Did you know that at one point Dale Earnhardt Jr. was thinking about moving his JR Motorsports operation into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but believe it or not, he cannot do that while he’s driving for Hendricks Motorsports, of all things!
In a (weird) set of rules that (I think) should really be non-exclusive to each other, NASCAR has inadvertently put the ix-nay on Dale Earnhardt Jr. moving into the Sprint Cup Series.
Mike Helton made the point that
“if a driver owns a team but drives for another organization, then the total number of cars for both organizations counts toward the four-team cap.”
Which to me, initially makes absolutely no sense in how the Hendricks Motorsports team cap should affect JR Motorsports desire to field a Sprint Cup Series team.
Helton says that any component that would tie teams together is the limiting factor.
This same rule impacts Michael Waltrip and his desire to drive in the Daytona 500… since he owns three teams now, he has to be fielded by a single-car team.
As SpeedTV took a look at that ever-elusive NASCAR rulebook, they took note of
“Teams are not to have affiliations with shared control, ownership, financing, management or revenue sharing.”
“…the owner cannot have a relationship with another owner where he’s “entitled to receive (or actually receives), directly or indirectly, from the other car owner(s) any financial consideration or other form of value based upon the participation, performance, or degree of success of the car(s) entered by the other car owner(s).””
I find this to be an interesting facet from the NASCAR rule book.
I see two sides to this issue. I understand the premise of teams having affiliations and trying to put an ix-nay on certain aspects of a cooperative effort where both teams might benefit from it. But it’s a bummer for the world of NASCAR that Dale Jr. can’t start a Cup Series team because he drives for Hendrick. I’m befuddled.
I wonder if there’s enough fanfare about this restriction that NASCAR might let and the sports most beloved driver, if it will suddenly find itself lifted if Dale Earnhardt Jr. pushed hard enough. He’d have the fan support, that’s for sure.
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In other NASCAR news, JR Motorsports signed Cole Whitt to be their full-time NASCAR Nationwide series pilot in 2012 for their No. 88 Chevrolet.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Bruce,
I, too, am somewhat befuddled about NASCAR’S ruling on this subject. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t Dale,Sr. have a two car race team while racing for RCR??
But on closer scrutiny, I believe that was before NASCAR mandated the four car rule. Nevertheless, I am having a hard time to fully wrap my head around the fact that just because a driver drives for a certain race team, if he owns a Sprint Car team that it would count against his present employer!
Does NASCAR that, for instance, all the Ford race teams in Sprint Cup are independent? Not hardly, they all receive some kind of subsistence from the Roush-Fenway organization, ie, engines, chassis, now even some driver assistance. The one case in point that comes to mind is the Wood Brothers and RFR driver Trevor Bayne association!
Having made that point, I guess that I can see kinda where NASCAR is coming from. Oh well……………