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?
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Entering its fifth season Red Bull Racing yet again finds itself with an uncertain future. Brian Vickers returned to the team this year after spending most of 2010 sidelined with health issues and Kasey Kahne joined the team on a one-year visa.
With a couple of promising runs so far this season, 2011 could shape up to be a good year for Red Bull Racing. But with only one driver in place for 2012, what happens at the end of the year is anybody’s guess.
The potential of Red Bull was abandoned last year in favor of Kahne. Scott Speed lost his job at the end of 2010 after months of speculation about his future. He joined AJ Allmendinger in the category of Red Bull drivers pushed too soon and abandoned too early.
Now when Kahne jumps ship for Hendrick next year, what are the odds Red Bull does it again? Consider the options for the team. They could sign up a driver already in the sport – not too many great free agents available though. Or, they could tap the existing talent they have. Does the name Cole Whitt ring a bell?
The young driver, a former USAC champion, has 16 NASCAR starts to his name (10 of which came in the K&N Pro Series East last season). He’s currently running the full Truck Series schedule for Turn One Racing. If this sounds familiar, you’re not going crazy.
Scott Speed, a former F1 driver, ran a full ARCA and Truck schedule before being thrust into AJ Allmendinger’s seat. And lest we forget, Allmendinger had three starts in a Truck before being pushed into a Cup car with the new Red Bull team. Both drivers had two full Cup seasons with the team before being booted.
To say Red Bull has a bad track record developing its talent would be an understatement. While I have yet to hear anything substantive about the future of Red Bull, a scenario where they plop Cole Whitt into a Cup car is not completely out of the realm of possibility.
With Whitt they have a talented young driver with a world of potential in front of him. Whether they allow that talent to grow and prosper remains to be seen. So you tell me, what does Red Bull do next year?
I’ve written here before about my affection for lawsuits – and so long as your not involved, who doesn’t? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t enjoy the prolonged nature of them, or all the ill-will they no doubt create – and as I said, I don’t want to be involved. But the information that they generally dispense is wonderful!
Want to know how much a mid-level Cup crew chief makes? There’s a lawsuit for that. Want to know how little money the sport’s back markers will take from sponsors? There’s a lawsuit for that. Want to know the questionable stuff one of the sport’s safety manufacturers is up to? Guess what? There’s a lawsuit for that.
This season has had no shortage of those lawsuits and the interesting insights they provide.
Robby Gordon v. Extenze:
I’ll call this Extenze lawsuit number two. We’ll get to number one in just a moment. After losing his ride at Front Row Motorsports at Michigan (something we told you first), Kevin Conway and his sponsor Extenze found a new home at Robby Gordon Motorsports. Conway ran seven races for RGM, finishing no better than 30th. Thanks to lackluster performance, Gordon had to step-in to keep the car in that very valuable top-35 position in owner points. Robby says he got the greenlight from Extenze to replace Conway – they claim otherwise. Robby is now suing Extenze’s parent company for $690,000.
This one’s interesting for it’s contract specifics. $230,000 to sponsor a car for one race. That’s not much. And we saw what that gets you at RGM – a start and park ride.
Front Row Motorsports v. Extenze/Kevin Conway
This is Extenze lawsuit number one. And tack Kevin Conway onto this one. Front Row Motorsports sued Extenze parent company Biotab and Conway for $2.754 million shortly after the team booted them out the door. They allege non-payment on part of Biotab and Conway’s $5.4 million, 15 race deal.
The most surprising part of this one is that Conway was getting paid $540,000 plus 10% of any sponsorships he brought in. Oh and if you’re curious, Front Row did slightly better than RGM, pulling in $360,000 per race for those first 15 races – still though, not much.
Scott Speed v. Red Bull Racing
We don’t know a whole lot about this one yet, but it’ll be interesting if/and when it becomes available. Speed was released by Red Bull Racing shortly after the end of the season, a move that everyone has been expecting – Speed may or may not have been aware. After a seven and a half year relationship Speed said he was fired through fax – a move that did not sit well with him. It’s not exactly clear what Speed wants out of the deal – money or a ride, maybe both – but I’d assume we’ll find out soon.
