Join the Discussion "It is bad enough that we have 4 door family cars in NASCAR such as the Taurus and Intrepid.....now there is Toyota?" EMMPGH

Related Resources • Winston Cup Drivers • Winston Cup Tracks • Tony Stewart

Dateline: December 16, 2002

As NASCAR Winston Cup teams get ready to head to Daytona for testing many teams are adjusting to new drivers and new cars. This year's Silly Season has shuffled the deck more this year than any other in recent memory and there are still more announcements coming. Here are the highlights so far.

New Cars

Some big name drivers will be changing brands for 2003. Brand new Winston Cup Champion Tony Stewart and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bobby Labonte will leave Pontiac in favor of the new Chevy Monte Carlo. Another big switch brings the Penske Racing #2 and #12 cars of Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman from Ford to Dodge for next year.

Both Chevy and Pontiac have released new versions of their Winston Cup cars. The 2003 Monte Carlo has already tested extremely strongly. The 2003 Grand Prix has a distinctive nose but the rest of the car looks very much like a Dodge.

Big Name Driver Moves

Leading the pack here is Ricky Rudd who has moved over to the #21 Wood Brothers car. This lead to the complete dismantling of the Robert Yates #28 team. Fatback McSwain leaves as crew chief to go work with Bobby Labonte and Havoline leaves to go sponsor hot rookie candidate Jamie McMurray. There will be no car number 28 in 2003.

Yates instead is picking up Elliot Sadler and M&M's to sponsor a new team with car number 38.

The Rookies

2003 promises another bumper crop of rookies as 2002 NASCAR Winston Cup race winner Jamie McMurray is back full time to run for Raybestos rookie honors with his Ganassi team. It won't be easy for him though as Greg Biffle joins Roush Racing for 2003 and Casey Mears picks up Jimmy Spencer's old Sabates/Ganassi ride.

The Homeless

Guys who haven't announced their plans for 2003 include Jimmy Spencer, Casey Atwood, Todd Bodine, Mike Wallace and Ken Schrader. There is still time for these guys to put together a quality ride for the 2003 season, but clearly it's an uphill battle to find something this late in the game.