Check out some bits about NASCAR layoffs, some crew chief moves and some driver news….
End of the 2011 NASCAR Season Brings Layoffs at Roush
In a sad bit of business news, layoffs at Roush Fenway Racing started to kick in on Tuesday, 11-22-11. Word on the street that as many as 100 folks were being cut, many of whom, are losing their jobs because the No. 6 Ford of David Ragan will not be on the track in 2012, as Roush is cutting that car from the program.
Jack Roush himself said there’s a 40% chance of Ragan returning to RFR.
As noted, in an economic rough spot, it’s a bad time, but primary sponsor contracts were expiring with Roush and UPS and Crown Royal didn’t want to foot the bill for an entire hood by themselves. Not sure what it costs these days, but I’ve seen numbers between $10 and $15 million to sit on a hood all year. ouch!
UPS will be an associate sponsor for Carl Edwards in 2012. Maybe that will help deliver a title for Carl! (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.) Crown Royal is putting its sponsor money behind the Indianapolis Brickyard 400.
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On Monday, October 17th, twelve NASCAR Sprint Cup teams took to the the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway to run some tests on the EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) engine systems that will be deployed in the 2012 season.
Of the twelve NASCAR teams that participated in the tests included four teams from Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Roush Fenway Racing, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing, NEMCO Motorsports, two (both? All?) teams from Stewart-Haas Racing and Richard Childress Racing.
The fastest on-track car during the test was the No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford with Trevor Bayne behind the wheel. This was also Kasey Kahne’s first chance to wield a HMS car.
“The entire NASCAR community has worked very closely together in developing the EFI system,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president for competition. “Today was a positive step in the right direction for us. We have associated ourselves with some world-class technology partners, including McLaren, Freescale and Holley, and going to EFI next season is only going to enhance the racing. The horsepower should be about the same, or perhaps slightly more, the cars will be more fuel efficient, and it’s the right thing to do from an environmental standpoint. Plus, it helps us become more relevant with the production cars that our fans drive every day.”
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Gets New Contract with HMS
It seems that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can breathe a bit easier headed into the NASCAR race weekend at Atlanta this weekend. Hendrick Motorsports has announced via a press release that Earnhardt Jr. has signed a five-year contract extension with the team, keeping the NASCAR fan-favorite under the “Inn” until 2017.
It seems that there’s a bit of an old-school feeling to the agreement, as Rick Hendrick let it be known that he and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had already had a “a handshake agreement months ago” and that both sides were letting their people work out the details of the arrangement from there. IT MUST BE NICE TO BE ABLE TO TRUST SOMEONE LIKE THAT these days!
Nice. (Anyone remember when Richard Childress mentioned his agreements with Earnhardt Sr.? A handshake and note scribbled on a napkin. Ah, the good old days when lawyers weren’t always needed to simply drive a car!)
It’s great to see the faith that Hendrick has in Dale Jr., and there must be great plans in place to help the team continue to improve. Dale Earnhardt Jr. to date, since 2000, has 18 Cup wins, so he has the ability. Or least had. 17 of those wins came at DEI. Right now, his last win came back in 2008. His fans are yearning for more!
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As you all are aware, Kasey Kahne is in the No. 4 Toyota for Red Bull Racing this year… it’s a a one-year deal that kept him in the mix, in a ride until he gets to the No. 5 Chevy under the Hendrick Motorsports roof in 2012.
It’s been reported that Kasey Kahne now has a sponsor for that ride, with Farmer’s Insurance. The contract will cost Farmer’s $13 million per year and they’ll adorn the hood of the Chevy when Kasey Kahne steps into the ride, replacing Mark Martin.
I’m am not sure what Mark Martin will be doing after he gets out of the No. 5. Retire? Nahhh… Mark Martin has been know to say he’s not worried about 2012… he seems to have plans.
foxsports.com
After a good ARCA race that only saw a few single car, ‘that’s racin’ incidents, NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying for the Aaron’s 499 took to the track. Or more specifically, Hendrick Motorsports took to the track and showed up qualifying!
Hendrick Motorsports drivers took the top four positions of the day with Jeff Gordon on the pole and Jimmie Johnson filling out the front row, and Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr. filling out the second row. (Dale Jr. is having a decent year so far and I’m sure his fans are hoping he’ll keep it up!)
With only two drivers to go, the rest of the field behind the front rows included Paul Menard, Landon Cassill, David Ragan, Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers & Clint Bowyer filling out the top-ten spots.
Daytona star Trevor Bayne took eleventh.
