BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Avondale, Arizona — In a combination of logic and anger The Cat in the Hat, Jack Roush, offered his perspective regarding the points deducted by NASCAR after the Rockingham, N.C., event.

"Roush Racing's President, Geoff Smith, is really in control of this situation,” explained Roush. “I am so upset, so out of my mind, that I can't organize a decent thought that would be reasonable to set a strategy around. Geoff is looking at the thing, but, by my arithmetic, that's the third time something that was unwarranted and unjust and untimely has happened to me and I don't forget those things."

Roush elaborated that if the point difference between Tony Stewart and Mark Martin is less than 24 in the final tally that a legal war unlike any that’s ever been seen in NASCAR circles would commence immediately following the Homestead, Fla., event.

WING-GO
As early as Monday, teamfordracing.com expects Chip Ganassi will make his hiring of Crew Chief Donnie Wingo official. The word could have come today, but a meeting between Ganassi and Carl Hass kept Ganassi from addressing the situation.

Wingo, long time crew chief for Travis Carter, is expected to handle the car driven by Jamie McMurray in the 2003 campaign.

SMITH’S OPTIONS
Car owner James Smith is looking at his options after his co-ownership deal with Ray Evernham went south earlier this week. Smith and Evernham shared the No. 7 car to give Casey Atwood a place for to drive, after being displaced from the No. 19 ride at the end of the 2001 season by Jeremy Mayfield.

Smith, who was getting his engines from Evernham as part of his Atwood deal, is “99 percent sure” that he’ll run Mike Ege Racing Engines in 2003 as the team rebuilds. Smith’s short list of drivers includes Jason Leffler, who drove the No. 7 car this week at Phoenix and will also run the car at Homestead, Fla.; Ted Musgrave, Kevin Lepage and Mr. Excitement, Jimmy Spencer.

Smith also confirmed that Tony Furr left the team mid-race at Rockingham last week because he was disgusted with Atwood’s performance.

Atwood’s name is floating around the garage for several possibilities, including an Evernham-prepared car.

SO MANY OPTIONS
Richard Childress is still working on the 2003 lineup of crew chiefs for his five cars (three Winston Cup, two Busch Grand National). Childress would not confirm that he’d hired Harold Holly, who left ppc Racing earlier this week for an undisclosed position with a Winston Cup team.

When asked about the selection of five crew chiefs from the pool of six Childress said, “I don’t know, but I’ll be able to tell you next week.”

ELIMINATING OPTIONS
Danny “Chocolate” Myers, long-time gasman for the Richard Childress Racing operation, said that he’s not sure that he’ll be retiring from the road at the end of the year, as several outlets have reported.

“I may not even get off the road,” Myers said, today. “They did that [retirement story] six months ago when I was mad.”

Myers was part of the crew swap between Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 and Robby Gordon’s No. 31 earlier this year, which took Myers from the car he’d fueled when his long-time friend and driver Dale Earnhardt drove the car.