The death of IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon and questions about safety led the collective motorsports news this week. Wheldon was laid to rest Saturday in a private ceremony in St. Petersburg, Fla. NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson drew ire this week after saying the IndyCar Series shouldn’t race on ovals. After criticism, Johnson clarified that he meant high-banked ovals. In other news, NASCAR confiscated windshields from all three Michael Waltrip Racing and affiliated teams at Talladega. Potential penalties would be announced early next week. This is the NASCAR week that was, October 16 to 22, 2011.
NASCAR takes ‘really big step’ with fuel injection
NASCAR Limping Toward Convergence
How things are quite different for one Cup team a year later
David Gilliland acknowledges Ford discourages drafting with Tony Stewart
Spouses find ways to deal with risks of racing
Vintage Insiders
It Was Time For Kahne To Go
In NASCAR, As In Life, Nothing Is Certain
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This week NASCAR’s at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia for the annual Drive for Diversity Combine. The event brings together some of motorsports best young female and minority drivers to compete for a small number of spots in NASCAR’s D4D program. This year the class includes 26 drivers from 10 states, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
The drivers, according to NASCAR:
“will be evaluated by a select committee on multiple fronts including on-track performance, marketing and media aptitude, physical fitness and personality.”
The ultimate goal for the drivers is of course a ride, in this case for the NASCAR backed Revolution Racing, while for NASCAR it’s to attract more minority and female drivers and fans.
This season the program has been among the most successful with prospects Sergio Pena and Darrell Wallace Jr. winning a combined six Pro Series races. It’s the most NASCAR wins of any D4D class to date.
Even with the success, NASCAR is now finding the limits of the program. Pena and Wallace, both in their sophomore year of the program, are reaching the end of what they can do in the series. Both are conceivably ready for opportunities in ARCA or the Nationwide or Truck Series but with a stagnant sponsorship market and shrinking teams, finding a ride independent of NASCAR is no easy feat.
Continuing as it is under the direction of Max Siegel and John Story at Revolution Racing, the D4D program is… what it is. It’s true that it’s a great opportunity to identify and cultivate talent. But if there is nowhere for these drivers to go once they’ve grown out of the program, has it really been successful? Has it really accomplished anything?
It was a step in the right direction when NASCAR put more resources and more emphasis into the program a couple of years ago. It had, up until then, been pointless. Even now though, after eight years, the program has yet to produce a regular competitor in a national series.
Still, I think it more important than ever for the sport find ways to build diverse audiences and fields. I’m just not sure, even with the added emphasis and added resources, the current model is going to work.
It was officially announced today at Charlotte Motor Speedway that Dollar General would move it’s sponsorship from Turner Motorsports and Sarah Fisher Racing (IndyCar team) to Joe Gibbs Racing for 2012. The retailer is upping it’s NASCAR spending from just a single, full time Nationwide Series car, to 12 Cup races as a primary on Joey Logano’s #20, a full NNS season with Brian Scott, 10 more NNS races to split between Logano and Kyle Busch, and ten Truck races with Kyle Busch Motorsports. It’s a significant jump for Dollar General, and while that is good, it isn’t all positive.
From a state-of-the-sport standpoint, seeing companies starting to commit more dollars to NASCAR is very good. Having new sponsors come in like Farmers Insurance, and existing sponsors like Dollar General stepping up is what the sport needs moving forward. We are still experiencing some contraction, but hopefully moves like these show better things are ahead. Companies need to know that NASCAR is still a great vehicle to reach millions of very brand loyal consumers.
What hurts in this deal though, is seeing an independent Nationwide Series team in Turner Motorsports lose out to Cup stalwart JGR. Those independents are what we need to keep the lower series going, and it seems we lose more and more of them every year. But, in the end NASCAR is a business, and JGR did what was necessary for the future of their organization. You certainly can’t blame them for that. And Dollar General is free to do with their marketing dollars what they wish. Like they say, it’s not called “show friends,” it’s called “show business.”
