Hate to do it, but just some basics; Please acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.
Please talk smack, we encourage healthy debate! BUT, You also must agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. You know the difference...
We hate spam as much as you do, but we also encourage advertisng by drivers, and teams, as well as other racing news and information websites. Feel free to place a link and/or banner in your signature or send your artwork/links to us for placement at adv@makinglaps.com.
Post anonymously or register, but only members will win random prizes periodically. We are pleased to have a great library of animated avatars, members may send a brief request of what they would like their avatar to be by emailing the bratmaster38@aol.com.
Now with all that out of the way.....Let's make some laps!
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Robert Yates Racing has extended an offer to NASCAR Busch Series rookie David Gilliland to drive its No. 38 Fords next season in the Nextel Cup Series, The Charlotte Observer has learned.
As of Saturday, Gilliland had not yet decided on the offer, multiple sources confirmed. Gilliland was running in Saturday's Goody's 250 at Martinsville Speedway and not immediately available for comment.
Gilliland, 30, shocked the NASCAR world June 17 when he won the Busch race at Kentucky Speedway in only his seventh series start.
He is currently driving a partial Busch schedule this season for Clay Andrews Racing, but is not currently under contract with the team. He also entered one Cup race with CJM Racing in Sonoma, Calif.
Earlier this week, Yates granted an early release to driver Elliott Sadler, who currently drives the No. 38. This summer, Sadler's teammate, Dale Jarrett, announced he was leaving Yates at the end of the season to join Toyota and Michael Waltrip Racing.
Gilliland, a native of Riverside, Calif., was the 2005 winner of the Toyota All-Star Showdown, an all-star event featuring NASCAR regional short track drivers. He was the Grand National, West series rookie of the year in 2004.
He'd be smarter to head to Childress and drive for RCR in the Busch series instead of hooking up with a sinking ship and making himself look bad.
with yates doing poorly, i never would have seen the day when petty interprises would out run both eilliot and DJ in qual and race...... in this order HENDRICK GIBBS RCR and EVERHAM would have been good prospects for dave,
If he does have an actuall offer from RCR it would be a good deal, but TALK and CONTRACTS are very different things.
Also I do not believe that Yates is by anyway DONE. They have a partnership with Roush Racing, and if you look at Roush they are not exactly setting the world on fire lately. The Fords in general are just not running all that well. I would expect to see that change.
Finally, Gilliland has no Cup experience unlike Jarret and Sadler . A "new" driver is sometimes much easier for a team to work with, as he is more apt to try different things. If you doubt my opinion here, look at the #11 and Denny Hamlin.
That car could not get out of the garage with other drivers. Enough said ?
-- Edited by WhelenModifiedTour at 20:52, 2006-07-25
__________________
NASCAR MODIFIEDS...WHERE IT ALL BEGAN. LET'S REMIND NASCAR OF THEIR ROOTS.
Sounds like from the DJ & ES reports that Yates only has 6 engineers while other teams have as many as 20 or more. Yates needs to get with the program and if Ward can find a sponsor and an interpreter he could not only get a 3rd Yates car but also give the youngsters some advice.
I say RYR should grab this kid (I know he's 30 yrs old, not a kid by today's standards) if at all possible. As WMT stated had anybody even heard of Denny Hamlin a year or so ago, an look what he is doing.
Somewhat off topic. Remember when Gilliland won the BGN race at Kentucky an the Nascar PR machine and the media hailed it as the biggest upset since god know's when. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not taking away one iota what Gilliland did behind the wheel he is a BGN rookie, but the media just went on and on with the whole upstart team, unsponsored thing, etc, etc.
So me being the skeptic I am, I looked into this a little further. The team he drives for is Clay Andrews Racing and Clay Andrews was an internet entrepreneur and is the owner of the largest machine shop on the west coast, Hype Manufacturing can you say multi millionaire?
Also, the team's chassis are built by Eddie Dickerson, yes the one that worked for Hendrick Motorsports for umpteen years. The team's engines are built by Steve Allen, yes the one that was with Robert Yates Racing back when they had all that power. And lastly the team's crew chief is Billy Wilburn of Penske Racing fame.
So you get where I'm going with this, let's see Kertus Davis in his family owned #0 win one then you have a story Nascar and the media!
