NAPA Leaves MWR

Because NAPA didn't jump ship the first time MWR got a little egg on their face makes me wonder if NAPA jumped ship this time because of a little egg on their face, or because they don't get to run for the championship, or were they already looking for a way out and this fell in to their lap. If they take their money and run then I suspect they were already looking for a clean way out.
 
gordonite said:
I wonder if MWR had released Ty Norris after the Richmond incident, NAPA would have stayed put.
If MW really didn't know anything about the Richmond trick, perhaps that would have been the thing to do.

In hindsight, MWR should have at least taken some kind of disciplinary action against Ty to try to defuse any potential sponsorship troubles.
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I don't know. I have a feeling outside of the avid NASCAR fans noggin, Ty Norris is not a blip on the radar. At the same time though everyone knows NAPA.
 
FenderBumper said:
NAPA signed a multi-year extension in 2012, so I doubt it's a publicity ploy. Since NAPA hammered MWR on the way out, it puts 5 hour and Aarons in the bad position of telling everyone they aren't as honorable as NAPA.

It's sad that the one innocent guy in all this pays the highest price, but I doubt any teams will take the risk again. Could Truex be the new Furn row driver, or would NAPA sponsor him with another team? Who is sponsoring Kurt Busch?

What a cluster this turned out to be.
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Wow Mikey really messed up this time, just when that team was making a name for itself with good drivers, winning races, and being very competitive. I'm really disappointed in this turn of events!
 
wow this is terrible. I was deeply worried about this very thing happening. so last week I actually sent emails to napa, 5 hour and aarons telling them to CONTINUE sponsoring MWR. I am not a really a fan of MWR or its stable of drivers however I have deep respect for how they have managed to build their company from the ground up. I am also a fan of the sport. I really hate to see it and as some others have mentioned I think less of napa now than before. Truly a terrible blow to a great company. mistakes are made, I doubt if a other organization was faced with the same situation if they were on top of things they would have done the same thing.
 
hidesert cowboy said:
wow this is terrible. I was deeply worried about this very thing happening. so last week I actually sent emails to napa, 5 hour and aarons telling them to CONTINUE sponsoring MWR. I am not a really a fan of MWR or its stable of drivers however I have deep respect for how they have managed to build their company from the ground up. I am also a fan of the sport. I really hate to see it and as some others have mentioned I think less of napa now than before. Truly a terrible blow to a great company. mistakes are made, I doubt if a other organization was faced with the same situation if they were on top of things they would have done the same thing.
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Agreed....I see MWR folding up if more sponsors leave, no other sponsor is going to want to touch them.
 
Nascar and MWR handled this PR crisis horribly. Nascar was always one step behind the news cycle -- especially when they hammered MWR before checking the other car's audio to find the Logano-Penske shenanigans before the media did. Stupid.

And Bowyer's ESPN non-denial apology tour made everybody look like guilty cheating idiots. Bowyer's winking, guilty non-denials at ESPN were so, so bad. That really poured a lot of gas on the fire.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I don't know. I have a feeling outside of the avid NASCAR fans noggin, Ty Norris is not a blip on the radar. At the same time though everyone knows NAPA.
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In hindsight, MW should have sat Ty down and told him that he has to suspend him for the rest of the year, and release a statement to that affect saying MWR does not approve of what occurred at Richmond bla bla bla, in an effort to defuse the situation.
I think it would have been better than taking no action at all. Even if MW knew what was happening at Richmond and approved, I'm sure Ty would have understood. Especially if it included a massive bonus to help Ty in the understanding process.
 
StoneTown said:
Nascar and MWR handled this PR crisis horribly. Nascar was always one step behind the news cycle -- especially when they hammered MWR before checking the other car's audio to find the Logano-Penske shenanigans before the media did. Stupid.

And Bowyer's ESPN non-denial apology tour made everybody look like guilty cheating idiots. Bowyer's winking, guilty non-denials at ESPN were so, so bad. That really poured a lot of gas on the fire.
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Yep and Bowyer is no saint in this, what a cluster, and another black eye for Cup!
 
Nascar had survived many worse cheating scandals in the past by just hunkering down and ignoring the media. Nascar caved to the braying hounds this time and paid the price.

