Drivers, Crew Chiefs And Job Applications, Oh My!!

Although there is generally a drop-off in the amount of NASCAR drama to comment on once the season has ended, the 2011-2012 off-season is proving to provide a wealth of material.  Yes, the off-season is known as the end of "silly season" for a reason, but usually the drivers that are looking to secure a ride in November and December are coming from mid to lower tier teams. 

This year the available driver pool is packed with 2 drivers from top tier teams, Kurt Busch from Penske and David Ragan from Roush Fenway, and 2 drivers from mid tier teams, Brian Vickers from Red Bull and David Reutimann from Michael Waltrip Racing.  While each of these drivers carry there own issues, they all have won at the highest level of stock car racing and one of them is a former Sprint Cup Champion.

Not only has their been a heavy load of drivers coming on the "market" this fall, there are also a couple of winning crew chiefs available.  After winning 5 of 10 Chase races and the 2011 Spring Cup Championship, Darian Grubb apparently was not quite achieving the level of success Tony Stewart was looking for, so he is now looking for a job.  Also, after an up and down year, mostly down, Mike Ford, crew chief for Denny Hamlin, is now out of his seat at Joe Gibbs Racing.

Although a couple of the above have just exited their positions, two of them are rumored to be close to nailing down their next gig.  David Ragan been supposedly putting on a full court press to land in the seat of the #22 Penske Racing Dodge vacated by Kurt Busch.  Ragan had been under contract with Roush Fenway Racing through 2012, even though his #6 Ford was without sponsorship next season and was unlikely to run a full schedule.  Ragan has now been released from his contract by RFR, but nothing concrete has been commented on by Penske Racing.

Darian Grubb, defending crew chief champion, has been said to be the leading candidate for the crew chief slot for the #11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.  Although he has less career wins than former crew chief Mike Ford, Grubb is coming off of his championship run with Tony Stewart, so if he and Hamlin can get up to speed quickly, they could be contenders come Chase time in 2012.

One unanswered question as of yet is, with three winning drivers left available, will any top tiered teams or mid tier teams add a car to their stable?  It is not altogether likely that Vickers, Reutimann, or even Busch in his current state, could land a sponsor big enough to start a new car with a top team like JGR, RFR, Stewart Haas or RCR, but Vickers and especially Busch could definitely land a sponsor large enough for a car with Richard Petty Racing who had flirted with adding a car earlier in the year when all of the Danica craze was going on.  Either way, there will be some new looking cars on the track come January at the Daytona test prior to speedweeks.

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The Musical Chairs Of NASCAR

Every year, as the NASCAR season winds down, the Sprint Cup "silly season" begins to heat up again.  Most of the larger named drivers and teams try to have moves and plans nailed down by late summer at the latest, but most of the smaller teams have to make quick adjustments for the coming season late in the year.

This year is, of course, no different.  Most of us followed the signings of Carl Edwards and Danica Patrick as the larger ships to fall this year, but many questions are unanswered for several drivers heading into the offseason.

With the anticipated closing or reconfiguration at Red Bull Racing, Brian Vickers is currently awaiting come concrete plans for next year.  As Vickers' teammate, Kasey Kahne, is moving to the 5 car at Hendrick Motorsports, much curiousity has been given to what plans would Mark Martin have for 2012.  Now, with sources saying that Martin will be driving part time in the 00 for Michael Waltrip Racing, everyone is scrambling to see where David Reutimann will be driving.

The two current big question marks are Reutimann and David Ragan.  Roush Fenway Racing is currently saying that they are anticipating running 3 teams next year with the #6 running a partial schedule.  With that change, Reutimann and Ragan, both race winners, could be a great grab for some of the smaller NASCAR Teams.

As interesting as it is to see who is up for grabs, the possibilities of what seats may or may not come to fruition is astounding.  There with full time rides dropping at RFR, MWR, and probably at RCR with Bowyer leaving, some of the mid-tier two car teams may decide to add a seat to take advantage of a possible opening in the top 35. 

Richard Petty Motorsports has already voiced interest in the possibility of adding a 3rd team to their stable of Allmendinger and Ambrose.  Of course, they were toying with the possibility of an available Danica Patrick or Mark Martin at the time.  Also, Chip Ganassi may see an advantage to adding a car to his EGR stable as may Roger Penske with Penske Racing.

The fact is, there is a probability that going into the 2012 Sprint Cup season there will only be one 4 car team: Hendrick Motorsports.  The key reason for this is, of course, the lack of large sponsorship dollars needed to pay for a top tier team.  Will fields drop below 43, I doubt it, but there may well be a couple more start and park teams.

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Infineon To Daytona, One Wild Card After Another

This past weekend, NASCAR visited one of its two road courses. Entering Sonoma, California, most people understood that there were those who would benefit from the road course weekend, and, conversely, those that would suffer. I am sure there aren’t many people who thought Dale Earnhardt Jr. would come though the weekend with a great finish, although 41st was a bit low. Also, most people expected Marcos Ambrose, who now sits 2 points outside the top 20, to have a good weekend.

Great. We are all psychic.

Not so fast. Infineon threw some curves at the Sprint Cup field that may not have been expected. Some people left Infineon with poor finishes that were somewhat surprising.

