Ford and Jack Roush made waves this weekend after word seeped out of the camp that the teams were directed to draft exclusively with their manufacturing counterparts. With two Roush Fords in serious contention for the championship it wasn’t a surprising edict – especially not from Jack Roush.
At the end of the race we saw what appeared to be the edict in action as Trevor Bayne gave up drafting with Jeff Gordon to draft with Matt Kenseth. The move was bad news for Gordon who ended up finishing way back in 27th. Bayne and Kenseth finished 15th and 18th.
The help kept Kenseth in contention, moving him to second in the points just 14 back from teammate Carl Edwards. And after everything, not doing damage is the most important thing at a place like Talladega.
The track serves as THE wild card race in the Chase where literally anything can happen. That uncertainty leads teams to do everything they can to control the things they can. This is why you see teams like Roush and manufacturers like Ford letting their drivers know where loyalties need to lie.
In this instance there seems to be some surprise that Bayne switched dancing partners choosing a teammate over a potentially better pairing. But it makes sense when considering what was at stake: a championship, a precarious future and a whole lot of money. Would you not have done the same?
Success in this sport involves reliance on those who are around you. That goes for the Ford teams, the Chevrolet teams, the Dodge teams and the Toyota teams. While the Roush and Ford team orders are the only ones that made the press this weekend there were no doubt similar understandings at organizations throughout the sport. Consider the other teams on track. Who was working with whom?
The Fords were with the Fords, the Chevrolets with the Chevrolets and on and on.
At superspeedways you draft with who brung ya – it’s true for EVERY manufacturer and EVERY team. While it’s unfortunate for those left out, it’s a cold hard fact.
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Joe Gibbs Racing didn’t have a particularly good weekend in Indianapolis. The teams finished 10th, 25th and 27th. Adding to the weekend woes was what has become a very common problem for JGR – an expired engine; this time for Denny Hamlin.
This ongoing issue comes as rumors about the future of JGR’s engine program swirl. We’ve heard in recent months that there have been layoffs within JGR’s engine department and J.D. Gibbs said this weekend, after earlier denying it, that a collaboration with Toyota Racing Development is possible.
The team has struggled the last couple of seasons with sour engines. There have been nine expired engines so far this season prior to races. In the last two seasons, bad engines have cost the team five DNFs. Those aren’t numbers to be proud of.
Despite the issues, the team has had success with their engine program. Since switching to Toyota in 2008 they’ve racked up 34 wins. That means, in three and half seasons a JGR team wins one in every four races. Those ARE numbers to be proud of.
The same can’t be said for TRD’s engine program. Since entering the sport in 2007 they have just three wins – and of those three only one wasn’t decided by weather or fuel mileage.
The difference between the two programs is stunning. While one has flourished, the other has languished. While one has found success and competed for championships, the other hasn’t done much. Still, the TRD engines haven’t had nearly as much trouble as the Gibbs engines.
The serious issues with reliability are taking their toll on the team – things can’t continue like this if JGR hopes to compete for championships and regularly compete for wins.
I’m certain this is a top priority for Gibbs. And obviously, Gibbs’ head engine builder Mark Cronquist – a NASCAR and JGR veteran – would likely be part of any collaboration with TRD. One can also suspect much of the talent and knowledge that has made JGR such a powerhouse would make the move, but is this what’s best?
The team needs to get its house in order and soon. While Hamlin remains on the cusp of a Chase run and Logano is far out, Kyle Busch is likely to sit near the top of the standings when the points reset in a few weeks. If there’s any hope of converting the team’s success up to this point to a seat at the head table in Las Vegas, reliability has to be improved.
In all fairness to Steve Turner, he’s been here for a while. But as an owner he’s relatively new to the game – and it sounds like he could soon be one of the biggest independents in the sport.
FoxSports first reported on Saturday about the possible sale of Braun Racing to Turner. We are hearing, barring any last minute issues, it’s a done deal. It’s been common knowledge around the sport for some time that Todd Braun is/was willing to entertain offers.
So far this season Turner has been linked to at least two other teams – Phoenix Racing and Randy Moss Motorsports – in his quest to expand from his existing two truck operation.
What Turner would get in the acquisition of Braun is equipment, and perhaps most importantly, several lucrative sponsorship deals – add those to his existing deal with Ricky Carmichael and Monster Energy Drink.
Turner, if you’re not familiar, is the president and COO of Texas-based RedHawk Energy, an oilfield services company. He joined that organization after the sale of his own Xxtreme Group (another oilfield services company) to RedHawk late last year.
Throughout racing circles, Turner has been a familiar name for some time as the benefactor of young NASCAR driver James Buescher (Buescher dates Turner’s daughter Kris).
