2021 Silly Season

The other factor is that Bowyer is at the end of his career and he is not a magnet to sponsors. Without the #4 team SHR is not a top team and their prospects are poor.
Without Gene Haas pumping money into that team it isn't much. With or without the #4 sponsorship

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I know it's been a while, but I'm starting to think SHR letting Suarez go was a mistake. Sure, he didn't set the world on fire, but he did finish 17th in the points standings with some decent runs. It certainly wasn't a bad first season @ SHR.

The play should've been to replace Bowyer with Custer & leave Suarez in the #41. I think Daniel is better than people give him credit for.
A 28 year old with three years driving for top tier teams resulted in points position 20, 21 & 17. When compared to other drivers who are even younger those are not stellar numbers. In my opinion he had his shot but just didn't quite make the cut. I think those organizations expected more from him.
 
Not a magnet to sponsors? He is a sponsor's dream with some of them, always getting air time.
Sponsors love the guy.

Clint is quite the magnet when it comes to it. Rush Truck Center (They LOVE Clint), Cummings, Delkab... I mean he's gotten some attention. Not to mention, he's all in the Mobil 1 commercials with Harvick now.
 
He may be well liked especially by race fans but that don't mean corporations are willing to spend big dollars. I might like to point out that if he was great at bringing in sponsor dollar, he would have gotten more than a 1 yr contract.
 
He may be well liked especially by race fans but that don't mean corporations are willing to spend big dollars. I might like to point out that if he was great at bringing in sponsor dollar, he would have gotten more than a 1 yr contract.
I think 1 year contracts are more a sign of the sponsorship climate than anything. Look at some of the talent in the sport that are in their last year and haven't been locked down yet. 10 years ago that would have never happened.

Also look from the sponsorship side how many full season sponsors exist anymore? I can only think of 2 (FedEx and Ally). When a guys like Kyle Busch, MTJ and Harvick can't pull a sponsor for a whole season it says more about the costs associated with sponsoring a car than the talent behind the wheel.

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I think 1 year contracts are more a sign of the sponsorship climate than anything. Look at some of the talent in the sport that are in their last year and haven't been locked down yet. 10 years ago that would have never happened.

Also look from the sponsorship side how many full season sponsors exist anymore? I can only think of 2 (FedEx and Ally). When a guys like Kyle Busch, MTJ and Harvick can't pull a sponsor for a whole season it says more about the costs associated with sponsoring a car than the talent behind the wheel.

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I think it also has to do with the price set on a car by the owner. Rick wanted min 30 million for Junior so that took more than one corp to fund it. The same for Jeff G.
 
I wonder how the retail auto sales industry is weathering the viral storm?
 
I am in the automotive industry. Its getting rough, many repair shops were closed last week I had 10 shops closed that I service on my weekly route. Thats insane. I also have shops that are open are basically working with a skeleton crew and laying off the rest of their guys with the hopes that they will be hired back when things get better. I am not an economist and dont pretend to be, I can only relate to what field I am in but I cant imagine other bubbles not bursting because of this virus such as the auto, home and health care bubbles. I think things are going to be pretty bumpy coming up here and IF they do get better, I cant imagine things returning to normal business wise until middle of third, early fourth quarters of this year. My goals business wise are changing from being at the top of my region and being hugely profitable to just surviving and cobbling together some sort of profit. I luckily have a wife that is still working normal hours (shes at a home improvement store, assistant store manager) and we dont have kids as well as having my business paid off so we can tough it out. Others I really feel for at a time like this.
 
Good luck to you. To many people are/were living paycheck to paycheck with no vision for the future. This is going to be a real wake up for so many AND the world could end up in another worldwide recession.
Being a pessimist I am predicting that the very rich once again will end up with all the money and governments will fail but be very successfully retired.
 
I think JJ wants to do things and maybe HMS doesn't want that. Could be the reason he decided to pull the plug. Maybe, just maybe this will fire him up in a cup car given a chance.
 
