Image details: LifeLock 400 served by picapp.com

Happy 4th of July, everyone! Along with celebrating America’s independence, since it just so happens to have fallen on a Friday this year, that means you’re also treated to a “special” edition of “Loose in Turn Three”. Along with me as always are Bruce Simmons from “Bruce’s Bits & Pieces”, and, of course, Charlie Turner from “On Pit Row”.

Earlier this week, Chip Ganassi announced that due to sponsorship woes, he was being forced to cease operations on his no. 40 operation, laying off 71 employees in the process and also putting NASCAR rookie, Dario Franchitti, out of a ride for the remainder of the season.

Ganassi has been fortunate to maintain sponsorship on all of his cars to this point in 2008, but there have been several other teams that have struggled with similar situations all season long. Yates Racing is perhaps the most publicized of these stories, running the no. 28 car of Travis Kvapil without a primary sponsor for most of the year, and the no. 38 of David Gilliland’s contract with freecreditreport.com is only for a limited number of races. BAM Racing also had to shut down operations earlier in the year, Bill Davis Racing shoved Jacques Villeneuve out of the series before he ever even got started, and Michael Waltrip Racing is known to have troubles on the horizon.

Q: With the recent folding of Chip Ganassi’s #40 operation due to lack of sponsorship, is this a trend we can continue to expect in NASCAR with other teams that have struggled with sponsorship … teams like Yates Racing? 

TZ: I think it is. The economy’s really turned everything upside down, even in NASCAR. Many of NASCAR’s long-term sponsors are starting to see a substantial decrease in profits, which means that they’ve got to start cutting down on their budget in areas like professional sports. Then, on top of that, you’ve got some of the top-tier teams such as Childress and Gibbs with plans on expanding their organizations with an additional car, and before ya know it, there’s just not enough water in the kiddie pool anymore.

Bruce:  If the team isn’t performing, the hood sponsor isn’t getting it’s $10 mil of advertising exposure, so yea, we just may see other teams lose sponsors.  BAM was trying something interesting with their sponsor packages but then they jumped manufacturers and then suddenly took a break.  I guess the sponsor program wasn’t the hit they were hoping it to be.

Charlie:  Every indication is that other teams are on the brink of closing shop. Ganassi is one of the organizations that you would think to be stable. Chip may have just missed on a hunch that in Dario he could catch the Montoya lightning again. Regardless they failed with that car.  I have a feeling that Yates will survive, but Waltrip could shrink by a car.

Franchitti has stated that he’d like to remain in NASCAR, and Chip Ganassi has since offered Dario the full-time seat in his Nationwide Series entry. No decisions have been made as to what they’ll do from here, but sources indicate that the two plan to meet and discuss Dario’s future going forward.

the Rest of the Discussion:
- Do You Think Kurt Busch Giving up his car points to Hornish hurt the team overall? (Bruce’s Bits & Pieces)

- What will become of Dale Earnhardt Inc? (On Pit Row)

Post from: EveryJoe

With Ganassi Folding the #40 Team, What Will Become of Some of the Others?

We all know that Joe Gibbs Racing has established themselves as the powerhouse of the field at this point in time. We know that Roush-Fenway Racing has come a long way in figuring out this new car and that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have lost the edge that they had on everyone else last year. We’ve analyzed potential contractual signings every which way we could, and still found ourselves locked in a guessing game. Been there, done that, but perhaps one of the stories that we haven’t talked nearly enough about are two teams that are holding out hope of getting a driver into contention for the Chase for the Cup for the first time in their team’s history, and another that hasn’t fielded a Chase contender since 2004.

Once considered one of the top organizations in NASCAR, Yates Racing last visited Victory Lane back in the Fall of 2005 when Dale Jarrett drove the no. 88 car to a win at Talladega and the last time they were able to land a driver inside the top-12 in points was with Elliott Sadler back in ‘04. Since those days, the team has gone through a horrendous rebuilding stage and continue to struggle week in and week out to find primary sponsorship of their cars driven by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Both are highly regarded as “underdogs” every Sunday when the series hits the track, and both have failed to land a top-five finish all season long. Still, they’ve continued to push forward, and have managed to turn a few heads along the way, particularly Kvapil. Coming into the season as a driver that nobody really paid much attention to, Travis admittedly got off to a rather slow start. But, something seems to have clicked within this team ever since a solid run at Phoenix turned sour and he finished 22nd. After that race, Kvapil sat 24th in points, but four finishes of 16th or better in the last six races – highlighted with a 6th place run at Talladega and an 8th place run in Darlington – have now moved Travis up six spots in the standings. He’s now 18th in points and trails 12th place, Tony Stewart, by only 150 points.

