Silly Season 2020

I don't know that's the main thing. I don't think it is the main thing. And I strongly hope - and believe - spec engines for cup will not be an option anytime soon, if ever.
You know the approval process Toyota had to go through, the engine costs are the mot expensive part of the sport and NASCAR needs to get the spending under control. I think in the beggining they will stay with the built motor and allow the Ilmore then evaluate it after a few years. I look for it soon.
 
I guess if they are willing to bastardize a Supra to fit the template of an Xfinity car, they can try to morph a Ridgeline into a truck if they really want to
Hell the only difference I can tell on the trucks is the grill anyway
 
I don't have a problem with it. It puts the race in the driver's hands more than the car engineers. From what i gathered from Mike Helton and what Penske said awhile back, I think the new car is going to have many standardized parts to cut costs. Nobody has said anything about the engines specifically but it sure falls under that blanket if they decide to cut costs until they bleed.
 
I guess if they are willing to bastardize a Supra to fit the template of an Xfinity car, they can try to morph a Ridgeline into a truck if they really want to

Yup, especially the Truck chassis which is like a parade float chassis that NASCAR requires gets built and decorated a certain way.

They could go to a functional truck bed where you have to carry a piece of furniture, bags of fertilizer, rake, broom, empty cans of whatever, rubber boots and a shovel. And why aren't they running an Official NASCAR Toolbox back there -- more sponsor money!

Alright, that's about as weird as I can go before I grab my neighbors homegrown and start blazing (which I don't do)..,
 
Yup, especially the Truck chassis which is like a parade float chassis that NASCAR requires gets built and decorated a certain way.

They could go to a functional truck bed where you have to carry a piece of furniture, bags of fertilizer, rake, broom, empty cans of whatever, rubber boots and a shovel. And why aren't they running an Official NASCAR Toolbox back there -- more sponsor money!

Alright, that's about as weird as I can go before I grab my neighbors homegrown and start blazing (which I don't do)..,
I like the toolbox idea
 
I mean it's a hideous truck built on a minivan frame, but it looks like a truck
USC90HOT011A021001.jpg
 
You know the HART guys?

Personally no. My best friend at R&D went to Purdue with one of the drivers sons

I’m involved more with the quality aspect of vehicles at the East Liberty plant as opposed to the actual design of the cars
 
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@Revman has issued a 1,000% guarantee that it won't happen, but...

The Athletic: Erik Jones, a potential generational talent, could fall victim to Joe Gibbs Racing’s numbers game
--by David Smith

Link (subscription only):
https://theathletic.com/1003550/201...im-to-joe-gibbs-racings-good-problem-to-have/

The article begins with a review of how Gibbs whiffed on Logano, then goes on to reveal that Toyota has spent at least $23 million over four years developing Christopher Bell. The dilemma is... Jones looks as good or maybe better than Bell (per Smith's sabermetrics). Smith calls Jones a "potential generational talent." He concludes that somebody is gonna get shafted by Joe Gibbs Racing... Jones, Bell, or Hambone.
It’s been nearly seven years since Joe Gibbs Racing cut bait on a certain young driver, perceived to be struggling at the NASCAR Cup Series level, in favor of an established name. The replacement with all the accolades, 41-year-old Matt Kenseth, paid immediate dividends — seven victories and a championship bid in his first season with JGR, resulting in a runner-up finish in the standings. But that season was the only one of Kenseth’s tenure in which he finished inside the top four in points.

The young driver freed to make room for the aging former champ was Joey Logano, whose production output for his age ranked among the best in Cup Series history. JGR’s misevaluation was Team Penske’s gain. Logano has finished fourth or better in points three times in the last six seasons, including a championship in 2018.

Since Logano, JGR promoted two young drivers from its development pipeline — Daniel Suárez and Erik Jones. Furniture Row Racing’s closure last season made a free agent of 38-year-old Martin Truex Jr. and JGR was quick to jettison Suárez to make room. The results have been similar to Kenseth’s during his first season; Truex pocketed his third win through 13 races last weekend in Charlotte. The organization’s bet on Truex, at this very moment, is not being questioned.

Now, JGR again finds itself at a crossroads, forced to make room for Christopher Bell, a driver widely considered the No. 1 NASCAR Cup Series prospect.

Bell isn’t a JGR find, per se — he emerged from the dirt tracks of USAC through Toyota’s lavish driver development program, pocketing 11 wins across 52 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts and a NASCAR Truck Series championship in 2017. Toyota, already having helped develop Kyle Larson and William Byron only to see them break into the Cup Series with rival manufacturers, is sweating the next step in Bell’s career with good reason. (Suarez also came through the Toyota development program program, but was not groomed as extensively as Bell and Larson.)