Jeremy Mayfield v. NASCAR
Did anyone watch Lamb Chop as a child? They had the song that never ends, and NASCAR has the lawsuit that never ends (at least it feels that way).
Judge Graham Mullen dismissed Jeremy Mayfield’s suspension related lawsuit against NASCAR in May, but Mayfield has fought on. In an October request asking Judge Mullen to reconsider his ruling, Mayfield made claims NASCAR Chairman Brian France had a vendetta against him. He cites an incident in 2006, where France supposedly made a drunken phone call from California to the tower at the Brickyard 400 demanding Mayfield be black flagged. NASCAR says France was in Orlando at that time, and Mayfield’s team owner, Ray Evernham, says he was the one who called Mayfield in, a story corroborated by crew chief Chris Andrews.
As this lawsuit seeps into another year, I think I speak for many when I say I can’t wait for this to be over.
NASCAR v. Access Marketing & Communications
Add the Drive For Diversity program, an outside marketing agency, and apparently some bad record keeping and you’ve got yourself a good, old-fashioned dispute.
In March NASCAR filed suit against Access Marketing & Communications as it sought to determine how much it owed the company. NASCAR alleges it owes nothing, while company owner Greg Calhoun says he is owed “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The interesting thing with this one is the disclosure that NASCAR spent in the neighborhood $2 million a year administering the D4D program. That’s a lot of coin – and there hasn’t been much to show for it. Kind of makes you wonder what’s being spent on the current effort with Max Siegel.
In recent years, layoffs at the end of the NASCAR season have become the norm. And this season hasn’t been any different (though the extent of the layoffs has been less severe than in recent years). Joining the rank-and-file employees on the unemployment line in 2010 are two drivers from prominent programs. I doubt either of them though were surprised.
Enter Scott Speed and Colin Braun.
During his three seasons at the various levels of NASCAR, Scott Speed found some success and quite a bit of struggle.
2008 was a banner year for the flamboyant former F1 driver. He scored four ARCA Series wins, one Truck Series win, and he nearly won the ARCA championship. He was a promising prospect for Red Bull Racing that, at the time, had Brian Vickers and a struggling AJ Allmendinger.
And so began the trouble for Speed, who was thrown into the Cup Series in 2009 with little stock car experience under his belt. Like so many before, Speed wasn’t given much time to develop and was never able to do much in a Cup car. Add on top of his lack of development time, the fact that Red Bull is, at best, a mid-tier team, Scott never really had much of a chance.
Braun got his first full NASCAR season in 2008, running for a Roush Truck team that had a lot of success behind it. In two seasons in the Truck Series though Braun scored one win, and didn’t do much else. It’s of note that in those two seasons (a total of 50 races) Braun had 10 DNFs as a result of wrecks.
Despite a less than successful run in the Truck Series, Roush moved Braun to the Nationwide Series this season with plans to run the full schedule. Eight races into the season though Braun was yanked from the ride after five wreck related DNFs and a severe drop in the points. He was allowed to run 16 more races this season – his highest finish was seventh.
For these two guys, their individual releases were a long time coming. Neither lived up to expectations. For Speed the lack of development time is likely what hurt him the most. With Red Bull’s questionable performance however, more development time may or may not have made a difference.
With Braun, development time wasn’t an issue. In fact, he was given far more opportunity to showcase his skills and talent than most drivers in similar situations. After 82 NASCAR starts, and little to show for it, Jack Roush probably made the right decision cutting him loose.
What stinks for both of these guys at this point is the lack of time they now have to find another ride. Something tells me neither will find much opportunity in NASCAR for 2011.
Filed under: Kasey Kahne, FanHouse Exclusive, NASCAR
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Filed under: Brian Vickers, Kasey Kahne, NASCAR Rumors, Sprint Cup, Red Bull Racing, NASCAR
Just as I was about to complete and publish a post on Wednesday night about Kasey Kahne and his lame duck situation, the story broke that Kahne had been released from Richard Petty Motorsports. And just like that, my 600 word post was out the window. Oh well. I then spent the next 30 minutes or so watching the story develop on Twitter (follow us @nascarinsider - shameless plug over), along with all the reactions from fans, media, and the like. And what I’ve decided, after all that has transpired this season and over the last four days specifically, is that Kahne’s release needed to happen as soon as possible.
