Atlanta, GA - NASCAR Winston Cup racing great Ernie Irvan has taken an ownership position in the the Fayetteville ( Atlanta ), Georgia based United Sprint Car Series (USCS).

Irvan who retired from the NASCAR Winston Cup racing in 1998, will take an active roll in the management and marketing efforts of the USCS. Irvan who had 15 career Winston Cup victories including the prestigious Daytona 500 is expected to bring additional marketing punch to the series.

In addtion, Mr. Irvan will be making appearances at a number of tracks the USCS visits in 2004 during special Ernie Irvan's USCS Grand National Gold Tour events.

Mr. Irvan will serve as the Grand Marshall for these special USCS events and will be available to meet and greet his fans and USCS followers as well during special autograph sessions at each of these tracks.

"We are so excited to have Ernie involved in the USCS,"said series Founder and President, Pete Walton. "Ernie brings a lot to the table for our racing series with his celebrity and the connections he has. He still has tremendous popularity with the fans,"continued Walton. "We worked with Ernie for six months before we finalized his involvement and I can tell you that Ernie is very well respected in the racing community and still a fan favorite. On both occasions when we used him as the Grand Marshall for our events in 2003 (at Hickory Motor Speedway and East Bay Raceway Park) there was a tremendous response from the fans" added Walton. "Yes, we are definitely excited about the USCS involvement of Mr. Ernie Irvan" said Walton.

Irvan's role in USCS, in addition to pursuing marketing oppurtunities, will be to specialize in driver safety.
and driver training. "As a two time head injury survivor, I am especially interested in doing all I can to increase driver safety in the series" said Irvan. "Additionally, I will be helping in the area of driver development especially on the USCS Asphalt Thunder pavement series" continued Irvan.

On a personal note the former Winston Cup star is developing a revolutionary child safety helmet for bike riders. Additionally, he is busy putting together a NASCAR Busch Grand National team with his protege and driver Kevin Conway.The Irvan and Conway team will have a mid season debut in 2004.

Ernie Irvan has been named as one of NASCAR's Top 50 drivers of all time. He won 15 times on the World's toughest circuit at 11 different NASCAR Winston Cup speedways. He also garnered 22 pole positions in Winston Cup racing at 12 different tracks. He had 68 Top five finishes and finished 124 times in the Top 10 at Winston Cup events.

For a complete USCS schedule and more infomation on Mr. Irvan and his scheduled appearances visit www.uscsracing.com and www.irvan.com .


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