BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Hampton, Ga. — The championship contending No. 17 Ford of Matt Kenseth appears to have shed some of the lead that slowed it in Friday’s qualifying session. The Roush Racing driver, who qualified 37th using a provisional starting spot, was able to wind up his Taurus with the 10th fastest lap in the first Saturday test session.

The second session didn’t treat Kenseth as well, but the idea is to keep the car in one piece and not hurt the motor too badly on this fast race track. Kenseth practiced 24th fastest in the final session of the day.

"We ran quite a bit in the first practice and I was real happy with my car; I was real happy with the times,” offered Kenseth about his day. “We have almost the same setup we had in the Busch [Series, in which he drove Saturday] car. They both felt similar and we did a lot of practice with the Busch car.

“Atlanta, historically, has been hard on engines, especially ours it seems like. I was trying to keep some miles off it,” Kenseth explained. “I was really happy with my balance.

“I took off in Happy Hour and ran seven laps. It wasn't the fastest on the sheet, but it was really, really neutral and it drove exactly what I wanted. I just quit and figured that would be a good place to start tomorrow. It might not be right on the money when we start tomorrow, but I know it has a decent baseline in it."

Topping the charts in the second session were the Ford cars of Kurt Busch and Bobby Hamilton Jr., who is making his second Winston Cup start of the season this weekend with team owner Ed Rensi.

The hopes are high for the crew of the 97 as Atlanta started a season-ending surge in 2002 that had Busch flying high at season’s close.

FOCUS
Lots of talk and speculation have surrounded crew chief Tommy Baldwin’s future during the past several weeks and time has brought little closure to the talk. Baldwin has been rumored to be moving to Ray Evernham’s operation and more recently to Joe Gibb’s shops.

“The only reason that Tommy left is because other teams were pressuring him,” says Baldwin’s current employer, Jim Smith. Making the statement all the more interesting is Baldwin’s presence here at Atlanta with Smith’s team as their crew chief. “He’s got a family to feed. And you know what? That’s a difficult position to be in. You can’t blame a guy for securing his family’s economy,” Smith said.

TFR asked Joe Gibbs Racing technical honcho, Jimmy Makar, about Baldwin and learned that there’s been no talk between the two parties, as of yet. That might change down the road if Gibbs moves on his tentative plans for rookie J.J. Yeley.

Evernham refused to talk about Baldwin, saying during yesterday’s press conference, “This is about Jeremy and Bill,” said the team owner of the press conference.

PHAT JUICE?
According to Junior Paxton, Roush Racing’s lead motorman, the new for 2004 Sunoco fuel blend looks to be a winner. Paxton told TFR, today, that he’s played fairly extensively on the engine dyno with the new fuel supplier’s offering and has seen no problems, as of yet.

“It’s pretty good,” said Paxton. “It gives about 2 horesepower more and jetting stays within a size or two. It should provide a smooth transition.”

Jetting is the controlling factor for tuning the air/fuel ratio and staying within a “size or two” indicates a near perfect replacement of the current fuel supplier.

Paxton says that he hasn’t torn his test motors down yet and is putting as many miles on them as possible before he does a tear down so he can see what issues he has to deal with, “but so far so good.”

ROUSH BUSCH EFFORTS
According to garage sources Roush Racing will announce, at Phoenix, new NASCAR Busch Series team effort for 2004. Roush Racing’s three senior members will drive the car on Saturdays next year with Mark Martin, Jeff Burton and Matt Kenseth all taking turns behind the wheel. Sponsorship will come from oil company Pennzoil/Quaker State for the program.

Additionally, Roush Racing will soon announce a fulltime NBS effort for “The Biffinator,” aka Greg Biffle. He is expecting to make the show in all but two of the races when the No. 60 returns to the track fulltime in ’04. A suitable replacement will handle the car in the two races Biffle can’t drive.

No word on who will sponsor the Biffle package.

DONE DEAL OR DONE TEAM?
Brett Bodine is here at Atlanta working the garage. Unfortunately for Bodine, his role this weekend is that of radio broadcast announcer rather than race car driver. Bodine can be proud that he does an outstanding job in the booth, but that’s little solace for the racer locked into reality by finances.

Bodine says that he’ll know more on Nov. 1, when the financial commitment from a sponsorship package is fulfilled. Asked when he might return to the track Bodine said, “hopefully at Homestead.”

Bodine is tempering his excitement, as he needs to see the sponsor come through on its commitment before he can open the spigots to outfit his team.