CUP: Ford Teams Shuffle

Sprint Cup

CUP: Ford Teams Shuffle

Two of Ford’s major teams will significantly redo their programs for 2009, both with an eye for the future, but in different directions...

Tom Jensen | Posted January 22, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Wood Brothers Racing owners (L-R) Eddie Wood, Len Wood and driver Bill Elliott are scaling back to a 12-race NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule in 2009. (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Two of Ford’s major teams will significantly redo their programs for 2009, both with an eye for the future, but in different directions.

Second-year team Yates Racing is attempting to run three cars for the entire season, while Wood Brothers Racing and driver Bill Elliott are going the other way, scaling back to a 12-race schedule as they allow the U.S. economy time to recover and the team to regroup.

In at Yates are Bobby Labonte in the No. 98 Ford Fusion, Paul Menard in the No. 96 and, temporarily at least, returnee Travis Kvapil in the No. 28. Labonte’s car is operated by Yates, but owned by Hall of Fame Racing, with sponsorship from Ask.com. Menards will sponsor Paul Menard and the team is looking for sponsors for Kvapil, who right now only has enough firm funding for the first five races.

Last year, more than 15 different entities were primary sponsors of Kvapil’s Yates Ford, ranging from a small North Carolina Ford dealership to the California Highway Patrol. Jones said his team is trying to get many of last year’s supporters back on board for 2009 and is optimistic that he’ll be able to do so.

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“We’re committed right now to do five races, but our whole sales team is out working,” said Jones. “And we’ve got a lot of sponsors and partners that worked with us last year that are looking at it again. We feel really good about it. We’re in a lot better position than we were last year. We have two cars that are fully funded and we’re pretty well rooted and people know we’re for real.”

As for the Wood Brothers, Ford’s oldest team, they will be taking a page from the 1970s and ‘80s, when they ran a part-time schedule. This year, they will compete in 12 races — exactly one-third of the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular-season schedule — with primary sponsorship from Motorcraft in nine of those 12 races.

The Woods, like many teams are trying to run on a tight budget and have cut out expense races where travel is an issue. For example, the team will drive to places where they previously would have flown.

“We tried to make sense of it like that,” said team co-owner Len Wood. “We tried to make it where we didn’t race every week. We’re going to drive to Daytona, we’re going to drive to Atlanta. It’s no big deal. We’ve done it before.”

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Tom Jensen

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