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Sprint Cup
CUP: Cubic Dollars/Michigan Notebook
RCR will be back to four cars in 2011...
Paul Menard will be the fourth entry from Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for 2011. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
CASH COW? — For the most part, car counts at top NASCAR Sprint Cup teams are determined by sponsorship. If a team has enough sponsor dollars to run four cars, it runs four cars. If it only has the funding to support two cars, then it runs two, and so own.
Richard Childress Racing is no exception. RCR ran three full-time cars from 2002-08, expanded to four cars in ’09 and then cut back to three this year when it lost Jack Daniel’s. Next year, the team will be back up to four cars, as Paul Menard will join the team, bringing his family’s Menards sponsorship with him.
This will be the fourth time in four years that Menard the driver and Menards the sponsor have changed teams: Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008, Yates Racing last year, Richard Petty Motorsports this year and now RCR next season.
Despite the moves, team owner Richard Childress insisted signing Menard wasn’t just about getting his hands into the family coffers. Pointing out that his own grandson, Austin Dillon, is driving for RCR, Childress said both Menard and Dillon have added opportunities because of family money, but more importantly have the talent to succeed.
“Paul and Austin both are making a difference,” said Childress. “They’ve got the opportunity, but if you watch them on the race tracks, Paul does the job on the race track. It’s something that he loves to do and a passion; it’s not just because he’s got the sponsor that comes along. He’s got the drive to go out and want to win just like Austin. ... Both of these guys really want to go out and win.”
“I grew up around racing,” said Menard. “I’ve got the racing background, my family are huge race fans, they’ve been competitors in the past. If they’re going to back somebody, I’m probably the easiest one to yell at and I can dish it back out, so it’s a good lateral relationship that if I have to answer to somebody as a sponsor it’s my brothers, my sisters and my uncle and my dad. We can work it out.”
Still, the cash infusion Menard will bring is as welcome at RCR as it was the driver’s prior stops. “Having 20 million (dollars) is better than 10 (million),” said RCR’s Kevin Harvick, the NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader. “Our sport runs on cubic dollars. If you want to go fast, the more cubic dollars you have, the faster you go.”
HUNTING SPEED — Four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said he and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are taking a bit of a back-to-basics approach with its setups after a few weeks of disappointing performance.
“From our standpoint, it seems like the bread & butter tracks for us in the past have been the 1.5-mile to two-mile tracks and that's where we've been a little bit off,” said Johnson. “And then the short track stuff has been really competitive. It's kind of a flip of sorts from what we've seen before. ... I think we're making some good gains on the 1.5-mile and two-mile tracks and we're looking forward to this weekend's race. I'd say when we were here in the spring is when we started trying some new things and really got away from our standard stuff and we've learned a lot about that set-up since then and we're looking forward to debuting what we have here.”
Johnson’s best finish in his last five races has been a 10th at Pocono; the other four were all outside the top 20. Still, his competitors aren’t willing to write him off. “Obviously, what Jimmie and his team have done, you have to respect that and you have to say that they are a favorite,” said Jeff Burton, who is third in points.
“I think that Jimmie Johnson is still the guy to beat until somebody beats him because he's won the last four (championships),” said Burton’s teammate, Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick. “So, I think we've all seen this movie before across the last four years and I think you've got to respect that until something changes.”
DAYTONA PRES REPLACED — One day short of six months after a hole at Daytona International Speedway delayed the Daytona 500 for more than 2 hours and embarrassed NASCAR during its biggest race, DIS President Robin Braig is history. Track owner International Speedway Corp. announced Friday that it has named Joie Chitwood III track president effective immediately. “Braig will leave to pursue other opportunities,” ISC said in its press release.
Chitwood, 41, has been vice president of business development for ISC since 2009. In this position, he led strategic development and oversaw business execution across the Company’s 13 motorsports facilities and Americrown Service Corp., ISC’s catering, concessions and merchandising subsidiary. Prior to joining ISC, Chitwood served as president and chief operating officer of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NO BULL — Friday’s laugh of the day was courtesy of Kyle Busch, who was in an unusually engaging mood. Busch was asked if there was any concern in the Toyota camp that Kasey Kahne’s move to Red Bull Racing for 2011 only might result in Kahne taking proprietary Toyota info with him when he moves to Hendrick Motorsports in 2012. Busch allowed as how he wasn’t too worried about it.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think that Rick (Hendrick) is going to be asking, ‘What Red Bull Racing’s doing?’ I don’t think they need that information, obviously,” Busch said, drawing a laugh. “Look at the way Hendrick Motorsports runs compared to Red Bull Racing. ... To me, I don’t foresee there being anything to be gained there from putting Kasey in that car, that’s why I was kind of surprised by it at first. He’s got to bypass the year somewhere so why not it be Red Bull and hopefully with him driving a Toyota it makes sense and maybe I can get him in one of my trucks a little bit more.”