If Jimmie has desire leftover after this year, he'll probably use it on Indycar or IMSA imo. The horsepower reductions/high downforce change to his driving style this past year is what really turned him off from Cup, besides the obvious fall off from winning and Lowes Chad leaving, I think that's what pushed him to announce retire. And now he gets to explore other options.
 
one more year Jimmuh

"Honestly, I feel like Mr. Hendrick doesn’t want to see me step away yet, Ally is signed up through 2023 – there are all these things that are there that I think would give me the opportunity to do it,"
 
I like Clint, but if he has another winless year it’s time to put Briscoe in the 14, and him in the Fox booth. Almirola is there as long as the check clears
 
Just thinking aloud, I'm curious to see if Newman continues to race after this season.

Chastain would be a great replacement, but if John Hunter continues with the strong finishes. I could see him move into the 6 car with Buescher in the 17. Newman is a tough SOB, I think more than likely he continues to race out his deal with Roush.

Other than that, I don't see a lot of movement happening after this year. One thing I would like to see is Brett Moffitt move to Our Motorsports, if they procure more sponsorship, on a full-time basis. I for one would not mind Moffitt to be a full-time truck driver, but at the age of 27, I'd like to see him give Xfinity a full-time go and eventually move to Cup for another shot.

Bowyer I think is out of the 14 after this season, he'd have to win about two to three races to keep his seat at this point. Briscoe would be a natural hand and fit in the 14, but I'm still concerned for Stewart-Haas after Harvick decides to hang up his helmet. The team needs to find an eventual replacement for him sooner than later IMO.

Keselowski is still in the air. Matt D has been performing well and if he continues to do so, I don't see how they move him out of the 21. Cindric will be ready for Cup, but who is he going to replace? Cindric could move to the 21 and Matt D to the 2, but its far too early to tell. Keselowski is the only guy who does not have a contract for next season out of the three primary Penske drivers atm.

Once again, just thinking aloud over some possible changes.
 
Just thinking aloud, I'm curious to see if Newman continues to race after this season.

Chastain would be a great replacement, but if John Hunter continues with the strong finishes. I could see him move into the 6 car with Buescher in the 17. Newman is a tough SOB, I think more than likely he continues to race out his deal with Roush.

Other than that, I don't see a lot of movement happening after this year. One thing I would like to see is Brett Moffitt move to Our Motorsports, if they procure more sponsorship, on a full-time basis. I for one would not mind Moffitt to be a full-time truck driver, but at the age of 27, I'd like to see him give Xfinity a full-time go and eventually move to Cup for another shot.

Bowyer I think is out of the 14 after this season, he'd have to win about two to three races to keep his seat at this point. Briscoe would be a natural hand and fit in the 14, but I'm still concerned for Stewart-Haas after Harvick decides to hang up his helmet. The team needs to find an eventual replacement for him sooner than later IMO.

Keselowski is still in the air. Matt D has been performing well and if he continues to do so, I don't see how they move him out of the 21. Cindric will be ready for Cup, but who is he going to replace? Cindric could move to the 21 and Matt D to the 2, but its far too early to tell. Keselowski is the only guy who does not have a contract for next season out of the three primary Penske drivers atm.

Once again, just thinking aloud over some possible changes.
After seeing what transpired with Larson, I didn't realize how strong an unhealthy hold the OEM's have with teams. It changes with my views of silly season. I usually didn't care that much about manufacturer lines, for instance John Hunter to the Ford 6 car it sounds like the OEM would have to ok the deal.
 
After seeing what transpired with Larson, I didn't realize how strong an unhealthy hold the OEM's have with teams.
Those are called contracts. Presumably each of the 3 now cancelled versions insist that the person receiving the money does not publicly embarrass the source of the cash.

Pretty standard stuff.
 
Those are called contracts. Presumably each of the 3 now cancelled versions insist that the person receiving the money does not publicly embarrass the source of the cash.

Pretty standard stuff.
I was talking about trades across manufacturer lines and the influence weather the OEM wants them to drive their brand or not. ;)
 
In an era of multiple primary sponsorships for each car, the manufacturer is likely as important to the team as the sponsors are, probably more so because unlike most of the sponsors, they are supporting the team EVERY week.
 
