On Thursday, UPS announced what their future NASCAR involvement will entail. And as expected, their team side sponsorship has been drastically reduced. For 2012 the shipping giant will scale back to being just an associate sponsor on Carl Edwards #99, and will serve as a primary for just one Cup race. This move, coupled with a lack of sponsorship at Roush Fenway Racing (the 17 is still not fully backed for 2012) will most likely mean the end of David Ragan’s days as an RFR driver.
We’ve been hearing for a few weeks that the outlook for RFR’s #6 car was grim. And the later we get in the year without an announcement, the worse the chances are that sponsorship can be obtained to keep the team running. It’s been clear for some time now that UPS would not be back with Ragan, and there hasn’t been even a peep of a rumor about another possible backer.
For Ragan, this could spell the end of what has been a mediocre run with Roush Fenway. 2008 was by far his best season, with six top five, and 14 top ten finishes. He just barely missed making the Chase that year, and finished the season 13th in the points. He has not come anywhere near that level of success since.
If he ends up being released from RFR, Ragan’s options in the Cup Series would be extremely limited. There was talk a few weeks back that he could be a candidate for a ride with TRG, and if that is even true, it would probably be his only opportunity. Ragan is without major financial backing, and no big team will put him in a decent ride. The best he could maybe hope for is a chance at a competitive Nationwide or Truck Series ride.
There is still a little bit of time left, and with it a small chance that something could still be done to save RFR’s 6 car and David Ragan’s seat. But if Ragan is smart, he’s been working the phones for the last few months trying to track down some backing and/or a new ride. For a guy as nice as Ragan is, hopefully somebody calls back.
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Pit road has played a big roll in the outcome of races this season, and as the Cup and Nationwide Series search for their 2011 champions, an even bigger emphasis will be placed on the crews. Those drivers with the strongest pit crews will have a serious advantage as we come into the home stretch. Knowing that, some teams have made moves to strengthen their performance over the wall. Two recent pit crew shakeups have already paid dividends to their teams, and the moves could be crucial in the hopes of two contenders.
Saturday night in Richmond, Kevin Harvick re-emerged as a legitimate title contender. After spending much of the summer struggling to find some measure of mojo, Harvick and the 29 team showed they are ready to take a shot at unseating the 48. And what was a big key to Harvick’s fourth win of the season? A key pit stop late in the race. With 15 laps to go, a caution brought the field to pit road, and fast work by Harvick’s crew put the 29 ahead of Jeff Gordon on the ensuing restart. Harvick was then able to hold off Carl Edwards for the win, and secure his spot tied with Kyle Busch atop the standings heading to Chicago.
If you might remember, it’s only been a few weeks since Richard Childress Racing replaced it’s pit crew coach. And along with the coaching change came a new front changer for Harvick’s crew. Tim Sheets, who has spent the season changing for Elliott Sadler’s #2 team in the Nationwide Series, was brought up to help alleviate some of the pit stop issues Harvick has experienced this season. Needless to say, the move has worked.
In the Nationwide Series, the battle for the driver’s title is a tight one. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. only has a 16 point cushion between himself and second place Elliott Sadler with seven races remaining. In order to give Stenhouse the best possible chance to win the championship, Jack Roush has pulled out all the stops. After a tough night at Atlanta, Stenhouse’s entire pit crew was replaced with the #6 Cup crew of David Ragan. The change provided immediate results. With the double duty #6 guys servicing his race car at Richmond, Stenhouse never ran lower than seventh in the race, and finished a very strong third behind Kyle Busch and Edwards.
Because racing has become so tight out on the track, teams have discovered that it is often easier to make passes on pit road. And in order to do that, they need the quickest six guys they can put together. As the Chase gets ready to kick off this weekend, expect pit road to be a big factor in who takes home this season’s Cup.
Often times when drivers get one off rides there becomes this serious sense of urgency. They have to do whatever it takes to get a good result now, because they may not get another chance. I believe what we saw today out of Boris Said could somewhat be explained this way. He came in as a ringer for James Finch’s #51, and after winning the Montreal NNS race last season from a similar position, maybe thought he could win again. Instead, he ended up driving over his head, made a lot of enemies, and finished a mediocre 22nd.
