CUP: NASCAR Nixes JR Motorsports Move To Sprint Cup

Sprint Cup

CUP: NASCAR Nixes JR Motorsports Move To Sprint Cup

Team cap would keep Dale Earnhardt Jr. from owning Cup car while driving for Hendrick Motorsports...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted January 13, 2012 Daytona Beach, FL

Dale Earnhardt Jr. , driver of the No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, speaks to the media during Daytona Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

Whenever there was talk about JR Motorsports possibly moving to Sprint Cup, team officials noted that not only would Rick Hendrick have to divest his interest in the team because of NASCAR’s four-team cap, but possibly so would Dale Earnhardt Jr.

NASCAR President Mike Helton confirmed that Friday at Daytona International Speedway, saying that if a driver owns a team but drives for another organization, then the total number of cars for both organizations counts toward the four-team cap.

With Hendrick Motorsports already having four cars, Earnhardt Jr. cannot own a non-Hendrick Cup car. JR Motorsports is owned by Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick, Kelley Earnhardt and Tony Eury Jr. Earnhardt Jr. signed a contract extension with Hendrick last year.

“It comes down to any attachments to more than four cars. … Dale Jr. with JR Motorsports, he drives for a four-car team, so a driver from a four-car organization can't fill a car,” Helton said. “That would be considered a fifth car.

“It comes from a list of defaults, but it's basically any of the major components that would tie the teams together, so certainly a driver/owner situation, either way you look at it, would tie those groups together.”

Helton addressed the issue after Michael Waltrip expressed interest in competing in the Daytona 500 but possibly with another organization. Waltrip said earlier this week that if he wanted to drive for another organization, he would have to do it with a single-car team because he already owns three Cup cars.

The four-team cap – in Sprint Cup only – was instituted in 2006 to help prevent any one owner from having too much power and so that prospective owners don’t feel they need to field multiple cars to be competitive.

The NASCAR rule book has a full page on the four-team cap but is not explicit in the interpretation of what happens when someone drives for one organization while owning another. But the rule indicates that when calculating the number of teams under the cap, the owner cannot have a relationship with another owner where he’s “entitled to receive (or actually receives), directly or indirectly, from the other car owner(s) any financial consideration or other form of value based upon the participation, performance, or degree of success of the car(s) entered by the other car owner(s).”

Teams are not to have affiliations with shared control, ownership, financing, management or revenue sharing.

NASCAR also prohibits teams from leasing equipment such as engines, chassis, parts, engineering data or personnel at below cost if the combination of the two organizations is more than four cars. NASCAR can ask to see the contracts of relationships between such organizations Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing to make sure those provisions are met.

Teams are allowed to field a fifth car for seven races for a rookie driver.

One other topic addressed by Helton and NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton on Friday was the roll out of the 2013 Sprint Cup car.

Robin Pemberton, (Left ) vice president of competition for NASCAR, and John Darby, (Right) managing director of competition for NASCAR and Sprint Cup Series director, speaks to the media during Daytona Preseason Thunder. (Photo: Getty Images)

The 2013 cars, which will have new body styles that better correlate with the production cars, should be taken by NASCAR to the wind tunnel over the next 30-45 days. On-track testing could occur in early summer.

“Never before I think has there been such a collaborative effort between NASCAR and the automobile manufacturers that are involved in our sport to start from the ground up and design a race car that they participate in the design of and we regulate it so that there's a level playing field across the board,” Helton said.

“And the energy level that came from that, from the manufacturers and all of them sitting in a room together to create what we'll begin to see unfold in 2012 and see on the race track in '13, I think, is pretty remarkable.”

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DAYTONA PRESEASON THUNDER TESTING: During the Jan. 12-14 test sessions at Daytona International Speedway, fans can submit questions and comments through Twitter @SPEED (http://www.twitter.com/speed) using the #daytonatesting hashtag.