Jenna Fryer at the AP first reported this weekend that Pat Tryson, crew chief for Kurt Busch has been effectively shut out of the Penske shop because of his announced defection to Michael Waltrip Racing next season.
The story quotes Penske VP of Operations Mike Nelson as saying “It really breaks down to 2009 vs. 2010. He’s not there for the discussions that we have about 2010. That’s a lot of what we’re doing at the shop right now.”
Essentially Tryson is relegated to performing his duties through e-mail and phone calls, though he is allowed at Penske’s Tuesday morning meetings.
Personally I have all the respect in the world for Penske Racing. I think it’s a great organization with a lot of smart people in charge. This move boggles my mind though.
This move says to me: “we’re more concerned about what happens next season than our chance to win a championship this season.”
Certainly the #2 crew is capable of handling everything that needs to be done before races. Car Chief Jeff Thousand is a NASCAR veteran, with experience as crew chief for Rusty Wallace. He is largely credited with the team’s increased performance this season. So by all means leadership is not an issue.
What this does do is throw off the team’s flow. They are used to working with and communicating to a certain person and now that is limited. Let’s be honest there is only so much you can do telecommuting. Being the leader of the team from your living room is not easy.
Certainly I understand the position Penske is in. They have a team leader leaving and he will take with him the knowledge he has accumulated at the organization. If that includes information for next season that could be a detriment to them. I guarantee the non-disclosure he’s signed will do little to keep information from passing on.
All that being said, I think there should have been a greater effort made in closing him out of discussions and work for next year (at least some of which he is probably already aware of), while keeping him at the shop. The other option was just releasing from his contract. A change in leadership at this point in the year could be bad for performance, but this move wasn’t a whole lot better.
I believe Tryson is committed to the team, but now he can only do so much.
500 Posts!
On a completely unrelated subject, this marks our 500th post! As always thank you for all your support. We wouldn’t have made it this far without you. Here’s hoping for another 500.
