2021 Silly Season

kkfan91 said:
Man at this point if I was a young driver and offered a Gibbs ride it almost feel like a bad idea the only young driver they have really brought in themselves long term in the last 20 years is Hamlin.
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Yeah, if I was Bell I would be sweating bullets right now, even if I know I'm about to get that 20 car. It's like. "How long until I'm shown the door?"
 
Blaze said:
Yeah, if I was Bell I would be sweating bullets right now, even if I know I'm about to get that 20 car. It's like. "How long until I'm shown the door?"
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Just need to wait out MTJ. I imagine he'll be the first to hang it up, then Denny

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The good news for Bell is that there's nobody in the JGR/TRD pipeline to worry about. I don't see Riley Herbst, Brandon Jones, or Harrison Burton being a threat, and it's too early to tell if any of the kids in Kyle's trucks are the real deal. And if they are, Truex or Hamlin might be retired by that point.
 
2 Sweet said:
The good news for Bell is that there's nobody in the JGR/TRD pipeline to worry about. I don't see Riley Herbst, Brandon Jones, or Harrison Burton being a threat, and it's too early to tell if any of the kids in Kyle's trucks are the real deal. And if they are, Truex or Hamlin might be retired by that point.
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hopefully he gets in there and can rocket to some strong results, living up to the potential!

so much potential gets in that car, and right now Bell looks amazing every step he’s done so far. He’s showing great speed in Cup even though there’s not much results to show it right now.

I really hope that 20 becomes a car the field has to outrun again soon.

Harrison to that #11 or #19 no later than 2024. I’m calling it.
 
JJ_14 said:
I'm not sure Briscoe's xFinity success translates to Cup. Larson & Bubba are safer bets imo.
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He drives for SHR. Larson, okay, but Briscoe will be in a SHR cup car before Bubba. Smoke isn't stupid.

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LewTheShoe said:
It has not been a good week for either Erik Jones or Bob Leavine. Here's what I posted a year ago, when LFR was eagerly signing up to be the fifth Gibbs car for 2020...

Gibbs won't need a 5th seat after 2020. Gibbs will use LFR for one year like Gibbs used the Barney Visser #77 for one year... to solve his immediate short-term problem. Gibbs left Visser holding the bag on #77 personnel and other infrastructure.

I hope Leavine enjoys his full factory support in 2020 with a rookie driver on a one-year deal, because 2021 will be like starting over again.
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It wasn’t supposed to be a long-term arrangement and Bob said as much, that he wanted to be a standalone one- or two-car team again with the new car. No one could’ve predicted what would’ve happened this year though; WRL was hurt by the pandemic as was the NYC commercial real estate firm DiLiberto heads up. Not being willing or able to pour their own money into it and still having a dozen or so races of sponsorship left to sell just through the rest of this year, I don’t see a whole lot to pin on TRD/JGR this time.

That and Bob has some unclarified issues with the charter system and race team business model.
 
FLRacingFan said:
That and Bob has some unclarified issues with the charter system and race team business model.
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Leavine had been plain about his future being wholly dependent on the cost savings and common supplier structure of the Next Gen car. 2020 was supposed to be a holdover. That being delayed another season, and the wallop of pandemic-related effects on his other businesses were too much to withstand.

I think I agree with where you're going. I'm not fond of JGR's conduct with relation to the downfall of FRR, and am kinda baffled that they and Toyota continue to invest so much in prime talent like Jones and then give up on them prematurely. However, I don't think they owed Leavine in the same way.
 
gnomesayin said:
Leavine had been plain about his future being wholly dependent on the cost savings and common supplier structure of the Next Gen car. 2020 was supposed to be a holdover. That being delayed another season, and the wallop of pandemic-related effects on his other businesses were too much to withstand.

I think I agree with where you're going. I'm not fond of JGR's conduct with relation to the downfall of FRR, and am kinda baffled that they and Toyota continue to invest so much in prime talent like Jones and then give up on them prematurely. However, I don't think they owed Leavine in the same way.
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I know he's been vocal about the necessity of the new car and his insistence that it be introduced in 2021. There were a few other things he mentioned in the teleconference, like not getting out of the charter what he put into it. The team in its current iteration runs on a charter bought back in late in 2016, not one that was granted when the system debuted. There are some revenue streams associated with the charters and for whatever reason that didn't seem to make a dent for the team. In the meeting he discussed it may have been different if he had received a "free" charter.

