Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Winston Cup, Busch drivers to test at LVMS

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002 | 9:38 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, Las Vegas native Kurt Busch and Kerry Earnhardt will be among the 45 NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series drivers taking part in a four-day test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Jan. 28-31.

Each team will be allowed to test on two of the four days. The sessions, which run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, will be open to the public at no charge.

Gordon, who won his fourth Winston Cup championship in 2001, is the defending champion of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, which will be held March 3 at the 1.5-mile superspeedway. The 30-year-old driver also won the $1 million Winston "No Bull 5" bonus in addition to his nearly $370,000 first-place check.

This year's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 again will be one of the five "No Bull 5" races in 2002. All five drivers eligible for the million-dollar bonus -- Earnhardt Jr., Stewart, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth and Bobby Hamilton -- will be testing at LVMS at the end of the month.

Winston Cup regulars Burton, Joe Nemechek and Jimmy Spencer also are scheduled to test their Busch Series cars during the week.

Brendan Gaughan, another Las Vegas native who will be competing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on a full-time basis this season, is scheduled to test a Winston Cup car on Jan. 30 and 31. Gaughan will attempt to qualify for this year's Winston Cup race at LVMS.

Other Winston Cup drivers slated to take part in the test include Dale Jarrett, Jeremy Mayfield, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader, Bobby Labonte, Mike Skinner, Kyle Petty, Terry Labonte, Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon.

Kerry Earnhardt, the oldest son of the late Dale Earnhardt, is embarking upon his first season in the Busch Series. Other Busch Series drivers, including Greg Biffle, Tony Raines, Jeff Purvis, Jeff Green, Hank Parker Jr., Larry Foyt and Casey Mears will take part in the test.

Mears is the son of former Indy Car driver Roger Mears and the nephew of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Rick Mears.

Atwood, who drove the No. 19 Dodge for Ray Evernham in 2001, said he feels confident his new team can help him pick up where he left off at the end of last season.

"I feel like I've learned a lot last season, especially the last half," Atwood said. "I feel like I'm a lot better racecar driver now.

"I feel like we can take the same technology and things we learned last year and just put it into this car and hopefully we can make all three cars run like we did the last half of the season."

Ganassi, who fields cars for Sterling Marlin and Jimmy Spencer in the Winston Cup Series, said he is trying to find the money to run Brack in the Feb. 17 Daytona 500.