The other part of this deal that stands out to me, is the reduction of Home Depot’s involvement with JGR. They have been associated with the Coach’s race team since the 1999 season, and have not shared the #20 very often. With this deal, they are giving up 12 races to Dollar General, or almost a third of their involvement (figuring in all events).
As J.D. Gibbs would have us believe, he went to Home Depot and asked for them to allow space for Dollar General. But is that really the case though? During the Carl Edwards sweepstakes, rumors would have us believe that Home Depot wasn’t happy with Joey Logano, and wanted Edwards to replace him. So was this move made to make the Home Depot sponsorship cheaper, and satiate their executives, or is J.D. telling us the truth? We will probably never know for sure.
I also want to point out that this is now two possible homes for Clint Bowyer (JGR, RCR) that had sponsorship deals in the hopper, but chose not to sign the veteran driver. You have to think that Bowyer’s 5 Hour Energy money, combined with this Dollar General sponsorship would have been more than enough to run a fourth car at JGR. And Childress admitted in a story at SceneDaily.com that they had a car for Bowyer completely sponsored, but couldn’t make a deal. Both situations make it fairly clear what these teams think of Bowyer and whatever he was asking for.
As we move ever closer to Homestead, expect to hear a few more of these types of announcements. We still don’t know what the future holds for several drivers and teams, and we are getting into crunch time for making these deals happen for 2012.
For NASCAR it’s been three tough seasons. Ratings have fluctuated, mostly to the negative, sponsors have downsized and in some cases moved on and organizations at every level have pulled back or closed completely. Nowhere has the bad economy and changing sponsorship market hit harder than in the Nationwide and Truck Series.
NASCAR Chairman Brian France made himself available last weekend to the media. The economy and economic situation was a popular topic among the press corps. Asked about the economy, France said:
“Look, I’ve always said I’m not an economist, but I know what you know, and it’s very, very difficult out there for companies and for people in the general economy. That has impact on us, and it will continue to have some impact on us.”
He went on to talk about the future viability and strength of the Truck Series and ended by talking about how the sanctioing body is taking steps to lower the cost of the sport.
“It’s a core principle at the R & D center that there’s a group of people that are looking at safety, performance and cost all the time. You don’t see them, you don’t need to see them, they’re not going to come to the events very often, but that’s what they’re trying to do.“
One way NASCAR appears to be looking at cost savings is with fewer dates and more dates closer to home. We’ve of course heard announcements about the addition of races at Rockingham and Iowa, but while the Cup Series schedule has been out for several weeks we’ve yet to see a finalized version for the Truck and Nationwide Series.
The rumor is that both could be down one race beginning next season. This of course means one less week to pay people, feed people, put them up in hotel rooms and more – on the downside, it’s one less race to sell to a sponsor.
One interesting potential addition to the Truck schedule is one or more road course events. Certainly entertaining, but like the super speedway races it means more purpose built trucks that could only be used for one or two weekends a year. Not exactly a good use of resources.
As I talked about a couple of weeks ago with the truck series, NASCAR has a problem with its model. Right now it’s not feasible to do business like teams did just a few seasons ago. Sponsorships need to be cheaper to attract new outside investment but in order to do so the cost of participation needs to come down.
It’s great to see NASCAR knows the quality of the product they have and that things are not easy right now. Admitting the problem is a big step. Fixing it without damaging the product could prove a little more challenging. We’re waiting to see how things work out.
What would you be willing to see in the lower series? No more pit stops? Shorter races? Mid-point breaks? Fewer races? Spec engines?
Jimmie Johnson had a rough few weeks. He was involved in an on-track altercation with Kurt Busch at Richmond – he finished 31st. He went on to Chicago and had a respectable, but not overwhelming 10th place run. Then he struggled at New Hampshire, finishing 18th.
The driver found himself 29 points back in 10th, the farthest back he’d ever been in a Chase at that point. And to top it off, it looked like there was trouble in paradise between Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus. Surely Johnson was done for – or so some would have had you believing.
Barring another miraculous comeback – which is not out of the question – Jimmie Johnson’s five-year reign as NASCAR Sprint Cup champion may finally come to an end this season.
