Mainer Meserve at home at DEI PASS tour to visit Speedway 95

Dresden native Stan Meserve said it’s business as usual at Dale Earnhardt Inc. even after Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he is leaving that organization after this season.

Meserve, who used to own Distance Racing Products in Unity, works on the car set-ups for DEI Nextel Cup driver Martin Truex Jr. Meserve is in his sixth season with DEI.

“It was just like any [other] announcement. We just keep on trucking,” said Meserve. “It will probably affect management and all that stuff. It doesn’t affect us very much. We’re the worker bees. We still have a job to do. It does give us something to talk about.

“It’s not much different than a ballplayer going from the Red Sox to the Yankees. But he hasn’t moved to the Yankees yet,” said Meserve.

Meserve added that he “wasn’t entirely surprised” by the news.

“I kind of saw it happening,” said Meserve.

The word around DEI, according to Meserve, is that they are looking for a high-profile driver to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Last weekend, Truex won the Nextel Open to earn a spot in the Nextel Cup All-Star Challenge. Truex finished 10th in that race.

Heading into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Truex is 18th in Nextel Cup points, 764 behind leader Jeff Gordon and 97 behind Jamie McMurray, who occupies the 12th and final spot that will earn a berth in the Chase for the Cup. That will be determined after 26 races.

Truex has three top-10 finishes in the first 11 races and two of those have come in the last three races.

“We’ve had fast cars but bum luck,” said Meserve, who is encouraged about the future.

“Everything is good. We’ve shown we can do it [run up front]. All we have to do is finish up [races],” said Meserve.

Meserve and his shop mates have been busier than usual this season as they are working on the NASCAR-mandated Car of Tomorrow in addition to their own Chevys.

The Car of Tomorrow is a uniform car body that incorporates the same set of templates and is being used in selected races this season in preparation for use in every race next season. It is safer and more economical than the other bodies.

“The Car of Tomorrow is good. It’s just different. We have to work awfully hard,” said Meserve. “We have to do a lot of testing. I can’t wait until we have to use just those [COT] cars instead of both. We have to work twice as hard now.”

Meserve, a 1959 Winslow High School graduate, said the Car of Tomorrow “makes sense.

“It probably won’t do all the things they say it’s going to do and it won’t be as good as they say it’s going to be but it will be cheaper and it will be safer,” said Meserve, who added that it will also create more parity.

The 65-year-old Meserve, who raced for several years in Maine and finished 26th in the Nextel Cup points standings in 1968, said he won’t run in the TD Banknorth Oxford 250 but is hoping to run races at Thompson International Speedway (Conn.) and at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough later this season.

Will this be his final year at DEI?

“Retirement is always on my mind. It’s getting close,” said Meserve.

Three PASS classes at 95 Sunday

The Pro All-Stars Series will have three divisions running at Hermon’s Speedway 95 Sunday beginning at 2 p.m.

The PASS Outlaws and Modified will resume their series while the Limited Sportsman class will make its PASS debut.

The Speedway 95 Strictly Streets and Sport Fours will also race.

Former Bangor area drivers and Speedway 95 regulars Mike Harnish Jr. and Mike Thomas will return to the track in the Outlaw division.

Harnish, now living in Readfield, is fifth in points while Thomas, who is living in New Portland, is sixth.

In the Modified class, Pownal’s Kenny Harrison, Brunswick’s Chris Staples and Brooks’ Jeremy McCormick are running one, two, three in points, respectively.