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The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed. As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it last night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. Then what I’m telling you today is our reaction. - NASCAR President Mike Helton
The responsibility over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed.
As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it last night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. Then what I’m telling you today is our reaction. - NASCAR President Mike Helton
Since the implementation of NASCAR’s more lenient on-track policing policy began last season we’ve been waiting for this moment. Waiting for NASCAR to give some definition to, “we’ll know it when we see it.”
While I don’t think we got a whole lot of clarity with the penalty this weekend, I can’t say I’m surprised that was the moment. Count me among the legions who didn’t expect NASCAR to act as strongly as they did, but again I wasn’t surprised.
Kyle Busch was out of his mind Friday night – out of his mind like seldom few I’ve ever seen on a race track. He not only wrecked Ron Hornaday’s repairable truck, he wrecked his own even more repairable truck all because he was upset Hornaday got loose and forced him up the track. The championship contender was apparently supposed to back down for Busch. It was mind-boggling.
And then NASCAR’s decision was not. Busch has repeatedly been involved in incidents this year. Most notably with Kevin Harvick and subsequently with Richard Childress. He, if you’ll remember, also had that 126 mph speeding ticket during the summer.
If this had been the first incident you may not have seen NASCAR act with as much gusto. But it wasn’t. This behavior has become all too frequent for Busch.
I’m hopeful this will be a moment of clarity for the driver. An opportunity for him to realize that maturity and temperance are important steps in becoming the great racecar driver he’s capable of becoming.
But I don’t blame NASCAR. In fact, I applaud them. This was a long time coming. It was unfortunate for Busch’s sponsors and increasingly I feel bad that Joe Gibbs and Joe Gibbs Racing are forced to make excuses for behavior I know they don’t find acceptable.
Kyle Busch got exactly what Kyle Busch deserved – and we’ll see if more is coming on Tuesday.
As I watched Kurt Busch cross the finish line first last weekend, all I could think about was one thing, wouldn’t it be sweet payback if he won the championship?
Busch of course left Roush Racing at the end of 2005, just a year after winning the championship, under very bad circumstances. Remember that traffic citation out in Phoenix? Needless to say there is a lot of animosity between Jack Roush and Busch. And that has carried on through the years.
Periodically, Roush likes to needle the driver. This season Roush took the shot while praising crew chief Jimmy Fennig.
“Jimmy is a consummate stock-car racer. Heck, he even won a championship with Kurt Busch. He can do anything.”
Ouch!
Despite the critiques from his former owner Busch sits tied for third with Tony Stewart, right in the thick of Chase contention. It’s got to feel good for Busch to finally have his move to Penske paying off – even if it took a few years.
Steve Addington is the other piece to the payback puzzle. He joined forces with Busch at the beginning of last season after being released from Joe Gibbs Racing. He had been with the younger Kyle Busch for several seasons at Gibbs – but things soured.
At the time of his firing, Addington said he was surprised about getting let go.
“Do I agree with it? No… But it is what it is, and I felt like we had a good run.”
Busch said they were either feast or famine that year and all involved chalked up the release to performance issues. Who wouldn’t have been angry about a four win season? Kyle’s only been slightly more consistent since Dave Rogers took over, but that’s neither here nor there.
Addington and Busch are, in some ways, the ultimate castoffs. Both left or were forced out of organizations with which they were having a lot of success. And together they have the chance to show their immediate past employers what they missed out on.
While there is still a lot of season to go, this is definitely an interesting story to keep an eye on.
Before Daytona, I wrote a blog post with some random thoughts entering the season. In it, I made predictions about which drivers I thought would win each championship. I said Ron Hornaday would take the Truck title, Elliott Sadler would be your Nationwide champ, and Denny Hamlin would break through and win the Cup. Of the three choices, only Sadler still has a realistic shot. So much for predictions. Of the three choices, I really felt like Hamlin had the best chance, but 2011 has been anything but a dream season. And three races into the Chase, Hamlin is all but eliminated.
In my explanation for why I chose Hamlin, I said:
The bitter taste of being the runner up to Jimmie Johnson in 2010 will be serious motivation for this team to take the next step, and with Hamlin being 100% healthy this season, he will put it together and unseat the 48 bunch.
Knowing what we know now, it would appear that maybe the opposite happened. It almost seems as though the disappointment of losing the 2010 title the way they did, and a slow start to 2011 might have ended Hamlin’s season before it started. Statistically, 2011 is the worst full season of Denny’s career. His average finish hasn’t been this low since 2005, when he only ran seven races.
