UPDATE: Phil Parsons didn't take it personally or consider it a message to start-and-park teams when NASCAR impounded the #66 driven by Dave Blaney following Sunday's Sprint Cup race at Auto Club Speedway. He took it as a compliment. Had Blaney not qualified fifth, led three laps and run in the top 10 for a while before parking 43 laps into the 250-lap event, Parsons doesn't believe the car would have been a random selection for a full teardown. "If I am them and they are me and they qualified fifth, I may want a little extra look at that car,'' said Parsons, the owner of Prism Motorsports that fields the #66 and #55 of Michael McDowell. "We're fairly new and haven't been around that much. There aren't many relatively new teams that are able to do stuff like that. We may be a victim of our own success.'' Some might question success. Both Prism cars parked early Sunday, saving the engines and other parts for this week's race at Las Vegas. Like it or not, that's the business model some owners have to follow until the economy lightens its grip around the sport. Parsons understands it could gives owners like him a bad name. He also understands that he's doing everything he can to stay in the sport. "We try to race when we have money to race,'' said Parsons, who formed an alliance just before the season to get cars from Michael Waltrip Racing. "We raced Daytona the week before and [McDowell] broke a drive shaft with five laps to go. We're out there in the market place. It's just been very difficult to raise money.'' Bottom line, when the cars are sponsored Parsons will race them. When they are not he'll likely park them unless he's made enough money from days like Sunday to take a chance. "The economics of the thing, the additional cost for an engine, to use the engine for all 500 miles and the amount of tires that it takes to run the rest of the race ... it could be astronomical,'' Parsons said. "We're all racers. I know how hard it is for Dave. But we also want to race next week. We have to try to be smart and do what we can with what we have. I'm trying to build this thing. Hopefully, deals like Dave Blaney qualifying fifth opens some eyes.'' There are some who believe Parsons is throwing the whole start-and-park philosophy in NASCAR's face by doing it with two cars, and that NASCAR tossed it back by impounding the 66. That means Blaney, who only had two cars to start with, will have to qualify his backup at Las Vegas unless NASCAR is able to complete its inspection in Vegas in time. That likely won't happen. What makes this difficult on the 66 team is the backup won't be nearly as equal to the primary as might be the case on large, well-established teams.(in part from ESPN)(2-22-2010)