After being involved in the horrific crash with David Ragan and David Reutimann, and apparently a dust up earlier in the race, Said and Greg Biffle had a scuffle in the garage area post-race. Said later threatened Biffle in his post scuffle interview, and Biffle responded via Twitter. But Biffle wasn’t the only driver to take exception to Said’s racing. Regan Smith, Jeff Burton, and David Ragan all weighed in post-race against Said. And when guys like that are speaking out against you, something is clearly wrong.
No matter what side of the fence you are on, Said’s move on Ragan was dirty. Hitting a guy in the rear quarter panel like that is about as a low as it gets. With one lap to go, I really question the judgement of flat wrecking a guy so you can finish 22nd instead of 23rd.
I have to say though, Said deserves some props for his comments in the interview following the race. At least he was honest and isn’t afraid to stand up for himself (did anyone else notice the RCR #27 guys enjoying a front row seat to the skirmish?).
Going forward, don’t expect Said to get a lot of respect from his fellow competitors. He used to be a guy other drivers went to for road racing advice, but now he’s going to become the driver they root up 0ut of the way so they can finish 22nd instead of 23rd. What goes around, comes around, and guys like Biffle aren’t going to forget this any time soon.
Sunday’s race at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, dominated by fuel mileage, mistakes, and both Stewart Haas cars continued what has been a season of parity and added another contender to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Ryan Newman’s victory made him the 13th different winner after 19 races this season and gave him a one spot boost in the points. Perhaps more importantly, it gave Newman a win, further strengthening his chances at a spot in the Chase.
Past the halfway point of the season and with just seven races to go until the Chase begins, who gets in is still very fluid. At the top, Carl Edwards retook the points lead from Kyle Busch after Busch cut down a tire early on, and Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch made up spots. At the bottom, Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost one spot to ninth, while David Ragan and Kasey Kahne picked up two and three spots respectively to 13th and 14th (Kahne and Greg Biffle each have 523 points). Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin both have 570 points in 10th and 11th.
With wins being the ticket to the Chase outside the top-ten, there are currently four drivers who fit the bill and have been to victory lane – David Ragan, Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith and Trevor Bayne. Of those four, two have a realistic shot of making it into the requisite top-20.
The first of those two, David Ragan, is in good shape with his 13th place points position, but Brad Keselowski sits 23rd in the points – losing two spots this weekend. If Keselowski hopes to compete for a championship this year, he’s going to have to make up some ground – lucky for him there are only 95 points separating 23rd from 12th. With a good run over the next seven races that is certainly surmountable.
Competing with those two are the other chasers without a win, and those within the top-20 without a win. Considering the amount of parity there has been this season who makes it and who doesn’t is still wide open.
So what do you think? Who makes the Chase, who doesn’t? Feel free to sound off on the Championship Chase and the race at New Hampshire.
David Ragan finally notched his first Cup Series win this past weekend at Daytona. It was a long road for the 25-year-old driver after four and half seasons in the sport’s top series.
Ragan’s meteoric rise at Roush Fenway started with the old “Gong Show” (then called Roush Racing: Driver X for Discovery Channel) in 2005, and included in 2006 a 19 race stopover in the Truck Series, and three Nationwide and two Cup starts before being moved to the Mark Martin’s old Cup ride in 2007.
With a lot of pressure behind him to perform in the iconic #6, the then 21-year-old driver notched two top-fives, three top-tens and finished 23rd in the points. The next season he knocked down six top-fives, 14 top-tens and just missed the Chase, finishing 13th in the points.
With all the hope and expectations of the 2008 season, 2009 was nothing short of a disappointment – just two top-tens and a 27th place points finish. Then 2010 saw just three top-tens and a 24th place points finish.
Coming into 2011, Ragan had a relatively new crew chief in Drew Blickensderfer and needed to make something happen.
And so we found ourselves last Sunday. Ragan has been much improved this season (two top-10s, four top-fives before the win) with his highest average finish since 2008. He sits 17th in the points and has a real shot at the Chase with that win.
Everything is looking good, except for the fact that UPS hasn’t re-signed for next season.
“I’m not worried about the program next year. I certainly think about it some. UPS has been a great partner of ours and will continue to be,” Ragan said. “They’ve got some decisions to make in the next couple of months. I think we’re on the right path to bring those guys back; we’re happy we got that win for them – that certainly helped. The Fords are the strongest they have been in a long time. Jack [Roush, owner] and I are on the same page and UPS is happy.“
In a very unusual move for a sponsor, UPS sent a statement out after the race congratulating Ragan on his win and reaffirming their commitment to the driver. Certainly a good signal – I’m still not sure though whether it was simply a congratulatory note or had some other meaning.
