Wheels & Deals: Hendrick May Expand Affiliate Programs

If Earnhardt (r) Moves JR Motorsports To Cup Series, Hendrick Would Have To Sell His Stake

CHANGING LANES: NASCAR SCENE's Pockrass reported Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) "would like to move a Sprint Cup team to Yates Racing when it needs to cut from five to four after this season to meet a NASCAR mandate." Most people have "assumed that would be a fifth team with either Jamie McMurray or another driver because McMurray is in a contract year." But RFR President Geoff Smith said that it "hasn't been decided because the organization still must get five teams sponsored." Smith: "We're trying to do these sponsors, and it depends on where the pieces lay and how much -- we're not quite there with the budgets to know how it's going to work. There's a possibility that we could move someone else if it made the sponsorship work for both (organizations). If we can't make the sponsorship work at Yates with Jamie but we could make it work at Roush Fenway and somebody else at Roush Fenway could make it so their sponsor could go to Yates, then it's possible" (SCENEDAILY.com, 6/22).

LONG SHOT? Suspended NASCAR driver Carl Long was fined $200,000 for an oversized engine, and in Daytona Beach, Godwin Kelly reports Long is "talking with various sponsors about paying his penalty and resuming his part-time driving career." Long: "I'm looking for one corporate sponsor to sponsor my car at Bristol." Long "hopes to find a company that will pick up the tab for a new car-engine combination and pay the fine, a total of $300,000 in sponsor money for a one-shot effort at Bristol" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 6/23).

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