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NASCAR's 'Silly Season' Now At Full Throttle
By HOLLY CAIN Tribune correspondent
Published: Aug 17, 2005
It's not as if we didn't see this coming.
The high-profile, early-up contract signings announced in recent weeks by reigning NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch and up-and-comer Jamie McMurray weren't a surprising progression in the sign-'em-up now mentality that pervades the sport.
Teenage go-kart drivers and young sprint car racers are being scouted by car manufacturers eager to pluck them up before anyone else finds out about them.
Much of the brightest next-generation talent is already under contract with some team's "driver development" program or on a "personal services" contract with a car make.
If teams are willing to commit to go-karters still in puberty, then why wouldn't a proven competitor's talent be secured -- even if that occurs long before he's fulfilled his current contract?
Busch has signed on to drive for Penske Racing in 2007 and will be leaving the only NASCAR team he's ever driven for, Roush Racing. McMurray signed a similar deal, ironically to drive for Roush Racing in 2007. He'll be leaving Chip Ganassi.
Both are going to take over cars driven by popular drivers retiring at the end of the year. Busch will replace Rusty Wallace in the No. 2 Dodge. McMurray will replace Mark Martin in the No. 6 Viagra Ford.
Essentially labeling yourself a lame duck for a full season and a half may not seem like the smartest move now, but Busch and McMurray are counting on it to pay off in the future.
The next 18 months will show if it's better to be up front and tell your team that you're abandoning ship or if there is a better way to handle it.
A pit crew wants to win each race just as much as the driver, but will they still be as inclined to put in those late-late nights at the shop? How about the extra efforts on pit stops? At what point does the commitment weaken to a driver who's already said goodbye?
"It affects what they team members are doing," team owner/driver Kyle Petty said. "It can be a pretty big demoralizer. Sure drivers come and go, but telling your crew that you'll be gone in 16-17 months can affect a lot of things between now and the time of your New Year's Eve party going into 2007."
But this is NASCAR and there are no rules of engagement, just the gentlemen's agreement that has been the sport's standard for the past 50 years. Deals similar to these were made years ago, but completed with a handshake and wink until the time to switch jobs. There isn't a drivers' union or commissioner charged to set guidelines for racing's version of free agency. So anything goes. And it's going.
Just maybe not as fast as McMurray and Busch would like.
Busch's current team owner, Jack Roush, initially said he wasn't inclined to let Busch out of the final year of his contract, so he could move to Penske Racing in 2006. But he said earlier this week that no decision has been made. Sponsors are signed up expecting to be paired with certain drivers and there's more involved than just a driver's desire to check out the grass on the other side.
Ganassi didn't hesitate to hold McMurray to his contract in 2006.
"I'm not happy about a lot of things either, but I don't leave," Ganassi said last week.
NASCAR has an expression for this time of year when driver lineups are shuffled and deals are being made in the press and back rooms. It's called silly season. We'll see who has the last laugh. And when?
BUSCH FINED: Kyle Busch was fined $10,000 and placed on probation until the end of the year by NASCAR on Tuesday for hitting another competitor's car after the Nextel Cup race at Watkins Glen.
Busch and Anthony Lazzaro made contact late in Sunday's race, and Busch responded by slamming into Lazzaro after the event.
Busch is the younger brother of Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch and is in his first season in NASCAR's top series.
ANOTHER FINE: Tony Stewart was placed on probation for the rest of the year and fined $5,000 for intentionally running into another car after the Busch series race Saturday at Watkins Glen International.
NASCAR said Stewart, driving a Busch series car owned by fellow Nextel Cup competitor Kevin Harvick, bumped into the car driven by Brian Vickers as the two headed for pit road.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: Say what you want about the state of open wheel racing, but the Indy Racing League is putting on a competitive show that would even make NASCAR fans proud. Scott Sharp's victory Sunday at Kentucky Speedway marked the eighth different winner in the last eight races -- one shy of the series record.
INTRODUCING: Fresh off a victory in sprint car racing's version of the Daytona 500 -- the Knoxville Nationals -- Kraig Kinser will make his stock car debut this week at Michigan International Speedway. Kinser, 20, son of World of Outlaw champion Steve Kinser, will drive in Friday's ARCA race at MIS in a car fielded by MB2 Motorsports.
Kinser tested the car recently at Lakeland's USA International Speedway and has been signed as a development driver by MB2.
AIKMAN AND STAUBACH: Former Dallas Cowboy quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach will field a car in the Nextel Cup Series next season. The football greats have formed Hall of Fame Racing and have worked a deal to with Joe Gibbs Racing to use JGR Chevrolets, engines and personnel.
