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The garage was buzzing this weekend after a week full of big news. While many were speculating on the home of Kasey Kahne in 2011 and the plans of Mark Martin in 2012 and beyond, John Wes Townley continued to be a topic of discussion.

As we told you on twitter over the weekend, rumors continue to run rampant that Townley’s future with Richard Childress Racing is fast coming to an end. Some are even speculating that he could soon end up back at his former home, RAB Racing.

Whatever happens, both RCR and the Townleys are no doubt in a tough spot. No less than millions of dollars and the future of John Wes Townley’s career is on the line.

RCR’s vice president of competition Mike Dillion told NASCAR.com over the weekend that the team is in discussions with Tony Townley over their future with John Wes and Zaxby’s. The rhetoric out of RCR makes me wonder if they aren’t trying to put pressure on the Townleys through Zaxby’s. While it’s true Tony Townley is the co-founder of the company, he has a lot of franchisees and a partner to answer to. If RCR puts Clint Bowyer in the car and he performs well, perhaps even wins a race, it’s going to be a little harder for Tony Townley to pull the company’s money out of the program.

Still I doubt that’s on Townley’s mind. If ever you wanted to find a person fully committed to and confident in John Wes’ talent, Tony is the man to see (and rightfully so being he is a parent). Given what I know about him, I would imagine at this point he is none too happy with the present situation. The money he and Zaxby’s are putting into the #21 team is being spent for a reason; and Clint Bowyer is not that reason.

Something tells me if John Wes leaves RCR it won’t be because he gets fired. RCR is dependent on that money to continue operating their Nationwide program (I would imagine no one around there has the stomach for laying off all those people) and as long as the Townleys are committed they’ll be able to keep it going. It appears though that they are increasingly less keen on letting John Wes run the full season, and that’s definitely going to be a problem for Tony Townley. If John Wes doesn’t make his return soon I don’t expect the Townleys will stick around Richard Childress Racing much longer.

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On Friday in Phoenix, the biggest buzz before the Nationwide Series race seemed to be about whether or not John Wes Townley had been fired from Richard Childress Racing.  Following a practice crash that destroyed the team’s primary car, Townley was yanked from the seat and Clint Bowyer took over for the remainder of the day.  Internet rumors swirled that Townley had gotten the boot, but Lee Spencer of FoxSports.com reported this afternoon that Townley is still at RCR, but his future will be decided on Tuesday.  My only question about all of this, is what was RCR expecting?

Last season, Townley jumped from ARCA competition to the Nationwide Series with RAB Racing.  Of the 32 races he attempted, he DNQ’d for six of them.  In the 26 races he did run, Townley had 10 DNFs and only managed to complete 73% of the laps.  He had an average start of 24.2 and an average finish of 27.6.  Not exactly a stellar rookie campaign.

Entering the 2010 season, Townley and his family sponsor Zaxby’s decided to leave RAB and take their money to Richard Childress Racing.  Through the first five races of this season, Townley has actually improved fairly markedly over his first year.  He has an average start of 10.0, an average finish of 22.4, has completed 96% of the laps, and only has one DNF.  While he is still tearing up equipment, progress has been made.

From the various reports online, it appears Townley will be out of the #21 through Texas, and may return at Talladega.  But all of this still leaves me wondering what RCR thought they were getting in bringing Townley over.

The obvious answer in this situation is money.  RCR’s Nationwide program lost sponsor Holiday Inn after the 2009 season, and Townley and the Zaxby’s money enabled RCR to keep the program going.  The difficulty for RCR in this deal though, is the fact that Zaxby’s was partially founded by Townley’s family and his father still serves as the company’s CFO.  Knowing this, there is no way that I see where the contract would allow John Wes to be replaced all together if the performance wasn’t there.

So now, apparently we’ve reached the point where RCR can’t stomach Townley destroying any more of their equipment (despite JWT’s improvement).  

It will be interesting to watch this situation going forward, because I’m not sure the Townleys will continue footing the bill for a race team that John Wes isn’t apart of.  Which really leaves RCR with only two options: let Zaxby’s and Townley walk; or continue dealing with a young driver who will probably never figure it out.

And therein lies the dilemma when a team makes the decision to bring in a funded driver.  Is the money really worth it?  The ball’s in your court RCR.

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