In an era of multiple primary sponsorships for each car, the manufacturer is likely as important to the team as the sponsors are, probably more so because unlike most of the sponsors, they are supporting the team EVERY week.
yeah, but it seems they are shot callers now, maybe it was always that way, but in my case when playing the silly season game, I hardly ever considered the OEM's except the Yotas as having any say who a team hires or fires.
 
Well, lets face it, the manufacturers have invested a lot of effort and money into some of these guys and they want to protect their investment. I thnk like so many things in the sport, you can probably trace it back to Jeff Gordon. Ford lost out on Gordon because they weren't fast enough to lock up Jeff into a long term deal and paid a heavy price. I don't think things have ever been quite the same since then.
 
Well, lets face it, the manufacturers have invested a lot of effort and money into some of these guys and they want to protect their investment. I thnk like so many things in the sport, you can probably trace it back to Jeff Gordon. Ford lost out on Gordon because they weren't fast enough to lock up Jeff into a long term deal and paid a heavy price. I don't think things have ever been quite the same since then.
Well it's hypothetical, but what was to stop Chevy from saying to Chip, you get rid of Larson or we pull the rug out from under your whole team. That's the kind of shot calling I was talking about. Way more influence than I gave the OEM's and I think if that is so it's unhealthy. That is one of the big problems I have with the Toyotas. They are running the show and they make it no secret with Toyota factory spokesmen speaking for Joe Gibbs racing. Eh probably just me, I like the separation of individual teams competing instead of OEM's
 
There is probably nothing to stop Chevy from doing just that. The alternative is to not take their money or use their resources. I agree with you in that I am not a big fan of that sort of thing, but you start to understand it when you see the dollars involved. I have been a VERY vocal critic of how the Toyota program is structured and I have also been a very harsh critic of the way GM has run their ALMS and now IMSA programs, but I fully understand that I might as well go yell at a brick wall because it is not going to change. One of the great attractions of the Grand Am series is that particularly in the DP category, manufacturers were ALMOST irrelevant, but everybody (especially the sports car fans) couldn't wait to kill and bury Grand Am.
 
Yeah I come from the fairy land where I thought it was the teams that made the OEM's look good, they took their stuff, worked it over, and won with it if possible. Evernham would work his magic on the 24 car, Childress would slick up the black 3, Earnie would make the bird fly for Bill. Seemed to me back then that the OEM's wern't wagging the dog like they are now.
 
I am in the automotive industry. Its getting rough, many repair shops were closed last week I had 10 shops closed that I service on my weekly route. Thats insane. I also have shops that are open are basically working with a skeleton crew and laying off the rest of their guys with the hopes that they will be hired back when things get better. I am not an economist and dont pretend to be, I can only relate to what field I am in but I cant imagine other bubbles not bursting because of this virus such as the auto, home and health care bubbles. I think things are going to be pretty bumpy coming up here and IF they do get better, I cant imagine things returning to normal business wise until middle of third, early fourth quarters of this year. My goals business wise are changing from being at the top of my region and being hugely profitable to just surviving and cobbling together some sort of profit. I luckily have a wife that is still working normal hours (shes at a home improvement store, assistant store manager) and we dont have kids as well as having my business paid off so we can tough it out. Others I really feel for at a time like this.
Do you drive a tool truck?
 
Yeah I come from the fairy land where I thought it was the teams that made the OEM's look good, they took their stuff, worked it over, and won with it if possible. Evernham would work his magic on the 24 car, Childress would slick up the black 3, Earnie would make the bird fly for Bill. Seemed to me back then that the OEM's wern't wagging the dog like they are now.

Yeah, but back in the day, the manufacturers weren't offering much more than free sheet metal and maybe some engine parts if you were one of the big dogs. If you were a front running team, they would probably let you bring your Daytona 500 car to their wind tunnel. With possible rare exceptions, it wasn't until about 1984 that Chevy and Pontiac cars even carried brand logos. I think Herb Fishel sarted doing this when he ran the Buick program in the early 80's, and I think the 11, 22, and 33 cars may have been the only ones to carry the Buick logo. I remember one of the team owners being asked why his Chevy didn't have a bowtie on the hood. The answer? "When they pay me, I'll put it on there.".
 
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