Hmiel to race #43 Dodge at Daytona.
With Christian Fittipaldi reverting to the #44 Petty Enterprises Dodge for next weekend's Pepsi 400 at Daytona as originally planned, Busch Series regular Shane Hmiel will step into the famous #43 Dodge for what will be his Winston Cup debut.
The 23 year-old driver, who currently races the yellow #48 Innovative Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series, will have his hands full trying to qualify what is supposed to be Petty Enterprises lead-machine in next Thursday's Bud Pole Qualifying session after Fittipaldi used up the team's last provisional at the Infineon Raceway.
With Christian Fittipaldi reverting to the #44 Petty Enterprises Dodge for next weekend's Pepsi 400 at Daytona as originally planned, Busch Series regular Shane Hmiel will step into the famous #43 Dodge for what will be his Winston Cup debut.
The 23 year-old driver, who currently races the yellow #48 Innovative Motorsports Chevrolet in the NASCAR Busch Series, will have his hands full trying to qualify what is supposed to be Petty Enterprises lead-machine in next Thursday's Bud Pole Qualifying session after Fittipaldi used up the team's last provisional at the Infineon Raceway.
Fittipaldi has raced the #43 Cheerios Dodge Intrepid in the last two races but his original commitments with the Petty's' #44 team and another sponsor meant he was unable to drive the #43 at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway on July 4th weekend.
Hmiel, who is currently eleventh in the NASCAR Busch Standings after a poor recent run that has seen him go without a top ten finish for six races, started 14th in the Koolerz 300 Busch Series race earlier this year at Daytona and finished a strong third in the Aaron's 312 Busch Series battle at Talladega.