ESPN Sprint Cup

JOLIET, Ill. -- David Stremme will get his first taste of Nextel Cup racing on Sunday when he drives the No. 39 Dodge Charger for Chip Ganassi Racing in the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

Stremme, a regular in NASCAR's Busch Series who plans to run in a handful of Cup races this season, will drive the Ganassi team's No. 40 entry full-time in 2006 when he replaces longtime star Sterling Marlin, whose contract expires at the end of the season.

"I was a little disappointed in qualifying," said Stremme, who was 31st in Friday's time trials. "We probably lost just a little bit with the track changing. I felt our car was a lot better than we qualified."

Stremme, who averaged 184.099 mph, had to qualify on speed, which was unusual for him.

"Our goal was making the race, but I can't say I wasn't a little nervous. On the Busch side all year we've been top 30 in points and been solid in the field," he said. "Here, we had to qualify in. We did our job and we'll go from there."

Stremme would like to finish among the top 15 and help turn around a program that hasn't won a Cup race in three years.

"I look at where the organization is going and how it's growing, and I'm just so glad to be a part of it," he said. "So many things are happening that a lot of people don't understand, but it's going to be pretty cool. I think we'll be like Roush [Racing] and Hendrick [Motorsports] here before long."

Cursed by the Billy Goat?
In his six races since botching "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and referring to the famed ballpark on Chicago's north side as Wrigley "Stadium" during the seventh-inning stretch of a Cubs game, Jeff Gordon has dropped from third to 13th in the Nextel Cup point standings. His best finish is seventh, and four times, he has placed 30th or worse.

"I don't know if that's exactly why he's had bad luck, but the black cloud found him at 'Wrigley Stadium' -- as he called it," said teammate Jimmie Johnson, who has the pole in Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, about 50 miles from the ballpark.

Actually, the cloud found Gordon the previous week, when he placed 39th at Richmond.

"We feel like we've got that behind us," said Gordon, who was 14th in qualifying for Sunday's race. "We've had a lot of fun laughing about it. I expected to come back here and hear some more comments about it but if it got some attention that helped promote the race, that's a good things, that's what we're there to do."

No sour grapes
Besides being a top NASCAR team owner, Richard Childress isn't a bad vintner, either. A 2004 bottle of Childress Vineyards Barrel Select Pinot Gris was picked as one of the top wines produced by celebrity proprietors in a survey conducted by USA Today.

Besides Childress, who owns Childress Vineyards in Lexington, N.C., the list of celebrities mentioned in the article included: Francis Ford Coppola and daughter Sofia Coppola; screen legends Fess Parker and Fred MacMurray; Bob Dylan; rock band the Doobie Brothers; Motley Crue singer Vince Neil; and golfers Ernie Els, Greg Norman and Arnold Palmer.

Childress changes
Richard Childress Racing announced several personnel changes.

Longtime engine shop manager Spenny Clendenen will oversee the customer engine program. Rick Mann was named chief engine builder, and assistant engine shop manager Danny Lawrence will serve as Mann's assistant.

The team also hired Nick Hayes as engine research and development director. Hayes was technical director for the Cosworth Formula One program in England.

Moving up
Retiring Rusty Wallace, 33rd in qualifying for Sunday, trails fourth-place Elliott Sadler by five points in the Cup standings after jumping from 11th to fifth the past five races.

"We've finished fourth the last two weeks, and we'd sure like to keep that up or maybe improve a position or two at Chicagoland," Wallace said. "This is my last race at Chicago. We've never had a top-10 finish here, so we need to change that [Sunday] so we can maintain that top five-ranking in the standings."

Spark plugs
Saturday's Busch Series race had 17 Cup regulars in the starting lineup, including 10 of the top 11 qualifiers. … The deepest in the field a winner has started in four previous Chicagoland Cup races was 32nd by Kevin Harvick in 2002. … Jimmie Johnson is the 11th different pole winner in 18 Cup events this season. … Chevrolets have won three of the four Cup races here, with Dodge winning the other.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press