The feel good story of Daytona was a few teams that were/are under funded or were start up teams.
As the first half of the season comes to a close those teams have fallen by the way side. The 28 team driven by Travis Kvapil only ran 5 races before closing its doors.
We all know the situation with Mayfield, that’s all I’m saying right now on that.
Many of these teams not in the top 35 have full time sponsorship, some none. I understand the economy is bad.Some teams (2) elected to run a limited number of races. The races that these teams show up at, they come ready to race the whole race not just start and park.
I’m sorry I don’t see how teams are making money starting and parking. I do not know the exact amount of the fee to enter a race, but if you send it in late it’s several thousand dollars. The cost of getting to a race, tires, employees and accommodations add up to too. You can tell me that teams make money starting and parking? I would think not. More like barely making ends meat.
We know Scott Speed has missed two races and has stepped into the 87 of Joe Nemechek. What Joe gained from this other than maybe a discount or tech support from Red Bull.Speed raced the whole race.
The 71, when the season started ran most of the laps but starting with Richmond they turned into a start and park team.
The 25 is a part time team, is competitive in the races they run. Can you see a Hendrick Motorsports car starting and parking?
Car # Missed races Laps run Total Number laps for races 82 4 3652 5461 71 3 2879 5461 66 4 641 5461 78 2661* 5461 They have run 10 scheduled races 21 1376* 5461 They have run 6 scheduled races 36 7 1725 5461 87 2 1713 5461 13 12 1599 5461 41 991 2520* Thru Dega 28 873 1520* First 5 races 64 16 926 5461 25 1185 5461 Limited schedule 09 4 1680 5461
What do you think about these start and park cars? Are these teams making money or just getting by?
*** As a side note while on vacation I went to Menards. The store I was at had a picture predominately displayed showing the 15 car. You would think since Daddy is paying for the car he’d at least have the current car displayed.
In today’s economy, I do not see how it can be worthwhile to start and park. But look at numbers — Mayfield has won $568,000. Nemechek has won $1.2 million. Speed has nearly $1,9m million in winnings. Gilliland has nearly $1.5 million. Kvapil about $500,000. While that seems like a lot of dough, it is hard to run a car when it is all coming out of your pocket.
If sponsorship dollars are so tough to come by, drop the Top 35 BS. If you have have a Top wahatever make it the Top 12, you enough Chase points you get the breather.
All the other 31 – 36 cars trying to qualify are on equal ground, the Top 12 go out last in case of rain. Take the Top 12 and the fastest 31 qualifiers. . . o yeah, no provisionals.
Level the playing field, more chances to get into the race for sponsors and you have to at least race for the Top 12 points not take a Sunday drive for the Top 35.
At the TX race this spring I had my scanner on the TV feed. While they were on commerical break they were talking among themselves. Blaney had gone in after just a few laps. One said “He’s whatamacallit broke.” Another one laughed and said “No, that was last week. His thingmajig broke this week”. They were talking about how they can use the same tires for 3 or 4 races so you can deduct a big tire expense right there. Wasn’t it a Nationwide team a couple of weeks ago that didn’t even bother to have a crew chief on the pit box? If that doesn’t say start and park, what does? Must be making money. No one would be putting out that kind of money if something was coming back in.
These guys are trying to run as much as possible. Parking does not impress potential sponsers. They park because of broken parts or wrecks. When a team runs on limited funds, the parts are generally where they have to lean out the spending. The result is unreliable and sometimes even used parts get put on the car resulting in breakage.
They are for sure starting and parking. I play a game called First & Last 5. To play you have to pick the cars you think will finish in the top and last 5 spots. I have been playing this game for 6 years and do not recall anyone getting all 5 picks correct. This year in the game there have been 4 times that all five of the bottom 5 have been picked. Myself I usually pick the same 5 cars and have done great with them as they are usually in the bottom five if there is not a wreck or equipment malfunction taking out one or more of the top drivers. Sure picks are the 187, 171, 66, 09 (if Brad is not driving it), and the 37.
MISSU3
My understanding about this and I have double checked with a team, You can NOT keep tires from the weekend. Good year has started giving teams some tires to test on but tires from race weekend are turned in at end of weekend. Some teams maybe using tires over and over in a weekend.
I refer everyone to the interview that happens every monday morning at 10AM with Slugger Labbe on The Morning Drive. They were a start and park at Chicagoland, because of trashing 2 cars at the home race at Infineon(including the the one in the race which was originally Martin Truex’s backup and another in the Coke Zero 400. Besides that Slugger reported that at Indy, Goodyear will be mounting 20 sets of tires for every team, whether you run the entire 400 miles or are there to do a start and park. And from what I heard and understood the #71 team planned to run the entire distance and Kevin Buckler was still working to try to obtain $1Mil in sponsorship, which according to Slugger was all that they really needed to finish the rest of the season.