BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Daytona Beach, Fla. — NASCAR’s John Darby told TFR, today, that the new 2004 Taurus has met the requirements set forth in the rulebook as they pertain to new car submissions.

The NASCAR rulebook clearly states that all cars that are to be considered for competition in the following calendar year must be submitted to NASCAR no later than July 1 of the current event season.

“The submittal process is well underway,” said the director of NASCAR. “We’ve seen the first iterations of nose and tail and things like that and have worked through that process. From there they’re going back to clean some real small minor issues up.”

Estimating when he’d get the car Darby said, “I think probably mid-August we’ll have the car where we’ll be able to track and tunnel test it.”

The track and tunnel test are a sure sign that the ’04 Taurus is well on it’s way to NASCAR’s final scrutiny, including a visit to Atlanta Motor Speedway for on-track runs. Once those laps are completed the car will be loaded onto a hauler and transported to the Lockheed wind tunnel for aero testing.

The truck series is a bit of a different beast as every vehicle that’ll run in that series in 2004 is being subjected to an aero-matching program, though “maybe not as extensively, but a good solid foundation on it” according to Darby. The F-150 and the new Tundra, along with the other brands, are in a similar process point as the new Taurus model.

SURVEY SAYS …
According to Darby the surveying of car builds with the unofficial new cowl template will continue. The new template ensures that the cowl is on the car squarely, which keeps the teams from fooling the dreaded “F3” template.

CONCERNS
Ford Racing Technology’s Director, Dan Davis, addressed Greg Biffle’s driving a competing product in Friday’s Busch Series race by saying, “We are disappointed that Greg Biffle will be competing in a Pontiac in the Winn-Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway, and we have had conversations with Roush Racing to air our concerns.”

Davis expressed Ford’s concerns here just as he did earlier this year when he objected to Biffle’s running Jim Smith’s Craftsman Truck entry at Charlotte in May, which resulted in Biffle not participating in that event.

Biffle, who will be driving the No. 7, Ed Evans-owned Pontiac here at Daytona in the NBS event will not be driving additional races beyond this event as Evans’ team had announced earlier this week.

“We understand Roush Racing's desire to find an economical way to get Greg some valuable seat-time, especially at an important track like Daytona,’ said Davis. “We will resolve this. This will absolutely not have an adverse affect on our long-term racing partnership."