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Jayski’s wrote up a bit about the current values of various NASCAR entities based off of a piece from Forbes online. I found it interesting. Forbes reported that NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series team, Hendrick Motorsports was the highest valued team, weighing in with a current value of $350 million, with a revenue stream of about $177M and an operating income of about $18M.
Behind HMS was Roush Fenway Racing, whose estimated value was at $224M, with a revenue of $140M and an operating income of almost $9M.
RFR was followed by Richard Childress Racing, whose value clocked in at $158M, $90M in revenue, & almost $6m in operating income.
At the bottom of the 10 team list was Red Bull Racing, with $58M, $48M 7 -$2.8M.
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For drivers, it’s no surprise to see reported that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the highest paid driver in the series, pulling in $29M annually, last year. His income streams also include a 50% take on winnings & bonuses, plus his huge assortment of product endorsement contracts which include Chevy, Nationwide and Wrangler.
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Right now when you hit up the NASCAR website, call any of NASCAR’s listed phone numbers or other such attempts at communicating thoughts to the sanctioning body, you get anywhere but. For instance, NASCAR.com is peppered with 2nd & 3rd party interactive sources. Eleven right upfront. Most notable of those is Turner.com. For me to see most content on NASCAR.com, I have to allow Turner.com in my NoScript add-on here on FireFox. Emails via the website end up with Turner Sports and phone numbers are answered by ISC. (International Speedway Corporation)
In other words, good luck! It’s like trying to find an email address for the YouTube (Google) support gang!
Recently, NASCAR hired a survey firm to understand how the NASCAR fan likes to interact with NASCAR and the study involved 1,500 fans. But right off the bat, from my opening paragraphs, you can see the issue already at hand. NASCAR on the web is anything but. The overseeing company of this study project, in both the study phase and latter execution, is called Taylor.
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Now NASCAR is looking to refocus their identity when it comes to the internet and in so doing, and in replacing Ramsey Poston, they are looking to hire someone outside the industry of auto racing to replace him.
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Rick Hendrick kept saying that we’ll hear about it after the season sometime. I didn’t realize that he meant we’ll hear about crew shuffles almost immediately after the final race where Jimmie Johnson wins his fifth straight championship in a row. But under the roof of Hendrick Motorsports, trouble was simmering to a point of brewing.
Jeff Gordon finished 9th in the standings with 17 top-10′s. Mark Martin, 13th… with 11 top-10′s and Dale Earnhardt Jr came in 21st with only 8 top-10′s.
Rick Hendrick made some changes at “The Inn.”
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Crew chief Lance McGrew couldn’t tame the beast and was moved to the No. 5 of Mark Martin.
- Jeff Gordon: Almost but not quite, but with a decent show for the year, Steve Letarte moves into the box-top of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s No. 88 car.
- Mark Martin: Alan Gustafson moves over to helm Jeff Gordon’s team.
But wait, that’s not all.
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Jimmie Johnson finished 2nd at Homestead-Miami Speedway to capture the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, beating Kevin Harvick by 36 points, and Denny Hamlin, the odds on favorite to take the cup, by 39 points.
While Jimmie Johnson was pacing his day in the field headed to the end, the day was long for Denny Hamlin as he spun early off the fender of Greg Biffle, taking out the toe of the car for the rest of the day. After that it was a struggle that looked like Denny was going to win as the day went on but the factor counting against him was his taking pit stops earlier than everyone else.
Because Denny was pitting earlier than everyone else, he was pinned a lap down during the last set of green flag pit stops when Kevin Harvick drove through Kyle Busch, driving him into the wall to bring out the caution. This will be an interesting controversy for a short time because when you listen to the replays, you’ll note Harvick never lifted and drove through Busch.
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2/20/11 update: I presumed they were Decepticons because they usually get the cool cars, but it turns out these are the Wreckers team and are Autobots.
Finally… I found a few more images of NASCAR Cup cars from Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the forms of the No. 88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr, the No. 48 of Jimmie Johnson and the No. 42 of Juan Pablo Montoya from the set of Michael Bay’s Transformers: The Dark of the Moon. All Chevy’s which makes sense, being that all the Transformers are of a Chevy ilk. I’ve sent emails to all the shops but they’re pretty busy right now and no one has answered me. (Or my spam filter cut them out! DOh!)
These mean looking cars are representing pretty good here though they aren’t going to pass any body template any time soon. Then again, go ahead, try and fine them! Check it out! And no Tom Cruise. Just exploding, butt kicking alien robots. Nice!
Transformers 3 No 48 Jimmie Johnson NASCAR Cup Car
Apparently Jimmie can only drive fraking fast, but can’t parallel park!
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