And then we got to Dover. Johnson qualified sixth, led 157 laps and ultimately finished second. That seemingly insurmountable 29 point deficit was cut to just 13 and Johnson picked up five spots in the Chase.
Not a surprising feat for this team.
For the last several seasons the “is Johnson done for?” parlor game has been especially popular for the NASCAR press corps – this year, with Johnson not quite as hot as he has been, the speculation has been just as strong (fair disclaimer, we’ve admittedly been guilty of it). But it seems, just when everyone starts counting them out, team #48 starts making its ascent.
It’s happened a couple times mid-season over the last five years when the team soured, and it happened during Johnson’s inaugural championship run in 2006 when he overcame four straight finishes under 13th (including a 39th and 24th). Still Johnson and Knaus always got it together and came out on top.
We’re just three races into the Chase, and we have one of the strongest Chase fields we’ve ever had, but if last weekend was any indication, this year may not be any different. The fact is, Knaus and Johnson are good, very good. They’ve proven that season after season. And despite the occasional bickering and disagreement the two have chemistry like few before.
For me, after five straight, I’m done counting Jimmie and Chad out. That is until we’re sitting in Las Vegas with someone else at the head table. It’ll happen sooner or later.
The end of the 2011 season is drawing near, and it seems we hear every week about another team that is preparing to lay off employees. The U.S. economy has still not rebounded, and even though some signs are better for NASCAR (like TV ratings), it would appear that we haven’t yet found the bottom. It all adds up to what will be another tough winter for many employed in and around the sport.
Thanks to North Carolina’s WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act, we’ve had several public notifications within the last few weeks about impending race team layoffs. The state requires a 60 day notice if more than 50 workers will be laid off because of a company shutdown. Red Bull Racing, Kevin Harvick Inc., and Germain Racing have all filed with the state.
Red Bull and KHI are organizations that will be shut down completely at season’s end. We’ve obviously known about Red Bull for several months, and we learned within the last month about KHI. The Nationwide Series teams that were housed at KHI will be absorbed by Richard Childress Racing, so there is some hope for a few. But that still leaves several hundred people looking for work.
Germain, while still a bad situation, isn’t quite as dire as Red Bull and KHI. Germain knows for certain they have funding for 22 races for their Cup Series program for next season, but their Truck teams are in limbo. Brendan Gaughan may not return, GEICO won’t sponsor Max Papis, and they’ve been piecing together sponsorship for Todd Bodine for the last several seasons. With so much still to figure out, they didn’t have any other choice but to file their notice.
Besides these teams, we know there is a good chance RCR will cut back down to three Cup teams with the departure of Clint Bowyer. Roush Fenway Racing could be facing cuts, as sponsorship remains a big question for their #6 and #17 Cup teams. There is also word that their Nationwide Series program could be significantly smaller next season. And while we are talking about NNS teams, Turner Motorsports might be cutting back both their NNS and Truck programs because of lack of sponsorship. There are also questions at Rusty Wallace Racing, as it appears they need a replacement for 5 Hour Energy.
It isn’t all bad though. If Bowyer does end up at Michael Waltrip Racing like it has been rumored, that team would go from two cars to three. Also, Stewart Haas is adding at least a partial third Cup car with the addition of Danica Patrick. We also know that Eddie Sharp Racing will expand significantly next season, as the team has purchased the #8 and #33 trucks from KHI to add to their already existing #6 truck. Possible drivers for those seats include Cale Gale and Tim George, Jr. And besides adding KHI’s #8 and #33 NNS teams, RCR will start a third NNS team for Austin Dillon.
With eight weeks remaining, there are still a lot of unfinished plans. Drivers like Brian Vickers and Mark Martin still haven’t locked down seats for 2012, and there are plenty of other free agent drivers in the lower series. We also continue to hear that Red Bull’s involvement in NASCAR may not completely end. The chance still exists for that team to continue in some form or another. Either way, here’s to hoping everyone lands on their feet following Homestead.