He formed Turner Motorsports last season, running select Truck Series races with Ricky Carmichael and Scott Wimmer. Carmichael has run the full truck schedule this year, and Buescher has been in all but a few races in a second truck. As an owner, Turner has already collected six top-fives and 11 top-10s.
Though many around NASCAR are once bitten, twice shy with new team owners (see Alex Meshkin and Bobby Ginn), I think Turner could prove formidable. While he may be moving a little fast (I’m personally a fan of the Kevin Harvick, KHI model) he appears to have some wealth and a solid business background, and he understands the cost of racing (only 1 of 2 Turner Motorsports Trucks is funded – Wolfpack Rentals is a RedHawk company) – something Meshkin and Ginn had absolutely no conception of.
We’ll see how everything turns out, but Steve Turner is definitely someone to keep an eye on. He’s shown over the past several months a strong desire to become a player in NASCAR – with the right resources and right moves he could be there very soon.
After years of complaints from fans (and drivers for that matter) over the looks of the Cup Series COT, NASCAR undoubtedly didn’t want a repeat as they developed the Nationwide COT.
This weekend we got our first glimpse of all four stickered up Nationwide COT’s. I don’t know how you feel about the cars, but in my opinion the manufacturers and teams (of course with NASCAR) did a good job making the cars look more like a production model.
I was fortunate enough to see a Challenger COT early in development and I was happy to see through the process there weren’t any major changes to it’s overall look. By far I think it’s the best looking of the new cars. The Mustang turned out well too.
I think Chevrolet missed out here though in not bringing the Camaro into the sport; though I understand their position. Mark Kent, Director of GM Racing said earlier this year:
“At the end of the day, because of the quest for very close competition and the need to have templated bodies in that series, we felt that by forcing the Camaro into the Nationwide templates that we were compromising the body lines of an iconic car. So at the end of the day we just could not get the Camaro in the Nationwide series to satisfy our requirements.”
It’s understandable they didn’t want to murder the body lines of a car they’ve been working on for many years. Still how cool would that have been?
I digress. NASCAR though now has a problem on its hands. They have visually attractive and realistic looking Nationwide cars competing with the less than handsome Cup Series COT.
After meetings this past week with drivers and team officials, NASCAR said they would make changes in 2011 to the front fascia of the Cup Series COT, presumably to make them look a little better up against the Nationwide COT. Let’s hope the changes are enough.
Now I know many of you aren’t fans of the COT and from the comments I have read elsewhere people are still complaining that this new car is still “cookie cutter”. In NASCAR’s and the team’s defense though these things could help bring down costs and will certainly make the racing safer; the hope of course is that racing will be better. Whatever the case, it’s hard to complain about the looks of the car; this is the closest we’ve seen to a production model (in my opinion) since the late-80s or early-90s.
With these new good looking cars though, let’s just hope competition isn’t the cost we all pay.
So any thoughts on the new Nationwide COT? Anything you would have liked to have seen done differently? Any hopes for the Cup Series COT? Talk amongst yourselves.
So I returned from another busy weekend of racing to discover (thanks to the Internet) what many in the NASCAR media have been fronting for weeks; that all of NASCAR is finally starting to implode! OH MY GOD! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! SAVE YOURSELVES! EVERYBODY PANIC!!!
A quick look around the Internet today and you would have seen the following headlines: RCR is dropping to two teams, Kasey Kahne will be in a Toyota by August, Toyota is pulling their support from the NNS and CWTS, Red Bull is leaving Toyota, and there could be spec engines coming to the NNS and CWTS.
Whew! That’s some scary stuff. Until you actually read what was said by the important people.
Richard Childress actually said he plans on having four teams next year, but some sponsorship stuff is still up in the air. The Shell and Jack Daniels deals need to be renewed, but even if they aren’t, it’s not necessarily the end of the line for the #29 and #07 teams.
Lee White (head of TRD Operations) denied the Kasey Kahne rumor, but even if he’s lying, there are too many moving parts here. Something smells fishy. Why would an organization build Toyota’s for one team, and Dodge’s for the other three? I know the COTs are similar, but there are some differences. I’m just not seeing the logic here.
Also, while a cutback may be coming for next season, Toyota has no plans to change its involvement in the NNS and NCWTS for 2009. And it appears that only Detroit is interested in the spec engine program, as the story itself says NASCAR executives have shown little interest.
And finally, I don’t understand why Red Bull would walk away from Toyota and its funding to self fund a Chevrolet alliance through Hendrick Motorsports. Red Bull’s problems have less to do with Toyota and more to do with what is going on inside Red Bull. Getting Hendrick horsepower isn’t going to solve that, and it’s going to cost them some serious coin to switch.
So, now that we know the world isn’t ending, can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on? Maybe we are part of the problem (feel free to say if we are), but I feel like a lot of these Internet writers are trying to either fabricate a silly season or scare people out of their minds.