What I had written about in my other, now defunct, post for Thursday was that in a nutshell, Kahne brought this lame duck situation on himself. His days as the top driver at RPM were over the second he announced his intentions to leave. He was still going to get good stuff, but the full brunt of RPM’s resources would now be focused on their future. If that angered or frustrated him, he really had nobody to blame but himself.
With that said, I understand his frustration over part failures and bad performance. He wants to run well, and from his perspective, the cars were not letting him do that. I would have been mad too.
But, even with how the season has gone and knowing what transpired at Charlotte, I have to say this: you absolutely never quit on your team. His guys have been behind him all season, and to quit on them in a moment of anger is a complete slap in the face. I don’t care if he was sick or not. Kahne is a very talented driver and has a very bright future with Hendrick, but in this case he was wrong. And it was his refusal to get back into the car after it was wrecked that sealed his fate at RPM.
In the end, this move benefits all parties involved. RPM is rid of an unhappy driver who wanted out anyway, and Kahne gets to make his move to Red Bull early (which we all expect will happen at any second).
What will be interesting to see now is just how well Kahne is able to perform in the Red Bull equipment. They have struggled all season with their own performance woes, and now Kahne will have just a few races in 2010 before taking over for another lame duck season in 2011. Not exactly a positive combination of factors.
In the end, for me personally anyway, I will remember this situation more for Kahne’s antics at Charlotte than for RPM releasing him early. If a driver wants his guys to fight for him every week for 36 weeks, he must do the same for them. It’s this ability to fight through adversity that separates the good drivers from the great drivers.
If you watched the Sprint Cup race at Dover two weeks ago, you caught a glimpse of what might be the future for AJ Allmendinger. And if he continues to run like he did, that future looks very bright.
It’s been an up and down ride for Allmendinger through his short career. From getting the opportunity to come to NASCAR with Red Bull Racing, to getting booted for another unproven open wheeler (Scott Speed), and then getting a rare second shot in the Cup Series with Richard Petty Motorsports. And now this season, Allmendinger appears that he has made strides and could be right on the edge of becoming a contender on a weekly basis.
Allmendinger, currently in his fourth year in the Cup Series, has had his best season to date. He’s improved in every statistical category including points position (19th), laps led (176), and average finish (17.8). He’s picked up one top five and seven top ten finishes this season, and earned his first career pole at the spring Phoenix race. And in his last four starts, Allmendinger has four top 12 finishes.
At Dover, Allmendinger qualified second, and led 143 laps before a cut tire killed his chances to win. Before the tire problem though, Allmendinger had built up a several second lead and appeared to be the class of the field. Even with having to pit under green, and losing a lap, ‘Dinger still fought back to finish 10th.
If the proverbial light has come on for Allmendinger, it couldn’t be coming at a better time. It was announced only a matter of weeks ago that he would be returning to RPM for the 2011 season as the driver of the famous #43. And with the departure of Kasey Kahne, ‘Dinger now becomes the main guy for Petty and the Gilletts. He will be tasked with helping to not only revive RPM, but also bring the #43 back to prominence.
Allmendinger has proven over the course of his career that he can win, and I believe it’s only a matter of time before he and his team break through. A strong run to the finish of the 2010 season could well give this team the momentum they need to propel them to contending for wins regularly in 2011. I wouldn’t even be surprised if this team was in the Chase discussion come next summer.
We found out this last week that Kasey Kahne would be making a one year stop at Red Bull Racing before he takes over the #5 full time at Hendrick Motorsports for 2012. A lot of questions still remain about Kahne’s future, but one of the big ones is who will be his crew chief next year and beyond. His current crew chief, Kenny Francis, has been mentioned as an option, but Red Bull already has two crew chiefs in Ryan Pemberton and Jimmy Elledge, and Alan Gustafson is firmly entrenched at Hendrick. So if you are Francis, what do you do?
