SILLY SEASON 2018

Interesting rumor on Kurt Busch retiring. Seems like he's dialed it back a notch since winning the Daytona 500.

The Kenseth to SHR move makes a lot of sense.

I don't see any rumors on Alex Bowman for 2018. He seems to be stuck in purgatory with Hendrick that has no plans for him at the moment. Will they put him in the 88 or 5 or release him and let him go to another team?
 
MRM said:
Interesting rumor on Kurt Busch retiring. Seems like he's dialed it back a notch since winning the Daytona 500.

The Kenseth to SHR move makes a lot of sense.

I don't see any rumors on Alex Bowman for 2018. He seems to be stuck in purgatory with Hendrick that has no plans for him at the moment. Will they put him in the 88 or 5 or release him and let him go to another team?
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what about a Xfinity ride, Annett isn't setting the world on fire there..
 
MRM said:
Interesting rumor on Kurt Busch retiring. Seems like he's dialed it back a notch since winning the Daytona 500.

The Kenseth to SHR move makes a lot of sense.

I don't see any rumors on Alex Bowman for 2018. He seems to be stuck in purgatory with Hendrick that has no plans for him at the moment. Will they put him in the 88 or 5 or release him and let him go to another team?
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Hendrick shouldn't let Bowman rot on the vine too long. That's basically what he did with Keselowski and look how that turned out.
 
Good point. What little he did when Junior was out was pretty impressive. Hard to say and I bet hard for Hendrick. I know he had to offer Byron a good deal to get him away from where he was, but then again Byron is proving his worth and he drives like he has a head on his shoulders. I think he could or should get a tryout this year in a cup car. The rules say Hendrick can put him in a fifth car I believe for a limited time.
 
Smithfield VP of marketing who was in charge of the Nascar program resigned....so they are probably gone....
 
Team Penske said:
There is always a chance to be wrong. Team chemistry and the driver/CC being on the same page is so important that we just never know why a driver excels over another. ( Truex is the greatest example today) Why has Blaney won a race with a 1 horse team and yet Elliot hasn't? Is Blaney that much better? Are the WBS that much better? Or does Blaney and his CC have a better relationship than Chase does with his CC?
What ever your answer you will be partly right. :D
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Blaney is in a Penske car no?
 
Kurt has no plans on retiring. If he leaves SHR for any reason, it's due to $$ issues.

And if he did leave on his own, SHR isn't going to replace him with another older big $$ guy just to keep a random car on the track and stare at the same $$ problems they currently have.

C'mon people!!!
 
Allenbaba said:
Kurt has no plans on retiring. If he leaves SHR for any reason, it's due to $$ issues.

And if he did leave on his own, SHR isn't going to replace him with another older big $$ guy just to keep a random car on the track and stare at the same $$ problems they currently have.

C'mon people!!!
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Exactly. No one seems to realize Gene is the only reason Kurt is in that car to begin with.
 
Allenbaba said:
Kurt has no plans on retiring. If he leaves SHR for any reason, it's due to $$ issues.

And if he did leave on his own, SHR isn't going to replace him with another older big $$ guy just to keep a random car on the track and stare at the same $$ problems they currently have.

C'mon people!!!
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I have already learned today that the success of Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus is in large part responsible for Nascar's downturn and that the rating systems that advertisers is rely on is inaccurate and if streams of Nascar broadcasts were counted they would be millions of viewers ahead.
 
oldschoolnascardude1 said:
Exactly. No one seems to realize Gene is the only reason Kurt is in that car to begin with.
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That is exactly why I said in an earlier post that my expectation is that Kurt will be looking from the outside in beginning next year if something cannot be arranged with SHR.
 
MRM said:
But if SHR has two seats open, then another veteran driver wouldn't be a bad option.
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I think the issue is not the amount of open seats that SHR has available but the sponsorship dollars. If Gene wants to run the 41 car primarily out of his own pocket then Kurt will be the driver and the lineup will consist of Harvick, Bowyer and Busch. IDK if this is true or not but I read that SHR wanted to sever ties with Danica but I don't know if her sponsors would go away or be in play for the 14 and 41 cars. Either way SHR has a shortage of sponsors that are willing to pay what Gene is asking.
 
MRM said:
Annett is another in a long list of drivers that only has a ride because his daddy is sponsoring the deal.
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yeah but that can change, this is the first year he has been in a decent car so he can't use that as an excuse to Daddy. You never know how those things can turn out.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
I think the issue is not the amount of open seats that SHR has available but the sponsorship dollars. If Gene wants to run the 41 car primarily out of his own pocket then Kurt will be the driver and the lineup will consist of Harvick, Bowyer and Busch. IDK if this is true or not but I read that SHR wanted to sever ties with Danica but I don't know if her sponsors would go away or be in play for the 14 and 41 cars. Either way SHR has a shortage of sponsors that are willing to pay what Gene is asking.
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Haas has been funding most of the season for the 14 over the last year.

