BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Concord, N.C. — Roush Racing appears to be finalizing plans to put former Indy 500 champion and F-1 star Jacques Villeneuve in a Ford for several Busch Series races next year. Although the schedule isn’t set, it’ll almost certainly include the Saturday afternoon, Aug. 4 road race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in his hometown of Montreal.
• Robert Yates Racing will keep its Busch Series No. 90 Ford in-house instead of farming it out to Rensi Motorsports. Team owners Robert Yates and Ed Rensi recently established a relationship to share on- and off-track technical information. RYR will field the No. 90 Ford Fusion for project driver Stephen Leicht while Rensi Motorsports will field cars for Bobby Hamilton Jr. and David Gilliland, the driver of the Yates-owned No. 38 Nextel Cup car.
• Busch Series veteran Ashton Lewis Jr. is facing the harsh reality that, at age 32, his time may have come and gone. The Virginia native will leave the Rensi Motorsports-owned No. 25 Ford after this season, his second with the Marine Corps.-backed team. He’s 15th in points (seventh among Busch regulars) entering Friday night’s Dollar General 300 at LMS. He has absolutely no idea if he’ll be in racing next season.
“I’m frustrated from the standpoint of where the sport is going,” the college-educated mechanical engineer said. “I think I have the talent to run with anybody, but it’s frustrating not to have any more opportunities than are out here. On any given weekend, we can win a race. It’s just that I’ve never had a shot to consistently fight for wins week-in and week-out, or to fight for a championship. I guess the two things against me are my age and the fact I haven’t been to Victory Lane. The driver still has what it takes to run up front. It’s just getting the opportunity to showcase it.”
• Six Fusions were among the top-20 in Thursday night’s first Busch Series practice at LMS: Regan Smith (fifth), Matt Kenseth (ninth), Todd Kleuver (11th) and Carl Edwards, Stacy Compton and Casey Atwood (18th, 19th and 20th). The top-five Fords in the second session: Kenseth (second), Kenny Wallace (seventh), Edwards (10th), Kleuver (21st) and Lewis Jr. (23rd). All told, 16 Fusions are among the 48 cars entered in the 200-lap race.