FastCar Newsdesk for Texas, Chase Race No. 8, week of 10/30/08
As news about the economy’s impact on American automakers gets worse, talks about a potential merger between GM and Chrysler continue to heat up. Ford’s crumbling finances also have sparked rumors that it my want to me part of some sort of merger with GM or Chrysler. If GM were to buy Chrysler, no specifics have been released on how that will affect Dodge’s brand presence in NASCAR. Sources close to the situation say that GM and Chrysler have been in talks. Ford, who along with Dodge has decided to retract its Truck Series monetary sponsorship, recently signed a multi-year deal with Roush Fenway Racing to continue sponsoring the team and offering it engineering support in the Nationwide and Cup Series.
Toyota’s presence in NASCAR may continue to grow, as people close to Gillett Evernham Motorsports say that the three car team is looking to switch to Toyota and buy Bill Davis’ one car Sprint Cup operation, which is a Toyota team. NASCAR, though, has apparently told GEM that they will block the merger. The likely reason for this is that much of the engineering support for Dodge teams comes from GEM’s shop and NASCAR wants to have four viable manufacturers competing in the sport. If GEM were allowed to jump from the Dodge ship, Penske Racing would likely become Dodge’s chief engineering arm.
Other struggling teams are looking to pool their resources, so they can compete. Wood Brothers Racing and Hall of Fame Racing are may be looking to join forces. Wood Brothers has had a relationship with Roush Racing in the past, but that ended. The decades old NASCAR team also had a recent partnership with JTG Racing, which ended earlier this year. Wood Brothers team officials say that they have commitments from enough sponsors to run the 2009 season, including support from Ford. With Marcos Ambrose out of the mix and Bill Elliott looking to heavily diminish his schedule, only Jon Wood remains on the team’s driver roster for next year.
Hall of Fame Racing has been a satellite team with Joe Gibbs Racing, since becoming a full-time Sprint Cup Series team in 2006. After making the jump to Toyota at the beginning of this season to stay with Gibbs, the team has struggled mightily, failing to qualify for several races, falling well outside the Top 35, and only managing one Top 10 finish. HOF’s relationship with Toyota contractually ends after this season, meaning the single-car team could sign with Ford and partner with the Wood Brothers next season.
Billy Ballew Motorsports could add Mayfield to mix
Jeremy Mayfield appears close to buying into Billy Ballew Motorsports. The Cup veteran, who has been out of a ride for most of 2008 and who drove with a fledgling Bill Davis operation in 2007, has been itching to get back in the driver’s seat. Mayfield is apparently going to buy Ballew’s No. 15 Toyota, which has been driven by several drivers this season. Mayfield says that he plans to drive the Truck, but if a better opportunity arises for him, he would put someone else in the Truck.
The Truck Series has been a great place for veterans to revive their careers, as drivers like Ron Hornaday, Johnny Benson, Todd Bodine, and Mike Skinner regularly contend for races and championships. Currently, Benson holds a slim lead over Hornaday in the driver’s standings; Bodine is in third place.
Ballew may need Mayfield’s capital infused into the team after a fire to the team’s transporter, en route to Texas Motor Speedway, not only damaged the hauler, but also heavily damaged both No. 51 Toyotas, the primary and the backup, that Kyle Busch was supposed to drive in the Texas race. The team still plans to run the race. Also damaged in the fire were some tools and the teams “war wagon”, or the box that the team operates on and out of during a race.
Kodak pulling out of NASCAR; McClure in serious trouble
After 22 years of full or partial race team sponsorship, Kodak says it is ending its relationship with NASCAR. Company officials say they want to promote their digital brands on the PGA tour.
Kodak began NASCAR sponsorship in 1986. The majority of the time the company spent in NASCAR was with Morgan McClure Motorsports and the No. 4 car. The No. 4, which carried Chevy, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac colors in with Kodak on the hood, compiled 3 Daytona 500 wins, a couple of Top 10 points finishes, and over a dozen wins. Drivers that drove for MMM in the No. 4 Kodak car included Ernie Irvan, Sterling Marlin, Bobby Hamilton, Bobby Hamilton Jr., Robby Gordon, Kevin Lepage, and Mike Skinner.
Kodak left the team after the 2003 season and joined Penske-Jasper Racing in 2004. Kodak fully sponsored the No. 77 Dodge for two seasons, with drivers Brendan Gaughan and Travis Kvapil. After mediocre results, the No. 77 team shut down and Kodak became an associate sponsor on the Penske No. 2 and No. 12 cars.