Danica's sponsors are dropping like flies. They apparently owed Nature's Bakery something as they were back on her car, saw it's supposed to be on the 14 this week. So that is a little perplexing. An aging Kenseth could attract more sponsors at this point than midpack Danica.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
I think the issue is not the amount of open seats that SHR has available but the sponsorship dollars. If Gene wants to run the 41 car primarily out of his own pocket then Kurt will be the driver and the lineup will consist of Harvick, Bowyer and Busch. IDK if this is true or not but I read that SHR wanted to sever ties with Danica but I don't know if her sponsors would go away or be in play for the 14 and 41 cars. Either way SHR has a shortage of sponsors that are willing to pay what Gene is asking.
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Kenseth would bring several sponsers with him.
 
MRM said:
Haas has been funding most of the season for the 14 over the last year.

Danica's sponsors are dropping like flies. They apparently owed Nature's Bakery something as they were back on her car, saw it's supposed to be on the 14 this week. So that is a little perplexing. An aging Kenseth could attract more sponsors at this point than midpack Danica.
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Natures Bakery owed them. They both reached a setlement, Natures Bakery agreed to sponsor 4 races, two for Danica and two for Clint Boyer.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
... If Gene wants to run the 41 car primarily out of his own pocket then ...
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MRM said:
Haas has been funding most of the season for the 14 over the last year.
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Ladies ... Mr. Haas is not spending personal tax-paid dollars to fund the operations of the 41 team.

In fact, the opposite is true. Haas Automation annual revenues exceed $1 Billion. As is the case with other private and public billion dollar businesses, costs associated with its sponsorship of the SHR race team(s) are expensed for tax purposes.
 
This is why I tend to believe haas when he says he would run four cars next year. it's not like this is coming out of his personal expenses. After all Haas Automation is just like any other sponsor, irrelevant of who the owner of the team is. I'm sure if you look at the amount of money that the manufacturers and companies like Lowe's, Mars, FedEx, Etc. pour into the sport it's not that much different.
 
Honestly though Rick Hendrick is in a pretty tough situation he's recently gone after Big Money free agents with big sponsorship dollars. With the exception of Chase Elliott but the truth is Napa already was in love with him and his dad is a Hall of Fame champion so kind of the exception to the rule. But to keep these sponsors and to attract new ones big money ones that is he would have to make a big free agent signing. somebody who already has been successful so it's kind of a catch-22.
 
ahhculdee said:
Kenseth would bring several sponsers with him.
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I doubt that to be true. Matt Kenseth has had sponsor problems since his Roush days. The 20 car was fully sponsored when he got the ride but isn't true today. JGR just got another smaller sponsor for the car.
 
Team Penske said:
I doubt that to be true. Matt Kenseth has had sponsor problems since his Roush days. The 20 car was fully sponsored when he got the ride but isn't true today. JGR just got another smaller sponsor for the car.
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I was just speculating.
 
Allenbaba said:
I doubt it at this point, but not confirmed. It was not planned to be a one & done, but there's not enough funding to keep it going for a season for the sake of keeping it going. In other words, Kenseth for a season or two isn't worth Barney's & TRD's millions in support. I suspect it could return in a year or two (or three) if Christopher Bell (or some other TRD kid) is ready to jump in long term. I've heard Barney would keep all the employees on the payroll as a kind gesture since he promised them two seasons. Also allows time to plan a return.
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5-Hour don't plan on picking up their option? That would suck because they wouldn't be able to come back later on unless Monster also fail to pick up their option...
 
I'd say Kenseth's major weakness is sponsorship. He has a strong relationship with Dewalt, but they may still have another season inked with JGR .. not sure. Matt has had some bad luck sponsor wise .. he had a good think with Dollar General, but when their nascar fan CEO retired the new CEO decided to spend the dollars elsewhere. Back with Rousch Matt had a few years with Crown Royal, but they pulled out when Nascar began to struggle in attracting top sponsorship.
 
NBC packed a lot into this rundown: http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2017/07/11/a-silly-season-scorecard-for-2018/

I have to imagine that Ford will throw some more support behind the BKR Truck team if that's what the holdup is really about. Otherwise, that would be an insanely cheap reason to let a star driver walk...

However, it's good to hear that Miller is expected to stick around and really likes Blaney.
 
FLRacingFan said:
NBC packed a lot into this rundown: http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2017/07/11/a-silly-season-scorecard-for-2018/

I have to imagine that Ford will throw some more support behind the BKR Truck team if that's what the holdup is really about. Otherwise, that would be an insanely cheap reason to let a star driver walk...

However, it's good to hear that Miller is expected to stick around and really likes Blaney.
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That's interesting with Miller and Blaney part, could they move over to the 12 with him? Where would that leave Brad? IMO, Blaney would kill it as a Miller guy. Such a perfect fit like Jr was with Bud back in the day
 
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