Rumors are flying about Francis’ future, and I’ve heard everything from he’s staying at RPM, to he’s leaving with Kahne. Whatever the case though, he may not have a ton of options.
Let’s say for the sake of argument, Francis will follow Kahne to Hendrick. The problem then becomes what does he do next season? Sit around in his office at HMS? Or maybe become some sort of competition consultant until Kahne arrives? With Kahne making the stop at Red Bull, there is no way Red Bull would allow Francis to come in and run Kahne’s team. Why you might ask? Because then Francis would have access to all of Red Bull’s testing, engineering, and setup data and however good that information might be, Red Bull would not be okay with him then taking all of that data to HMS.
If Francis hasn’t been offered the HMS job, does he stay at RPM or try and move on to greener pastures? Everyone is expecting RPM to announce they’ve signed Marcos Ambrose during tomorrow’s scheduled press conference, so that may certainly be an option for him. Other than staying though, it doesn’t really appear as though he would have many options for next season. Most of the crew chiefs for the marquee drivers are locked up long term, and I’m not sure Francis would take anything other than a high profile job with a team that had a shot to win championships. RCR will certainly need a fourth crew chief next season, but would he be interested in working with Paul Menard? There are certainly question marks for Matt Kenseth next season, but they may turn back to Robbie Reiser. There are always going to be rumors about Lance McGrew, but other then that, Hendrick’s bosses are solid. I also wouldn’t expect any changes at Penske, Gibbs, Stewart Haas, EGR, or MWR. So while anything can certainly happen over the final part of the season with driver/crew chief relationships, Francis’ opportunities may be severely limited.
So if you are Kenny Francis, what would you do?
It’s not often I see press releases that truly catch my attention. I mean something beyond the standard pre-race and post-race (which are both useful enough). The last couple of weeks I’ve seen two that had me talking – one for the good, the other for the bad.
Something different? Go Red Bull!
This one was a first – and something I’ve been advocating for for a long time. Why not get creative with your communication efforts? Everybody puts out the same formulaic pre and post-race releases with a ridiculous amount of spin. We get it, you’re trying to turn a 30th place finish into a positive thing.
Lest we be disappointed by yet another post-race we’re probably not going to read, someone finally did something about it. Thank you Red Bull!
You may have seen this – it made the rounds on twitter – after Pocono the folks over at Red Bull, instead of doing a recap of the race that we all saw, injected some humor into their release with some fun facts.
The first bit on their release read:
Pocono Raceway is like the Death Star when it comes to rain. There’s some sort of triangular tractor beam that seems to suck in ominous clouds.
Haha. What? The Death Star? It continues like that, but I had to finish reading. They even managed to sneak in some information about their teams and drivers. All in all, not bad. Check out their turn by turn Watkins Glen post-race – equally entertaining.
The beauty of this is, they’re not running great, but they’ve got people buzzing about something positive. A win-win for the team.
The clock starts now to see how fast someone steals this from them – or tries to outdo them.
Bad luck? Or the funding fell out?
Generally start-and-park teams don’t put out pre and post race releases. It’s obvious why. But I found an exception.
Michelle Theriault has been running a start-and-park for Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing. After Theriault’s first race at ORP the sponsor’s marketing company (yes, a start-and-park with a sponsor) put out a release claiming it was bad luck that forced Theriault out of the race.
From the drop of the green flag, Theriault fought a tight condition which inhibited her climb through the field. The crew planned on making adjustments on the No. 48 ProGold Lubricants Chevrolet, but bad luck struck on lap 52. A kink in a line going to the radiator caused the motor to overheat, which relegated the rookie driver to a 32nd-place finish.
A kink in the line? Bad luck? Sounds to me, as Michael McDowell put it on his twitter page a few weeks ago, the funding fell out on the front stretch.
What’s worse than being a start-and-park? Trying to pretend you’re not one. This was just plain insulting to anyone who read it – and it all but guaranteed I wouldn’t be looking at another of their releases.
Luckily, though they’ve been putting out pre-races, they quit doing the post-race.
Sometimes its just best not to say anything at all.