The world of NASCAR Sponsors is about to get rocked Wednesday morning with what is expected to be some interesting press conferences! Daily Scene and Twitter have been rocking with bits and pieces and I’ve pulled some of it together for a bit. In fact, into some NASCAR Bits & Pieces on Brusimm. See, does the name make sense now”?
Bob Pockrass at SceneDaily is bringing some exciting sponsor news for Penske Racing, and not so exciting news for RCR.
The Bad News (For RCR):
It looks like Shell/Pennzoil is leaving RCR’s No. 29 car. This is going to make this year a very complicated year for Richard Childress Racing, being has how Kevin Harvick’s contract is also up at the end of the year and RCR’s contract with CAT is up at the end of 2010 also.
They have some sponsor dancing to do.
The Good News (For Penske):
It looks like Shell/Pennzoil is headed to Penske to sponsor Kurt Busch while it’s quite possible that Miller will be sponsoring Brad Keselowski, with Keselowske driving the No. 2 Dodge while Kurt Busch will be driving the No. 22 Dodge. Wow!
Roger Penske is also expected to pick up Kurt Busch’s contract option / extension. Since Mobil and Shell are “enemies,” Mobil 1 is probably headed to a Toyota team. Not sure where that leaves Hornish in regards to sponsors.
NASCAR Bits & Pieces Tidbits:
Did you know that Verizon still supports Keselowski to some degree even though they can’t have their logos on the car? That is totally cool…
Did you know that Michael Waltrip Racing was entertaining Budweiser reps at Texas? Yea, that’s big and could spell some duress for Richard Petty Racing.
It’s all crazy and we’ll all know more come Wednesday!
[Scene Daily, Jim Utter Twitter tweets: (1),(2),(3); Tom Bowles Tweet, Jayski (scroll down for bud bits)]
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And to the casual fan “Silly Season” is all about drivers repositioning themselves with perceived better rides, quite to the contrary. Sponsors are just a guilty of trying to align themselves up with the better race team!
The Shell/Pennzoil move over to Penske is going to shake up a few teams. The shifting of Busch to the #22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge, moving “BlazinglyBad” Brad Keslowski to “the blue duece” (#2 Miller Lite Dodge), and figuring out what to do with sponsorship for the #77 Dodge is obviously keeping the Penske organization busy.
What is RCR going to do to fill that huge gaping sponsorship hole? What is Richard Petty Motorsports going to do to fill the #9 driver’s seat? It appears that Budweiser is shopping for a new race team, so what is RPM going to do for a major sponsor?
Questions without answers right now, but I guarantee that the phone lines are a smoking in North Carolina these days!
There is an old Chinese saying, “May you live in interesting times”. Well needless to say, that these are some very interesting times for certain NASCAR race teams!