Comparing the last few years, this season has been pretty light on free agent rumblings (sans Martin Truex Jr.), and the economy continues to be a major factor in the future of many teams, but these “almost” stories are crazy. I understand that some of these sites depend on big traffic numbers, but creating a story where there is no story seems wrong.
And this might not be a new thing, but I don’t know when it became news for somebody like Tony Stewart to come out and say that if the situation were right, he’d add a third team for next year. Couldn’t you really say that about every team?
”This just in: Robby Gordon may be a four car team in 2010 if three funded drivers approach him before February.”
Gimme a break.
Is the sport struggling some? Yes. Are the manufacturer cutbacks going to hurt the teams? Yes. Is it tougher then ever to find sponsors? Yes. Are teams going to have to get creative to fight through this tough time? Yes. Are we going to lose a few teams? Yes.
But, even though many will try and convince you otherwise, is the end near? No.
For quite some time I have been an advocate of NASCAR speaking with other “foreign” manufacturers about the possibility of them entering the sport. I was delighted this weekend to hear from Brian France that in fact the sport has been engaged, if even just preliminarily, in those discussions.
Obviously with the pullback of funding by General Motors, Chrysler and Ford in the last year this issue has become particularly pertinent. While they are indeed pulling back, the executives at all of these companies have maintained the marketing efforts are still worthwhile for them.
I read a comment on a story questioning why any manufacturer would want to enter the sport. The fact of the matter is, if this weren’t making these companies money and showcasing their product to their key demographic, they wouldn’t continue their participation.
While I can’t say I am the biggest advocate of the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mantra, I do think there is a lot of value in this sport for these and other manufacturers. As much fun as all this may be, none of these companies are in the charity business (you might argue they are in the business of accepting charity; that’s another issue though). If they were losing money on their marketing efforts in the sport believe they wouldn’t be spending as much as they do.
Take Toyota as an example. When they entered the sport several years ago, I recall hearing an executive say they were not in the sport to sell the Camry; it was already the best selling car in America. Instead they were here to market their line of pickups. They were interested in competing with Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge. I don’t have sales figures in front of me, so I can’t tell you how successful that has been, but Toyota must find some value in the sport because they have continued to ramp up their support through the years.
This value they have found within the sport has to look appealing to other’s considering making the jump. While I won’t speculate which companies are considering this, let’s look at some companies who are eligible to compete.
Honda is the most obvious and most commonly brought up contender to join NASCAR. They have been active in F1 (though they have sold their interests there), IRL, ALMS and many other racing series. Honda Racing executives in the past have openly discussed their lack of interest in the sport despite the obvious marketing advantages. In 2005 Honda’s then racing chief Robert Clarke thinly mocked NASCAR’s requirement of a push-rod engine.
“The technical side of racing is very appealing to Honda,” Clarke added. “There has to be opportunity for actually achieving something. Taking a production engine and turning it into a racing engine, that’s beating your head against the wall and that’s not appealing to us. You have to feel you can actually achieve something from the exercise. So having rules that were more open and contemporary would be what we were looking for. But I’m not sure that’s what NASCAR is about.”
With Clarke now retired since early last year though, it would be interesting to see where they stand on the issue today.
Another obvious and often named contender is Hyundai. They build their mid-size Sonata sedan in a plant in Montgomery, Ala. The sport has to look attractive to Hyundai. NASCAR’s demo fits right in line with their own and as they look to take up more of the US market share, they have to be considering new ways to market their product.
The big problem with Hyundai is their lack of any real assemblage of motorsports involvement. It is unclear whether Hyundai would be willing to put out the money for development of an archaic engine for the sport.
Nissan could also consider entry into the sport, but their limited involvement in motorsports around the world makes me wonder how much value they put in this type of marketing effort. While Nissan and Hyundai are both older companies, they seem to have very different goals. You would think if they were interested in motorsports they would have gotten involved (more heavily than they have) somewhere by now.
A couple of other names tossed out are BMW and Mercedes-Benz. I saw today on ESPN that their insider section had a rumor about BMW talking to NASCAR. While these are two companies with roots firmly in racing, it doesn’t really make sense to me why either of them would want to be involved in NASCAR. Let’s be honest, the NASCAR crowd is not a BMW or MB crowd. Consider that the average BMW buyer pulls in $149,000 per year and the average Mercedes Benz buyer makes $163,00 per year. Only 16% of NASCAR’s fans make over $100,000. Unless these automakers are hoping to attract their core demographic to the sport (which seems useless), it really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for them to spend the money on entry. But I guess you never know.
I think as Mr. France made clear, these efforts are a long way off. Though I think the possibility of a new manufacturer entering the sport is an exciting one. I know there are many out there that disagree with me, but in an increasingly globalized world, and increasingly diverse sport why not welcome a new company with open arms, even if they do have a funny name.