The Indiana Business Journal reported this week that Crown Royal may be in negotiations with Indianapolis Motor Speedway to become the title sponsor of the Brickyard 400 weekend. According to their report the deal could be the richest title sponsorship in NASCAR at around $1.5 million annually. The multi-year deal could be announced in as soon as two weeks at the upcoming 400. If true, it would make the recent moves made by IMS make a lot more sense.
It was announced officially last week that the Nationwide Series would not return to Lucas Oil Raceway Park in 2012, and instead would shift over to IMS as part of the Brickyard 400 weekend. Also a part of the event, IMS has added a GRAND-AM Series race on the track’s road course. Both moves now appear to be an effort by IMS to sweeten the deal for Crown Royal. With waning attendance in recent years, the track had to do something to justify a price tag north of $1 million.
This report comes just two weeks after Crown Royal announced it would not return to Roush Fenway Racing next season as sponsor of Matt Kenseth’s #17 Ford. Along with their team sponsorship, Crown Royal had also been a title sponsor at Richmond with their “Your Name Here” 400 program. The announcement had some interesting phrasing regarding the future of this part of their NASCAR program:
The changes are made to allow Diageo to shift resources toward its annual “Your Name Here” program, in which Crown Royal awards naming rights to a Sprint Cup event to an adult fan, recently with a military background. “We look forward to elevating this program as well as continuing our presence in the sport through an experience that our fans have grown to love,” Briese said. Details about next year’s race sponsorship will be announced at a later date, she added. The “Your Name Here” event has traditionally been held at Richmond International Raceway, but there was no information immediately available Tuesday as to what track would host the race in 2012 and beyond.
The changes are made to allow Diageo to shift resources toward its annual “Your Name Here” program, in which Crown Royal awards naming rights to a Sprint Cup event to an adult fan, recently with a military background. “We look forward to elevating this program as well as continuing our presence in the sport through an experience that our fans have grown to love,” Briese said.
Details about next year’s race sponsorship will be announced at a later date, she added. The “Your Name Here” event has traditionally been held at Richmond International Raceway, but there was no information immediately available Tuesday as to what track would host the race in 2012 and beyond.
Knowing what we know now, it would appear that Crown Royal may be preparing to use the Brickyard sponsorship to escalate the “Your Name Here” program.
The loss of the NNS and Truck events from LORP has been an unpopular move (we wrote about it here and here). Initially, the move appeared to just be IMS attempting to boost fading ticket sales. But now, the changes make a lot more sense. While the track certainly hopes to see a boost at the gates, the added races make the sponsorship deal much more valuable for Crown Royal.
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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.
This season NASCAR forced drivers to select one series in which to compete for a championship. The general idea being it would limit the number of Cup regulars competing in and winning in lower series.
What’s the result been? Truck and Nationwide Series regulars lead the points in their respective series, but there have only been three non-Cup winners in 30 races across all three series. And guess what? Neither of our two points leaders is one of those winners.
Obviously, NASCAR’s efforts have, thus far, not been very successful. This weekend though, we saw the potential of the Nationwide Series.
To start off, Iowa is such a great facility with a great fan base. Did you see that crowd? Fantastic. Then came the racing.
Rain washed out qualifying, so starting on the front row were Drew Herring, a 23-year-old with just four Nationwide starts under his belt, and Michael McDowell. Young Austin Dillon started 3rd.
Through the early portion of the race it was McDowell and Herring putting on the show. We saw four different race leaders, including Reed Sorenson who led the most (and is great on short tracks). And in his 500th start Kenny Wallace finished sixth. While we did see Cup regulars and Nationwide Series champions Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski as competitors throughout, it was Edwards and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who fought down the stretch with Stenhouse as our eventual winner.
Stenhouse has really taken full advantage of this season. If you’ll remember just a year ago, he got yanked from his ride after a disastrous beginning pushed him outside the top-30 in owners points and he DNQed at Nashville. Now he’s a race winner and sits just 8 points out of the points lead. What a difference a year makes.
It was refreshing to sit and watch a Nationwide race where most of the competitors were series regulars. It was great to see some young talent showcased and some series veterans have a real chance. The fact is, Cup drivers are Cup drivers for a reason. And though the occasional start is certainly acceptable, having just 10% of your winners come from outside the Cup ranks is ridiculous. It totally defeats the nature of the lower series.
NASCAR is in a pretty good place at this moment, but this is definitely an area that still needs some work. That said, Sunday was great and truly an example of how things ought to be. Congratulations to Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – it was a well earned and deserved win.