NO EXTENSION — Three days after issuing a terse statement that driver Kevin Conway’s job wasn’t in jeopardy, on Friday Front Row Motorsports replaced the driver with Tony Raines. Sponsor ExtenZe has “requested a hiatus in its racing agreement with Front Row Motorsports,” the team said in a release.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
Richard Childress Racing is no exception. RCR ran three full-time cars from 2002-08, expanded to four cars in ’09 and then cut back to three this year when it lost Jack Daniel’s. Next year, the team will be back up to four cars, as Paul Menard will join the team, bringing his family’s Menards sponsorship with him.
This will be the fourth time in four years that Menard the driver and Menards the sponsor have changed teams: Dale Earnhardt Inc. in 2008, Yates Racing last year, Richard Petty Motorsports this year and now RCR next season.
Despite the moves, team owner Richard Childress insisted signing Menard wasn’t just about getting his hands into the family coffers. Pointing out that his own grandson, Austin Dillon, is driving for RCR, Childress said both Menard and Dillon have added opportunities because of family money, but more importantly have the talent to succeed.
“Paul and Austin both are making a difference,” said Childress. “They’ve got the opportunity, but if you watch them on the race tracks, Paul does the job on the race track. It’s something that he loves to do and a passion; it’s not just because he’s got the sponsor that comes along. He’s got the drive to go out and want to win just like Austin. ... Both of these guys really want to go out and win.”
“I grew up around racing,” said Menard. “I’ve got the racing background, my family are huge race fans, they’ve been competitors in the past. If they’re going to back somebody, I’m probably the easiest one to yell at and I can dish it back out, so it’s a good lateral relationship that if I have to answer to somebody as a sponsor it’s my brothers, my sisters and my uncle and my dad. We can work it out.”
Still, the cash infusion Menard will bring is as welcome at RCR as it was the driver’s prior stops. “Having 20 million (dollars) is better than 10 (million),” said RCR’s Kevin Harvick, the NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader. “Our sport runs on cubic dollars. If you want to go fast, the more cubic dollars you have, the faster you go.”
HUNTING SPEED — Four-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson said he and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are taking a bit of a back-to-basics approach with its setups after a few weeks of disappointing performance.
“From our standpoint, it seems like the bread & butter tracks for us in the past have been the 1.5-mile to two-mile tracks and that's where we've been a little bit off,” said Johnson. “And then the short track stuff has been really competitive. It's kind of a flip of sorts from what we've seen before. ... I think we're making some good gains on the 1.5-mile and two-mile tracks and we're looking forward to this weekend's race. I'd say when we were here in the spring is when we started trying some new things and really got away from our standard stuff and we've learned a lot about that set-up since then and we're looking forward to debuting what we have here.”
Johnson’s best finish in his last five races has been a 10th at Pocono; the other four were all outside the top 20. Still, his competitors aren’t willing to write him off. “Obviously, what Jimmie and his team have done, you have to respect that and you have to say that they are a favorite,” said Jeff Burton, who is third in points.
“I think that Jimmie Johnson is still the guy to beat until somebody beats him because he's won the last four (championships),” said Burton’s teammate, Sprint Cup points leader Kevin Harvick. “So, I think we've all seen this movie before across the last four years and I think you've got to respect that until something changes.”
DAYTONA PRES REPLACED — One day short of six months after a hole at Daytona International Speedway delayed the Daytona 500 for more than 2 hours and embarrassed NASCAR during its biggest race, DIS President Robin Braig is history. Track owner International Speedway Corp. announced Friday that it has named Joie Chitwood III track president effective immediately. “Braig will leave to pursue other opportunities,” ISC said in its press release.
Chitwood, 41, has been vice president of business development for ISC since 2009. In this position, he led strategic development and oversaw business execution across the Company’s 13 motorsports facilities and Americrown Service Corp., ISC’s catering, concessions and merchandising subsidiary. Prior to joining ISC, Chitwood served as president and chief operating officer of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NO BULL — Friday’s laugh of the day was courtesy of Kyle Busch, who was in an unusually engaging mood. Busch was asked if there was any concern in the Toyota camp that Kasey Kahne’s move to Red Bull Racing for 2011 only might result in Kahne taking proprietary Toyota info with him when he moves to Hendrick Motorsports in 2012. Busch allowed as how he wasn’t too worried about it.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think that Rick (Hendrick) is going to be asking, ‘What Red Bull Racing’s doing?’ I don’t think they need that information, obviously,” Busch said, drawing a laugh. “Look at the way Hendrick Motorsports runs compared to Red Bull Racing. ... To me, I don’t foresee there being anything to be gained there from putting Kasey in that car, that’s why I was kind of surprised by it at first. He’s got to bypass the year somewhere so why not it be Red Bull and hopefully with him driving a Toyota it makes sense and maybe I can get him in one of my trucks a little bit more.”
NO EXTENSION — Three days after issuing a terse statement that driver Kevin Conway’s job wasn’t in jeopardy, on Friday Front Row Motorsports replaced the driver with Tony Raines. Sponsor ExtenZe has “requested a hiatus in its racing agreement with Front Row Motorsports,” the team said in a release.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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