You heard him say it. Sure he was angry and it’s not true – Waltrip did win two Daytona 500s after all – but it definitely adds an uncomfortable element to the Clint Bowyer to Michael Waltrip Racing rumors. Strange bedfellows?
We often say around here not to burn bridges – the community is too small and you never know when you might need someone’s help. While that’s especially true for crew members and other team employees, it also applies to drivers.
Beyond the obvious awkwardness, Bowyer generally finds himself in a very difficult spot.
In a year where a driver like Greg Biffle acknowledged he took a cut in pay with his new contract, Bowyer, according to some reports, was asking for as much as $7 million a year and helicopter rides to the track. While that may not quite be the case, we keep hearing the number is high. It’s no wonder he hasn’t locked anything down.
Even with sponsorship from 5 Hour Energy, a deal rumored to be just a partial season, Bowyer’s position isn’t a whole lot better. I think what we’re seeing is Bowyer without any really good option left, looking for a team willing to take a chance that it can close the gap. Enter Michael Waltrip Racing.
If all goes according to plan it looks like Bowyer will make the move. In reality the team represents a step down from RCR. In five full NASCAR Cup seasons MWR has just two wins and has firmly cemented itself as a weekly field filler with performance that can best be described as mediocre.
To Bowyer’s credit, he represents the hope and aspirations of an organization that has struggled through the years. Is he the answer for MWR? Only time will tell.
But what about that comment?
Even Denny Hamlin jokingly asked Waltrip about it last night on Inside NASCAR. An awkward exchange ensued where Waltrip half-laughing pointed out that Bowyer called him the worst NASCAR driver EVER. Yikes.
Obviously this is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. And with the right amount of money, anybody can get over anything. I suppose it’s not like Bowyer called Waltrip the worst owner in NASCAR ever. That might have been unforgivable.
The 2011 Truck Series season started on a high note in Daytona with 46 trucks on the entry list and an emotional win by Michael Waltrip on the 10th anniversary of his Daytona 500 win. In the weeks and months that followed, the field began to thin.
First, Randy Moss Motorsports shut down it’s second team with Tayler Malsam before the trucks reached Martinsville in April. Then Vision Aviation Racing dropped from two teams to one before completely closing down in mid-May.
Germain Racing followed up in June by shutting down Justin Lofton’s team. Lofton left for Eddie Sharp Racing, where Craig Goess had recently departed.
Randy Moss Motorsports pulled the plug in July, forming an “alliance” with Germain Racing and handing over sponsor Navistar for the remainder of the year.
Since that time Kevin Harvick Inc. has announced it will be shutting down its truck teams at the end of the season and Germain Racing has said it will scale back.
To say the least there has been a lot of change in the series this season. It’s incredible to see some of the mainstays, including RMM/David Dollar (in the sport since 1997) and KHI either unable or unwilling to continue. It has to provide some pause for those in charge.
Well paying sponsorships are few and far between, purses are pitiful and the series is comparatively expensive to run. To be fair, I think NASCAR recognizes that. One notable place they’ve been making visible changes is in the schedule.
The series has shifted away from the West Coast swings, ending it’s run at California and only going to Phoenix once a year, while adding stops closer to home at Rockingham and Iowa. We’ve also seen them incorporating or considering shorter tracks. Of course, smaller tracks means fewer trucks are necessary, which means, generally speaking, less needs to be spent on equipment.
The Truck Series has walked away from its roots in recent years – see stops at Daytona, Talladega and Pocono – and for the sake of growth has begun to push out those who supported it for so long. That said, the exit of KHI or any of these other teams is by no means a death knell to the series – great teams like Thorsport, Richard Childress Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports, among others, continue to support it. But we all need to be thoroughly considering the reasons those who exited did so.
The Truck Series continues to be popular with fans, and TV viewership is growing. Still, NASCAR needs to be making tough decisions and rectifying the problems at hand if they want the series to be anything more than a place for start-and-park teams, funded drivers and has-beens/never-weres looking for a cheaper barrier to entry. I think it’s better than that.
