On a day more suited for ducks than trucks, Bobby Hamilton's sponsorship announcement made the biggest splash of the day. Hamilton announced a partial season sponsorship with Bailey's, a tobacco company based in Virginia, and unveiled a sharp looking blue and fluorescent yellow color scheme for 2005. Hamilton, the 2004 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, also announced that Timothy Peters will take the wheel of a Bailey's sponsored No. 04 Dodge out of the Bobby Hamilton Racing stable starting at Martinsville.
In the meantime, Casey Atwood will take the reins of the No. 04 truck. Atwood, who ran his first Truck Series race as a 16-year-old at Nashville Fairgrounds Raceway in 1996 in a Hamilton-owned Chevrolet, is slated to run three races for BHR: Daytona, California, and Atlanta.
Matt Crafton was confirmed yesterday as the driver of the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet in 2005 for ThorSport Racing. He will team with Tracy Hines, who will pilot the team's No. 13 trucks.
Jeff Hensley has moved from one team to another within the Bill Davis Racing operation. Hensley has moved from Bill Lester's No. 22 ride to take over as top wrench on Mike Skinner's No. 5 truck.
Fiddleback Racing is not here in Daytona this weekend. Driver Todd Bodine is at the track, but neither he nor teammate J.R. Patton will be making any testing laps. It is expected they will run at Talladega in the coming weeks to prepare for Daytona.
An informal poll among crew chiefs and drivers found the majority would like to spend as much time as possible working on race setups and testing in drafting conditions. With 12 hours of testing on tap tomorrow, expect many teams to work solely on their setups in race traffic conditions.
Jason Jarrett is scheduled to drive the No. 59 Harris Trucking Dodge here this weekend.
NASCAR's new qualifying procedures have had an immediate impact in the garage. Smaller, independent teams like Green Light Racing have been reenergized by having guaranteed starting positions in the first four races of the season, which gives them a head start on getting and maintaining a top-30 points position through the season.
Tomorrow's on-track action is scheduled from 9 am ET through 9 pm ET.