On Tuesday, Scott Speed and Paul Menard made headlines after being announced as drivers on two Sprint Cup cars. Speed was rumored to take over for A.J. Allmendinger in the No. 84 Red Bull car and Tuesday it was finalized. Menard moves from DEI to Yates Racing and will bring over his Menards sponsorship.

Menard was one of two drivers at DEI that had a full sponsor, but he will be taking that with him to Yates. Now, only Martin Truex, Jr. is left at DEI with a full sponsor. Menard has gone 68 career races with reaching the winner’s circle and posted only one top 10 finish in his career at DEI. Menard’s first race for Yates will be in 2009.

Speed will be joining the NASCAR Sprint Cup series after running in the Craftsman Truck Series. Speed will begin running the No. 84 car on Oct. 19 at Martinsville. Speed was able to run a test on the Red Bull car at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last week. However, Mike Skinner will run the next two races in the No. 84 car, including at Lowe’s Speedway, before Speed takes the wheel.

Transactions:
- Hendrick Motorsports has announced the release of Casey Mears for next season.
- Richard Childress Racing has extended Clint Bowyer’s contract through 2011.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has extended Greg Biffle’s contract through 2011.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports has signed Elliott Sadler through 2010.
- Richard Childress Racing has announced the addition of the #33 car as a fourth Cup team in 2009.
- Petty Enterprises has signed Bobby LaBonte through 2012.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has signed Carl Edwards through 2011.
- Due to a lack of sponsorship, Chip Ganassi Racing is forced to shut down the no. 40 car driven by Dario Franchitti for the remainder of the season.
- Hendrick Motorsports has signed Mark Martin to drive the no. 5 car full-time in 2009 and part-time in 2010.
- Tony Stewart announced his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing to go to Stewart Haas Racing (formerly Haas CNC Racing) as a 50% owner and a full-time driver in 2009.
- Ryan Newman has announced that he will not re-sign with Penske Racing for the 2009 season.
- JTG Dougherty Racing has signed Marcos Ambrose to drive their new no. 47 entry in the Sprint Cup Series next year.
- Martin Truex Jr. has re-signed with DEI for the 2009 season.
- HOF Racing has released JJ Yeley and will replace him with Brad Coleman in the no. 96 car.

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 01 car
- Penske Racing - No. 12 car
- Stewart Haas Racing - No. 4 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 15 car
- Joe Gibbs Racing - No. 20 car
- Wood Brothers Racing - No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing - No. 22 car
- Yates Racing - No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing - No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports - No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing - No. 41 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- JJ Yeley
- Johnny Sauter
- Jeremy Mayfield
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton
- Dario Franchitti

Transactions:
- DEI has picked up the 2009 option on Martin Truex Jr, though Truex disputes the legality of the verbiage in the contract.
- Hendrick Motorsports has announced the release of Casey Mears for next season.
- Richard Childress Racing has extended Clint Bowyer’s contract through 2011.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has extended Greg Biffle’s contract through 2011.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports has signed Elliott Sadler through 2010.
- Richard Childress Racing has announced the addition of the #33 car as a fourth Cup team in 2009.
- Petty Enterprises has signed Bobby LaBonte through 2012.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has signed Carl Edwards through 2011.
- Due to a lack of sponsorship, Chip Ganassi Racing is forced to shut down the no. 40 car driven by Dario Franchitti for the remainder of the season.
- Hendrick Motorsports has signed Mark Martin to drive the no. 5 car full-time in 2009 and part-time in 2010.
- Tony Stewart announced his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing to go to Stewart Haas Racing (formerly Haas CNC Racing) as a 50% owner and a full-time driver in 2009.
- Ryan Newman has announced that he will not re-sign with Penske Racing for the 2009 season.
- JTG Dougherty Racing has signed Marcos Ambrose to drive their new no. 47 entry in the Sprint Cup Series next year.