A conservative estimate of Bell’s development is $23 million over the past four years, a hit absorbed by the manufacturer itself or its business partners. Even if that dollar amount is short of the actual number, it’d still make Bell the most expensive development driver in NASCAR history by a wide margin. Toyota’s urgency to get him to the Cup Series is very real and his move away to another manufacturer would be devastating.

Jones appears the most likely casualty, the pick with the most potential to get “Suárez’d” as my colleague Jeff Gluck aptly stated in a live Q&A earlier this week. There may be a glimmer of hope, though, as Jones and JGR have been discussing a contract extension that would lock him down for the foreseeable future.

“We’re working it out,” Jones said of his contract talks during a media availability last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “I think we’re on the right path for keeping it going.”

But that was before a dead-last finish in Sunday’s 600-mile race, the result of a blown right-front tire, an impediment plaguing five different teams under JGR’s purview across Charlotte’s Cup and Xfinity races. He’s crashed five times through the first 13 races of 2019 — a total to which some are quick to point — but Charlotte represented his first accident-related DNF this season and his per-race crash frequency, 0.38, equals those of Truex and Denny Hamlin, two of his stablemates at JGR.

Still, it may serve as justification to keep the extension in limbo with Bell such an easy replacement. That would be a shame considering Jones’ production and output to this point in his career.

Before replacing Jones, three things should be considered:

1. Erik Jones and Daniel Suárez have much different statistical trajectories
Swapping out Suárez for Truex was a low-risk move for JGR considering Suárez’s age (26 going on 27) and future outlook based on his history. His career PROA — the average production rating compared to the expectation of drivers his age — sat at minus-0.015 before this year, grading out as barely below average. He’ll improve with age as drivers generally do, but he isn’t tracking like a generational talent across the aging curve.

Jones is. Through his first two seasons, his career PROA was a plus-1.035 — not only an above-average mark, but a better career-long production number than Hamlin (plus-0.927), Kenseth (plus-0.883) and Truex (plus-0.459), all drivers JGR believed in enough to heavily invest in within the last decade.

2. Erik Jones is younger and possibly better than Christopher Bell
Despite an obvious, costly fault, Bell is very good. In fact, he won six times and averaged a third-place finish in the 17 races on non-drafting ovals in which he didn’t crash last year. He was an above-par passer on every track type in 2018, a trait that’s carried over to this season. A regression analysis prior to this year indicated he’d be the 15th-most productive Cup Series driver in equal equipment had he been given a promotion.

The same regression analysis projected Jones as the ninth-most productive Cup driver this season, which is precisely where he ranks through 13 races and where he wrapped the 2018 season. Lest we forget, his Xfinity Series bona fides were strong considering his competition; he won six times in his first 59 Xfinity starts in an era when Cup driver participation wasn’t limited as it has been during Bell’s time. Like Bell will, he entered the top level of stock car racing as an above-par passer, ranking first in surplus passing value among full-time drivers.

To wit, Jones accomplished all of this at a younger age — he was born in May 1996 — than Bell, born in December 1994.

3. Erik Jones is already one of the 10 most productive drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series and the second-most productive driver under age 25
As a rookie, Jones ranked 12th among all drivers in production and has been a top-10 fixture ever since, but most important for the future is his standing among those in his age group. Chase Elliott is the only under-25 driver consistently ranking ahead of Jones in production and William Byron is the only one trailing within sniffing distance. Both Elliott and Byron are employed by Hendrick Motorsports, an organization in the midst of a rebuild in hopes of rivaling JGR in the coming years as its drivers grow and improve toward their most likely statistical peak at ages 35 through 40.

The ideal scenario would be for JGR to keep both Jones and Bell in its camp — with an eye toward the future — but the logistics of such a thing are messy. With Truex and Kyle Busch signed to fresh deals, Hamlin is the most realistic other option, and dumping him now would mean cutting ties with the most recent Daytona 500 winner ahead of his age-39 season, the year that, on average, is the most bountiful of a driver’s career.

Too much talent is the proverbial “good problem to have” for JGR, but nothing about this feels like opulence. A productive driver will soon be shortchanged. Regardless of who it is, there’s no guarantee of a landing spot as competitive as the one where he’s now stationed. The wasting of a generational talent looms as a possibility.
 
@Revman has issued a 1,000% guarantee that it won't happen, but...

The Athletic: Erik Jones, a potential generational talent, could fall victim to Joe Gibbs Racing’s numbers game
--by David Smith


Link (subscription only):
https://theathletic.com/1003550/201...im-to-joe-gibbs-racings-good-problem-to-have/

The article begins with a review of how Gibbs whiffed on Logano, then goes on to reveal that Toyota has spent at least $23 million over four years developing Christopher Bell. The dilemma is... Jones looks as good or maybe better than Bell (per Smith's sabermetrics). Smith calls Jones a "potential generational talent." He concludes that somebody is gonna get shafted by Joe Gibbs Racing... Jones, Bell, or Hambone.
Too much talent, not enough seats.
 
