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Almost a nonstory story, IMO.
One little bit of info that is most interesting is the Rockwell sposnsorship deal, would like to know more about that and where it is going. There are some deseriving teams out there in need of $$.
Bill Davis has let one star get away from him already by being slow to pull the trigger on a new deal. This is a very intense sport these days and waiting for the "right " moment can cost you dearly. Loyalty will carry you so far, but you have to breed it and continue to earn it everyday. This applies to the crew members as well as the drivers.
From Mike Mulhern of the Winston Salem Journal:
Gibbs team denies any wrongdoing in dispute
Owners Davis, Roush say that former NFL coach is poaching their personnel
By Mike Mulhern
JOURNAL REPORTER
DARLINGTON, S.C.
Jeff Gordon is on the charge, at long last, and he's heading into a very good stretch of race tracks. So this championship battle may finally be taking shape, with seven men still in the chase but with the lead pack starting to pull away.
And for a number of teams, it's already time to start planning for next season.
But not all of those plans come in nice, neat packages.
Just ask car owners Bill Davis, Joe Gibbs and Jack Roush, who may not be seeing eye to eye on some team roster changes.
Gibbs' NASCAR operation is once again on the hot seat, but this time not because of Tony Stewart.
Gibbs' teams are being criticized by rivals, some from the Roush camp, for hiring away crewmen in the middle of the season and by car owner Bill Davis for attempting to sign Busch star Scott Wimmer.
Wimmer's contract with Davis was up at the end of the season until he signed a new one with Davis four days ago.
Gibbs said that Wimmer began talking with him when Wimmer started worrying about Davis' plans for him next season. "A couple of weeks ago Steve Desuza, who runs our Busch program, was walking out of the race track and asked Scott 'Hey, what's your situation for next year?' " Gibbs said.
"Scott volunteered to him 'Hey, I don't have anything. I'm concerned. We're down to a few cars, and Bill hasn't re-signed my contract for next year. So I have nothing. I'm worried.'
"Basically what we said to him was 'Can we see that contract to make sure that's the case?' And Scott sent the contract to us, and sure enough that was the case. The contract had run out a couple months ago.
"At that point we started discussions with him. And I guess Bill got upset about that and jumped back in it and re-signed him. That's fine with us.
"We have a policy here that we don't talk to anybody under contract. And we didn't. So we don't think we've done anything wrong or unethical.
"I'm going to try to get with Bill this week. I'm going to call and see if I can come up and have a meeting so we can talk this out, because this is important. It's important to me to keep a good relationship with the other car owners."
Davis was irate over the situation and had a vigorous discussion with Gibbs.
Mike Brown, general manager for Davis: "We (Davis and Wimmer) had all verbally agreed to go forward, and we were working on all our different sponsorship scenarios, to see if we'd be Busch racing or Cup racing with Scott. A lot of the team owners that we respect ... called us and said 'Hey, what are y'all doing with Scott? If you're not going to go forward with him, we'd love to speak with him.'
"We told everybody who called us that we planned to go forward with him, and they respected that, and they left him alone.
"But there was a certain group of people in the garage who didn't show us any respect, or the courtesy of a phone call. And we had a little problem with that.
"But we've been able to put all that behind us, and we're working with Scott, and we're living up to our word and he's living up to his.
"People who get caught with their pants down obviously look for excuses to cover up whatever they had going on.
"But I can't speak for anything about Joe Gibbs. I don't know anybody down there. I've never spoken on the phone with anybody from Joe Gibbs. They've never called and asked us permission or what we were doing with Scott Wimmer."
Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for the Gibbs-Stewart team, says that Rockwell, which has sponsored Richard Childress' Busch team this season, called Davis' team to get Wimmer's phone number, apparently to try to put together a sponsorship package to shop around. Davis has sponsored Wimmer basically out of his own pocket this season. Zipadelli pointed out that Davis didn't offer Wimmer a new contract until the overtures from other teams were made.
Gibbs also declined to talk about the Rockwell sponsorship.
On the issue of crewmen moving one team to another, Gibbs seems to attract a number of men looking to move on. The latest addition comes from the Jeff Burton-Roush team - top tire changer Mark "Hollywood" Armstrong.
But then Gibbs has long had a reputation for having one of the best places to work on the tour. He guarantees his men at least one day, sometimes two days a week off, a luxury in this sport and one that is appreciated by crewmen with families. Gibbs is also offering nice wages, according to crewmen in the garage. That combination has at times earned the ire of rival car owners.
"Joe is the one car owner in this garage who genuinely cares about your family and your family life," one crewman said.
Zipadelli says that crewmen move all the time: "We just lost two fabricators to Cal Wells, but you don't see us crying about it. They're moving over because they'll be getting ... more money. But this time next year they'll probably be laid off, just like the last bunch.
"I'm tired of people bashing us. We shouldn't be criticized for trying to make our team better."
Burton, who drives for Roush, said he didn't want to get into any controversy over the issue, but he did raise the issue of ethics. "It's just competition, and people run their companies differently," Burton said. "You ask people to compete against each other and they'll do almost anything, and sometimes it's borderline unethical in the way some people try to coax crewmen away from other teams.
"Roush Racing doesn't get to where it's pushing the borderline of ethics.
"We work very hard at having a company where people like to work. We work hard at having a company where people have pride in where they work. Sometimes we lose people because they get a promotion some place else.
"We try real hard. We don't always succeed. But over the years we have put increasing effort into employee morale. Next year you'll see the next phase of it."
