BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The first on-track test of the 2004 Taurus was labeled a success by Ford officials and driver Dale Jarrett.

Jarrett drove the car, built by the Wood Brothers team, Wednesday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"Everything went well,'' he said. "The car seems to be very well balanced. They did a really good job of building the car. It looks really nice, the lines on it are good, and it did things on the racetrack that we think will help us to be more competitive even for next year.''

So far this season, Fords have won six of 22 events and trail Chevrolet in the manufacturer's championship by 21 points. Chevys have won 11 times, while Dodge has four victories and Pontiac one.

Jarrett said the new car seemed to have improved downforce over the current model.

"I can see where the car has potential when you get it in race trim,'' Jarrett said. "Something the Fords fight, and that's a little more front downforce, and it seems like this car may have that without creating a lot of drag.

"I think that's something that we were interested in: Could we make something that was good for us still on the straightaways, but get us through the corners a little bit, too?''

The on-track test consisted of a series of multi-lap runs.

"They wanted to run over 10 laps at a time, and so we went out and did that, and they were looking at times,'' said Jarrett. "They had a certain time that they wanted to see, and I didn't even know how many laps I was going to be running, I just ran until they told me to come in, that the NASCAR folks were satisfied that that's what they were looking for.''

The new Taurus was tested later in the day by Ford and NASCAR at the wind tunnel at Lockheed in Marietta, Ga.

"It went extremely well and pretty much according to plan,'' said Ford spokesman Greg Specht. "And we're very pleased that we got the track test out of the way.''

Powering ahead
Officials at Michigan International Speedway said the track was operating on normal power Friday and has not been bothered much by the power outage that stretched from New York to just west of Detroit.

MIS, located about 70 miles southwest of Detroit, is playing host to the NASCAR Busch Series Cabelas 250 race Saturday and the NASCAR Winston Cup GFS Marketplace 400 Sunday.

Track spokesman Bill Janitz said the track experienced only a brief blackout on Thursday, lasting about one minute.

MIS and NASCAR did take the precaution of using a backup generator to run a second timing system during Friday's Busch and Winston Cup qualifying.

"Weve been advised by Consumers Power that there is a chance we may experience some brownouts today,'' Janitz said. "Rather than take the chance of losing power we decided to go with our backup generators.''

About 65,000 fans were expected at the track Friday, more than 100,000 Saturday and over 160,000 Sunday.

Stewart gives back
Reigning NASCAR Winston Cup champion Tony Stewart has started the Tony Stewart Foundation, created to raise funds that will then be primarily distributed to organizations that help care for critically ill children, as well as to lend support to families of race car drivers injured while racing.

Among the charities that will benefit from the Tony Stewart Foundation will be the Victory Junction Gang Camp, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities and the Make-A-Wish Foundation -- all of which have a long-standing relationship with Stewart.

"The foundation is something that I've wanted to do for quite awhile,'' Stewart said. "We've raised money for charity before, but it was always a deal here and then a deal there. We never had anything that was ongoing.

"With the foundation now in place, our fund-raising can be sustained year-round.''

To get the foundation rolling, Stewart will donate his share of the purse in Saturday's Busch Series race.

Miscellaneous
Last Sunday's Winston Cup race at Watkins Glen was the weekend's most watched sports telecast. ... Only series points leader Matt Kenseth, Terry Labonte, Kevin Harvick and Michael Waltrip have been running at the finish of all 22 races this season. ... Fords have won three straight Winston Cup races at Michigan International Speedway, but all four manufacturers have won at least once in the last seven races here. ... A Matt Kenseth victory on Sunday would bring an extra $230,000 from the Winston Leader Bonus that goes to a driver who wins a race while leading the points.