Winning a Nextel Cup title as a driver is priority No. 1. But, thanks to a new sponsorship deal, Earnhardt will also try to win a Busch Series championship for the first time as a car owner.

Martin Truex drove a part-time schedule last season for Chance 2 Motorsports, co-owned by Earnhardt and his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, and will drive the team's Chevrolet for the entire 2004 schedule. He ran only 10 races last year, but finished with consecutive second-place finishes at Rockingham and Homestead - his first top fives.

Automakers expect better sales in 2004 after their worst year since 1998, marred by war in Iraq and a shaky U.S. economy.

And incentives are here to stay -- for a while at least.

New cars and trucks will mean more competition for automakers and more choices for consumers, say the chief executives of General Motors, Ford and Nissan.