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.
We entered this season with a lot of great drivers at the end of their contracts. Among them were Greg Biffle, Brian Vickers, Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer. Biffle has already re-signed with Roush Fenway, but the other three are still without contracts for next year and beyond.
While they hold out to weigh their options, I suspect they’re not finding a whole lot out there. The issue isn’t whether there are seats available but if there are seats available that improve upon the drivers’ current situations.
The prospect of a fourth car at Gibbs, and a third car at Penske and maybe even Ganassi or Stewart Haas exists; all though are very dependent on sponsorship. And while a big name driver helps in securing that all important support, there are no guarantees.
Another option is Red Bull Racing that, at the moment, doesn’t have a single driver signed up for 2012. The problem with this team though is that its performance doesn’t come close to matching that of rival organizations. It’s very much a downgrade for top prospects Edwards and Bowyer.
Even with Gibbs, Penske et al., the best Bowyer and Edwards can hope for is a lateral move (which is why neither will go anywhere). They’re both currently driving for two of the top teams in the sport. Vickers can look around, but I doubt he’ll find any opportunities for improvement.
For Edwards, his is very much the A-team at Roush. Though he has been looking, is he going to improve upon that position somewhere else? I doubt it.
While Edwards and anyone else who may be playing the field might not be going anywhere, what talking to others does do is improve their position with their current teams. Create demand for yourself and you’ll get what you want. I’m sure it will work beautifully for Edwards.
So the long and short is, if you’re looking to move, lots of luck this year. There are no dominos to fall and no blatantly open rides to fall into. It’s just not a good year to be a free agent in NASCAR.
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?
At the beginning of the last two years since we opened TNI, we’ve done a rumor scorecard for the previous season. (See the ’08 and ’09 scorecards here and here.) With 2010 now officially behind us, I figured it was time to grade ourselves and our reporting for the year. Before I do though, let me just point out that for 2008 and 2009, our record is 19-3-3 (19 correct, 3 wrong, 3 pushes). Here we go…
Marc Davis To Race At Vegas: Our first rumor of 2010 was that Marc Davis would run the NNS race at Las Vegas. The deal was 99% done we’d heard (he was even on the entry list), but ended up falling apart at the last minute. Davis didn’t end up racing. We’ll call it minus one for the Insiders.
Another New Crew Chief for Robby Gordon: We heard in March that after starting the season with Iain Watts as crew chief, newly hired “consultant” Larry Carter would be taking over as crew chief for RGM. We know for certain that he did call some races for the #7 team, but whether or not he was ever actually officially the crew chief is unclear. Carter was one of several to call a race for RGM in 2010. We’ll call this a push.
NASCAR Considering Eliminating Catch Can Man: With the Truck Series as a test bed, we told you early in April that NASCAR was considering eliminating the catch can position and having both the Cup and Nationwide Series use the new self-vented fuel can. Over the course of the year, NASCAR listened to feedback on the rule change from many in the sport, and in the end, the rule was implemented. The official announcement was made just a few short weeks ago. Plus one for the Insiders.
Front Row Penalized Over Bleeder Valves: After Pocono in June, we were the first to tell you about a possible penalty coming from NASCAR over Front Row Motorsports’ possible use of illegal bleeder valves. We heard a short time later that NASCAR was preparing to hand down their biggest penalty for cheating ever. In the end however, Front Row was penalized but it wasn’t a record sanction. Before the penalty was announced, one unsubstantiated rumor we’d heard was that FRM owner Bob Jenkins actually privately pleaded with NASCAR to levy a smaller fine and points penalty, as anything larger would have put him out of business completely. Obviously, there was no way of knowing if that was actually true or not. We’ll call this plus one, and minus one for the Insiders.
Billy Johnson To Drive for RFR at Watkins Glen: We were the first to tell you that GRAND-AM driver Billy Johnson would be making his NNS debut for Roush Fenway Racing at Watkins Glen. Johnson started ninth in RFR’s #6 Ford, but was caught up in a wreck and finished 36th. It was his only NNS race of 2010. Plus one for the Insiders.
TJ Bell Racing with “Green” Sponsor: In August, we reported that T.J. Bell would be racing at Darlington with a new sponsor, Liberty Tire Recycling. Bell went on to make two starts for MAKE Motorsports with Libery on board. Plus one for the Insiders.