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 01 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 1 car
- Penske Racing - No. 12 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 15 car
- Joe Gibbs Racing - No. 20 car
- Wood Brothers Racing - No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing - No. 22 car
- Yates Racing - No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing - No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports - No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing - No. 41 car
- Stewart Haas Racing - No. 66 or No. 70 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- Johnny Sauter
- Jeremy Mayfield
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton
- Dario Franchitti

Transactions:
- DEI has picked up the 2009 option on Martin Truex Jr, though Truex disputes the legality of the verbiage in the contract.
- Hendrick Motorsports has announced the release of Casey Mears for next season.
- Richard Childress Racing has extended Clint Bowyer’s contract through 2011.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has extended Greg Biffle’s contract through 2011.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports has signed Elliott Sadler through 2010.
- Richard Childress Racing has announced the addition of the #33 car as a fourth Cup team in 2009.
- Petty Enterprises has signed Bobby LaBonte through 2012.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has signed Carl Edwards through 2011.
- Due to a lack of sponsorship, Chip Ganassi Racing is forced to shut down the no. 40 car driven by Dario Franchitti for the remainder of the season.
- Hendrick Motorsports has signed Mark Martin to drive the no. 5 car full-time in 2009 and part-time in 2010.
- Tony Stewart announced his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing to go to Stewart Haas Racing (formerly Haas CNC Racing) as a 50% owner and a full-time driver in 2009.

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 01 car
- Penske Racing - No. 12 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 15 car
- Joe Gibbs Racing - No. 20 car
- Wood Brothers Racing - No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing - No. 22 car
- Yates Racing - No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing - No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports - No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing - No. 41 car
- Stewart Haas Racing - No. 66 or No. 70 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Marcos Ambrose
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- Johnny Sauter
- Jeremy Mayfield
- Brad Keselowski
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton
- Dario Franchitti

Other Potential Rides & Drivers that Could Become Available
(Pending variable circumstances):
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 1 Car - Current Driver: Martin Truex Jr.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports - No. 10 Car - Current Driver: Patrick Carpentier
- Roush Fenway Racing - No. 26 Car - Current Driver: Jamie McMurray
- Penske Racing - No. 77 Car - Current Driver: Sam Hornish Jr.

Image details: Coke Zero 400 Practice served by picapp.com

About a month ago, rumors started to surface that Jamie McMurray had been handed his walking papers from car owner, Jack Roush, and that this would be his final season with Roush-Fenway Racing. Despite immediate denials by both McMurray and Geoff Smith (President of Operations at Roush-Fenway Racing), most of us - myself included - still bought into the rumors and pegged McMurray as a sure bet to be one of the drivers petitioning for a ride this off-season. But, a month later, after seeing how some of the other Silly Season rumors and deals have panned out, I’ve got to ask, does it really make sense for Roush to give him the boot?

McMurray’s certainly had a rough go of things since joining Roush, and I don’t think anyone would deny that. Once thought to be a solid Chase contender, McMurray had the worst season of his career in 2006 - his first year with Roush - when he tallied only 7 top-ten finishes en route to a 25th place finish in the standings. Things got mildly better in ‘07 when Jamie picked up the second win of his career and finished 17th in points, but they started 2008 right back at square one when the no. 26 team dropped outside of the top-35 in owner’s points immediately following Bristol.

Though their season has mildly improved since Bristol and the team has worked their way up to 23rd in the standings, McMurray continues to be viewed by many as the weak link in the organization and that the team is still under-performing. But, still … does it make sense to let him go at this point? The fact of the matter is that Roush will be forced to cease operations on one of their five race teams at the completion of the 2009 racing season, and therein lies the problems. Roush has five drivers, but only four cars ….. you do the math.

With all the names that have been tossed around as potential movers for next year, Roush-Fenway has very quietly perhaps led the way in this year’s Silly Season negotiations, locking up Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Greg Biffle to extensions to continue racing for the organization. That leaves just McMurray and the young David Ragan vying for that final ride, and it’s already been made clear that they’re trying to lock up David to a long-term deal as well. Okay, so now that I’ve given you all the evidence you need to conclude that McMurray is in fact the odd man out, it probably looks like I’ve contradicted my entire argument, right? Wrong.

