ESPN shifts gears, would allow Wallace to own Cup team

In an apparent shift from past policy, Rusty Wallace can own a Sprint Cup team and keep his job as an ABC/ESPN analyst, a network executive said Tuesday.

When Wallace started as a race analyst in the booth for the Indy Racing League in 2006 and then for NASCAR in 2007, he said he was not allowed to have ownership in a Cup team. He wasn’t even allowed to be a consultant/driver coach for Chip Ganassi Racing’s Juan Pablo Montoya in 2006 and 2007.

ESPN hired Ray Evernham as a contributor to the network at the start of the year, mostly for NASCAR-related shows during the week. Evernham’s job was different than that of Wallace.

But with studio host Brad Daugherty buying into JTG Racing and the new JTG Daugherty Racing team going to Cup next year, it appears the policy for Wallace – whose job primarily changed this year into a studio analyst as well – has been relaxed.

"The choice for Rusty to go into Cup racing is Rusty's choice and we have relayed our position to him on that," ESPN Vice President of Motorsports Rich Feinberg said during a teleconference with reporters Tuesday.

Wallace owns Rusty Wallace Racing, which fields two Nationwide Series teams. When asked about the possibility of his team going Cup racing in the past, Wallace has cited his ESPN contract as a hurdle. More at Scenedaily.com