The car will be renamed by the team the No. 4, just like the driver's open-wheel vehicles. Until now, the driver sat behind the wheel of the No. 83, a seat left open last season by the medical problems experienced by the regular racer, Brian Vickers. After recovering from blood cloths discovered last year, Vickers will be making a comeback in 2011.
As for Speed, his ousting has moved from the team's hall ways to the court room. The former Red Bull driver is suing the team for breach of contract and asks for $6.5 million in damages. Apparently though, the papers filed with a North Carolina Superior Court were just a smoke screen, as Speed hopes to settle the dispute outside of the court room.
"At this point, from what I've gathered, it's going to be certainly a long process, but it's filed," Speed was quoted as saying by NASCAR. "I'm sure we'll have to mediate at some point. I'm hoping that'll be successful and we don't have to take it all the way to trial.”
"I really, really, really didn't want to be in a lawsuit right now," Speed added. "I think it's childish. This is ridiculous. There wasn't one single conversation from Austria to do anything. And if anyone else in the world thinks it's OK to keep me under contract all year ... I wasn't even allowed to go talk with other teams ... then I guess I'm wrong, but I don't think it is."
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