Earnhardts team up for Daytona’s round-the-clock classic

Insiders at General Motors have revealed that the two Chevrolet stock car stars will be announced as drivers of one of the factory Corvette C5-Rs racers today (Tuesday).

Corvette programme manager Doug Fehan was not available for comment, but he had already dropped some heavy hints about Chevrolet's plans to recruit high-profile NASCAR drivers for the day-night enduro in February.

"There's a wish to get some of those guys into one of the C5-Rs for Daytona," he said last week. "We haven't had to go searching for drivers who are interested. There's a lot of guys out there who are fascinated by the Corvette and the 24 Hours. It would make a huge amount of sense for sportscar racing in North America."

On the subject of 49-year-old Earnhardt linking up with his Winston Cup rookie sensation son, Fehan said: "That's the hot rumour. Watch this space."

It is unclear at this stage who will partner the Earnhardts. Last year, Chevrolet tried to put together a deal for Earnhardt Sr, Jeff Gordon and Pontiac's Tony Stewart to share a 'Vette at Daytona. This year, the third driver is likely to be one of the Corvette regulars.

Both Earnhardts have yet to compete in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, but there have been a raft of stars of the Winston Cup queuing up to take part in the endurance classic down the years. The last series regular to race in the 24 Hours was now-retired Ernie Irvan, who raced a Prototype Technology Group BMW M3 in the 1999 running of the 24 Hours.

Back in 1995, Mark Martin was part of the team that helped movie legend Paul Newman to third place in a Jack Roush-run Ford Mustang GTS-1 silhouette racer.