Lawsuit shows anatomy of Farmers deal with Hendrick Motorsports

Beware the 20/20 hindsight. Nearly every one thought Kasey was a slam dunk hire, and it certainly started out OK. Obviously the thing went south later on, but nobody had any reason at the time to think Farmer's sponsorship investment was a bad one. Remember how popular his previous insurance promotion was? As for replacing Kyle with Jr, everybody who was paying attention knew that Kyle had a ton of upside potential, but it had yet to be fully realized, while Jr. was a a more established star and was a lot more sponsor friendly. I also think there is a personal link there between Rick and Jr. that goes far beyond business AND don't forget that Dale and Kelley allowed Rick to phase out his lackluster driver development program. Firing Kyle didn't seem nearly so crazy at the time.
 
kyle had only won 4 races at HMS when he left. I think everyone knew he had an upside but I don't think people knew it would be quite what it is. Dale jr, also had an upside. he won 6 races in 2004 and should have won the title that year. he had wins in 05 and 06, 07 was a transition year where HMS won half the races and they ran the COT for half the season that year. Dale jr was also on his way out. It was easy to think dale jr could rack up some wins in 08 with HMS cars. There is always something to be said for a guy who is the top driver for a team. DEI had lots of funding and dale jr was the main driver there. He had a good fit there in that situation. although he didn't know it at the time. I can think of 6 or 7 races junior should have won over the years. half a lap a way from winning vegas and darlington, and well charlotte for that matter. The latter 2 tracks I know he would have REALLY loved to win at. there are others to. realistically he should be around 35 wins. which would put him in a different catagory as a driver and would silence the naysayers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pat
ChexOrWrex said:
Yeah and Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 as a rookie.
Click to expand...

I dont think winning the Daytona 500 is the equivalent of finishing P4 in points with multiple wins.
It is the Daytona 500 for sure, but still one day, one win. Running good all year is just more impressive too me.

The problem I see with Kahne (Baynne too) is that they didnt improve upon or build on that sucess.
 
jws926 said:
Which leads me to believe that HMS was not giving the 5 team everything they needed to be competitive, or something was really off with that team.
Click to expand...
The driver was off.

It's still amazing how a few guys magically win a big race when their back is against the wall... but then immedianlty drop right back off the radar... if an owner had a few guys like kahne McMurray Newman on week to week deals, I'd be the first and say they'd probably run for wins almost weekly. These guys are great drivers, but not quite the same competitors that your Kyle Busch, harvick, Larson, Johnson are...
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Mr. H would never have hired him if his last name wasnt Earnhardt.
Click to expand...
Name had nothing to do with it. 30 million in sponsor money is why Junior is there. Same reason for retirement, no one was close in sponsor dollars. KK would still be in the 5 and probably got an extension IF HE HAD BEEN ABLE to keep his sponsors. With Mr. H it is all about the money.
 
Team Penske said:
Name had nothing to do with it. 30 million in sponsor money is why Junior is there. Same reason for retirement, no one was close in sponsor dollars. KK would still be in the 5 and probably got an extension IF HE HAD BEEN ABLE to keep his sponsors. With Mr. H it is all about the money.
Click to expand...

I think that is an over-simplification. Money IS important to HMS, just like every other team, but Rick Hendrick does this because he wants to WIN, and he doesn't dump Kyle for Jr. without expecting a reasonable amount of on track success. I think the Kasey Kahne era had run it's course at HMS whether he had sponsors lined up or not. Rick is already paying Kasey for next year. If he was THAT worried about the money he would have left him in the car. Kahne is out because he wasn't performing. The loss of sponsors just made the decision that much easier.
 
At this point it would be good to know the range of payments sponsors make to teams in order to be primary? Paging @Allenbaba
 
Formerjackman said:
The wrecks in back to back races at Martinsville and Atlanta did him in, even though he bounced back at Phoenix with a win. That Atlanta hit was VICIOUS.
Click to expand...
I was there. It was every bit as bad as you say. He lost the Championship in that one race.
 
jws926 said:
Which leads me to believe that HMS was not giving the 5 team everything they needed to be competitive, or something was really off with that team.
Click to expand...

Why would Hendrick deliberately sabotage one of his own teams?
 
Would an owner prefer that 4 of his drivers each win 9 races per year, 2 drivers win 18 races or 1 driver win 36?

Anyone?
 
KyBuownsyourbrain said:
Would an owner prefer that 4 of his drivers each win 9 races per year, 2 drivers win 18 races or 1 driver win 36?

Anyone?
Click to expand...

Well, I would want four that win 9, so I could tell the drivers, the crews, the fans, the media, and the sponsors that my organization was the best top to bottom, and everybody is getting the same good stuff. The ultimate goal is have all four drivers at Homestead be YOUR cars, so you can' t lose the title no matter what. Having one or two cars excel and the rest struggle creates a lot of crap for a team owner to deal with that he would rather not have to.
 
Allenbaba said:
Hope that helps!!!
Click to expand...

nope.gif
 
I think the problem with the 5 car is the driver himself. I think he is a short race driver and can't operate for long periods with complete focus. The first time a driver makes a false report to his CC just to put the blame for where he is running on the car, the CC is lost in that he is trying to fix something not broke. Just saying.
 
Team Penske said:
I think the problem with the 5 car is the driver himself. I think he is a short race driver and can't operate for long periods with complete focus. The first time a driver makes a false report to his CC just to put the blame for where he is running on the car, the CC is lost in that he is trying to fix something not broke. Just saying.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's why he has won 3 Coke 600s right
 
lisa said:
He is very pretty.
Click to expand...

He's a blow-dried pretty boy. They're as awful as emos, for about the same reasons.

ChexOrWrex said:
Yeah and Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 as a rookie.
Click to expand...

Trevor Bayne never GOT to be a rookie. He was ineligible for four seasons and then got screwed out of his rookie of the year trophy by a stupid technicality.

2 Sweet said:
I really hoped Mears would work out, but it just didn't happen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was kind of a bummer, especially since, once he and Germain got hooked up, the two of them actually built that up into an okay second-tier program, only for Casey to get the boot again because Richard Childress wanted Ty "The Runt" Dillon in a Cup car but couldn't get anyone to write a check for another fourth RCR team.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom