Flash.(Briefs)

On the block

Jordan Grand Prix principal Eddie Jordan says he intends to have "a complete clean sweep'' and is ready to sell a major stake in his company to an automobile manufacturer. "I had the chance to sell to Honda [in 1997], but I was deadly determined to do it on my own,'' he said. "[But] I'll have to face up to reality soon, because I'm not prepared to continue like this. I wanted to do it on my own, and that's where we drew a lot of respect. No other team, ever, has started in karting and gone from Formula Ford to Ford 2000 and on to F3, F3000 and into F1. We pushed ourselves all the way up with those cars and won each of those championships. I wanted to do it a different way, on my own. The truth is, the reason I wanted to do it on my own is that no one thought I could. The flow of income is the key, not so much technology, [because] we can handle that. With a manufacturer, you also have help and support with the different things that they do. Not selling out to one, but aligning myself to one is possible.''

Is Villeneuve out?

BAR's David Richards will neither confirm nor deny paddock talk that his team is poised to promote its test driver, Honda protege Takuma Sato, to replace longtime employee (since 1999) Jacques Villeneuve. Richards does not plan to make any announcement until the Japanese finale in October.

DEI taps Andretti

Dale Earnhardt Inc. will put yet another driver in its No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet, hopefully for the rest of the season. John Andretti will replace Jeff Green at ...