Shelmerdine to sell Daytona 500 ride?

Kirk Shelmerdine in his sixth long-shot try made the field for the Daytona 500. Shelmerdine, 47, was NASCAR's top crew chief in the 1980s and early 1990s, winning four championships with Dale Earnhardt. He abruptly left the Richard Childress team after 1992, went into semi-seclusion, and began pursuing a somewhat quixotic career as driver. This week, Shelmerdine's #27 entry amounted to a last chance. "If we didn't make it, I didn't know what I was going to do next week," he said after the heats. I was going to have to sell a bunch of stuff. I'd have had to sell the car and a lot of my old Ford stuff from last year." Basically put him out of business? "Yep," Kirk said. "But I didn't have much to lose." However it falls right now, Shelmerdine seems to have a lot to gain. Last place in the 500 pays about $275,000, and the bundle could go much higher if, say, Valvoline, which was shut out of the race when Scott Riggs failed to meet criteria, decides to buy Shelmerdine out [Jayski NOTE: Riggs runs a Dodge, Shelmerdine is a Chevy, have to use the same car]. Shelmerdine smiled his cat smile. "My lawyer's here, they can come talk to her," he said. "I don't know what we're going to do. The plan was to get through today in good shape. Now it's time for a new plan." Speed Channel

AND Thursday night, as Shelmerdine continued a massive effort to control his emotions, that #27 Chevrolet looked like a Rolls Royce. Beginning today, it might as well be. A few decent sponsors, and at least one prominent one (Valvoline, which bankrolls Scott Riggs' #10 car), might be ready to deal for a little logo placement in Sunday's big show. "The quarterpanels are open," said Shelmerdine, who smiled broadly and added, "the price has gone up." Daytona Beach News Journal