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The Cup teams get their final off weekend of the season, but there won’t be a shortage of racing action this week.  The Truck Series is off to Chicagoland Speedway, and the Nationwide teams head north of the border to tackle the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.   If you don’t know what this post is, we answer any and all reader questions every Wednesday, right here.  So if you’ve got one, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send one to us.  On to the questions…

1. From Justin:

Thanks for a great site. Have you heard anything about why Scott Wimmer cannot get a decent ride in the Nationwide series? He has a lot of success in the past. What is the knock against him if any?

Thanks Justin! I think Wimmer’s problem is not so unsimilar to a large number of racecar drivers. He’s getting older, his performance was never spectacular and he doesn’t have funding. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not bad, you certainly know what you’re getting with Wimmer, but he’s not necessarily the kind of driver big teams are going to be willing to take a risk on at this point. – Journo

2. From Dave:

Does the first start and park team still face the rigorous “just
because” tear down process that some cars went through at the start of the season?

Yes, NASCAR continues to tear down start and park teams like they were doing earlier in the year.  This week, the #55 of Michael McDowell was the first car out of the race and NASCAR took their engine back to the R&D center. – T.C.

3. From Jamie:

You guys tweeted free beer at RCR. So do one or both of you work for RCR?

You caught us… Just kidding. I’m not sure where you saw that tweet, but it wasn’t on our twitter feed. Because of the nature of the site we’ll never disclose where we work, and we certainly wouldn’t be that obvious. – Journo

4. From Dan:

Hey Guys, According to the results of the Saturday night Bristol race the #48 car was listed as running at the end of the race with 415 laps completed. Why would Johnson stay on track after he couldn’t gain any more points? Hamlin who finished one position ahead had 58 more laps completed. Johnson was well ahead of Conway, who finished behind him, with only 212 laps completed and no threat to Johnson losing a position. Seemed odd considering it was Bristol, since a lot of chaos can go on there nearing the end of the race.

Well first, you never retire from a race if you can help it, because you never know what may happen.  Johnson was involved in the wreck around lap 260 or 265, which means there was still half the race in which something could go wrong for somebody else and he could gain more points.  Second, even once you mathematically cannot gain any more spots, you keep running for pride (for lack of a better word).  You don’t want that dreaded DNF on your record and you never give up, even when you know it’s over.  And finally, sponsors are paying your team to get exposure for them, and that can’t be done with a car loaded on the hauler.  I personally commend them for running until the finish. – T.C.

5. From brotherflounder:

What do you think of Kyle Busch winning the triple?

I thought it was a cool moment, certainly something historic. Is Kyle winning in the Nationwide and Truck Series much of a feat? Not really. But still, to be able to do all that in one weekend is nothing to sneeze at – which is why no one has done it before. – Journo

And that brings yet another “Ask The Insiders Wednesday” to a close.  Thanks to everyone who sent in questions.  And remember, if you’d like to be a part of next week, click on the ”Ask the Insiders” tab at the top of the page and send your question in!

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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.