HMS needs to make some moves.

ReturnTrip

ReturnTrip

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Kahne has to go after this season, 100%. Given Earnhardt's health, you have to start looking toward the future. Jimmie is 40, him and Chad are running on fumes.

Larson and Blaney might not sell as many t-shirts, but they are the future.

HMS needs some new blood.
 
Alex Bowman would be a nice start. He likely would have had a top-10 (or maybe top-5) finish if not for the tire failure.
 
agreed on kahne there is flat out something wrong with him, either its health or mental confidence. him getting a top 10 in kinda an anomaly these days. They do have chase elliott who I don't expect to set the world on fire. but I do think he will probably end up being somewhere between clint bowyer and ryan newman in the win tally.
 
They should of done anything possible to keep BK. JRM lost some really talented drivers to TRD, including William Byron who's a future star. I don't know where they go from here, they have Custer who could be good. Blaney and Larson are names that have come up, I am not sure Hendrick wants Blaney and Chase as two young drivers, they would more likely seek out a veteran, hence just keep Kahne. Jeb Burton drove for Jr before and is a really talented driver that doesn't have a full time. I would like to see Jeb in Xfinity for a year then replace Kahne/Jr in 2018
 
Kahne was on his way to a top 10 yesterday until he got destroyed by Carl Edwards/Ryan Newman.
I think there are two things going on with him. I think the primary is that he lacks confidence and the secondary is that I think HMS likes to use his car as a test ground for when the rest of the teams get into the chase. I'm curious to know if Chase Elliot is really that good or if the 24 car team is really that good. I'm willing to bet that if Gordon were in the 24 this year he would probably have a few wins which leads me to believe that the 24 team is so good they make a rookie look amazing.

I just find it hard to believe that Chase is that much better than guys he was just racing against in the Buschfinitywide series. It's not like Chase was dominating in the lower levels of racing. The year he won the title in 2014, he only won 3 races.
I guess my point is, the 5 car team needs some work and they need to take some notes from the 24 car team.
 
This is the end-game when you chose not to have a robust driver development program. No young talent to replace multiple aging veterans. It seems to be a problem with all the chevy teams except RCR.
 
HMS set the high bar for years and now other teams are pushing the bar higher. The big teams keep finding ways to improve. I imagine NASCAR would like them to be static so they wouldn't have to figure out what they are doing and make new rules.
 
aunty dive said:
Ran up to 9 / 10 until the tire let go.

I thought he did a good job for a first attempt with people he'd never worked with before.
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I could be wrong. He was billed like a new and upcoming talent. Then I see he has already been around the block a couple of times. He is 24th in Xfinity points. I'm just not feeling it.

Nevermind. He only started 5 times in Xf. I thought he was in all year.
 
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Pat said:
I could be wrong. He was billed like a new and upcoming talent. Then I see he has already been around the block a couple of times. He is 24th in Xfinity points. I'm just not feeling it.
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Well, he's only raced less than a third of the schedule. Five Top 10s in five starts though.
 
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This has been a bit of a down year for HMS and honestly it's nothing new. I think people are calling it a down year based on one driver only having wins, but JJ has been carrying the Hendrick torch all alone for awhile now. Jr did get into VL 7 times in 2014/2015 but mainly at tracks were accustomed to see him winning at Daytona/Dega/Michigan, I think a lot were expecting a championship run for Jr this year and he hasn't reached victory lane. Plus people had high expectations for Chase in his rookie year, all in all he's having a good year. Look I said they've lost development drivers to TRD and that has to sting
 
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He did really well first time out in the 88. . He'll get a lot worse before he gets better.
 
The conversation surrounding "is Chase really that good" is an amusing one. The 24 team sucked all last year until basically the Bristol night race.
 
AdoubleU24 said:
The conversation surrounding "is Chase really that good" is an amusing one. The 24 team sucked all last year until basically the Bristol night race.
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Well the team is basically right where they were last year. With Gordon they finished with 1 win, 5 top 5s, and 21 top 10s. Currently with Chase they are 0, 6, and 11.
I actually thought they had more than 1 win last year but I guess it was just the 1 at Martinsville.

Chase seems to be doing a great job, but right now, for me it is hard to tell if it is Chase or the rest of the team. Good situation to be in if you are fan of the 24.
 
LouieLouie said:
Well the team is basically right where they were last year. With Gordon they finished with 1 win, 5 top 5s, and 21 top 10s. Currently with Chase they are 0, 6, and 11.
I actually thought they had more than 1 win last year but I guess it was just the 1 at Martinsville.