If MWR is severely hurt by this then Nascar won't inflict similar punishments in the future. Nascar is not going to make a habit of putting it's own race teams out of business. If Nascar hadn't so publicly labelled MWR a cheater, then NAPA wouldn't have had this excuse.
 
StoneTown said:
If MWR is severely hurt by this then Nascar won't inflict similar punishments in the future. Nascar is not going to make a habit of putting it's own race teams out of business. If Nascar hadn't so publicly labelled MWR a cheater, then NAPA wouldn't have had this excuse.
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nascar has and will continue to drop the hammer on teams that stray outside the rules. I don't agree that this will deter nascar from taking similar action in the future.
 
It's hard for me to believe how some on here continue to place the blame of all of this on Nascar, Gordon, Newman or anybody but where it belongs which in my opinion is square on the shoulders of Michael Waltrip and Clint Bowyer, the two that were obviously involved in the planning and execution of this fiasco. Remember, This Is My "Opinion".
 
StoneTown said:
Nascar had survived many worse cheating scandals in the past by just hunkering down and ignoring the media. Nascar caved to the braying hounds this time and paid the price.

If MWR is severely hurt by this then Nascar won't inflict similar punishments in the future. Nascar is not going to make a habit of putting it's own race teams out of business. If Nascar hadn't so publicly labelled MWR a cheater, then NAPA wouldn't have had this excuse.
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Oh come on do you really believe what you just wrote? Nascar had to do something, it was painfully obvious from the radio chatter that millions of people heard what was going on. Nascar had no choice but to act. I think this has to be the biggest scandal yet just because it is front and center in the information, social media age. Everyone knows the instant it happens, big difference from 35 years ago, huge difference! Ratings will suffer, sponsors will leave, and teams and drivers will pay the price for awhile. I don't think this one will be swept under the rug and blow over very soon.
 
The sponsors may be the ultimate police in the matter before its all over with. I am sick and tired over the years of nascar slapping teams on the wrist. What MWR did was severe. If they all pull the plug and he goes out of business I dont care. Let it happen. Everybody can be replaced. Nobody is too big or important. That goes for sponsors too. Let the free market sort it out because nascar is not going to do it.
 
gordonite said:
nascar has and will continue to drop the hammer on teams that stray outside the rules. I don't agree that this will deter nascar from taking similar action in the future.
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It will if MWR has to fold up shop. Notice that Nascar hasn't publicly accused Roger Penske of being a cheat. Probably cause Penske told them if they did then he'd take his billion dollars and go home. What Penske did in Richmond was worse than what MWR did. Bribing another team to slow down is worse than spinning out to help a teammate

Nascar needs sponsors. Nascar also needs race teams and team owners.

If Nascar knew NAPA would pull out last week, they never would have brought the hammer down in such a high-profile way. Quiet announcements of point deductions and fines. Nascar ran multiple high profile press conference calling MWR cheaters with France and Helton slamming MWR in the most public way possible.

Nascar didn't expect this to happen.
 
I can't really say that I'm surprised by this. I'm also expecting Truex and/or Bowyer to try to get out of their contracts with MWR as well, though I think Truex has a better chance than does Bowyer.

What I can't get over is people like Jenna Fryer blasting NAPA for this decision. They obviously don't want to be associated with such blatant cheaters. I'd do the same thing if I owned the company.
 
StoneTown said:
Nascar had survived many worse cheating scandals in the past by just hunkering down and ignoring the media. Nascar caved to the braying hounds this time and paid the price.

If MWR is severely hurt by this then Nascar won't inflict similar punishments in the future. Nascar is not going to make a habit of putting it's own race teams out of business. If Nascar hadn't so publicly labelled MWR a cheater, then NAPA wouldn't have had this excuse.
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Everyone whose head wasn't planted firmly in a dark place already knew before Nascar first responded to this mess who the cheating perpetrators were. In My Opinion did they handle it right? No, they should have come down harder with 80 point penalties to MWR and his teams all around and it would of evened things back out. Would it have changed the backlash and fallout? Don't know don't care fair is fair.
 
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MRM said:
I can't really say that I'm surprised by this. I'm also expecting Truex and/or Bowyer to try to get out of their contracts with MWR as well, though I think Truex has a better chance than does Bowyer.