Red Bull Racing has been the team that quite a few people have been talking about as of late. With Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel for the organization, the team managed to qualify for only 40 races in a combined 72 attempts in their inaugural season in 2007. Coming into the season with both cars outside of the top-35 in points and forced to qualify on time, Allmendinger again missed out on the first three events of ‘08 before being replaced temporarily by veteran driver, Mike Skinner. Despite failing to finish inside of the top-25 in any of the five races that Skinner filled in, the move appears to have paid dividends. AJ has been able to take what he’s learned from Skinner and put it to good use on the track, first winning the All-Star Showdown at Lowe’s to make the cut for the All-Star event itself, and then scoring a career best 12th place finish last week at Pocono. Still, the focus of the media on this team has been placed with Brian Vickers, who appears to be on the verge of scoring the second Cup victory of his career. After a disappointing 2007 that brought him only 1 top-five and 5 top-ten’s, Vickers has been impressive on several occassions this year, though it may not always show up in the results column. He’s been strong on all of the superspeedways, but the team really started to turn heads when they established themselves as one of the dominant cars in the Coca Cola 600 before an equipment failure ended their day. Since then he’s bounced back with a 13th place effort at Dover and finished 2nd last week at Pocono. Brian has now moved up to 17th place overall and trails 12th by a mere 112 points.

Rounding out the list of underdogs making a charge towards the Chase is non-other than Petty Enterprises. Despite the fact that this team has more wins than any other organization in the history of the sport and a slieu of championships from when “the King” himself, Richard Petty, drove the car, the company hasn’t celebrated a win since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville, and the closest they’ve come to a bid for the Chase was an 18th place finish in the standings last year from Bobby LaBonte. Now, nobody’s really sure who will drive the no. 45 car next year as Kyle Petty, Chad McCumbee, and Terry LaBonte have all failed to do much with the ride, but Bobby continues to press forward. Though he’s failed to score a top-ten all season long, he does have seven top-15’s and has gone the entire year without a DNF, something that has hindered the team in recent years. Additionally, he’s got six finishes of 18th or better in the last eight races, which started with a 12th place run at Phoenix, and LaBonte now resides in 19th in the standings, trailing his former Gibbs teammate in 12th by 159 points.

As many of the drivers in the top-12 continue to experience their share of misfortunes as they bounce back and forth between the bubble spots, this could be a prime opportunity for one of these teams to capitalize. But, with the recent emergance of guys like David Ragan, the resurgance of Matt Kenseth, and other perrenial Chase hopefuls such as Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. standing between them as well, the guys currently in the top-12 may not be all they’ll have to contend with.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Which driver in these 3 organizations will be the first to score their first / next win?
2. Are consistent top-15 and top-20 runs going to be enough to land a driver in the Chase field?
3. Which of these teams has made the best organizational move(s) in the last 2 years?
4. Will any of these 3 teams get a driver into the 2008 Chase? If so, who?

*Credit photos to Newscom.

Post from: EveryJoe

3 Teams Under the Radar & On the Move

Image details: Aaron’s 499 Qualifying served by picapp.com

It’s admittedly WAAAY too early in the season for NASCAR’s silly season to already have gotten as it deep as it has, that’s for sure … but, alas, I must do my small part in life to contribute to this nonsense, because – well, quite frankly it intrigues me.It all started just a few weeks into the ‘08 season when Richard Childress Racing announced the addition of a fourth team to their arsenal next year, and immediately everyone started pointing towards Bobby LaBonte to fill the seat in that ride due to his ties with RCR and Kevin Harvick Inc. in the Nationwide Series. While nothing has come of that since then, RCR has gone ahead and already secured the current #1 sponsor over at Petty Enterprises in General Mills.

