Yates may sell No. 88

Ford officials have picked up the pace with Robby Gordon, the company's newest NASCAR driver, adding an engineer to crew chief Greg Erwin's staff. However, car owner Robert Yates, for years one of Ford's top men in NASCAR, still hasn't been able to come up with a driver and crew chief for his No. 88 team, which won the 1999 championship with Dale Jarrett at the wheel. And speculation continues that Yates may simply sell the number to another team. The number, under NASCAR rules, would give any buyer guaranteed starting spots in the first five Nextel Cup races next season.

Robby Gordon came close to buying the 88 team two months ago but Yates backed out of the deal at the last minute. Gordon, however, is now talking about reviving that offer.

Some Toyota teams also may be interested in the 88 logo, since they will be starting from scratch next season.

And there is a report that Dale Earnhardt Inc. is interested in buying the 88, although it would seem rather unlikely that Ford Motor Company would let yet another piece of its NASCAR pie go to the competition. Ford lost legend Mark Martin to Chevrolet last month.

One piece to the puzzle appears to be billionaire John Menard, whose son Paul, 26, drives for Teresa Earnhardt and DEI. John Menard has approached Gordon about setting up a team for Paul. Gordon, though, has had his hands full with his own two-year-old NASCAR team, though he is now trying to expand, because single-car operations are very difficult to run at a competitive level. Winston-Salem Journal