Can Staubach and Aikman find Cup success in 2006?

	Roger Staubach (right), with Terry Labonte (middle) and TMS president Eddie Gossage, knows the first year could be rough. AP

Many Hall of Fame quarterbacks have spent the past couple of weeks extolling the virtues of either the Seattle Seahawks or the Pittsburgh Steelers. But ex-Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach hasn't been caught up in the Super Bowl hype. He's been busy doing something else.

Parking cars.

And not just any cars, but the roaring rockets of NASCAR.

Staubach, the two-time Super Bowl MVP who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, has teamed up with another ex-Cowboys quarterback, Troy Aikman, to form a Nextel Cup team. Their No. 96 Chevy will debut in this month's Daytona 500.

Despite the impressive winning football pedigrees of the owners, don't expect instant success in stock car racing. Think expansion team.

"I visited the shop last week and they were practicing pit stops," Staubach said. "They let me drive the car up to the wall, where they'd jump out and practice changing the tires and filling it with fuel as fast as they could. It was a blast. Of course, I couldn't put the thing in reverse and they thought I'd broken it."

Aikman could join Staubach in the Hall of Fame as early as this summer. Now the lead NFL game analyst on Fox, Aikman is eligible for the Hall for the first time this year. The 2006 class will be announced this weekend.

In between pit stops, Staubach has been campaigning openly for Aikman. Of course, Staubach has a strong incentive. The two quarterbacks slapped the tag "Hall of Fame Racing" on their NASCAR team and loaded their program with other big names, trying to back up the brand.

Texas Instruments, through its DLP brand of chips for high-definition televisions, is the sponsor of the No. 96. The team is also sharing technology -- primarily chassis and transmissions -- with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Gibbs, who has won three NASCAR titles as an owner, has also won three Super Bowls as coach of the Redskins. Gibbs has his own Hall of Fame credentials, having been inducted in 1996.

Terry Labonte, who may one day be enshrined in several motorsports Hall of Fames, will be the first driver for the Staubach-Aikman team. Labonte, the two-time NASCAR champ, is running a part-time schedule as part of his final season as an active driver. Labonte is a proven commodity, while Tony Raines, who will pilot the car for the majority of the season, is the team's biggest question mark.

Actually, the biggest question mark is just how successful a first-year team can be on the Nextel circuit. Staubach claims that the quarterbacking tandem has the proper expectations -- none.