RCR got the ball rolling with contract talks, and then a small focus within the media shifted over to Roush-Fenway Racing. Roush will be forced to part ways with one of their team cars after 2009 due to a new rule that will be implemented in NASCAR that will limit to teams limiting no more than four cars. However, two of their five current Cup Series drivers – Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle – have contracts that currently run only through the end of this year. While there’s not really much speculation that Edwards has any plans of leaving the organization – and, may in fact actually nab one of NASCAR’s largest sponsors next season in UPS – Biffle was earlier reported to be about “90% done with his contract renewal.” Talks since then appear to have slowed a bit, and now there’s some minor speculation lingering out there that the Biff may be headed in a new direction. Of course, then you also have the notion that Roush may work out a deal with Yates Racing that would send one of their cars over to that organization in somewhat of a partnership deal, in which case Roush could essentially really wind up not losing anyone after next year.

Fast forward a bit, and then you’ve got Tony Stewart reportedly looking into all sorts of offers, though his contract doesn’t officially end at Joe Gibbs Racing until after the 2009 season. The most widely known offer that seems to be on the table right now for Stewart is a deal that would give up as much as 50% ownership at Haas CNC Racing, and would also return Smoke to his long-tenured relationship with General Motors. There’s been a lot of speculation that Tony has been trying to get out of his contract with JGR following this season, but both parties claim that no such talks have taken place. Additionally, Joe Gibbs himself has stated that their organization is pretty much set the way that it is in terms of ownership, but if that’s something that Tony was interested in, something could possibly be worked out that would set Stewart in the right direction for such a venture.

There was some question regarding Martin Truex Jr’s contract at Dale Earhardt, Inc, which only went through the end of this season. With the team struggling early on, there was a bit of doubt whether or not the organization would pick up the option they had on Martin for 2009, but they recently inked that deal earlier this week and our now working on a deal that would keep Truex at DEI beyond 2010.

Staying somewhat out of the public eye in terms of contract negotiations has been Ryan Newman, who has driven for Penske Racing since entering the Sprint Cup Series, but his contract also expires at the end of the year. Newman has stated that he hasn’t been talking to any other teams about potential options, but he also admitted that he has yet to sign a renewal with Penske and that they haven’t really talked about it. It’s also no huge secret that Newman hasn’t been happy with some of the engines that have been handed to him through the Penske garage, so who knows?

There are also some rumors that Casey Mears could be let go from his ride with Hendrick Motorsports, which would not only free up another driver for a potential signing, but would free up another seat for one of these other guys. And, let’s not forget the blowout that occurred within Chip Ganassi Racing not all that long ago. If Chip’s not happy with his race teams, then who knows who might be available for signing by the time we roll into 2009.There’s a lot of circumstantial talk within these rumors, and I’ll admit that this post is probably somewhat premature, but all the same – it looks like we’re going to have plenty to keep talking about as 2008 pushes forward.Current Rides Available:
#12 – Penske Racing (Ryan Newman)
#16 – Roush-Fenway Racing (Greg Biffle)
#21 – Wood Bros. (Bill Elliott / Jon Wood)
#33 – Richard Childress Racing (new team)
#43 – Petty Enterprises (Bobby LaBonte)
#70 – Haas CNC Racing (race-by-race)
#99 – Roush-Fenway Racing (Carl Edwards)

Post from: EveryJoe

Let’s Talk Contracts

2/6 – NASCAR has announced that racing legend Junior Johnson will drive the pace car at this year’s Daytona 500.  Read More.

2/6 – NASCAR has also announced that the 24 Daytona 500 champions that are still alive will all Grand Marshall this year’s race.  Read More.

2/6 – Freightliner Trucks will be the primary sponsor on the DEI no. 8 Chevy this year in the Nationwide Series.  Read More.

2/7 – The 73-year-old James Hylton had previously announced that he would enter his name for the Daytona 500 to run alongside Carl Long for E&M Motorsports, but those plans fell through and Hylton is not on the Daytona entry list.  Read More.

2/7 – NASCAR President Mike Helton has stated that NASCAR does not plan on placing an age restriction requirement for the Sprint Cup Series anytime soon, and should any rule pertaining to such come into effect in the future, plenty of advance notice will be given.  Read More.

2/7 – A recent media poll released on Thursday has Jeff Gordon slated to win his fifth Cup Championship this season with the final points standings closely resembling that of last year.  Read More.

2/7 – TRG Motorsports has signed Line-X Spray-On Truck Bedliners as the primary sponsor for the no. 7 truck of Andy Lally at Daytona on Friday.  Read More.

