Silly Season 2023

Yeah, I've heard from friends on at least 3 different teams that they've recently (within the last 4-6 months or so) had real conversations with TRD. These teams are definitely not back markers (and one or two of them might really surprise you, Certainly one surprised me). Does that mean they'll switch if given the offer? No. Nor does it mean that TRD would even make an offer. But TRD is definitely out there kicking tires, and certainly not just going to take a team for the sake of more cars. These teams win races.

If I'm TRD, (and Wilson would never say this publicly), I would definitely be a little nervous about JGR. With Coy's passing and Joe's age, who knows what the future looks like. That's not to say JGR is in trouble...it's also possible Gibbs passes the torch to someone who makes them even better. But as a business, I have to imagine TRD wouldn't mind having a fallback in place. Best case scenario, they have 8-10 competive cars on track. Worst case, JGR starts to fade and they have 4-6 competitive cars (as is normally the case). It just seems like a smart business hedge.
 
Kiante said:
Herbst will be making his Cup debut in the RWR 15 entry at the Daytona 500:
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I guess there was some rumors that Zane would be in this car, but last night on the late shift he said they'd be in an open car. I thought Cole would be in the 15 but I guess not

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My guess is that is Ford pushing Smith and probably giving FRM extra support.
 
My guess is that is Ford pushing Smith and probably giving FRM extra support.
 
wi_racefan said:
My guess is they didn't have the sponsorship to run him in all 36 and Zane was able to produce it. Running a 3rd car makes zero business sense if you don't have sponsorship for 2

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Eeee yep. Jus bidness.
 
Boot Barn side stepped and is sponsoring only Zane.

That's a mess in a half. Maybe Todd can snatch a race from RWR or something of the sorts to fill those gaps.
 
Zane has a full boat ride for his cup racing. All primaries.

As the cornerstone partner for Smith’s previously announced NASCAR Cup Series program, Centene will serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 38 Ford Mustang, one of the team’s chartered entries, at Phoenix (Wellcare), Talladega (Wellcare), Sonoma (Wellcare), Texas (Ambetter Health), and Charlotte’s ROVAL (Ambetter Health).
 
wi_racefan said:
My guess is they didn't have the sponsorship to run him in all 36 and Zane was able to produce it. Running a 3rd car makes zero business sense if you don't have sponsorship for 2

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Teams fill out sponsorship inventory throughout the season too so I think it’d be strange if a guy got booted for having exactly 31 races worth of sponsorship before the season started. Just seems too weird to me. He already has the balance of the calendar full so a few races on a week-to-week basis isn’t much to fill out.

Perhaps they evaluated running Zane in a third car for six or seven races and found that was too events many to effectively be losing money without a charter. The one race they’re taking three cars to obviously has a massive purse and they can probably still break even on the open car.
 
Allenbaba said:
Yeah, I've heard from friends on at least 3 different teams that they've recently (within the last 4-6 months or so) had real conversations with TRD. These teams are definitely not back markers (and one or two of them might really surprise you, Certainly one surprised me). Does that mean they'll switch if given the offer? No. Nor does it mean that TRD would even make an offer. But TRD is definitely out there kicking tires, and certainly not just going to take a team for the sake of more cars. These teams win races.

If I'm TRD, (and Wilson would never say this publicly), I would definitely be a little nervous about JGR. With Coy's passing and Joe's age, who knows what the future looks like. That's not to say JGR is in trouble...it's also possible Gibbs passes the torch to someone who makes them even better. But as a business, I have to imagine TRD wouldn't mind having a fallback in place. Best case scenario, they have 8-10 competive cars on track. Worst case, JGR starts to fade and they have 4-6 competitive cars (as is normally the case). It just seems like a smart business hedge.
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I certainly don't expect you to confirm this, but I'd guess the one that really surprised you was RFK.

They've been third-stringers in the Ford camp for years now. The Roush-Yates engine shop, from my understanding, has always been more "Yates" than "Roush" (not to mention I don't think some people realize that they build more than just Ford engines), so perhaps that gets re-named to just Yates Engines and then RFK starts leasing TRD power. In turn, they become an equal priority as JGR for Toyota, moving them up the ladder. It's that or they languish behind Penske and SHR forever, and with Brad's influence, I'd bet he's willing to take that big of a swing to get the organization back on track.


