kurt making the chase=RCR alliance boom??

[hidesert cowboy]

just noticed that RCR has signed on JTG, germain, and of course furniture row is staying on. I have to think kurt making the chase showed all these teams that forming an alliance with RCR will mean the equipment is at least good enough to make the chase. This has to make RCR an even more stable organization. The middle of last season looked bleak for RCR. harvick was leaving, burton was too old to do anything. Bud was of course gone along with all of harvicks sponsors. some were asking what is RCR going to do next year, will they even exist. The organization has really strengthened itself with the unusual alliance with the 78 car. Providing all these parts for other teams has to really help with R&D. germain, and furntiure row are going to get cars and engines. not sure if the JTG deal includes cars or not. I don't think there is another team that is providing both cars and motors for 3 different other organizations. this says something about RCR. makes you wonder what the deal is with the 1 and 42 car getting engines from hendrick but still owning half of ECR engines.

 

[StandOnIt]

probably cheaper to lease engines than Hendrick's price. They have good H.P. and reliability. Need a driver though. I think the spotlight is going to be on Truex out of all the alliance teams and Kurt also if he is not running up front very much. I can't wait for the season to start, so many different scenario's this year.

 

[ToyYoda]

Aligning with RCR should help these teams, but I think Kurt Busch himself had a lot to do with the 78 team making the Chase last year. It's all good and fine that Germain aligned with RCR, but Casey Mears is no Kurt Busch. I doubt Truex or Allmendinger make the Chase either, but may be a threat to win somewhere along the line.

 

[3wideinturn1]

just noticed that RCR has signed on JTG, germain, and of course furniture row is staying on. I have to think kurt making the chase showed all these teams that forming an alliance with RCR will mean the equipment is at least good enough to make the chase. This has to make RCR an even more stable organization. The middle of last season looked bleak for RCR. harvick was leaving, burton was too old to do anything. Bud was of course gone along with all of harvicks sponsors. some were asking what is RCR going to do next year, will they even exist. The organization has really strengthened itself with the unusual alliance with the 78 car. Providing all these parts for other teams has to really help with R&D. germain, and furntiure row are going to get cars and engines. not sure if the JTG deal includes cars or not. I don't think there is another team that is providing both cars and motors for 3 different other organizations. this says something about RCR. makes you wonder what the deal is with the 1 and 42 car getting engines from hendrick but still owning half of ECR engines.

RCR has certainly strengthened their position financially by being a provider of engines and chassis' to some of the smaller teams. Also it does help them a lot on the R&D side of things with more data coming in and more input from other teams. It's a good model for them to remain competitive even though they may have dropped down the pecking order with Chevy. However at the end of the day the most important piece of any race team is the driver IMO. Seems as though RCR hasn't been as concerned about securing the best possible drivers but rather grooming the grand kids and keeping the seats warm for them in the meantime. They did well to bring in Newman but from what I understand that was more of a Chevy decision than anything else.

As far as EGR goes, I believe they no longer have any financial stake in the ECR engine program and just recently it was announced they were dropping the Earnhardt from the team name altogether. They are now just called Chip Gannasi Racing with Felix Sabates. I think Chip had changed just about everything else and looked at the engine program as an area they could upgrade, after all HMS power is pretty much undisputed top of the food chain.