Replace Bowyer with Custer, and if Suarez can not get the job done in his stint with a second top-tier team, hmm...
 
@Revman has issued a 1,000% guarantee that it won't happen, but...

The Athletic: Erik Jones, a potential generational talent, could fall victim to Joe Gibbs Racing’s numbers game
--by David Smith


Link (subscription only):
https://theathletic.com/1003550/201...im-to-joe-gibbs-racings-good-problem-to-have/

The article begins with a review of how Gibbs whiffed on Logano, then goes on to reveal that Toyota has spent at least $23 million over four years developing Christopher Bell. The dilemma is... Jones looks as good or maybe better than Bell (per Smith's sabermetrics). Smith calls Jones a "potential generational talent." He concludes that somebody is gonna get shafted by Joe Gibbs Racing... Jones, Bell, or Hambone.

David who?
 
I don't know that's the main thing. I don't think it is the main thing. And I strongly hope - and believe - spec engines for cup will not be an option anytime soon, if ever.

Probst said on NASCAR Radio a couple of days ago that spec won't come to Cup. Period.
 
@Revman has issued a 1,000% guarantee that it won't happen, but...

The Athletic: Erik Jones, a potential generational talent, could fall victim to Joe Gibbs Racing’s numbers game
--by David Smith


Link (subscription only):
https://theathletic.com/1003550/201...im-to-joe-gibbs-racings-good-problem-to-have/

The article begins with a review of how Gibbs whiffed on Logano, then goes on to reveal that Toyota has spent at least $23 million over four years developing Christopher Bell. The dilemma is... Jones looks as good or maybe better than Bell (per Smith's sabermetrics). Smith calls Jones a "potential generational talent." He concludes that somebody is gonna get shafted by Joe Gibbs Racing... Jones, Bell, or Hambone.

Claire B. Lang reported yesterday that the contract awaits signatures. Subscribe to that crap at your own risk.
 
I heard KDB is going to start a new Toyota team and be affiliated with JGR . He is currently negotiating with Cole Pearn to be his new CC.
 
I heard KDB is going to start a new Toyota team and be affiliated with JGR . He is currently negotiating with Cole Pearn to be his new CC.

My buddy from work @kyle busch 18 has been saying this for about a month now. Not the Pearn part, but KBM becoming a Cup team and JGR affiliate with Kyle running his own car. He doesn't have a source.....he says "just watch, it'll happen" :rolleyes:
 
I can't stand KDB but he'd cement his legacy as one of the best ever if he becomes a successful owner driver in this day and age.

He's done good in the Trucks but the Busch car team didn't do so well.
 
He's done good in the Trucks but the Busch car team didn't do so well.

He tried diving in himself with just Monster sponsoring him. Wasn't the greatest move, but it showed just how much effort and support was needed to make it a success. He did the best thing by cutting losses and absorb into JGR's Xfinity team.
 
He's done good in the Trucks but the Busch car team didn't do so well.
JGR and Toyota made him a deal to close shop. JD wanted him adding to JGR totals.
Remember who makes Xfiniti Toyota Engines.
 
He tried diving in himself with just Monster sponsoring him. Wasn't the greatest move, but it showed just how much effort and support was needed to make it a success. He did the best thing by cutting losses and absorb into JGR's Xfinity team.
Diving in, that's a good one:D. The little Psycho was hanging on to his cup ride and Mars sponsorship at preachers by a thread after he was suspended after the Hornaday stupidity, and his best thinking was to start his own team because there was no place to go if they dumped him. so here he goes competeing against Joe Gibbs in Xfinity among others. Uh duh.
 
I'd put Bell in the 14 before Custer, give him a partnership with RWR and give him a SHR eqiupment. Just partner up with the team until further notice until Harvick calls it quits.

Bold Prediction: Harvick calls it after this year, Custer into the 4. Bowyer stays 1 more year, Bubba into the 14.
 
I heard KDB is going to start a new Toyota team and be affiliated with JGR . He is currently negotiating with Cole Pearn to be his new CC.

OTDIH: 2021


Cup team owner/driver Kyle Busch announces his team will shut down immediately after Joe Gibbs jacked up the technical alliance fee from $3 million per year to $15 million. "I thought we were Family. But we just got Visser'd" said Kyle, who won several races, beating the mothership in the process.
 
This thread has turned into not so bold predictions and ways to spend Kyle Busch’s money.
 
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