By HOLLY CAIN Tribune correspondent
Published: Aug 17, 2005
It's not as if we didn't see this coming.
The high-profile, early-up contract signings announced in recent weeks by reigning NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch and up-and-comer Jamie McMurray weren't a surprising progression in the sign-'em-up now mentality that pervades the sport.
Teenage go-kart drivers and young sprint car racers are being scouted by car manufacturers eager to pluck them up before anyone else finds out about them.
Much of the brightest next-generation talent is already under contract with some team's "driver development" program or on a "personal services" contract with a car make.
If teams are willing to commit to go-karters still in puberty, then why wouldn't a proven competitor's talent be secured -- even if that occurs long before he's fulfilled his current contract?
Busch has signed on to drive for Penske Racing in 2007 and will be leaving the only NASCAR team he's ever driven for, Roush Racing. McMurray signed a similar deal, ironically to drive for Roush Racing in 2007. He'll be leaving Chip Ganassi.
Both are going to take over cars driven by popular drivers retiring at the end of the year. Busch will replace Rusty Wallace in the No. 2 Dodge. McMurray will replace Mark Martin in the No. 6 Viagra Ford.
Essentially labeling yourself a lame duck for a full season and a half may not seem like the smartest move now, but Busch and McMurray are counting on it to pay off in the future.
The next 18 months will show if it's better to be up front and tell your team that you're abandoning ship or if there is a better way to handle it.
A pit crew wants to win each race just as much as the driver, but will they still be as inclined to put in those late-late nights at the shop? How about the extra efforts on pit stops? At what point does the commitment weaken to a driver who's already said goodbye?
"It affects what they team members are doing," team owner/driver Kyle Petty said. "It can be a pretty big demoralizer. Sure drivers come and go, but telling your crew that you'll be gone in 16-17 months can affect a lot of things between now and the time of your New Year's Eve party going into 2007."
But this is NASCAR and there are no rules of engagement, just the gentlemen's agreement that has been the sport's standard for the past 50 years. Deals similar to these were made years ago, but completed with a handshake and wink until the time to switch jobs. There isn't a drivers' union or commissioner charged to set guidelines for racing's version of free agency. So anything goes. And it's going.
Just maybe not as fast as McMurray and Busch would like.
Busch's current team owner, Jack Roush, initially said he wasn't inclined to let Busch out of the final year of his contract, so he could move to Penske Racing in 2006. But he said earlier this week that no decision has been made. Sponsors are signed up expecting to be paired with certain drivers and there's more involved than just a driver's desire to check out the grass on the other side.
Ganassi didn't hesitate to hold McMurray to his contract in 2006.
"I'm not happy about a lot of things either, but I don't leave," Ganassi said last week.
NASCAR has an expression for this time of year when driver lineups are shuffled and deals are being made in the press and back rooms. It's called silly season. We'll see who has the last laugh. And when?
BUSCH FINED: Kyle Busch was fined $10,000 and placed on probation until the end of the year by NASCAR on Tuesday for hitting another competitor's car after the Nextel Cup race at Watkins Glen.
Busch and Anthony Lazzaro made contact late in Sunday's race, and Busch responded by slamming into Lazzaro after the event.
Busch is the younger brother of Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch and is in his first season in NASCAR's top series.
ANOTHER FINE: Tony Stewart was placed on probation for the rest of the year and fined $5,000 for intentionally running into another car after the Busch series race Saturday at Watkins Glen International.
NASCAR said Stewart, driving a Busch series car owned by fellow Nextel Cup competitor Kevin Harvick, bumped into the car driven by Brian Vickers as the two headed for pit road.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: Say what you want about the state of open wheel racing, but the Indy Racing League is putting on a competitive show that would even make NASCAR fans proud. Scott Sharp's victory Sunday at Kentucky Speedway marked the eighth different winner in the last eight races -- one shy of the series record.
INTRODUCING: Fresh off a victory in sprint car racing's version of the Daytona 500 -- the Knoxville Nationals -- Kraig Kinser will make his stock car debut this week at Michigan International Speedway. Kinser, 20, son of World of Outlaw champion Steve Kinser, will drive in Friday's ARCA race at MIS in a car fielded by MB2 Motorsports.
Kinser tested the car recently at Lakeland's USA International Speedway and has been signed as a development driver by MB2.
AIKMAN AND STAUBACH: Former Dallas Cowboy quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach will field a car in the Nextel Cup Series next season. The football greats have formed Hall of Fame Racing and have worked a deal to with Joe Gibbs Racing to use JGR Chevrolets, engines and personnel.