LOUDON, N.H. – Steve Prescott, who runs the Gardiner-based Team EJP Racing in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, said he has continued to have lengthy conversations with Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre about driving a truck for them in the future.

Santerre, the two-time Busch North points champ and current points leader, had planned to run a few races for Team EJP Racing this season but Joe Gibbs Racing offered them an attractive driver development program/sponsorship deal to gain some seat time for young driver Denny Hamlin.

Hamlin has finished 10th, 16th and 11th in his three races with EJP/Joe Gibbs Racing with the latter coming during the Sylvania 200 Saturday at New Hampshire International Speedway.

“We met with Andy here for a couple of days trying to figure out what he’s got going on next year and what we’ve got going on,” said Prescott. “We’re playing it one day at a time. We’re pressing for a commitment but we probably won’t know anything for another five or six weeks. We ran this race with our own stuff.”

Prescott said Hamlin will run the Las Vegas 350 next Saturday and the Silverado 350K in Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 16.

“And we’d like to run a couple more,” said Prescott.

There are seven races in the Craftsman Truck series.

But next season is very much up in the air.

“Andy isn’t in the picture to run full time,” Prescott said. “He doesn’t want to run full time as far as I know. He certainly could perform well wherever he wants to race and he would be a big asset to any program, ours or anybody else’s.”

Prescott said in addition to being a competitive driver, Santerre “could also help a young driver get around the tracks where he’s been.”

Santerre has indicated he would be interested in running the truck series but he also enjoys his association with team owner Joe Bessey and sponsor Aubuchon Hardware. He has also let it be known that he would prefer not to run a heavy schedule (30-plus races).

Santerre, who will run in Monday’s makeup Sylvania 125 Busch North race at NHIS, has previously run in the Busch (South) series and has a win to his credit at Pike’s Peak (Colo.).

Team EJP has been involved in the Craftsman Truck series for several years but hasn’t been able to run a full schedule due to a lack of sponsorship. Gibbs has helped with the sponsorship.

Geoffrey Bodine, a former Nextel Cup driver, started the season with Team EJP and ran four races before they parted ways.

Eric Jones ran nine races for a team in 2003, notching one top 10.

“We’re just doing the best we can with what we’ve got and playing it day by day,” said Prescott.

Helton likes new format

NASCAR president Mike Helton has been pleased with the response to the new points format introduced this season. Rather than deciding a points champion based on 36 races, just the top 10 drivers in points after 26 races qualified for the championship chase over the final 10 races which began with the Sylvania 300 Sunday.

“It has played out very well and we’ll see what the next 10 races do,” said Helton Sunday.

Helton also said he expects the new format to be retained.

“I don’t see anything that has happened to date that would promote any change in the system,” said Helton. “If there were some elements specific to the chase for the Nextel Cup that we felt like might need some tweaking then we would be in a mode right now of saying what ifs. But I don’t think today that we see anything that really warrants making changes to it at all.”

Nextel Cup has a 36-race schedule with two other races being nonpoints races. The booming popularity of the sport has made it attractive to track owners and there has been speculation about expanding the schedule in the near future especially with new tracks popping up across the country.

“We have 36 races and two all-star races. How long we go to get used to this and then say, ‘Maybe we can add another or two,’ is something we’ll take a look at. But currently – and we’ve already announced our ’05 schedule – we’re comfortable with what we’ve got,” Helton said.