Roush To Build Yates Cars
Roush Fenway Racing will be building all of Yates Racing’s Sprint Cup next season, and team co-owner Jack Roush said he’s looking forward to helping the Yates group return to its performance levels of old.

Starting with the 2008 season, Roush Fenway Racing will manufacture all of Yates Racing’s cars, with Yates moving to Concord, N.C., next to Roush Fenway’s shops. Yates, meanwhile, will lease its current shop in Mooresville, N.C., to Petty Enterprises.

“We’re making preparations to enter into a service agreement with them that will avail them of the technology and of the vehicles with the engineering essence and the vehicles that are coming out of our construction activities,” said Roush Saturday morning at Phoenix International Raceway. “We want to try to breath some blue sky and some viability back into the program.”

One of the benefits of Roush Fenway Racing building cars for both teams is that in the long run, it will result in cost savings, because the cost for R&D, tooling, etc., will be spread over a larger number of cars, Roush said.

“We’ve got some opportunities of scale, in terms of understanding what we need to do and then the more volume you generate off that for the same amount of engineering work, design work, tooling, all those things you do, it’s an extraordinarily expensive proposition to go do all the testing that’s necessary to build and support one Cup car in today’s world,” said Roush. “If, taken to the other extreme, an IROC scenario where all the cars were completely identical coming out of the factory, then the cost to the teams and the value to the sponsors would be maximized. This is something in between.”(fordracing.com)

Next Move Is Pettys
The ball is in the court of Richard Petty as to whether there is a merger/partnership between Petty Enterprises and Gillett Evernham Motorsports. George Gillett, the majority owner of GEM, said he hoped to maintain at least a commercial relationship with the Pettys regarding their exchange of engines and chassis.

"Whether it goes further, that's up to Richard," Gillett said.

Petty announced this past week that he is moving Petty Enterprises from Level Cross, N.C., into the Robert Yates Racing shop in Mooresville, N.C. He said the move is being made independent of talks with any organization wishing to partner with his.

Gillett has expressed an interest in combining the two companies in a manner that would allow Petty Enterprises to maintain an identity.(espn.go.com)

Race and Commercial Breakdown of the Checker Auto Parts 500