2004 Nextel Cup Preview

There's an old joke among volunteer fire departments that they always manage to save the foundation. When fans enter Daytona International Speedway in February for the opening of the '04 NASCAR season, they will recognize the foundation of the sport, but the proverbial rest of the building will have burned to the ground.It is hard to understate the degree of change that will greet NASCAR fans in 2004. Bill France Jr. has handed the reigns of NASCAR over to his son Brian. R.J. Reynolds Company and its Winston brand have abdicated three decades worth of title sponsorship of NASCAR's premiere series to communications giant Nextel. Union 76, one of the first companies to sponsor NASCAR when it gave Bill France Sr. seed money to build Daytona International Speedway in the mid-'50s, is also out as the official fuel supplier in favor of Sunoco.Amazingly, at the 11th hour and in an announcement that left Pontiac teams in disarray for 2004, GM announced it was dropping Pontiac from the '04 Nextel Cup series. Chevrolet and its Monte Carlo become the sole GM brand to market in 2004.

On the racetrack, NASCAR's most storied event-The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, a 53-year Labor Day tradition-is left smoldering in the ashes in favor of a second date at the more corporate- and media-friendly California Speedway. There's also a second redesign of the Ford Taurus since the Blue Oval Boys hoodwinked the public in 1998 into thinking this ultimate grocery getter was a thoroughbred race car.

There were also indications from NASCAR brass as early as mid-season that the consistency-is-better points system would be overhauled prior to the '04 campaign. Clearly, with all of these changes, this is the stuff four-alarm fires are made of, and NASCAR management is going to get a full test. This is not a drill.

Perhaps nowhere is the blaze of change raging out of control more than in the garage area. Few teams will show up for the 45th running of the Daytona 500 with the same sponsor and driver lineup they employed in 2003. The "Silly Season," which used to be a post-Labor Day phenomenon, proved to be a yearlong epic in 2003 as sponsors strayed and drivers swayed from their current situations.

In an effort to strike the first match on the '04 NASCAR season, here's a team-by-team look at what you might see when you strap on your seat in the grandstand for the Daytona 500 and the '04 NASCAR season. [Editor's Note: Please keep in mind that due to the multiweek manufacturing and distribution lead time requirements of producing a monthly magazine, this was written in mid-October 2003. YMMV.]

0 The '03 Haas CNC Racing effort was one of the biggest fire drills in NASCAR last season, jettisoning driver Jack Sprague by mid-July and nearly losing sponsor NetZero at season's end. Jason Leffler got a messy divorce from Dodge and his Ultra Motorsports NASCAR Truck series team to take over the seat for the remainder of the year, and presumably for 2004. At the fall Charlotte race, NetZero re-upped, the team announced Leffler was out (he'll go to a Hass NBS entry), and Ward Burton took over this ride for the remainder of 2003 and this season. Reality TV can't match NASCAR for twists.

1 The turmoil at this Dale Earnhardt Inc. team started early in 2003 when Pennzoil indicated it wasn't returning as the team's primary sponsor in 2004. That was followed by the subsequent driver swap between Steve Park and Jeff Green after they tangled at Richmond. Since then, this ride has been shopped more than a dollar flea market, with one wild rumor that IRL driver Sam Hornish was offered the deal and accepted before opting out. Busch series driver Scott Riggs-who has been rumored for almost every open seat in the garage-along with John Andretti and a cast of thousands were the reported front-runners. Riggs signed with the No. 10 as Johnny Benson was asked to leave. No word yet on the sponsor at the time of this writing, but no need to worry, as the DEI name and secondary associations with Dale Earnhardt Jr. are sure to attract a crowd of potential suitors for the seat and the quarter-panels.

2 This is one of the few teams that may come to Daytona pretty much the same as it ended 2003. Rusty Wallace is part owner in Penske South, a sure way to retain job security, and Miller Lite has developed into an icon sponsor of the sport. The only question here is, Will crewchief Billy Wilburn be back?