What I can't get over is people like Jenna Fryer blasting NAPA for this decision. They obviously don't want to be associated with such blatant cheaters. I'd do the same thing if I owned the company.
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I would think Bowyer is far more marketable than Truex.

Every time Jenna Fryer opens her mouth, I grab a roll of toilet paper.
 
I know that it is the sponsors money and they can do what they want with it, and they will always do what benefits them the most, but, what a lot of fans don't realize is that these sponsors don't just hand out free cash to a team and and say go have a good time racing your cars. They make these teams jump through hoops to get that check and they expect them to win at all cost, or you had better have a really good excuse on Monday morning as to why you didn't win. I wish every fan could sit through a board meeting with a sponsor just one time after a not so productive weekend....I think you might come away with a different view of them. After any kind of a scandal the first thing a lot of sponsors will do is look at the bachlash from fans and see if they need to do any damage contol to keep egg off their face. Sponsors always use the word integrity, and I would have felt Napa had showed more integrity if they would have stood behind MWR instead of jumping ship and running.
 
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StoneTown said:
It will if MWR has to fold up shop....
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No, it won't.
nascar has done it many times in the past. And no doubt will do it many times in the future.

If anything it's a wake up call for teams that they better damn sure keep their nose clean in the future or they could find themselves where MWR is right now.
 
Smoke14 said:
I would think Bowyer is far more marketable than Truex.

Every time Jenna Fryer opens her mouth, I grab a roll of toilet paper.
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I dont. He lied like a rug on national tv and EVERYBODY in the country knows he lied. Says a lot about his integrity imo. Truex is the innocent victim or sorts in all of this mess. Vickers is lucky to have a job of any kind in racing and knows it. Boyer is not real marketable right now but Truex could score another ride. I would be looking if I were him.
 
StoneTown said:
Nascar had survived many worse cheating scandals in the past by just hunkering down and ignoring the media. Nascar caved to the braying hounds this time and paid the price.
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They key difference here is that people and NASCAR are treating the Richmond thing as if it were more serious than all the illegal car parts cheating that we've seen in NASCAR since its inception. I, for one, don't think that this whole "race manipulation" is any worse than all the illegal track bars or connecting rods that we've seen in NASCAR before. Why people are so outraged over this continues to escape me.
 
I like Jenna. She's one of the better NASCAR beat reporters. Jim Utter is the worst with all his faux outrage over everything. "NASCAR is sending the trucks to Eldora, a track without SAFER barriers. rage rage rage rage rage."
 
@nascarcasm
The long road to redemption begins here.

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KevinWI said:
They key difference here is that people and NASCAR are treating the Richmond thing as if it were more serious than all the illegal car parts cheating that we've seen in NASCAR since its inception. I, for one, don't think that this whole "race manipulation" is any worse than all the illegal track bars or connecting rods that we've seen in NASCAR before. Why people are so outraged over this continues to escape me.
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MWR went so far it turned into a circus. Spin to get Truex in. Didn't work. Pit Bowyer again and go slow. Not enough. Pit Vickers and tell him to go even slower.

He's in! Dear Lord, Truex made it!
 
FenderBumper said:
MWR went so far it turned into a circus. Spin to get Truex in. Didn't work. Pit Bowyer again and go slow. Not enough. Pit Vickers and tell him to go even slower.

He's in! Dear Lord, Truex made it!
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Yeah, and when you have an organization where:

1 car is locked into the Chase
1 car can't make the Chase
1 car is on the bubble of making the Chase

What is the maximum best outcome for the organization? There's no point in the first two cars trying to race for the win other than prize money and their own vanity by stacking up wins in the record book. Maybe I'm tainted by years of watching F1 and IndyCars where this kind of gamesmanship is regular, but I don't see the purpose in expecting Bowyer and Vickers to race to win. Obviously, NASCAR does, hence the bizarre "100% rule". Other than the intentional caution causing (which is a safety issue), I don't see any grand super-terrible race manipulation conspiracy. 43 cars every week are trying to manipulate the results of the race.

In the past two weeks, I've brought up the comparison to drivers blocking for a teammate, or the example of Gordon staying out to keep Edwards from leading a lap in 2011. In principal, how is that different than what happened at Richmond? This is big boy racing, a lot of money is on the line. So, I don't have any problem with teammates pulling shenanigans for other teammates.
 
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