Dodge cuts ties with BDR.

In an almost unheard of move, Dodge have effectively 'fired' Bill Davis Racing as a factory team in the Winston Cup Championship, severing all technical and information based ties with the team that fields the #22 and #23 Intrepid's for Ward Burton and Kenny Wallace.

The team will now no longer be privy to any kind of technical set-up information and data gathered by the five other factory Dodge teams (Penske Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Ultra Motorsports, Ray Evernham Racing and Petty Enterprises) although nobody seems to be clear exactly why the team had its contract terminated by the manufacturer.

With everyone remaining tight lipped as the Winston Cup circus completed Friday practice and Bud Pole qualifying at the Dover International Speedway, speculation pointed to Davis' rumoured links with incoming NASCAR manufacturer Toyota, who will debut their Tundra truck in the Craftsman Truck Series next year with a view to move into Winston Cup after that.

However although no manufacturer would look kindly upon one of their teams negotiating with a rival, and the potential for losing invaluable set-up information should BDR become a Toyota development team, with the Japanese firm's proposed Winston Cup debut at least three or four years away, it is unlikely that that factor alone was behind the split.

BDR's demotion to 'customer' ranks puts them alongside backmarker teams BAM Racing and AJ Foyt Enterprises as the only non-factory Dodge teams on the Winston Cup grid. It also adds extra pressure to sponsors CAT (Burton) and Stacker 2 (Wallace) as the team will now have to pay for all spare parts and any vital wind-tunnel testing the team can afford now that they have lost access to the one at the main Dodge headquarters.

To make matters worse, both Wallace and Burton struggled badly at the 'Monster Mile' on Friday, Wallace qualifying 36th and Burton 39th after taking a provisional slot.