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| | Thursday, December 21 Robinson to enter seven Winston events | |||||
| Associated Press Shawna Robinson has already unwrapped her new toys. The ARCA series driver showed off her team's new Robert Yates Racing engines last weekend during a three-day testing session at Daytona International Speedway. "I wish I was running the full season for points because we definitely have the team to do it," Robinson said. Robinson will try to race in seven NASCAR Winston Cup events and plans to compete in 13 ARCA races - including the season-opening Discount Auto Parts 200 at Daytona on Feb. 11. Robinson's Ford was fourth at Daytona with a fast lap of 185.056 mph. Ryan Newman was the test leader at 186.997. Along with the engines, Robinson has a new crew chief in longtime NASCAR crewman Joe Dan Bailey. "The biggest thing for us to do right now is to improve and learn," Robinson said. "We've definitely accomplished that here this weekend." Expansion franchise Fernandez Racing, the CART team formed by 2000 series runner-up Adrian Fernandez and Tom Anderson, opened its race shop last week in Indianapolis. The team will field Honda-powered Reynards for Fernandez and second-year Japanese driver Shinji Nakano. Anderson is the former managing director for Chip Ganassi's team, which won the title from 1996-99. Fernandez will be reunited with race engineer John Ward, the former chief engineer at Patrick Racing. Martin Pare also will be a race engineer. He previously worked for Forsythe Championship Racing. IROC update Jeff Burton will return to the International Race of Champions series for the fourth straight season. Burton is the sixth driver selected for the 12-man field, joining fellow Winston Cup stars Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd, and the IRL's Buddy Lazier, Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever. The drivers will compete in identically prepared Pontiac Firebirds at Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Michigan Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. End of the road The L.A. Street Race, the event run the last four years on a temporary downtown course, is searching for a sponsor to continue. While Ford's departure has left race organizers scrambling for survival, the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series has an open date in its July schedule should a sponsor be found. "We can always add a race," said series director Danny Grill. | ||||||