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With Carl Edwards locked up for the foreseeable future at Roush Fenway Racing, we found out today that Fastenal is the first company to sign on as a primary sponsor for Edwards’ #99 Fords.  Starting with the 2012 Daytona 500, Fastenal will sponsor 17 races a year for Edwards over the next few years.  Edwards’ current main sponsor, Aflac, has yet to announce whether they will return to RFR, but this announcement shows that at the very least Aflac is scaling back.  But while its good to see a sponsor move from the Truck Series, through the Nationwide Series, and into Cup sponsorship, the move isn’t all good.

As we move closer to the end of the 2011 season, much remains up in the air for RFR.  Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Edwards, and David Ragan all have contracts for next season, but as of today, only Biffle (3M) has a full sponsorship deal.  Edwards still needs about half his inventory filled, and questions remain for Ragan and Kenseth.  We know for sure that Crown Royal won’t return next season as a team sponsor for anyone, as they’ve signed on to sponsor the Brickyard 400, and the future of UPS has yet to be announced.  And RFR developmental drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne still don’t have firm plans.

As RFR pursues sponsorship for 2012, Fastenal’s move to the Cup Series really comes at the expense of their Nationwide Series program and the series as whole.  As one of our Twitter followers (@kebzach) pointed out today, Fastenal now represents another sponsor lost by the Nationwide Series.  The industrial supply company has been the primary sponsor for Edwards’ #60 NNS Fords for the last couple of seasons, and they’ve appeared on the hoods and quarter panels of the other RFR NNS teams as well.  We already know that Edwards won’t compete full time in the NNS for 2012, but now we know we’ve lost a full time team and a major sponsor.

We’ve all heard it time and again, but moves like these are just another symptom of the current climate of NASCAR business.  Teams need to find ways to keep their Cup cars racing, and poaching sponsors from other series is one way to go about it.  Hopefully Roush is able to track down a company to back Edwards’ partial NNS bid, and fill the remaining inventory for it’s other Cup and NNS teams.

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I don’t understand JR Motorsports. They spend an awful lot of time complaining about their money situation. Dale Jr. advertised how much the wrecks cost him at Daytona; and they seem to constantly be advertising their struggle to find sponsorship (welcome to the club). And lest you think otherwise their team spokesman is more than willing to underscore how much Jr. is putting into the team out of his own pocket. So what do they do? They decide they’re going to run a car full time that they don’t appear to have fully funded. What!?

Apparently it was just too good of a team not to run full-time. And That’s fine. I’m happy for Scott Wimmer. Certainly Wimmer is a proven winner in the Nationwide Series and he’s a little easier sell to sponsors. When he’s in good equipment he’s shown he can be competitive. But why the sudden change in rhetoric?

Maybe they do have money lined up for this team. Maybe this weekend is a way for them to cement some deal. Or perhaps they lined something up for the #88 and had enough money from another deal to keep this thing going. I don’t know.

If they don’t though I hope for their sake they’re not going to try the ‘let’s run well and hope we impress a sponsor strategy.’ We saw how well that worked for Ganassi, not once but twice. Ask Aric Almirola and Dario Franchitti (and all the people who got laid off). Or how about RAB Racing, a team that really doesn’t have any money, trying to make a go at a full-time run this season with Scott Riggs (right now their asking fans to help sponsor their ride). This strategy generally has one certain result: lost money.

Unfortunately waiting and hoping you can quickly put a deal together just isn’t very realistic, especially in the Nationwide Series. You can get away with running a competitive truck team (and not lose your ass) by piecemealing different small deals; it’s substantially harder in the Nationwide Series (unless Junior is willing to lose some money).

It’s fine if they want to run a team full-time without full funding. I don’t care. But quit talking about your money issues and how much everything is going to cost you. We get it at this point.

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So I returned from another busy weekend of racing to discover (thanks to the Internet)  what many in the NASCAR media have been fronting for weeks; that all of NASCAR is finally starting to implode!  OH MY GOD!  WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!  SAVE YOURSELVES!  EVERYBODY PANIC!!!

A quick look around the Internet today and you would have seen the following  headlines: RCR is dropping to two teams, Kasey Kahne will be in a Toyota by August, Toyota is pulling their support from the NNS and CWTS, Red Bull is leaving Toyota, and there could be spec engines coming to the NNS and CWTS.

Whew!  That’s some scary stuff.  Until you actually read what was said by the important people. 

Richard Childress actually said he plans on having four teams next year, but some sponsorship stuff is still up in the air.  The Shell and Jack Daniels deals need to be renewed, but even if they aren’t, it’s not necessarily the end of the line for the #29 and #07 teams.

Lee White (head of TRD Operations) denied the Kasey Kahne rumor, but even if he’s lying, there are too many moving parts here.  Something smells fishy.  Why would an organization build Toyota’s for one team, and Dodge’s for the other three?  I know the COTs are similar, but there are some differences.  I’m just not seeing the logic here.

Also, while a cutback may be coming for next season, Toyota has no plans to change its involvement in the NNS and NCWTS for 2009.  And it appears that only Detroit is interested in the spec engine program, as the story itself says NASCAR executives have shown little interest. 

And finally, I don’t understand why Red Bull would walk away from Toyota and its funding to self fund a Chevrolet alliance through Hendrick Motorsports.  Red Bull’s problems have less to do with Toyota and more to do with what is going on inside Red Bull.  Getting Hendrick horsepower isn’t going to solve that, and it’s going to cost them some serious coin to switch.

So, now that we know the world isn’t ending, can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?  Maybe we are part of the problem (feel free to say if we are), but I feel like a lot of these Internet writers are trying to either fabricate a silly season or scare people out of their minds. 

Comparing the last few years, this season has been pretty light on free agent rumblings (sans Martin Truex Jr.), and the economy continues to be a major factor in the future of many teams, but these “almost” stories are crazy.  I understand that some of these sites depend on big traffic numbers, but creating a story where there is no story seems wrong.

And this might not be a new thing, but I don’t know when it became news for somebody like Tony Stewart to come out and say that if the situation were right, he’d add a third team for next year.  Couldn’t you really say that about every team?

 ”This just in: Robby Gordon may be a four car team in 2010 if three funded drivers approach him before February.”

Gimme a break.

Is the sport struggling some?  Yes.  Are the manufacturer cutbacks going to hurt the teams?  Yes.  Is it tougher then ever to find sponsors?  Yes.  Are teams going to have to get creative to fight through this tough time?  Yes.  Are we going to lose a few teams?  Yes.

But, even though many will try and convince you otherwise, is the end near?  No.