Rumors After Watkins Glen: After the NNS race at the Glen, we reported via Twitter that we’d heard NASCAR had taken a box of lugnuts from Marcos Ambrose’s team that they suspected were illegal. The bit was confirmed later by Scene Daily’s Kenny Bruce, but NASCAR ultimately decided there was no issue. In the same post, we told you that Kevin Conway’s days at FRM were numbered. The team had grown tired of his poor performances, and they were looking to bring in another driver. Following denials by his sponsor Extenze (they emailed us specifically), it was announced five days later that Tony Raines would replace Conway for the race at Michigan. We also added that we’d heard Aric Almirola was a candidate for a Cup ride at RPM. Almirola didn’t end up at RPM, but it was reported by both Fox Sports and ESPN that he’d had discussions with the team. We’ll call that plus three for the Insiders.
Darnell & Kenseth To Run RFR NNS Cars: We told you late in August that Roush Fenway would add Erik Darnell and Matt Kenseth to the round robin of drivers getting starts in their NNS cars. Darnell got three starts (Richmond, Dover, Texas), and Kenseth ran at Atlanta to go with two NNS starts he made earlier in the year. Plus one for the Insiders.
RMM Shuts Down #81 Team: Following the Bristol Truck Series race, we told you that Randy Moss Motorsports was shutting down the #81 team of David Starr. RMM did indeed close down their second team, but Starr never missed a beat. After being let go from the #81, he moved over to SS-Green Light Racing and finished the season. RMM would later run a second truck for Tayler Malsam in four races. Plus one for the Insiders.
Turner Motorsports & Marc Davis: While we weren’t the first to report on the possible sale of Braun Racing to Steve Turner, we were the first to tell you it was a done deal and we gave you the first picture of what the new Turner Motorsports would look like. Todd Braun did end up selling his team, and the new Turner Motorsports will have three NCWTS teams and four NNS teams. They will also run Chevrolets. And after a failed attempt to race at Las Vegas earlier in the season, we told you that Marc Davis would be running for R3 Motorsports at Dover. Davis started 30th and finished 23rd. Plus two for the Insiders.
Johanna Long & Tayler Malsam to Trucks: In September, we reported that both Malsam and Long would be making attempts in the NCWTS race at Las Vegas. Both did race at Vegas, and they both ran more races towards the end of the season. Plus two for the Insiders.
Trevor Bayne To RFR: We were the first to report that Bayne to Roush Fenway was a done deal, and that his new team would run a fifth NNS car for him at Kansas in October. Bayne finished out the season with RFR, and is prepared to run a full NNS schedule in 2011, along with an unspecified number of Cup races. Plus one for the Insiders.
Josh Wise To Drive At Charlotte: Josh Wise spent 2010 driving for several different organizations, and we reported in October that he would race at Charlotte for a team backed by veteran tire changer D.J. Copp. Wise started 39th and finished 18th. Plus one for the Insiders.
KHI, Elliott Sadler, RFR Trucks: Later in October we heard that KHI was putting together the personnel for a second full time Nationwide Series team, and that Elliott Sadler may run some races for them. Both turned out to be true, as it was later announced that Sadler will run the full 2011 schedule for KHI with sponsorship from CitiFinancial. We also told you that there were rumors that Ron Hornaday was shopping for a new NCWTS ride. We’d heard he had conversations with several organizations, but he ended up re-signing with KHI. The last bit we gave you was that Roush Fenway was working on resurrecting their Truck Series program. This story has cooled way down since then, but there is still a small chance it could happen. I’ll give us plus one, a push, and leave the RFR bit as still pending.
Caitlin Shaw To Race At Phoenix: In November we told you about yet another female driver who would be racing in 2010. Caitlin Shaw, after making one start in 2009, returned to the Truck Series in a truck prepared by Mario Gosselin’s DGM Racing at Phoenix. She started 33rd and finished 30th. Plus one for the Insiders.
Skinner Out? Kvapil In?: Our most recent rumor for you, we reported that Mike Skinner was likely out at Randy Moss Motorsports, and that the team would replace him with Travis Kvapil. Skinner won’t talk, and no official announcement has come from the team, so we’ll leave this one pending.
As you can see, we had a busy year reporting on the happenings in NASCAR. Our scorecard for the year looks like this: we had 17 correct, two wrong, two pushes, and still have two rumors pending. Adding up all three seasons worth of news and rumors, that makes us 36-5-5. We prove yet again that if you hear it from us, odds are pretty good that it’s true. Our solid track record doesn’t do much to prove that we are who we say we are, but at the very least we are very well connected janitors…
While most of the talk this week centered around the Burton/Gordon scuffle, the 48 pit crew swap, and the championship battle, young Trevor Bayne’s Cup Series debut went almost unnoticed. Bayne was making his first ever Cup start driving the famous Wood Brothers #21, and he certainly did not disappoint.
