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TonyB
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NASCAR.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Former Sprint Car driver Blake Feese's trajectory into NASCAR racing took a meteor's path Tuesday when the Illinois native was named to drive Gene Haas' Busch Series car this weekend at Kansas Speedway.
Feese, who is part of Hendrick Motorsports' driver development program, replaces Jason Leffler, who has driven Haas' No. 00 Haas Automation Chevrolet into third in the Busch standings on the strength of a Bud Pole, a victory and 17 top-10 finishes in 27 starts.
"Jason is still under contract and has not been released," Haas CNC Racing's marketing director Carl Cline said. "Jason has simply been removed from the car for this weekend's event and we'll evaluate things on Monday.
"We're happy to help Hendrick Motorsports with their development program."
Feese, 22, of Saybrook, Ill., drove a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to victory last Saturday in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, his second ARCA victory this season for HMS in four starts, all of which have been top-10 finishes.
Of late, Leffler's name has been active in the rumor mill as a possible driver for Joe Gibbs Racing's third fulltime team for 2005 in the Nextel Cup Series, a No. 11 Federal Express Chevrolet.
Tuesday, Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs was unavailable to comment on his organization's plans for the 11 car, which used Ricky Craven as its driver at Talladega in its second race this season.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Federal Express have scheduled a news conference for Oct. 13 at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in North Carolina to announce their 2005 plans.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Former Sprint Car driver Blake Feese's trajectory into NASCAR racing took a meteor's path Tuesday when the Illinois native was named to drive Gene Haas' Busch Series car this weekend at Kansas Speedway.
Feese, who is part of Hendrick Motorsports' driver development program, replaces Jason Leffler, who has driven Haas' No. 00 Haas Automation Chevrolet into third in the Busch standings on the strength of a Bud Pole, a victory and 17 top-10 finishes in 27 starts.
"Jason is still under contract and has not been released," Haas CNC Racing's marketing director Carl Cline said. "Jason has simply been removed from the car for this weekend's event and we'll evaluate things on Monday.
"We're happy to help Hendrick Motorsports with their development program."
Feese, 22, of Saybrook, Ill., drove a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to victory last Saturday in the ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, his second ARCA victory this season for HMS in four starts, all of which have been top-10 finishes.
Of late, Leffler's name has been active in the rumor mill as a possible driver for Joe Gibbs Racing's third fulltime team for 2005 in the Nextel Cup Series, a No. 11 Federal Express Chevrolet.
Tuesday, Gibbs Racing president J.D. Gibbs was unavailable to comment on his organization's plans for the 11 car, which used Ricky Craven as its driver at Talladega in its second race this season.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Federal Express have scheduled a news conference for Oct. 13 at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in North Carolina to announce their 2005 plans.
