BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Hampton, Ga. — Saturday (unlike Friday when the mantra was “Hey, at least it’s not 40 degrees!”) gave NASCAR’s Winston Cup drivers a chance to run their machines in preparation for the NAPA 500. Those practice sessions showed the Ford cars are competitively close, but that the teams have got their work cut out for them on Sunday.

Fastest in the final Happy Hour practice was point leader Tony Stewart in his Home Depot Pontiac. He got to the top of the speed sheets with a 29.880-second lap at 185.542 mph.

The fastest Ford in the group was the Robert Yates Racing No. 88, piloted by Dale Jarrett. Jarrett toured the 1.54-mile track with a lap of 185.146 mph that was just 0.064 mph slower than Stewart’s.

Unfortunately, Jarrett was the only Ford in the Top-5 and only one of three who made it into the Top-10 as Todd Bodine (seventh) and Kurt Busch (ninth) pushed their rides in race trim.

Championship hopefuls Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman practices 23rd, 21st and 14th fastest respectively.

AGE HATH NO PRIVILEGE
As difficult to as it may be to believe, the oldest body style in Winston Cup was the last to get the 2003 templates. The first complete 2003 template sets were made available to the GM teams at a Sept. 8 meeting where NASCAR showed all the teams what would be expected of them in the 2003 inspection process.

NASCAR gave the Ford teams the majority of their 2003 templates in late September. The delay came in the templates that measure the front cowl and the rear window areas.

The delay has hampered Ford aero engineers who couldn’t hit their early October wind tunnel reservations, where the changes to the car bodies were to be tested. The delay with the templates, however, is nothing compared the past when teams often didn’t know which way to go with their car building chores until after January’s Daytona International Speedway testing.

The only area of the body that unknown to Ford is the chassis nose as NASCAR and Ford officials continue to work on a new nosepiece for the Taurus. However, it is expected the Ford piece will in no way match the “world sports car” style noses on the new Monte Carlo and Grand Prix.

GM TEST SCHEDULED
The GM teams will test their new cars at Homestead-Miami Speedway the day after the season finale at Homestead, Fla. No 2002 models will be allowed during the open test session. It is expected the GM teams will thoroughly test the front downforce in the new noses.

TOYOTA FISHING
According to industry sources the new kids on the block, Toyota, are trolling the garage looking for help with their start-up NASCAR motor program. What are they using for bait? A $25 million, three-year contract.

The plan calls for a Craftsman Truck entry in 2004 and a Cup car ready for the 2005 or ‘06 season.

WHO IS THAT DRIVER?
One driver cruising the Winston Cup garage this weekend was Max Papis. The former CART driver for Team Rahal is virtually unknown in this land of hot dogs and beer.

An aero engineers seeing Papis was able to travel unencumbered through the garage, said, “Funny, [the fans] only know a few of these drivers when they’re not in a drivers suit. I guess Max doesn’t make the cut because no one’s paying attention to him.”

No word as to what Papis was up to, other than smiling when asked what he was doing hanging out in the low-tech world of Winston Cup.