Ragan has a couple of years left on his deal with Roush, and though that does mean security, it doesn’t necessarily mean his ride is a guarantee. A lot is going to depend on that all important sponsorship question, and to a larger extent, whether or not that win and the improvement this season is enough to make Jack Roush think Ragan has hit a turning point.
Silly Season continues to intrigue and this is certainly one storyline to follow.
The recently announced Farmers-to-Hendrick deal for Kasey Kahne has spawned some discussion and speculation about the future of UPS’ NASCAR sponsorship. Apparently some felt that UPS was a candidate to adorn the hood of Kahne’s future ride at HMS, but the Farmers deal seems to signal that that now won’t happen. UPS’ current deal with Roush Fenway and David Ragan is up at the end of this season, and you can be sure they will be exploring all options.
The first time – and so far only time – we saw Kahne and UPS mentioned in the same sentence publicly was in a recent post from Scene Daily’s Bob Pockrass. Pockrass speculated about where UPS could end up, and mentioned Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer as possible candidates if they decide to leave Ragan’s #6 car. But as we saw back in 2008, drivers of that caliber may be out of reach for UPS.
It is believed that the current UPS deal with RFR pays somewhere around $17-$18 million per season, and the reason the shipper ended up with Ragan back in ’08 was because that wasn’t enough to lock down a big name like Edwards for a full season. Barring a major shift in strategy and budget from UPS, numbers in that neighborhood don’t appear to be enough this time around either. Sports Business Journal’s Tripp Mickle says Farmers is paying HMS $17.6 million a season for partial sponsorship of Kahne’s car, and that might be a big sign that UPS could again be priced out of the game for upper tier drivers.
Pockrass does mention that a partial deal with UPS and Edwards might be a way for Roush to keep Big Brown. For that to happen though, UPS would have to agree to share a driver with another sponsor(s), which is something we haven’t seen them do in the past. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t happen, but it would certainly be a departure from their past deals.
With Ragan much improved this season, UPS may just end up re-signing. But there is still so much up in the air for RFR, it may be some time before we know anything definitive. If 2008 was any indication though, expect UPS to be linked with everyone and their dog for the duration of the summer.
Remember that time Roush went 31 races without a win? Yeah I don’t really either. With memories of 2009 slowly fading away, Roush is proving, with this season and last, that it’s still very much a team on top.
The team currently has two of four cars inside the Chase and one knocking at the door, and three wins, 12 top-fives, and 21 top-tens. They are all weekly contenders. And though fellow organizations Hendrick, Childress and Stewart-Haas all also have two in the top-10, no one has the stats of the Roush teams.
Carl Edwards currently sits atop the driver points with a 24 point lead, and one win. Even though last season was an improvement for the #99 bunch, 2011 is shaping up to be a better year. Edwards is averaging a 7.3 place finish and he accounts for one of those two wins and 307 total laps led.
Matt Kenseth has been the other standout, becoming only the third repeat winner of the season. Though there has been some bad luck, he’s managed a 14.1 average finish and a sixth place position in the points. His laps led? 231. Apparently he and Jimmy Fennig are working well together.
As for Greg Biffle and David Ragan, while they only combine for 41 total laps led, both have had bright spots here and there. Ragan, if you’ll recall, almost won at Daytona and has had some solid top-five and top-10 runs recently. He too though has had some bad luck and generally bad weeks this season. As for Biffle, he had a rough start to the season, but has made up for it with top-15 runs six of the last eight weeks. That includes one top-five and four top-tens.
All of that’s not even including the three wins Roush and Edwards have in the Nationwide Series this season. Add to that the very promising talent of Trevor Bayne (who won the Daytona 500 for an RFR supported Wood Brothers Racing) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Organizationally Roush is looking good this season. And after a less than wonderful couple of years they’re cementing their perch. With the competition tight and two thirds of the season remaining we’ll see if Roush can continue this momentum. As always, it’ll be interesting to watch.
And in turn making Chip Ganassi, Johnny Morris and Kevin Manion look pretty good.
Since returning to his old home at Ganassi Jamie McMurray looks like a new man. Just past the halfway point of the season he has won (or almost won) the three most prestigious events on the NASCAR schedule. McMurray’s got two wins, three poles, six top-fives, seven top-tens, and has led 228 laps (the most of any year in his career). Despite three DNF’s, and some bad luck, McMurray is having one of the best years of his career.