So what if they already know that they’re going to have to get rid of McMurray by the end of ‘09, the fact remains that they need somebody to drive that car next season. With Mark Martin already being nabbed up by Hendrick Motorsports, there’s not a single driver on the market that they could sign to a one year deal that would give them a better shot next season than McMurray could. What are they gonna do, get Ryan Newman or Martin Truex Jr. for a 2009 contract and then send them packing? Not very likely. At this stage in their careers, any marquee driver that could potentially become available is going to be looking to land somewhere that they can remain at until the latter stages of their career. They’re looking for a team that can give them long-term championship contending status, not a one year run with a number five car in the organization.

As for McMurray, while there are currently a couple of top-notch rides technically “available,” the ride at Joe Gibbs Racing will likely be assigned to Joey Logano, and many people also believe that should Ryan Newman leave Penske, the no. 12 car may wind up in the hands of current test driver, David Stremme. That would leave the no. 33 car at RCR as the remaining frontrunner, but that car will begin the season already outside of the top-35 in owner points. Jamie’s best bet may be to wait to make a switch until we try to sort through this all again next season, or he may actually be just as well off to see if something happens in a Roush-Yates deal that would send his team to racec for Yates Racing next season.

As has been proven time and time again in this crazy world of NASCAR, anything can - and probably will - happen.  But, again, I ask you ….. does it really make sense for either side for this tandem to split prior to 2009? No, it doesn’t.

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)

Transactions:
- DEI has picked up the 2009 option on Martin Truex Jr, though Truex disputes the legality of the verbiage in the contract.
- Hendrick Motorsports has announced the release of Casey Mears for next season.
- Richard Childress Racing has extended Clint Bowyer’s contract through 2011.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has extended Greg Biffle’s contract through 2011.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports has signed Elliott Sadler through 2010.
- Richard Childress Racing has announced the addition of the #33 car as a fourth Cup team in 2009.
- Petty Enterprises has signed Bobby LaBonte through 2012.
- Roush-Fenway Racing has signed Carl Edwards through 2011.

Teams Without an Assigned 2009 Driver:
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 01 car
- Hendrick Motorsports - No. 5 car
- Penske Racing - No. 12 car
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 15 car
- Wood Brothers Racing - No. 21 car
- Bill Davis Racing - No. 22 car
- Yates Racing - No. 28 car
- Richard Childress Racing - No. 33 car
- Furniture Row Motorsports - No. 34 car
- Chip Ganassi Racing - No. 41 car
- Haas CNC Racing - No. 66 car
- Haas CNC Racing - No. 70 car

Drivers Without a Definitive 2009 Ride:
- Regan Smith
- Casey Mears
- Ryan Newman
- Paul Menard
- Dave Blaney
- Marcos Ambrose
- Travis Kvapil
- Tony Raines
- Reed Sorenson
- Scott Riggs
- Johnny Sauter
- Mark Martin
- Jeremy Mayfield
- Brad Keselowski
- David Stremme
- Jacques Villeneuve
- Kenny Wallace
- Ken Schrader
- Ward Burton

Other Potential Rides & Drivers that Could Become Available
(Pending variable circumstances):
- Dale Earnhardt Inc. - No. 1 Car - Current Driver: Martin Truex Jr.
- Gillette-Evernham Motorsports - No. 10 Car - Current Driver: Patrick Carpentier
- Joe Gibbs Racing - No. 20 Car - Current Driver: Tony Stewart
- Roush Fenway Racing - No. 26 Car - Current Driver: Jamie McMurray
- Penske Racing - No. 77 Car - Current Driver: Sam Hornish Jr.