For much of the early part of the season it was Carl Edwards who took up all the oxygen as the chief target of 2012 speculation. And after months and rumors, Edwards ultimately re-signed with Roush Fenway Racing.
Up next was Clint Bowyer who looked early on like another candidate to re-sign with his existing organization. Then came the end for Red Bull Racing and revelations that Bowyer was in advanced negotiations with the team. After that Bowyer began earnest negotiations with Richard Childress Racing, but in recent weeks those have fallen apart.
This weekend both Bowyer and team owner Richard Childress commented on the driver’s contract.
Childress said:
“We’ve tried and we’ve worked really hard to put the deal together to keep Clint. It’s not 100 percent off the table but it’s getting tougher and tougher as the day goes by.”
Bowyer, responding to Childress’ comments, said:
“That’s fair. Just working on everything. That’s the biggest thing, trying to get everything done as far as the future. There’s opportunities and stuff we’re trying to weight out.”
With the window for re-signing about closed it looked like Bowyer had a couple of alternatives in Richard Petty Motorsports, Michael Waltrip Racing and potentially Roush Fenway and Joe Gibbs.
Then on Wednesday Lee Spencer at FoxSports reported that RPM co-owner Andrew Murstein said the organization was no longer in discussions with the driver. She also reported JD Gibbs said a lack of sponsorship made pursuing Bowyer a “non-issue.”
So Bowyer appears to have burned the bridge at RCR and is left without opportunities at RPM and JGR. What’s available to him is a potential ride at MWR and the off chance of a ride at RFR. If I were Bowyer, I’d be reconsidering my managment right now.
He’s potentially leaving behind an organization with a combined 99 Cup Series wins and six Cup championships – with one driver currently tied for the points lead – and his only serious option is a team with two wins in five seasons of full-time Cup competition. Yikes.
Even if Roush is an option you have to believe with the existing holes the team has in sponsorship for several of its drivers, it wouldn’t sign another, presumably to take over for David Ragan, without serious dollars backing said driver.
There is absolutely a chance something else could come together – perhaps even a return to RCR – and there has been the long standing rumor that Bowyer has sponsorship from 5 Hour Energy (sponsorship that I suspect is not worth much if this rumor is true) but with the season winding down, Bowyer’s options are running out.
With just 10 races to go until we crown a champion, this will definitely be a storyline to keep an eye on. I wish Clint Bowyer good luck in finding a situation that’s even in the neighborhood of the one he has now.
It’s been an up and down week for the 2012 Truck Series schedule. On Wednesday, track owner Andy Hillenburg was joined by dignitaries from State and local government, NASCAR and the track’s future sponsor to announce he had brought NASCAR back to The Rock. A boon for Eastern North Carolina and for Rockingham.
Then came word that Darlington Raceway was losing its truck series date in 2012. Last season the series returned to the track for the first time since 2004. A track spokesman said they may pursue a date for 2013.
Both announcements highlighted the good and the bad for next year’s truck series schedule. The addition of one old favorite and the loss of another. Together the moves cancel each other out, but combined with other news from this season, things don’t look quite as certain. What we end up with are a lot of questions about what next year’s schedule is going to look like.
Announcements earlier this season that Dover Motorsports was shutting down Nashville and that NASCAR was pulling events from Lucas Oil Raceway Park has left gaping holes. Now Darlington is also out, with just Rockingham to replace it.
It’s not entirely clear at this point what NASCAR is considering to fill those dates. We’ve heard rumors that The Milwaukee Mile might once again play host to a race, but with their promoter issues and the problems they had with IndyCar that seems very uncertain.
With NASCAR’s safety requirements for venues, finding appropriate, qualified tracks to bring the trucks could be an issue. Certainly venues with existing NASCAR dates are in play and there are potentially a handful of others out there to take the spots.
Losing a track like Darlington from the schedule is unfortunate for the fans and the series. Replacing it on the schedule is going to be difficult to do. NASCAR has a little bit of time left until they need to have everything firmed up. So what are your thoughts about the truck series schedule? What would you like to see added?