He also mentioned he went to NASCAR a few months ago with other owners and lobbied for other changes but nothing came out of it, and whatever it was about he didn't want to delve into it. Could've been about Next Gen or charters or something else entirely, but the transcript leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
 
I'll be shocked if Larson ever returns to NASCAR in any capacity. His passion has always been dirt and he was vocal about racing in NASCAR solely for the money, but now he's still taking in a decent amount of cash in dirt series. Now factor in his racist blunder and sponsors (let alone fans and car owners) being unwilling to get on board with him in a NASCAR capacity, I do not envision any scenario where he returns to the series even if Hendrick wanted him in the #48
 
Blaze said:
Honestly, that was probably a good move. Sometimes people just aren't fit for a team. Who's to say that Joey would have did as good at JGR as he is at Penske? We honestly will never know. Same here with Jones, he could go to another team, light the world on fire, but may have never done that at JGR. Hell, Kyle wasn't exactly doing much at HMS, he goes to JGR and becomes one of the best ever. I hope this works out well for Jones.
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I think you hit the nail on the head. IMO if Hamlin and Kyle think the 4th driver is a threat to them, they will never help him. Not much they could do about Truex as he was already kicking butt. I believe Denny and Kyle made it really hard for Joey simply because in Xfinity he proved he was as good as or better than them.
 
Team Penske said:
I think you hit the nail on the head. IMO if Hamlin and Kyle think the 4th driver is a threat to them, they will never help him. Not much they could do about Truex as he was already kicking butt. I believe Denny and Kyle made it really hard for Joey simply because in Xfinity he proved he was as good as or better than them.
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That last statement is off imo.

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LewTheShoe said:
I agree with your sentiments on Erik Jones, but am surprised by your comment on sponsorship. What sponsorship does Jones bring? There is no family money, AFAIK. I thought all the #20 sponsors were JGR sponsors of long standing. Did I miss something important?
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Yeah that's a good point. Not sure on sports clips but they also sponsor some races for Truex.
 
AdoubleU24 said:
Yeah that's a good point. Not sure on sports clips but they also sponsor some races for Truex.
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Sport Clips has been a JGR sponsor for a while now.

I don't know of any sponsors Erik has that will stay with him. I'm guessing Bell will have Rheem/Ruud move over to the 20 car with him to fill holes that Craftsman/Stanley/Dewalt and Reeser's cannot fill.
 
RacerrecaR said:
I'll be shocked if Larson ever returns to NASCAR in any capacity. His passion has always been dirt and he was vocal about racing in NASCAR solely for the money, but now he's still taking in a decent amount of cash in dirt series. Now factor in his racist blunder and sponsors (let alone fans and car owners) being unwilling to get on board with him in a NASCAR capacity, I do not envision any scenario where he returns to the series even if Hendrick wanted him in the #48
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I have no idea what Larson was making in NASCAR but I would think it would be considerably more than he could ever pull in racing sprint cars. Regardless of what series he is racing in, he needs sponsors. I am sure he also wants to provide a comfortable life for his wife and son. While he is winning (and probably having a great time) running sprints this year, I am not sure that is his best long term option. Sprint car racing is more dangerous and the risk of injury or death is greater than any NASCAR series (again, think about his wife and son). I think from his perspective a return to NASCAR would be his best move.
 
DIDIT said:
I have no idea what Larson was making in NASCAR but I would think it would be considerably more than he could ever pull in racing sprint cars.
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For some people, job satisfaction matters a whole lot more than how much they make, esp. if they may have stashed away enough from a previous higher-paying job.
 
Gosh I didnt even consider Jones in the 21 Wood Brothers Ford, that'd be a pretty good get for them, Ford and Penske too
 
Snappy D said:
Gosh I didnt even consider Jones in the 21 Wood Brothers Ford, that'd be a pretty good get for them, Ford and Penske too
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I don't know why anyone would consider it. Matt D is 13th vs Erik's 18th, 509 in points vs. 453 (roughly 10%) more, is in the Chase, and seems to be a more mature driver. Sure, Erik has more top 5s and 10s but his other finishes are dragging him down.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I don't know why anyone would consider it. Matt D is 13th vs Erik's 18th, 509 in points vs. 453 (roughly 10%) more, is in the Chase, and seems to be a more mature driver. Sure, Erik has more top 5s and 10s but his other finishes are dragging him down.
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I'd consider it because Erik is a multi time race winner, has made the playoffs multiple times as opposed to Matty D and I would say overall has a brighter future than Matty D. I think Erik would have similar numbers if he was in the 21 because he would be the GUY at Wood Brothers as opposed to being a distant 4th like now at JGR.
 
Jones to 48 would make me happy personally. Going forward that's a strong lineup for HMS.

Also the Toyota NASCAR operations have given great chances to very many young drivers. It comes at a steep cost for some of their fleet but the overall impact of their program is very positive IMO. While yes it shuffles guys out quickly, they too shuffle guys in which I believe are great assets to the field. I try to not take their contributions to the sport for granted because the amount of money they pump in is a huge positive to the scene.
 
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Snappy D said:
I dont want to make the Di Burrito fans upset
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I just need him to get a bit of time in this ride. I really feel he can pull off a win. I’m just hoping that it comes soon.

Jones can go to uh. He can go to I don’t know, the 14. Clint can go join a booth.


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48- Jones
14- Briscoe
21- Cindric
43- Bubba
42- Chastain
 
Joeys problems at JGR was not just KFB and Denny. He also had a crew chief that wouldnt listen to what he wanted in a car. Zippy basically told him that he didnt know what he was talking about and give Joey what he thought he needed. I think that kind of killed Joeys confidence for a while.
 
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