Hamlin and his team have certainly been the victim of a lot of bad luck, and Joe Gibbs Racing struggled mightily with their engine program this season (so bad in fact, they are now working with TRD). But the poor luck and the lack of performance all seem to have affected Hamlin’s psyche. We found out this week that Denny has been seeing a sports psychologist. He hopes that having fun over the final races will lead to better results and some momentum for 2012.
Finishes of 31st, 29th, and 18th in the first three Chase races have effectively ended any hope of Hamlin and Co. contending for the championship. And one has to wonder if maybe Mike Ford’s job could be in jeopardy. Hamlin and JGR are certainly a strong enough combination to contend for championships, and the Coach and J.D. will do whatever is necessary to keep Hamlin up front. Hopefully Hamlin can quickly forget 2011 and start fresh for 2012.
Among the milestones NASCAR is approaching this year is one that may not be on your radar – 26-year-old Kyle Busch is just one win away from matching his 32-year-old brother’s win record.
The two brothers had equally meteoric rises through the NASCAR ranks, beginning at Roush Racing. Kurt in 2000 and Kyle, at age 16, in 2001. When NASCAR started requiring drivers to be 18 or older, a direct result of Kyle’s six-race stretch in a Roush truck, he stepped away from NASCAR. He returned full-time in the Nationwide Series in 2004 with Hendrick Motorsports.
Kyle made his Cup debut in 2005 and won two races before the season was over. Meanwhile Kurt was already an 11-time Cup winner and the reigning champion. Kurt’s falling out with Jack Roush and his unceremonious exit from the team following a reckless driving charge in Maricopa County, Arizona was the talk of the end of 2005. He took over Rusty Wallace’s famous #2 Miller Light Dodge at Penske Racing the following season.
Kyle experienced a similar falling out with Rick Hendrick in 2007 – he took over the #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota from J.J. Yeley the following season.
Even with the bumps in the road, the two Busch boys have racked up pretty impressive stats. Collectively, since 2000 in the Cup Series, they have 45 wins, 162 top-fives, 281 top-10s, 22 poles and one championship in 628 starts.
Statistically, Kyle has the edge on his brother. He has the better average start at 15.1 (Kurt’s is 15.7) and the better average finish at 15.5 (Kurt’s is 16.8). Kyle also averages wins more frequently than his brother – every 11 races compared to every 16.7 races for Kurt.
Interestingly though in the six full seasons the two have raced together, both average the same points finish of 11th and both brothers have missed the Chase just twice in their careers (Kurt in 2006 and 2008; Kyle in 2005 and 2009).
The two have had very similar paths up to this point and have undoubtedly found success on their own terms – both with two different organizations. In the coming weeks and months, with the Penske teams on the upswing, it’ll be interesting to see if Kurt is able to maintain his Cup Series win lead over Kyle. If history is any guide though, it’s only a matter of time before baby brother overtakes him.
For months Carl Edwards and the speculation about his 2012 plans have dominated Silly Season coverage (TC wrote about it just last week). It was a daily will he or won’t he. In the last several weeks it looked increasingly likely Edwards would make the jump to Joe Gibbs Racing – some were reporting very specific rumors including signing bonuses, sponsors and driver pay.
And then, as quickly as it began, Roush Fenway Racing put an end to it with a press release last week announcing Edwards would re-sign with the team in a multi-year deal.
From the very beginning Edwards said performance was going to be the key factor in his decision for 2012. As the points leader and a winner this season Edwards was/is in a very good position at RFR. Improving on the situation he was in would have been difficult.
Enter Joe Gibbs Racing, a Championship winning organization, looking for the right opportunity to expand to four cars.
Early on RFR made an offer to Edwards that they say was firm throughout the negotiations. Apparently JGR also made an offer to Edwards.
As the days turned into weeks, and weeks into months details began to emerge about one side of the deal. Some were reporting rumors of Edwards to the #20 car and Home Depot. There were suggestions of a signing bonus as high as $10 million (signing bonuses are unheard of in NASCAR).
Even with all the details it was clear no one felt too good about any of the information they were getting. As TC said last week, Lee Spencer, who has some of the best sources in the garage, wrote about hearing “scuttlebutt.” Not inspiring language.
Where exactly it originated is anyone’s guess, but there was only one person who stood to benefit from talk of a massive deal with a competitor – Carl Edwards. With Roush standing firm on their initial offer, sweetening that deal was only going to happen with external pressure. The offer from Gibbs, whatever it was, was that necessary pressure.
Then came news that Ford had stepped in with a very generous package for Edwards to improve the deal with RFR. Ford didn’t want to lose Edwards anymore than Roush did.