MMM struggled mightily in its final years with Kodak and in the years after the film and camera company left. Using a revolving door of drivers that included Mike Wallace, Jimmy Spencer, Scott Wimmer, Ward Burton, and others, the team never stayed in the Top 35 in owner’s points, failing to qualify for races, and running in the back of the pack. After sponsor State Water Heaters left the team, following the ’07 season, the team had no funding to race this season. Team owners laid off most of the company’s employees and ceasing operations, pending sponsorship.
More bad news developed this week for what is left of the team this week, when a federal grand jury indicted team general manager and co-owner Larry McClure on three counts of mail fraud, three counts of filing a false tax return, two counts of obstructing a tax investigation, two counts of money laundering and one count of wire fraud. If he is convicted, he faces a maximum of 115 years in federal prison and $2.75 million in fines.
Authorities claim that McClure filed false tax returns in 2002, 2003, and 2004, failing to record income gained from selling some of his cars to an ARCA team. They also claim that McClure recorded false business expenses he tried to write off on tax forms.
Tax troubles and prison time are no strangers to NASCAR team owners. Gene Hass, owner of Hass CNC Racing, is serving jail time for tax violations. Rick Hendrick also served house arrest for breaking some tax laws, before being pardoned by President Bill Clinton.
JR Motorsports scaling back
Even the allure of the name Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not enough to guarantee NASCAR sponsorship. JR Motorsports learned a couple of months ago that the sponsor of its No. 88 Chevy, U.S. Navy, would not return next season. Since then, they have been scrambling to find funding for that team. The National Guard, GoDaddy.com, Delphi, and others have sponsored the other JR Motorsports car, the No. 5, with a rotating door of drivers.
Kelley Earnhardt, Junior’s sister and general manager of the company had this to say: “We’ve been working aggressively to secure funding to continue with two teams in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The economic climate is difficult, as everyone is aware, and that is affecting every company’s ability to spend. The 2008 season will be ending in less than three weeks, and preparations for next season are already underway. We do not anticipate getting the funding required to field two teams after the end of this season, and we need to make adjustments now to prepare JR Motorsports accordingly. We are reducing our workforce and budgets to comply with a new plan for 2009, which at the present time is to field the #88 team full-time with driver Brad Keselowski, and the #5 team on a limited basis with a select group of drivers.”
Unilever Foods, which has sponsored the No. 9 GEM Nationwide Series team for the past few seasons, was scheduled to sponsor the No. 5 JR Motorsports team for approximately 10 races next season, but now may move to help fully fund the No. 88 team and driver Brad Keselowski. Keselowski has won his first two races in the Nationwide Series this year and currently sits third in the driver’s standings.
There are reports that 15-18 people on the team have already been laid off, but those have not been confirmed.
Speaking of layoffs, rumors are running wild that as many as 1,000 team employees from NASCAR teams in the top three series could be looking for work after this season. One of the biggest companies reportedly looking at cutting back its workforce is DEI, who may layoff as many as 100 workers from its four Sprint Cup teams. DEI currently has sponsorship secured for only one of its teams next season and has been looking to merge with another team, though nothing has materialized. All of the speculations about layoffs are only rumors and have not been confirmed. Considering the economic climate and its effects on the sport, though, the fruition of the rumors does not seem surprising.
Georgia drivers abound in all three series last weekend
David Ragan showed resilience during Sunday’s Pep Boys 500 at his home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway. After falling out of the Top 20 early in the event, the No. 6 AAA Ford rebounded to finish 8th in the race and hold solidly onto 13th place in driver’s points. Reed Sorenson and Bill Elliott each got caught up in on-track incidents, Elliott’s early and Sorenson’s late, giving them rough finishes. Elliott finished 38th and Sorenson finished 39th. All three drivers will compete in Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Ragan’s No. 6 Nationwide Series team also ran well Saturday at Memphis, as he piloted the Discount Tire Ford to an 8th place finish. He remains 5th in the driver’s points.
Another Georgia driver in that race, Chase Miller, had a good run in the No. 9 Motorola Dodge, finishing 6th. Conyers’ Ron Young in the No. 71 Chevy started 16th, but got caught up in a couple of racing incidents and finished 29th. Miller will compete in the No. 9 this weekend at Texas.
Richard Johns competed in the Truck Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the No. 89 Laffery Performance Chevy and finished 30th. His team is a start and park team, and tried to run a full season on one motor and on few tires, in hopes of making enough money to go to the next race.
Used Honda Accord