Chase seems to be doing a great job, but right now, for me it is hard to tell if it is Chase or the rest of the team. Good situation to be in if you are fan of the 24.
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That's why it's gonna be so fun watching chase and Gordon run side by side this week in equal equipment.
 
Acs said:
That's why it's gonna be so fun watching chase and Gordon run side by side this week in equal equipment.
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It's going to be weird seeing Gordon in the 88. I hope he does well. I think Jr is going to be out a couple of weeks and will probably miss the chase because of it.

If Gordon gets a win does he get in the chase via waiver? What if he wins the chase? LOL. Oh the possibilites!
 
LouieLouie said:
If Gordon gets a win does he get in the chase via waiver? What if he wins the chase? LOL. Oh the possibilites!
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One can only hope. I hope they use the newly created rule where the fill in driver gets the original drivers points along with the traditional Chase Waiver. A Brickyard Gordon win and Boom! The Drive for Five is still alive! Under this era in NASCAR, anything is possible.
 
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dpkimmel2001 said:
One can only hope. I hope they use the newly created rule where the fill in driver gets the original drivers points along with the traditional Chase Waiver. A Brickyard Gordon win and Boom! The Drive for Five is still alive! Under this era in NASCAR, anything is possible.
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Is it true he never used the word 'retire' ?
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
One can only hope. I hope they use the newly created rule where the fill in driver gets the original drivers points along with the traditional Chase Waiver. A Brickyard Gordon win and Boom! The Drive for Five is still alive! Under this era in NASCAR, anything is possible.
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How about if every past champion gets a waiver to the chase if they are running or not, it be like I think it was the shootout one year where they let any past daytona winner in so even Richard petty could of entered, or I think it was when Geoffrey Bodine showed up to a race for the first time in 10 years
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
One can only hope. I hope they use the newly created rule where the fill in driver gets the original drivers points along with the traditional Chase Waiver. A Brickyard Gordon win and Boom! The Drive for Five is still alive! Under this era in NASCAR, anything is possible.
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:D
 
Pat said:
I'm not feeling the Alex Bowman love. He spent 5 full years in Xfinity and 2 full years in Cup without showing up on my radar.

http://racing-reference.info/driver/Alex_Bowman
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It's pretty much impossible for ANY driver to show up on our radars if the best equipment they've been given is start-and-park tier. Bowman finally got a top-tier ride last week and proved he can get the job done, and that was with spending hardly any time with that team beforehand.
 
ted@economy said:
Is it true he never used the word 'retire' ?
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He say that he wanted to run some other forms of racing, so I guess you could say he retired from NASCAR, but from racing as a whole, it didnt sound like that. But its not like he is going to run full time in another series either, so who knows,
 
Nothing wrong with Kahne, Something wrong with his crew chief and team philosophy though, The guy didn't suddenly forget how to drive.
 
kk5fan said:
Nothing wrong with Kahne, Something wrong with his crew chief and team philosophy though, The guy didn't suddenly forget how to drive.
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Don't know about the crew chief , but anyone who doesn't believe that this is a team sport is crazy . Show me a champion and I'll show you incredible team spirit with great leadership.(and a great driver)
 
kk5fan said:
Nothing wrong with Kahne, Something wrong with his crew chief and team philosophy though, The guy didn't suddenly forget how to drive.
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I think its a 50/50 thing why the 5 team is not performing
 
RacerrecaR said:
It's pretty much impossible for ANY driver to show up on our radars if the best equipment they've been given is start-and-park tier. Bowman finally got a top-tier ride last week and proved he can get the job done, and that was with spending hardly any time with that team beforehand.
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How many teams have a farm system or alliances with development teams?
 
Zerkfitting said:
How many teams have a farm system or alliances with development teams?
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Those alliances really mean nothing. The cars they get are the teams old cars that are outdated.
It is really only a financial agreement. Teams get rid of the chassis that are proven to be not competitive and also get to rent engines so they can share the costs of building their own.
In exchange, those alliance teams get to race at a price they can afford and hope to win some purse money along with small sponsors help.
 
Zerkfitting said:
How many teams have a farm system or alliances with development teams?
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JGR "farm system" is doing well and FRR with Jones coming next year is basically their developmental team. JRM had Byron and Rhodes, but decided the XFINITY 88 should be shared by six drivers instead of just giving a talented up and comer the ride full time
 
The 88 car running many drivers is probably paying bigger sponsor dollars than all the other cars together. This is the only way some of those sponsors can afford to get a big name associated with them.
 
I changed my mind. Kahne has to go. He's a big giant *****. On the track and apparently for putting up with a ****** crew chief and pit crew.
 
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