What Edwards finally got was a contract that is almost certainly better than his last with RFR and he gets to stay in a position where he can win a championship. From the get-go Edwards had to know if he decided to leave Roush at any point during the season it would have spelled an end to his championship run this year. Jack might not have booted him from the car (see Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton) but he would have seen to it Edwards wasn’t going to win a championship only to move on to another team.
And in the end, I don’t honestly think Edwards had any intention of leaving Roush – there really wasn’t any reason to. He though, like anyone in his position, wanted a better deal than he had, and he was going to make it happen. It took a couple of months but he eventually squeezed what I’m sure is a very generous contract out of Roush that puts him at the top of the heap among his fellow Roush drivers.
With this move it’ll be interesting to see how quickly things fall into place. Silly Season is still in full swing, even if the big free agents are quickly falling off the market.
Now that we know Carl Edwards is returning to Roush Fenway Racing next season, expect the rest of the Silly Season dominoes to start falling quickly. But even though the Edwards drama is over, there is an aspect of the rumored move by Edwards to Joe Gibbs Racing that seems to have been overlooked by some folks. If Edwards did indeed end up taking over the #20 Home Depot ride, there was talk that JGR would start a fourth team with sponsorship from NAPA. That sounded a little unbelievable considering NAPA currently has a deal with Martin Truex Jr. and Michael Waltrip Racing through 2012. But in a recent article by Lee Spencer over at FOXSports.com, J.D. Gibbs admitted that NAPA had submitted an RFP to JGR regarding sponsorship. So while they may have a contract with MWR through 2012, it appears the auto parts retailer could have an out in their deal and are exploring their options.
A possible reason why NAPA could be looking at other teams to sponsor for 2012 and beyond is the performance of MWR and Truex’s #56 team. Since coming to MWR following the 2009 season, Truex’s results have been disappointing. In 56 races, the #56 car only has one top five and thirteen top ten finishes. This lack of performance led MWR to replace crew chief Pat Tryson in June (we questioned the move then), but a big turnaround has yet to happen. Truex’s average finish in the seven races with new crew chief Chad Johnston has improved from 19.7 to 18.4, but the team has actually dropped two spots in the points. And after nearly two seasons together, NAPA may have seen all they need to see.
Besides a possible fourth JGR entry, there are plenty of top tier teams in need of backing for 2012 and beyond. Of the four Roush Fenway cars, only one (Greg Biffle’s #16) has sponsorship for next season. Clint Bowyer appears to be on the cusp of re-signing with Richard Childress Racing, but sponsorship for his #33 has yet to be announced. We’ve heard RCR might be close to locking down funding for Bowyer, and it’s not unrealistic to think NAPA could be in play here. There could also be a million other possible combinations with Stewart-Haas needing more funding, drivers like Mark Martin and Brian Vickers available, or the possibility of a deal with a young driver (Trevor Bayne & Ricky Stenhouse Jr. come to mind). The point being that NAPA has plenty of options.
Whether NAPA actually makes a move remains to be seen, but their availability could add a new wrinkle to what’s left of the Silly Season. If they’ve already submitted an RFP to JGR, we’ve got to believe that they’ve inquired with other teams as well. And like we mentioned on Twitter earlier today, don’t believe anything (like denials in this case) until a deal is actually done.
Joe Gibbs Racing didn’t have a particularly good weekend in Indianapolis. The teams finished 10th, 25th and 27th. Adding to the weekend woes was what has become a very common problem for JGR – an expired engine; this time for Denny Hamlin.
This ongoing issue comes as rumors about the future of JGR’s engine program swirl. We’ve heard in recent months that there have been layoffs within JGR’s engine department and J.D. Gibbs said this weekend, after earlier denying it, that a collaboration with Toyota Racing Development is possible.
The team has struggled the last couple of seasons with sour engines. There have been nine expired engines so far this season prior to races. In the last two seasons, bad engines have cost the team five DNFs. Those aren’t numbers to be proud of.
Despite the issues, the team has had success with their engine program. Since switching to Toyota in 2008 they’ve racked up 34 wins. That means, in three and half seasons a JGR team wins one in every four races. Those ARE numbers to be proud of.
The same can’t be said for TRD’s engine program. Since entering the sport in 2007 they have just three wins – and of those three only one wasn’t decided by weather or fuel mileage.
The difference between the two programs is stunning. While one has flourished, the other has languished. While one has found success and competed for championships, the other hasn’t done much. Still, the TRD engines haven’t had nearly as much trouble as the Gibbs engines.