Over the last few seasons, the Wood Brothers have only run a limited Cup schedule, choosing select races to compete in as they did in the past. Bill Elliott has gotten the bulk of those starts, and because of his status as a past champion, is often guaranteed in the race. For Bayne though, just making the field at Texas would be an accomplishment, as he would not have owners points to fall back on because of the 21′s limited schedule.
On Friday at Texas, Bayne passed his first test with flying colors, qualifying the #21 Fusion in the 28th position. His situation would be made difficult however, as the team was forced to start at the rear of the field because of a transmission swap following practice.
After starting at the back of the 43 car field, Bayne did everything you can ask a driver making his Cup debut to do; finish the race and bring the car home in one piece. The young driver from Tennessee hung around the top 25 all day and brought the 21 home in the 17th position, and on the lead lap no less. He was able to out run the likes of Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
On the Nationwide Series side, Bayne remains in the seventh spot in the points standings, and is the second highest NNS only driver. Since moving to Roush Fenway Racing a few weeks ago, Bayne has four top 20 finishes and appears to be getting more comfortable in his new home as the weeks progress.
RFR has yet to announce what Bayne’s 2011 schedule will look like, but most of the signs point to at least a part-time Cup Series schedule, along with a slate of more NNS races. Whatever the case however, the future appears to be very bright for Bayne.
If you need proof of that recount the last 48 hours.
On Monday and Tuesday we were talking about Kasey Kahne, Richard Petty Motorsports and the frustration that permeated that relationship. Then Wednesday night Kahne was unexpectedly released from the team and Thursday, as Lee Spencer wrote, “the house of cards is finally falling for George Gillett’s Richard Petty Motorsports.”
So, how did this happen? This is an organization with four fully (or mostly) funded Cup cars with ties to one of the biggest organizations in the sport. I suspect George Gillett’s other forays into sports ownership can provide some clarity.
Whatever the case, this is yet another glaring example of the lack of stability and job security in this sport (though I suppose job security is lacking elsewhere too). Nothing is certain here. And unfortunately, more often than not it’s those who can least afford it who pay the price.
In the midst of all the chaos today, you had to feel for those who are now wondering if they’re going to have a job next week. I suspect seldom few knew what they were getting into when they got in their cars that morning to drive to work. I guess in these situations though that’s how it goes.
In this bad economy, there are plenty living on the edge of survival. Just look to the Nationwide and Truck Series and the slate of teams who have complained about money or a lack of sponsorship. Many are just one short step away from oblivion.
Despite that and the issues George Gillett has had with money, and even with the $90 million loan default, it was still surprising to see a team like RPM in a situation like this.
In NASCAR your job is only as good as the team you work for and the money behind it – and even then there are a lot of other factors that come into play. Here’s hoping the employees (including the drivers) at RPM have a good outcome.
While most of the big dominoes have fallen for the 2011 season, there are still plenty of holes to fill. And along with those holes, come plenty of rumors. Here are a few we’ve been hearing lately.
Expect Kevin Harvick Inc. to add a second Nationwide car to their team next season. While we haven’t heard definitively who will drive it, don’t be surprised if Elliott Sadler gets some races. We know for sure that KHI is working on putting the personnel together, including filling the available pit crew positions. Also, the recent hiring of former Wood Bros. crew chief David Hyder most likely means they’ve found the team’s second NNS boss for 2011. FoxSports.com even quoted Rick Carelli as saying that Hyder would be the crew chief for the #4 to be driven by Tony Stewart at Daytona in February.
While we are on the subject of KHI, there have been rumors that Ron Hornaday may be shopping for a new ride for next season. Word is that he’s had conversations with a few teams about a possible seat for 2011. Hornaday’s performance has been off this season after winning two of the last three Truck Series titles. He currently sits seventh in the standings, and only has one win after winning six races in each of the last two years. Sponsorship has also been an issue this year, as Hornaday has had eight different companies on the hood in 20 races. The #33 team started 2010 sponsored by Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco, but KHI was another victim of the law banning tobacco advertising. The team lost Longhorn following the Michigan race in June.
Some good news could be coming for Truck Series entry lists for 2011. Roush Fenway Racing is rumored to be putting their truck program back together after leaving the series a year ago. The team last competed in the CWTS in 2009 with Colin Braun, but ended their program after Ford pulled their factory support for the series. Word is RFR may run as many as two trucks next season.
As always, we will keep you posted as we hear more.