Just my two cents. I could be completely wrong. I used to think that RCR would be the legacy team to switch, but with the Hendrick-ECR collaboration over the past couple years now I doubt it will happen.
 
StandOnIt said:
And Keselowski drove for Penske for years...Ford, The truck team he owned...Ford..the Cup team he owns...Ford. I just don't see that organization changing brands myself.
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The thing is at best RFK is the 3rd Ford team. A switch in manufacturer wouldn't kill them

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wi_racefan said:
The thing is at best RFK is the 3rd Ford team. A switch in manufacturer wouldn't kill them

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It's not like snapping your fingers. Sorry I don't believe this 3rd, 2nd 1st stuff that some seem to believe in. Unless you are talking affiliates. In their case with the new car, the affiliates with the exception of engine suppliers have pretty much the same parts and pieces of the rest of them.
 
StandOnIt said:
And Keselowski drove for Penske for years...Ford, The truck team he owned...Ford..the Cup team he owns...Ford. I just don't see that organization changing brands myself.
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He drove a Chevy and a won a Cup championship in a Dodge before he drove a Ford. It's not like he chose to be a Ford driver. That's just who Penske happened to make a deal with, what Roush happened to already have going.

His truck team, he obviously couldn't field Chevys or Toyotas when he was a Ford Cup driver.
 
Anybody that thinks Gilliland is a step up from KBM in the trucks is hitting the yota dust pretty hard and at the same time a 4 truck yota team goes with Ford. One side will say ain't no problems around here ma, do ya have any more wool to cover my eyes with?
Now it's hey, anybody out there have a team willing to join in with us?....HELLOOOO..anybody out there lol.
 
StandOnIt said:
Anybody that thinks Gilliland is a step up from KBM in the trucks is hitting the yota dust pretty hard and at the same time a 4 truck yota team goes with Ford. One side will say ain't no problems around here ma, do ya have any more wool to cover my eyes with?
Now it's hey, anybody out there have a team willing to join in with us?....HELLOOOO..anybody out there lol.
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I agree. Toyota is in big, big trouble. Expecting a pull out announcement any day now.
 
cheesepuffs said:
I certainly don't expect you to confirm this, but I'd guess the one that really surprised you was RFK.

They've been third-stringers in the Ford camp for years now. The Roush-Yates engine shop, from my understanding, has always been more "Yates" than "Roush" (not to mention I don't think some people realize that they build more than just Ford engines), so perhaps that gets re-named to just Yates Engines and then RFK starts leasing TRD power. In turn, they become an equal priority as JGR for Toyota, moving them up the ladder. It's that or they languish behind Penske and SHR forever, and with Brad's influence, I'd bet he's willing to take that big of a swing to get the organization back on track.


Just my two cents. I could be completely wrong. I used to think that RCR would be the legacy team to switch, but with the Hendrick-ECR collaboration over the past couple years now I doubt it will happen.
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I would kill to get Kez in a Toyota. Love the guy.
 
Allenbaba said:
Yeah, I've heard from friends on at least 3 different teams that they've recently (within the last 4-6 months or so) had real conversations with TRD. These teams are definitely not back markers (and one or two of them might really surprise you, Certainly one surprised me). Does that mean they'll switch if given the offer? No. Nor does it mean that TRD would even make an offer. But TRD is definitely out there kicking tires, and certainly not just going to take a team for the sake of more cars. These teams win races.

If I'm TRD, (and Wilson would never say this publicly), I would definitely be a little nervous about JGR. With Coy's passing and Joe's age, who knows what the future looks like. That's not to say JGR is in trouble...it's also possible Gibbs passes the torch to someone who makes them even better. But as a business, I have to imagine TRD wouldn't mind having a fallback in place. Best case scenario, they have 8-10 competive cars on track. Worst case, JGR starts to fade and they have 4-6 competitive cars (as is normally the case). It just seems like a smart business hedge.
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Plot twist. RCR to Toyota. How fun would that be?!
 
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