The serious issues with reliability are taking their toll on the team – things can’t continue like this if JGR hopes to compete for championships and regularly compete for wins.
I’m certain this is a top priority for Gibbs. And obviously, Gibbs’ head engine builder Mark Cronquist – a NASCAR and JGR veteran – would likely be part of any collaboration with TRD. One can also suspect much of the talent and knowledge that has made JGR such a powerhouse would make the move, but is this what’s best?
The team needs to get its house in order and soon. While Hamlin remains on the cusp of a Chase run and Logano is far out, Kyle Busch is likely to sit near the top of the standings when the points reset in a few weeks. If there’s any hope of converting the team’s success up to this point to a seat at the head table in Las Vegas, reliability has to be improved.
…but since the story won’t go away until Edwards finally announces a decision, I want to put a few things out there.
First, all we really have at this point is a lot of rumors. Talk and speculation has been running rampant through the garage all season about Edwards’ future, and none of it seems really concrete. When I heard that Lee Spencer of FOXSports.com had wrote something about Edwards possibly going to the 20 car, I thought maybe she finally had the first solid info. And then I read what she wrote:
…the latest scuttlebutt has Edwards driving the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2012…
Spencer has some very good sources in the garage area and when she reports something is happening, you can trust it will happen. But her choice of words here doesn’t convince me that she really trusts the info. And if she doesn’t trust it yet, you probably shouldn’t either.
Next, I believe Edwards is a very savvy individual. The guy does serve as his own agent. He’s been criticized at times for doing so, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For one, you don’t have to pay somebody else a percentage. But if you are trying to negotiate the best deal possible with Roush Fenway, what’s better than continuing to leak details about a possible contract with Joe Gibbs Racing? It’s a great way to apply pressure. When was the last time we knew such specific information about a driver’s deal? $8 million a year, plus a $10 million signing bonus is pretty specific. They are to the point now that even Ford has stepped into the negotiations.
The other thing to consider here is how Edwards is doing this season. He’s the current points leader, and RFR has shown all year that they came to play in 2011. An announcement before the end of year that he’s leaving for JGR would effectively end Edwards’ 2011 title hopes. Jack Roush hasn’t taken kindly to defections in the past, and you can be sure that the other RFR cars in the Chase would get the best stuff. For a guy as competitive as he is, is a move to JGR worth throwing away his best championship chance to date?
Just so you are aware, I don’t have any new information to add to this story. I’m just trying to pick through the mess and make some sense of what is happening. In the end, Edwards will want to capitalize on his earning potential, but he’ll also want to be with a team that has the resources necessary to compete for championships. We could probably debate for days about which organization provides the best opportunity to do so (I think RFR has the edge here), but even so that makes me think this is going to come down to money. Whoever is willing to pony up the most cash will end up with Edwards. Hopefully we find out sooner than later.
As rumors have started to float around about where Carl Edwards could end up for 2012 and beyond, we asked our Twitter (@nascarinsider) followers last week if they’d be surprised if he left Roush Fenway Racing. The answers were pretty mixed, but our question seemed to spawn another question from many: where would he go? There are certainly going to be plenty of options, and it sounds as though he’s going to take all the time he needs to make a choice.
As Edwards begins to explore his options, lets take a look at where he could realistically end up. Outside of the RFR/Richard Petty Motorsports bubble, Hendrick and RCR are out, because they have signed drivers and no room to expand. Of the upper tier teams, that leaves the likes of Penske Racing, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Red Bull Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, and Stewart-Haas Racing. All either have drivers leaving, the ability to expand, or both.
In Edwards position, I’m not convinced that if he does actually leave RFR, it will be about money. The driver who serves as his own agent is already making some serious coin in his current spot, and the current economic climate may limit his earning potential somewhat. I’ve got to believe that Edwards wants to be where he has the best chance to win races and ultimately, championships.
Of the available teams, I’m not sure the argument could be made that any of them provide Edwards with a better situation than does Roush Fenway. A possible fourth team at JGR would probably be the closest option, but they’ve had their struggles in this young season and would he really gel as a teammate to Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch?
Another curious option is Red Bull. Owner Dietrich Mateschitz has the seriously deep pockets needed to bring in a driver like Edwards and they will be looking to replace the departing Kasey Kahne. But barring some sort of dramatic turn around, RBR doesn’t yet have the competitive pedigree necessary to attract a driver like Edwards.
Edwards’ recent comments to ESPN about not being in a hurry to get a deal done probably isn’t a great sign for RFR. With the future of his career at a serious crossroads however, it’s hard to blame Edwards for taking some time to explore all of his options. The question still remains though, would he really leave Roush?