2/7 – It’s been reported that NASCAR could possibly be interested in purchasing the NHRA Series following 2008.  Read More.

2/7 – Yates Racing has finally signed the first primary sponsor for either of their Sprint Cup teams this season. Freecreditreport.com will sponsor the no. 38 Ford of David Gilliland through the first 7 races of the season.  Read More.

2/8 – Kurt Busch has drawn the pole position for this year’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona on Saturday.  Read More.

2/8 – Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon will sponsor the no. 70 Chevy Impala of Jeremy Mayfield this year at the Daytona 500.  Read More.

2/8 – Elliott Sadler has launched his new driver website at www.elliottsadler.com.  Read More.

2/8 – The Miller Lite Brewing Co. has wagered $25,000 in Las Vegas that the no. 2 Miller Lite car driven by Kurt Busch will finish ahead of the no. 9 Budweiser car of Kasey Kahne in the points standings this year with the proceeds to be donated to the Kurt Busch Foundation. The current line at the Palms’ has Busch favored to finish 8 spots ahead of Kahne by season’s end.  Read More.

2/8 – Coke Zero has taken the new role of Title Sponsor of the Sprint Cup Series’ July race at Daytona. The race has historically been known as the “Pepsi 400”, but PepsiCo. has decided to focus their NASCAR sponsorship funds to Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Read More.

Post from: EveryJoe

Saturday Morning Quick Fix

It’s hard to imagine that a team like Yates Racing would no longer be considered to be in NASCAR’s elite organizations, but the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the course that this company has undergone over the past few seasons is the phrase, “My, how the mighty have fallen.” It wasn’t long ago that Robert Yates had the likes of the rising Elliot Saddler and racing legend Dale Jarrett driving the no. 38 M&M’s and no. 88 UPS Chevy Monte Carlo’s and both drivers were contending for championships. Fast forward to 2008, and Doug Yates – Robert’s son – now controls ownership of the race teams and runs the company with the help of Max Jones.

2007 was a complete catastrophe for the Yates teams – perhaps the worst year in the company’s history. The two teams were fielded by David Gilliland (driving in his first full-time season in the Cup series) and Ricky Rudd (driving in his final full-time season). The teams finished the season 28th and 33rd respectively, bringing home a total of (1) top five and (3) top ten finishes … oh, and a Budweiser Pole Award via Gilliland’s efforts at last year’s running of the Daytona 500. The only bright spot from last season is the fact that both cars did manage to maintain their positions inside the top 35 in owner’s points, meaning that Gilliland and Travis Kvapil (replacing Rudd in the now no. 28 Chevy) will have guaranteed starts in the first five points races of the season. That’s of little consolation for the team, though, when they consider the fact that in 2005 their teams finished 13th and 15th in points with 19 top ten finishes and a win, and 9th and 15th in points with 2 wins and 28 top ten’s. In fact, Dale Jarrett’s win at Talladega in October of 2005 was the last time the Yates family has visited Victory Lane, and if last year was any indication of things to come, it may be quite sometime before they receive another ticket to go back there.

NASCAR brand-name sponsors have apparently taken notice to the fallout inside the Yates camp, because it was only early Thursday afternoon that they finally landed their first primary sponsor for either of their cars when they signed Experien Consumer Direct for the first seven races on the hood of the no. 38 car. Yes, they’ve gone from decorating their cars with M&M’s, Snickers, and UPS to opening up the Daytona 500 with Experien and a sponsor TBD. Oh, and what are they going to do 2 months from now when that contract expires? All hope is not lost, though. At the end of 2006, Yates partnered their engine department with that of Roush Racing, who started coming on very, very strong towards the end of last season, primarily with Matt Kenseth. I’m sure both organizations have had their people working around the clock in the offseason to get things right for both camps. If that’s the case, then the potential of David Gilliland should shine brightly right away – provided he can keep the nose of the car clean, and Travis Kvapil could possibly bring home some consistent finishes as well by the end the year. It should be interesting.