David Gilliland almost got it done on Sunday at Sonoma, and we’ve seen a few impressive runs from unlikely candidates earlier in the year. But, following up on a 2007 that brought us a handful of first-time winners in the Cup Series, I find it surprising that we’ve yet to have even one this season. So, it got me to thinking, that’s led us to this week’s “List of the Week”, in which I will rank the five likeliest candidates currently driving in the Cup Series to become the next first-time winner:

5. David Reutimann - Running in his second full-time season for Michael Waltrip Racing, Reutimann still lacks the consistency that it takes to win in this sport. However, he does seem mature and poised enough to strike at any time. His best run to-date was 10th this past May at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

4. David Gilliland - Gilliland took over the no. 38 car at Yates Racing with high expectations, but those have yet to come to fruition. In his third full season in the Cup Series, David has amassed only 2 top-five’s and 4 top-ten’s, but his unexpected 2nd place run last weekend at Infineon could re-energize this team.

3. AJ Allmendinger - In his two seasons in Cup, he’s failed to qualify for almost as many races as he’s run, and it was beginning to look as though the kid didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell for success at NASCAR’s premier level. But, when Team Red Bull replaced AJ with veteran Mike Skinner inside the no. 84 machine earlier this season, it seems to have paid dividends, and Allmendinger has since responded with some very stout runs, though the finishes haven’t necessarly been indicative of such good runs.

2. Travis Kvapil - He’s had a rough go of it in his quest to become a Cup Series regular, and things haven’t gotten much easier as he and Yates Racing struggle on a weekly basis to attain sponsorship for the no. 28 car. Yet, here they sit with 3 top-ten finishes on the season, and they’re 18th in points. Travis has handled himself well on a variety of tracks, and could be ready to strike at any moment.

1. David Ragan - Most people didn’t expect Ragan to improve as quickly as he has, but he’s been knocking on the doorsteps of the Chase field nearly all season long, and has run surprisingly well at many points during the season. He has 2 top-five’s and 4 top-ten’s on the season, but perhaps most impressive is his 9 top-15’s. His no. 6 team has helped him build a model of consistency week in and week out, and it will eventually payoff with some trips to Victory Lane.

*Credit photo to Newscom.

Heading into Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Infineon Raceway, most people weren’t talking about points leader Kyle Busch as a favorite to win, especially since he was starting all the way back from the 30th position … well, they were wrong. Busch put his no. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota out front on lap 32, and then held the position for the remainder of the race, with the exception of 2 laps that were led by Carl Edwards during green flag pit stops.

Busch gained his track position due to some good fortune when he and nine other cars made their first pit stops just prior to the first caution of the day on lap 30. Up to that point, the race had been dominated by Jimmie Johnson, who took the lead from polesitter, Kasey Kahne, back on lap 5. The caution forced all of the cars that hadn’t yet stopped into the pits, and marred the race leaders back into traffic. Greg Biffle inherited the lead at that point, but his string of misfortunes continued as he spun through the dirt going through turn 3. Busch was riding in third at that point, but the second place car of Juan Pablo Montoya had to check up during Biffle’s spin, and Kyle made the pass on both cars.

Carl Edwards, who had been in second when the first caution came out, had worked his way back up into the top-five prior to the next round of pit stops, but was again the victim of another untimely caution. He was handed the lead after Kyle Busch and several other cars had pitted, but the caution waived again on the following lap when Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon made contact on lap 70, and Gordon was unable to get his car restarted. Once the remaining cars came in for their stops, Edwards found himself outside of the top-20, and Busch was once again named the race leader.

The next bit of excitement came on lap 78 when Marcos Ambrose - making his Sprint Cup debut - got into Juan Pablo Montoya as the two raced for position inside the top-five. The contact sent Juan spinning on the track, but he was able to maintain position inside the top-15. The damage was very minor to Ambrose’s car as well, but the no. 19 of Elliott Sadler got into the back of him with just 26 to go. No caution came out for the incident, but Ambrose pulled his car onto pit road, and the no. 21 Wood Bros team called it quits for the day.

The final 10 laps in the scheduled 110-lap race saw three separate cautions brought out. The first of which came when Michael McDowell cut down a left side tire that sent him screaming into the wall on lap 101. The field lined up with Kyle Busch still out in front, followed by Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick. The trio behind Busch brought out the fifth caution of the day when Harvick got into the turn a bit too hard and clipped the rear end of McMurray, who was already loose. McMurray then clipped Stewart, and all three cars went spinning.