One little bit of info that is most interesting is the Rockwell sposnsorship deal, would like to know more about that and where it is going. There are some deseriving teams out there in need of $$.
Bill Davis has let one star get away from him already by being slow to pull the trigger on a new deal. This is a very intense sport these days and waiting for the "right " moment can cost you dearly. Loyalty will carry you so far, but you have to breed it and continue to earn it everyday. This applies to the crew members as well as the drivers.
From Mike Mulhern of the Winston Salem Journal:
Gibbs team denies any wrongdoing in dispute
Owners Davis, Roush say that former NFL coach is poaching their personnel
By Mike Mulhern
JOURNAL REPORTER
DARLINGTON, S.C.
Jeff Gordon is on the charge, at long last, and he's heading into a very good stretch of race tracks. So this championship battle may finally be taking shape, with seven men still in the chase but with the lead pack starting to pull away.
And for a number of teams, it's already time to start planning for next season.
But not all of those plans come in nice, neat packages.
Just ask car owners Bill Davis, Joe Gibbs and Jack Roush, who may not be seeing eye to eye on some team roster changes.
Gibbs' NASCAR operation is once again on the hot seat, but this time not because of Tony Stewart.
Gibbs' teams are being criticized by rivals, some from the Roush camp, for hiring away crewmen in the middle of the season and by car owner Bill Davis for attempting to sign Busch star Scott Wimmer.
Wimmer's contract with Davis was up at the end of the season until he signed a new one with Davis four days ago.
Gibbs said that Wimmer began talking with him when Wimmer started worrying about Davis' plans for him next season. "A couple of weeks ago Steve Desuza, who runs our Busch program, was walking out of the race track and asked Scott 'Hey, what's your situation for next year?' " Gibbs said.
"Scott volunteered to him 'Hey, I don't have anything. I'm concerned. We're down to a few cars, and Bill hasn't re-signed my contract for next year. So I have nothing. I'm worried.'
"Basically what we said to him was 'Can we see that contract to make sure that's the case?' And Scott sent the contract to us, and sure enough that was the case. The contract had run out a couple months ago.
"At that point we started discussions with him. And I guess Bill got upset about that and jumped back in it and re-signed him. That's fine with us.
"We have a policy here that we don't talk to anybody under contract. And we didn't. So we don't think we've done anything wrong or unethical.
"I'm going to try to get with Bill this week. I'm going to call and see if I can come up and have a meeting so we can talk this out, because this is important. It's important to me to keep a good relationship with the other car owners."
Davis was irate over the situation and had a vigorous discussion with Gibbs.
Mike Brown, general manager for Davis: "We (Davis and Wimmer) had all verbally agreed to go forward, and we were working on all our different sponsorship scenarios, to see if we'd be Busch racing or Cup racing with Scott. A lot of the team owners that we respect ... called us and said 'Hey, what are y'all doing with Scott? If you're not going to go forward with him, we'd love to speak with him.'
"We told everybody who called us that we planned to go forward with him, and they respected that, and they left him alone.
"But there was a certain group of people in the garage who didn't show us any respect, or the courtesy of a phone call. And we had a little problem with that.
"But we've been able to put all that behind us, and we're working with Scott, and we're living up to our word and he's living up to his.
"People who get caught with their pants down obviously look for excuses to cover up whatever they had going on.
"But I can't speak for anything about Joe Gibbs. I don't know anybody down there. I've never spoken on the phone with anybody from Joe Gibbs. They've never called and asked us permission or what we were doing with Scott Wimmer."
Greg Zipadelli, crew chief for the Gibbs-Stewart team, says that Rockwell, which has sponsored Richard Childress' Busch team this season, called Davis' team to get Wimmer's phone number, apparently to try to put together a sponsorship package to shop around. Davis has sponsored Wimmer basically out of his own pocket this season. Zipadelli pointed out that Davis didn't offer Wimmer a new contract until the overtures from other teams were made.
Gibbs also declined to talk about the Rockwell sponsorship.
On the issue of crewmen moving one team to another, Gibbs seems to attract a number of men looking to move on. The latest addition comes from the Jeff Burton-Roush team - top tire changer Mark "Hollywood" Armstrong.
But then Gibbs has long had a reputation for having one of the best places to work on the tour. He guarantees his men at least one day, sometimes two days a week off, a luxury in this sport and one that is appreciated by crewmen with families. Gibbs is also offering nice wages, according to crewmen in the garage. That combination has at times earned the ire of rival car owners.
"Joe is the one car owner in this garage who genuinely cares about your family and your family life," one crewman said.
Zipadelli says that crewmen move all the time: "We just lost two fabricators to Cal Wells, but you don't see us crying about it. They're moving over because they'll be getting ... more money. But this time next year they'll probably be laid off, just like the last bunch.
"I'm tired of people bashing us. We shouldn't be criticized for trying to make our team better."
Burton, who drives for Roush, said he didn't want to get into any controversy over the issue, but he did raise the issue of ethics. "It's just competition, and people run their companies differently," Burton said. "You ask people to compete against each other and they'll do almost anything, and sometimes it's borderline unethical in the way some people try to coax crewmen away from other teams.
"Roush Racing doesn't get to where it's pushing the borderline of ethics.
"We work very hard at having a company where people like to work. We work hard at having a company where people have pride in where they work. Sometimes we lose people because they get a promotion some place else.
"We try real hard. We don't always succeed. But over the years we have put increasing effort into employee morale. Next year you'll see the next phase of it."