After several instances of contact between Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers, both were relegated to bad finishes. Although Vickers is a good road course racer and Stewart is one of the all time greats, both left California with fewer points than they probably expected.

Along with Stewart and Vickers, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Kasey Kahne, and Mark Martin all left with sub-par finishes. Each of these drivers have some ability on road courses, especially Montoya, Martin and Kahne, but have to pick up points somewhere else in the next 10 races in an attempt to make the Chase.

Although the restrictor plate tracks are often seen as wild card races, Infineon has now placed several teams on the offensive in preparation for the Chase. Now, with all of that “cooking”, we head to, yes, a restrictor plate track.

The summer race at Daytona is always stressful for the teams on the cusp of the Chase, as they can be wiped out in the “big one” at any time. Will the teams leave Daytona jumbled up as they were this Monday? Time will tell.

Another question heading to Daytona is what other surprises the track will hold. Each year the Coke Zero 400, customarily held on July 4th weekend, is run on a slightly different track than its sister race, the Daytona 500. The hot, humid summer nights of central Florida usually produce a track with slightly less grip than the February race.

Normally, in the past few years, this has led to a slight stringing out of the field. However, with the repaving of the track during the last off-season, one has to wonder exactly how similar will the track be to the February’s running. Will the “two car tango” work the same way it did earlier in the year, or will the cars have trouble linking up later in a run.

My last question is who is the favorite heading into this weekend? Obviously the Daytona 500 winner, Trevor Bayne, will be without his ride from February, since the winning 500 car is placed in Daytona USA for a year. Even more, no driver has won the Daytona 500 and the July 400 mile race in the same year since 1982.

Certainly Earnhardt Jr. will loom large on everyone’s radar, but who else should be watched this weekend?

Two drivers that immediately come to mind are Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards. Stewart has done very well in summer Daytona races, winning 3 in the last 6. He drafts well, thrives under the lights, and apparently thinks the July 4th post race fireworks are for him. Edwards has zero wins at Daytona, but finished 2nd and 6th in the two previous restrictor plate races this year, so he apparently loves the Tango.

Calm down ladies… I meant the Two Car Tango…


Follow Joseph Davis on Twitter @the_Bumpdrafter

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How Will “Team Earntarte” Handle Adversity Heading To Daytona

The Amp Energy, #88, of Dale Earnhardt Jr. came into this weekend 3rd in points with 8 top ten finishes. He had recently been knocking on the door of his first win in more than 3 years while on the cusp of his best season since coming to Hendrick Motorsports.

Of course, the short term prognosis was not so good.

The race this weekend, at Infineon Raceway, is one of the worst races for Dale Jr. He struggles on the road courses, excluding his one Nationwide win at Watkins Glen. His best finish at Sonoma prior to this week was 11th. I am sure he would have gladly taken an 11th and headed to Daytona early.

Instead, he began the race 18th and ran mostly around 20th until, on lap 38, he was on the receiving end of a disagreement between the rear bumper of Brian Vickers’ car and the front bumper of Tony Stewart’s car. Guess who won... Of course, Tony Stewart did – for a while.

I’ll tell you who lost: Dale Earnhardt Jr., not Brian Vickers. Dale Jr. went to the pits and came back out, but on lap 49 he had to go to the garage due to engine failure from overheating. He eventually finished 41st, relegating him to a second straight poor finish due to someone else and a slide to 7th from 3rd in the points.

How did the other two fair? Stewart finished 39th and Vickers 36th after the two had contact later in the race. Amazing, this time the disagreement was between the front bumper of Vickers’ car and the rear bumper of Stewart’s car. Funny how that happens.

Stewart later admitted to “dumping” Vickers in the initial contact because he felt Vickers was blocking him. Something “Smoke”, of course, never does. It’s funny because they all do it. They just tend to do it less to people who will wreck them for it, a talent these two are in the process of proving to each other.

In the meantime, Junior heads into Daytona with a familiar feeling. He had his first finish outside the top 25 and his first consecutive finishes outside the top 20 this year. The question this week will be how the new duo of Letarte and Earnhardt will handle the tough couple of races. Will they come through the tunnel at Daytona eager to race and determined to win, or will Earnhardt slide back to the complaining he did in 2010 if the car is not as strong as he hopes.

There probably are few places the 88 team would rather go when they need a rebound, however. Earnhardt Jr. and Hendrick Motorsports both have excellent records at Daytona, with wins a-plenty. Junior has two wins, himself, at Daytona, but one in particular shows how well he can drive there with a lot on his mind.

In 2001, months after losing his father on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, he powered his way to the front to win the July race at Daytona. He came into the race facing the memory of his father’s death, but also was coming off of 3 straight finishes of 19th or worse.

No, this week is not 2001, and the number on the roof will be 88, not 8. But there are few places Dale Jr. feels at home the same way he does at Daytona.

Homecoming or not, the days leading up to Saturday will be important for Steve Letarte. He will have plenty of people looking to see how he can refocus the team along with the driver. If the past is any indication of how Letarte will do, however, get ready. After all, he has done a pretty good job of righting the ship for the 88 so far…


Follow Joseph on Twitter @the_Bumpdrafter

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