Russell said despite the new crew's inexperience, he felt safe in the car. "Wayne is a fanatic about safety and he would never put me in a car if my safety was compromised."

Amato said he was "more comfortable with Wayne working with his people than I was with him working with mine. It's a bad thing, but it's a good thing, because we have a clean slate. We're going to be better for it, I'm thinking."

As for the transporter, Amato and Russell said the manufacturer was sending technical-support employees April 8 to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to help fix and/or remove the trailer. In the meantime, competitor David Grubnic offered Dupuy the use of his extra trailer.

Two industrial forklifts and a crane had been dispatched Thursday to lift the broken trailer onto the kind of flatbed truck used to move houses. Once it reached the race track at 5 a.m. Friday, another forklift and a crane positioned it in place in the pits.

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