With the field bunched up, a bunch of cars got into one another around the middle of the pack, and Tony Stewart just sort of drove through all of them. Receiving the most of the damage was the no. 41 Dodge of Scott Pruett, who drove his wrecked race car off the track as NASCAR waived the final caution of the day, and eventually red flagged the race as they cleaned up the mess. The field lined up for one final restart in NASCAR’s fifth green-white-checkered finish of the season, but it was all for naught. Kyle Busch did as he had all day long and drove away from the field yet again, and eventually landed himself in Victory Lane for the fifth time in 2008.

David Gilliland held onto the 2nd spot and earned himself the best finish of his career, and only his second top-five in his three seasons with Yates Racing. Behind him in third was Jeff Gordon, who had a miserable start to the day, but managed to fall in-line with the pit stops and the cautions and pickup a much-needed top-five for his team. In 4th was Clint Bowyer, and 5th place went to Casey Mears, who picked up his first top-five finish of the season.

Juan Pablo Montoya rebounded from his earlier incident with Marcos Ambrose, and the no. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing team salvaged a 6th place run. 7th place went to Ryan Newman, who started in 9th and went virtually unnoticed the entire afternoon as he hung around just outside of the top-ten for most of the day. Matt Kenseth probably had an even quieter day than Newman, but still managed to finish in 8th, which was also good enough to move him back inside the top-12 in points. Despite having one of the best cars all day, the pit strategies did not fall in the favor of the no. 99 Roush team, and Carl Edwards was forced to settle with a 9th place finish. And, Tony Stewart - who restarted in 19th on lap 108 - managed to fight his way back up through the field to in the last couple of laps to finish 10th.

Other Notables: Greg Biffle recovered from his earlier spin to finish 11th … Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished with a satisfactory 12th place run … Jeff Burton continued his streak of top-15 runs with a 13th place finish … Defending Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, was dumped by Greg Biffle on lap 100, but was able to rebound with to 15th … Terry LaBonte finished 17th for Petty Enterprises … After running inside of the top-five most of the day, the late race mishap relegated Jamie McMurray to 18th … Elliott Sadler also had a good run going, but had a tire go down after the final restart that sent him from 4th to 19th … Kevin Harvick wound up in 30th … Polesitter, Kasey Kahne, dropped like a rock after giving up the lead on lap 5 and wound up finishing 33rd.

The top five spots in the points standings remained unchanged, while Jeff Gordon and Greg Biffle leap-frogged Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne to move into 6th and 7th. Clint Bowyer went from 12th to 10th, while Tony Stewart remained 11th. And, as previously mentioned, Matt Kenseth finally made his way into the Chase field, taking over the 12th spot in the standings, while Kevin Harvick dropped from the cut for the first time this season. He sits in 13th now, just 2 points behind Kenseth.

Grades:
the Race - 72%
the Drama - 78%
Coverage - 90%
Pre-Race - 84%

Overall Grade: 78.0%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

 
Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Recommended Reads:
- Busch Wins Toyota Save/Mart 350 - (the Lead Lap)
- Kyle Busch Dominates in Sonoma - (Racing for the Win)

*Credit photo to Newscom.

The headlines have poured across the newspapers and internet for the last couple of days, and it’s become a hot topic of debate on morning radio as I learned today while listening to Elliot in the Morning on my way into work. For those of you that have been stuck under a rock or just don’t care, and therefore are not familiar with what I’m talking about, earlier this week Anheuser Busch received an unsolicited offer from InBev, a European brewing company and the largest in the world, to purchase Anheuser for a reported $46.3 billion, which would make it the largest cash transaction in history, and the second biggest acquisition of a consumer product.

Anheuser Busch is the largest beer distributor in America, with their top products including Budweiser, Bud Lite, Busch, Natural Lite, Michelobe Lite & Ultra Lite, and a slieu of others. While some of the Busch family members are strongly opposing such a deal to take place, many reports are indicating that the others are pushing for further negotiations. The problem is that even if the entire Busch family wanted to say no to the offer, they control only 4.5 percent of the total company, and no single family member owns more than 1 percent of the shares. So, the decision may not entirely be their’s to make.