The same can’t be said for the guy McMurray replaced.
Martin Truex Jr. was folded into the Ganassi organization at the beginning of last season, and quickly established his desire to be somewhere else. By July of ’09 he had announced his intended move to Michael Waltrip Racing.
Truex, with very similar equipment and team personnel to McMurray (same engines, same crew chief, though some differing chassis) was lackluster at best last season. In the same year his teammate made the Chase, Truex was only able to take three poles, one top-five and six top-tens. He finished 23rd in the points. This season he’s running just slightly better with an average finish of 19.3.
And how about Jack Roush? He gets rid of McMurray and the kid starts winning. In fact, McMurray started winning before he left Roush – he has the most recent Roush and Ford Cup Series win.
At this moment Roush has three drivers in the Chase, and one 24th in the points (McMurray is 16th). I’m not saying Roush should have gotten rid of David Ragan, but it’s gotta stink to see McMurray over winning big races while they struggle to get over their performance hump.
All the above about Roush said, I don’t think you’ll hear too many arguments that McMurray’s move to Roush wasn’t for the best – on the same token, not too many are saying right now his move away from Roush (as if he had a choice) was bad.
One guy who was a Jamie McMurray skeptic coming into this season was sporting goods mogul Johnny Morris (CEO of Bass Pro Shops). It took some convincing to get Morris to go along with the plan – and let’s be honest, outdoorsman is not the first word that comes to mind when you think of Jamie McMurray.
Though maybe not the best ambassador of the brand off the track, McMurray has shown he has what it takes to represent Bass Pro Shops on track. If you saw victory lane on Sunday, you saw Morris is a skeptic no more. He has even taken Chip Ganassi and McMurray out hunting (I’ll bet that was interesting).
You never know how things are going to turn out. That is a fact of life. And the story of Jamie McMurray and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing are a prime example of that. Just ask Ty Norris.
“I don’t think the stability to be able to compete against the Hendricks and the Roushes and the Gibbses has been (at Earnhardt Ganassi) because it has been something different for six months, and fortunately for him, we offered (Martin Truex Jr.) a safe haven” – Ty Norris – July, 2009
My how things change.
Even though the top three NASCAR series were off on Sunday, there was no shortage of racing going on. At Iowa Speedway, the annual East/West showdown between the two K&N Pro Series took place, and the ARCA cars descended on Toledo Speedway for the first of two events this season. At Iowa, Joe Gibbs Racing development driver Max Gresham won his second straight race, beating Richard Childress’ grandson Ty Dillon to the line by .039 seconds. In Toledo, Roush Fenway Racing development driver Chris Buescher outlasted Joey Coulter, and veterans Frank Kimmel, Ken Schrader and Matt Crafton to win his first ever ARCA race.
By winning at Iowa, Gresham added his name to a pretty impressive list of past winners of the dual series event. Kyle Busch, Brian Ickler, and Joey Logano are all past winners. Gresham is a rookie running for the championship this season in the K&N Pro Series East and he is also scheduled to make select starts in the ARCA Series.
Gresham, a 17 year old from Griffin, GA, was running Legends cars at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway only 4 years ago, and is already a decorated racer. After graduating to latemodels in 2007 , he finished fifth in the Georgia Asphalt Series points in 2008, and won two races last year in the ASA Southeast Tour. With two K&N wins already this season, the future looks very bright.
Buescher took no time this weekend showing his competition that he was at Toledo to win. His #17 Ford was fastest in practice on Saturday, and he followed that up by sitting on the pole before he led 126 of 200 laps in route to his first ARCA win. The 17 year old driver from Prosper, TX won in just his ninth ARCA start, and had help from Cup Series driver David Ragan. After running the Sprint Showdown on Saturday night in Charlotte, Ragan boarded a plane and flew to Toledo to spot for Buescher.
Also a graduate of Legends cars, Buescher ran a part time ARCA schedule last season for the Roulo Bros. Racing team. In seven starts, he had one pole, three top five, and six top ten finishes. He is running another partial ARCA schedule this season. And if his last name looks familiar, it should. Buescher is the cousin of current Truck Series driver James Buescher.
From time to time here at TNI we like to point out a few young drivers to keep your eye on. Driver development is certainly in inexact science, but Buescher and Gresham might be two names you will be hearing for many years to come. They are both showing right now that they have the talent to compete with the best.
Filed under: Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Roush Fenway Racing, Chase for the Sprint Cup
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