| | Associated Press
Michael Waltrip will return to the No. 7 car next year, and the Jim Smith-owned NASCAR Winston Cup team will switch from Chevrolets to Fords late this season.
The new cars will be powered by Penske engines, the motors that have carried Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield to a combined eight poles and four victories this year.
"When I first bought this team a few months ago, I said then we were going to build the best possible race team we could," said Smith, who also is bringing back Bobby Kennedy as crew chief. "That's what were doing.
"We think the switch to Ford will give us the best race car, and the switch to Penske will give us the best engines."
Waltrip is winless in 447 Winston Cup races.
"Bobby and I almost felt like we were on an island sometimes because we knew exactly what we needed to do, but we didn't know where to turn to get it done," Waltrip said. "Along came Jim Smith, who knows what he wants to do and gets it done."
Smith's Ultra Motorsports also owns Mike Wallace's Ford truck team.
Taking over
Winston Cup regular Sterling Marlin will drive the late Kenny Irwin's Busch Series car for the six remaining races on the team's schedule.
Irwin was killed July 7 in a crash while practicing one of the team's Winston Cup cars at New Hampshire International Speedway. He drove the BellSouth Mobility Chevrolet in 10 Busch races this season.
Team SABCO and BellSouth Mobility have changed the Busch car's number from 42 to 01, duplicating the move they made on Irwin's Winston Cup car, driven to a 16th-place finish Sunday by Ted Musgrave in Long Pond, Pa.
"Driving Kenny's Busch car is my way of honoring his memory," Marlin said. "He was a great teammate and competitor, and is greatly missed." | |
|
