Top Row Seat - New Year's Roulette
Dateline: 1/4/99Happy New Year
Apparently as I took a couple of weeks off to visit family and friends over the holidays, many race teams were busy trying to finalize details for the 1999 racing season.
According to news from NASCAR Online today Steve Grissom has apparently found a home for 1999 with Joe Falk's unsponsored #91 team. Although it's better than Steve's previous plans for 1999 (none). I've got to believe that this marks the beginning of the end of what was at one time a promising young Winston Cup career.
I believe that Steve would be better off with a quality BGN team than struggling along with an unsponsored Cup team.
One bright spot in the press release is that a name from my racing roots, John Birosh, has been hired to be the crew chief for the team. I cut my racing teeth on D.I.R.T Modifieds racing around Central New York where John Birosh was a great racing name as much for his Birosh Chassis as for his driving skill. It's nice to see a deserving guy (and a local) get a chance to make a name for himself.
Good luck to John in his big-league debut.
Getting Closer
And one other sure sign that the new year is upon us is that testing has begun at Daytona International Speedway for the 1999 Daytona 500. According to the news story at Speedworld, Dick Trickle was the fastest in a very light turnout for Fords.
Why are the Ford teams not there for practice this week? Any thoughts? Stop by the bulletin boards and let me know what you think is going on. Or you can swing by the chat room Wednesday night from 8-9pm EST to talk about this and anything else NASCAR.
