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Thinking about starting a NASCAR team?  There is a lot to consider.  You need sponsors, the right driver, a good crew chief, and the best equipment and personnel you can get.  But, as history shows, if you screw up the name on the sign out front, you might as well kiss any success goodbye.

This week’s reports about the possible return of Foster Gillett to NASCAR with driver Kimi Raikkonen and ICE 1 Racing got Journo and me talking about NASCAR team names.  Think about the current powerhouse teams.  What names come to mind?  Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Roush Fenway Racing.  What do all of these teams have in common?  They are all named after their owner.

What’s my point with all this?  When you look back over the recent history of the sport, arbitrarily named teams often struggle to find any measure of success.  Why?  Who knows?

Think about some of the current and defunct teams that were not named in some form or another after their owner(s): Phoenix, Front Row, Red Bull, 2nd Chance, Faith, Go Green, Furniture Row, Red Horse, Panhandle, Green Light, Turn One, Competitive Edge, Eel River, PPI, Bang!, Diamond Ridge, Innovative, and the list goes on.  For most of these teams, success has and was difficult to come by.  Some have scattered wins, or a few top fives and top tens here and there, but not much more than that.

When was the last time a team not named for it’s owner won a Cup Series championship?  You’ve got to go back more than 20 years to 1989.  Rusty Wallace won the Winston Cup championship that year driving for Raymond Beadle’s Blue Max Racing team.  Since then, the Cup Series has been dominated by team owner named organizations.

After Blue Max, only one other non-owner named team has won a national series NASCAR championship.  Driving for Jim Smith’s Ultra Motorsports, Ted Musgrave won the 2005 Truck Series championship.  As a sidenote, Ultra was closed a short time after they were crowned champions.

The reasons why these teams often struggle to succeed or even survive are completely inexplicable.  Many have had top flight drivers and sponsors.  Maybe it’s some sort of weird psychological phenomenon holding them back.  Or maybe it’s just a really strange coincidence.  Either way, it appears it may be all in the name.

So to you future NASCAR team owners out there, let me caution you.  When it comes to naming your team, choose wisely…

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Filed under: David Reutimann, Elliott Sadler, Jamie McMurray, Kyle Busch, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, Danica Patrick, NASCAR

FONTANA, Calif. -- Jamie McMurray's admittedly inconsistent season doesn't apply to the front row at Auto Club Speedway.

The Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver won the pole for the second consecutive race at the two-mile oval Friday with a lap time of 38.859 seconds, edging Elliott Sadler to make it a front row comprised of non-Chase drivers for Sunday's Pepsi Max 400.

"We're really not doing anything different than we would if we were in the Chase," said McMurray, who has four poles on the season. "We're not doing anything any different, I don't think, than any of the other guys."

Matt Kenseth (third) was the top qualifier among Chase drivers. Juan Pablo Montoya (fourth), Kasey Kahne (fifth) Martin Truex (sixth) Dale Earnhardt Jr. (ninth) and Joey Logano (10th) made it seven non-Chase drivers to start the Sprint Cup race in the top 10.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson will begin the race eighth.

 

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Is Rusty Wallace Racing becoming the new Robby Gordon Motorsports?

RWR announced this week yet another management change. The team released #62 crew chief Brad Parrott, and named Larry Carter general manager and interim crew chief of the #62.

Team owner Rusty Wallace told Sirius Speedway yesterday that he is “tired of jacking around, running outside the Top-10.” He said the problem with the teams was a lack of chemistry.

Besides appreciation for the wonderful – and quote worthy – description, I can’t help but think this is wishful thinking on Rusty’s part.

Parrott joins a long and distinguished list of crew chiefs that have come and gone from RWR over the past few seasons. The list includes Bryan Berry, Tony Liberati, Harold Holly and Trip Bruce. The rate of turnover is reaching Robby Gordon levels (ask Larry Carter about that) – and to be frank every time I see a new crew chief named over there I wonder to myself how long it’s going to last.

It’s hard to believe in all the crew chiefs they’ve gone through (truly a diverse group of guys with personality types that run the gamut) they never found one who clicked with the driver and/or team.

Obviously performance hasn’t been stellar, but maybe the crew chiefs aren’t the problem. I hate to say this, but maybe it’s Rusty (unrealistic expectations), or maybe it’s the drivers.

Don’t get me wrong, Brendan Gaughan and Steve Wallace are both good guys (Brendan is probably the nicest guy in the garage), but both are at a point in their careers that consistent and/or great finishes are going to be sporadic.

Brendan has always been good for a decent run here and there, but the peak of his career has probably passed. He hasn’t won a national event since his almost-championship winning Truck Series season in 2003. He also hasn’t averaged a finish in a national series better than 16.5 since 2003.

And Steve is still a driver very much in development. Could he eventually win races. Absolutely. But is it possible that he won’t pan out? Sure. I think the expectations for Steve need to be realistic given his current abilities. He’ll run well some weeks and won’t others.

I think too often crew chiefs become the scapegoat of the organizations they work for. The best crew chief in the world can’t make a driver drive, or turn a driver into something he is not.

For the time being Steve’s crew chief Scott McDougall looks to be in an OK position, but it’s hard not to wonder how long that will last if Steve doesn’t start performing better. The million dollar question though is what happens to Larry Carter if/when Brendan doesn’t start performing better?

They might not quite be RGM at this point, but I can tell if I was a crew chief I’d think twice before heading over to RWR.

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