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Mid January


Team Gordon, 2000 IROC schedule, Hot Wheels and Happy Meals, 2000 Dodge Intrepid Winston Cup preview, and the up-coming rookie battle.





Team Gordon........ Hires Crew Chief....

Robbie Gordon is making his return to Winston Cup this season, and has 9 cars ready, including 2 for the Daytona 500. He has hired Fred Graves, former technical director at Hendrick Motorsports, and father of Andy Graves, former crew chief of Terry Labonte's No. 5 Kelloggs car. Fred led Dale Earnhardt Inc and Ron Hornaday to several Craftsman Truck series wins, and a second championship before moving to Winston Cup last year. It seems like the Graves family is uniting with former open wheel talent. As I wrote in last weeks article, Andy is now working for Chip Ganassi, and it's highly speculated that he will head up Chip's Winston Cup team in 2001.

Robbie also hired Doug Louth, former Ford Racing engineer, to head up Team Gordon's engineering dept. Louth designed the road course chassis for Irvan-Simo Racing that Boris Said used to qualify on the front row at Watkins Glen. The team will use Pro Motors, winners of 8 Winston Cup events, including the Brickyard 400.



International Race of Champions.......... 2000 Schedule

Yes, I know IROC isn't NASCAR Winston Cup, but a lot of Cup drivers participate in the event, and for the past 4 years, a Cup driver has won all the gold. Mark Martin has three championships and Dale Earnhardt won it last year. The 4 race series will begin at Daytona, Feb. 18th at 2 PM, and will be televised by ABC Sports at 5 PM EST following the Winston Cup race at Atlanta on March 12th.

The second race will be held at Talledega on April 15th, and will be televised April 16th at 5 PM EST by ABC Sports. The third race will be held at Michigan on June 10th, and will be televised live at noon by ESPN. The final race will be held at Indianapolis on August 4th, and will be televised August 5th following the Brickyard 400 Winston Cup race.



NASCAR Online........ Web Site Change

I guess we should have known things would change when ESPN got shuffled out of the TV deal with NASCAR. ESPN runs the NASCAR Online web site. NASCAR has advised ESPN that the companies deal to run the web site will not be renewed after the 2001 racing season. Sources have revealed that the change could take place before the 2001 season begins. NASCAR is expected to enter into a web site deal with one of their new TV partners, NBC/Turner, or Fox.
The copyright of the article Mid January in NASCAR is owned by Thomas M. Sampson. Permission to republish Mid January in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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