far Dodge has come since Daimler bought them out or if you want to call it....merged, they have made vast improvements. Not only in racing ,but in their overall auto industry. I used to love Fords, but once the mid 90s rolled around ,their quality started going down the tubes ,so i switched to Mopar, didn't hurt too that Daimler Benz was behind them!!!
 
We all have our ups and downs. We just need to tough it out.
 
Penske will probably jump ship again when Toyota comes into Winson Cup.


I thought I read somewhere that Jeremy Mayfield will drive the #7 truck at Charlotte?
 
Never mind...I guess I read wrong. It says that Jeremy was just testing it for Jimmy...
 
Mayfield to drive truck at Charlotte: Ultra Motorsports owner Jim Smith
announced that Jeremy Mayfield will drive the team's third Dodge Ram entry
in the inaugural Truck Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway this Friday
night. Mayfield tested the #7 Dodge for Ultra Motorsports last week at the
1.5-mile speedway. Jimmy Spencer, who drives Smith's #7 Winston Cup Dodge
Intrepid, was scheduled to drive, but soreness in his ribs from a hard crash
at Richmond International Raceway two weeks ago prevented him from testing
the truck last week. Mayfield will be driving the #7 American Tire
Distributors Dodge, the third truck in an elite lineup of Ultra Motorsports
entries. Friday night's Hardee's 200 is slated to start at 8:30pm/et and
will be televised live on SPEED.(Golin Harris PR)(5-12-2003)
 
Don't forget that Penske had a great relationship with Mercedes in the CART program and at Indy in 1994, I think that helped a lot. Now that Penske is a Toyota team in the IRL and the World's largest Toyota dealer he will for sure be a "factory" Toyota team in 2005...
 
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