According to sources at Roush Racing and NASCAR.com, Danny O'Quinn Jr. is their second-ever Driver X competition winner! He has been signed with Roush Racing for the #50 Ford Fusion Busch Series car, as he has TOO MUCH of a racing resume to start in any lower echilon of stock car racing. At 20 years old, O'Quinn will be co-sponsored by World Financial Group, Inc., who sponsored Carl Edwards in his breakout year, and Stonebridge Life Insurance, who sponsored Edwards as he won at Pocono last June.

WFG Inc. are glad to have Danny aboard. Roush Racing's website is adding a Danny O'Quinn Jr. fan page in the coming days to prepare for his first big race: The Hershey's Kissables 300 on February 18th at Daytona International Speedway.

Also on the signing block, a surprise to many but not to Jack Roush himself: Canadian-born CASCAR driver Peter Shepherd the 3rd (no relation to Morgan, I'm sure) has signed on with Mr. Roush himself, to race in selected ARCA races in 2006 (to avoid conflict with CASCAR events in Canada) as part of the Roush Driver Development Program. The signing came after Jack Roush was not only impressed with Shepherd's driving ability, but also in the boardroom, as he stunned nearly everyone by scoring 2nd overall in the comprehensive series of marketing and PR evaluations. Get this: Peter's only 19, and he works in his dad's garage, by day a common mechanic, by night a CASCAR engineer. He's like a Canadian version of Ryan Newman, only without the college degree. Shepherd won the 2004 CASCAR Super Series Rookie of the Year honours, and ran 3 different cars in last year's season, making him ineligible for a title run, but would have gotten 24th... beating his dad, I might add.

"When I saw Peter's performance at Martinsville, it reminded me so much of a young Mark Martin, someone who has the ability to learn and adapt very quickly," said Mr. Roush. "He is one of the most talented 19 year-olds I've ever seen."

In the show series, O'Quinn is both the fastest and the highest scorer in both stages of the "Gong Show"-styled competition, however Shepherd is one of the younger competitors, and was in the "phenom group" that saw all 4 drivers make it to stage 3.

Last year, Todd Kluever won the Gong Show honor. He's driving in the Truck Series this year, also sponsored by WFG, Inc.