Cup Series Roster:
28: Travis Kvapil – He hasn’t raced in the Cup Series since 2006 when he raced 31 races for Penske Racing and finished 36th in driver points, failing to record a top ten finish. He did, however, race the full schedule in 2005 – his rookie season in Cup – and brought home two top ten finishes en route to a 33rd place points finish. Don’t let the numbers fool you, though. Despite his poor performance in the Cup Series thus far, Travis did win the Craftsman Truck Series Championship back in 2003 in what was only his third season of racing the trucks in a brilliant season which saw him finish 22 of the 25 races that year in the top ten, finishing all but one lap. If Doug Yates can somehow find a way to put some solid equipment behind him, Travis should not only have no problem keeping this car inside the top 35 in owner’s points, but could perhaps find enough consistency to bring home a 20th to 25th place points finish.

38: David Gilliland – David seemed as though he was a perfect match for the NASCAR circuit when he first debuted in the Busch Series in 2006. In only his seventh start he was able to bring home the checkered flag at Kentucky Speedway and then quickly found himself in the Cup Series after Yates had parted ways with Elliot Saddler mid-way through the year. In only his 8th start in the Cup Series, David won the pole award at Talladega and went on to finish a very respectable 15th in that race, though his average finish in the fifteen races he participated in that year was only 28.3. 2007 got off to a great start, though, as he won the pole award for the Daytona 500 and finished 8th in the “Great American Race”, officially scoring his first career top ten finish in the big leagues of racing. The season was downhill from there, though, as David would capture only one more top 10 finish on the season, coming in with an average finish of 27.4. He’s looked good at times in many races, but the big problem he’s had is being able to avoid trouble on the track … purely a sign of his inexperience. If he’s able to maintain a high level of awareness to his surroundings on the track, then I’m confident that he’ll eventually get this car to victory lane and possibly even cruise to a top 20 finish in the points standings. That’s a big “if”, though … much easier said than done.Driver Roster: C+
Off-Season: C+
2008 Outlook: B-

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Yates Racing

With the sudden turn for the worse the organization has taken over the past two racing seasons, it’s no wonder that Ray was so quick to sell majority ownership of the team to Montreal Canadiens owner George Gillette. With new ownership in an organization looms the possibility of new direction, and that could be exactly what these teams need. The first order of business has been to replace Scott Riggs inside the no. 10 car with former IndySeries superstar Patrick Carpentier, which means that the Gillette-Evernham organization now boasts three very capable drivers within the ranks, and very little room for excuse.

Cup Series Roster

No. 9: Kasey Kahne – In 2007, Kahne managed to finish the season ranked only 19th in points, failing to record a single win on the season. That shouldn’t worry Kahne fans too much, though, given his history thus far in Cup racing. Following his rookie campaign in 2004 when he finished 13th in points, the driver of the no. 9 Dodge dropped all the way 23rd, only to rebound the following year to make the Chase for the Cup field and finishing 8th in points. With new ownership and a new sponsor in Budweiser, Kahne will head into 2008 with a fresh new attitude and a lot of pressure to perform.

No. 10: Patrick Carpentier – The Canadian native hadn’t raced since he decided to given up open wheel racing in the Indyseries following 2005 … until the NASCAR Busch Series debuted in Montreal last August, that is. Carpentier entered his name for that race, won the pole, and went onto finish 2nd in that race, leading to a little more seat time for Gillette-Evernham that season and earning himself a full-time Cup ride in 2008. He’s going to have his hands full, though, since last year’s driver of the no. 10 – Scott Riggs – failed to qualify the car inside the top 35 in owners points, meaning he’s going to have to qualify that car on time right from the get-go, starting with Daytona.

No. 19: Elliott Sadler – Fans waited for this star in the making to breakout for years following his win at Bristol back in 2001, but it didn’t happen until 2004 when Elliott – then driving the no. 38 Ford for Robert Yates Racing – climbed up to 9th in points on the back of a two-win season and finished 13th in 2005. It’s been downhill ever since, though, as 2006 saw the Texan plummet down to 22nd, incidentally ending the relationship between Sadler and Yates Racing. 2007 seemed as though it would be promising when he hooked up with Evernham, but the combination produced very few results, as Sadler only finished 25th, earning 0 wins and only 2 top ten finishes. With both Sadler and the entire Evernham organization struggling, they will need to take everything they learned from 2007 and translate that into a winning combination at least on some level.

 Grades:

Driver Roster:  B-

Off-Season:  C+

2008 Outlook:  B

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Gillette-Evernham Motorsports