The latest reports state that in an effort to ward off the attempts of a takeover, the family has entered negotiations with Grupo Modelo, the makers of Corona. Anheuser already owns a non-controlling 50 percent of Modelo, and the discussions between the two companies are still a bit vague at this point, but the potential ultimate end goal would be to make the combined company too large for InBev to be able to pull the trigger on.

Okay, so there’s the long and skinny of what’s happening. Right about now, I’m sure you’re checking back up at the top of the page to make sure that this is indeed a NASCAR site, and are now asking yourself why on Earth I would be taking so much time to cover this topic. Well, since you asked, allow me to explain:

Anheuser Busch is headquartered in my hometown of St. Louis, MO. With Gateway International Raceway located just outside of the St. Louis area, and given NASCAR’s recent expansion through the midwest, St. Louis is a growing market for NASCAR. There may be a laundry list of reasons why NASCAR has not given Gateway a Cup race despite the track’s petition for one, but somewhere on that list would be St. Louis’ declining economy. Known as one of the country’s leading banking and car manufacturing markets, several St. Louis residents have recently suffered from mass layoffs with the spike in foreclosures effecting the mortgage industry, and reported losses in 2007 have caused Ford to close plants and Chrysler to cut back personnel. Despite the fact that InBev has made statements regarding that they would not shut down any of AB’s plants, general concensus is that there would still be several cutbacks on employment and that St. Louis would likely lose its status as the company’s headquarters. More layoffs seem inevitable should a deal be struck, and with even less resvenue flowing into the area, it could easily negatively influence future endeavours that Gateway may have planned. 

On an even larger scale, what does this say for America’s economy as we continue to see foreign investors taking control of American products?

As it relates to NASCAR itself, with the recent downward spiral of America’s economy, the sport has experienced some rough goings as of late when it comes to sponsorship. When a team like Yates Racing has drivers sitting 18th (Travis Kvapil) and 23rd (David Gilliland) in the points standings, and even with the backing of Roush-Fenway Racing, the team still cannot lock on permanent sponsorship, you know something’s amis. NASCAR has also seen a bit of sponsorship changes in its two main series within the last decade, with Winston pulling out of the Cup Series, opening the doors for Nextel and then Sprint after their acquisition of that company, and then Anheuser pulled its Busch label off of what is now known as the Nationwide Series. There have even been talks of Craftsman pulling out of the Truck Series in the near future. Yet, Budweiser has been a long-standing sponsor in NASCAR’s premier series, and is still widely associated with their sponsorship of NASCAR’s most popular star, Dale Earnhardt Jr, though their loyalties have now been placed on the hood of Kasey Kahne’s no. 9 Dodge owned by Gillete-Evernham Motorsports. But, if Anheuser were to sellout, as a Euro company, would InBev still wish to remain connected to NASCAR? And, even if so, would the Budweiser logo still maintain its appeal?

Finally, what about NASCAR’s tradition? It’s a sport that was designed for the cars to turn left because European cars turned right. We race on ovals because the rest of the world races on roads. Yet, now we’re going to Mexico and Canada every year for the Nationwide Series, we’re soliciting non-American citizens to compete, and we’ve got a foreign car model running the most horsepower in every race.  I can tolerate a couple of trips across the border, I like diversity, and I’ve learned to live with Toyota. So, in essence, I’m okay with all of that … but, where does it end?

And, you know what, if you can identify with symbolism, then you might even say that NASCAR symbolizes modern-day America in those regards. As a former Marine and a red-blooded American that stops the fast forward on the DVR so that I can listen to the National Anthem everytime it’s on and gets a sense of pride each and every time I see that American flag, I have to wonder what has happened to our sense of tradition. As one of the largest and most profitable companies in America - as well as the leading US beer distributor for over HALF A CENTURY -  people like the good folks at Anheuser Busch are the ones that have the power restore tradition, remind us of our roots, and fend off an economic takeover. We beg of you … stop the bleeding.

*Credit photos to Newscom.