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Sprint Cup
CUP: With Rides And Sponsors Scarce, Pressure High
Drivers must perform at a very high level and stay on their best behavior to keep a ride these days...
David Ragan has found a ride for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. (Photo: Getty Images)
Former Cup champion Kurt Busch went from a winning race team that is accustomed to making the Chase to a mid-pack team not even accustomed to running the full Cup schedule.
David Reutimann went from a full-time team that he won two Cup races with to a second-tier, underfunded organization that can’t even promise him a full schedule at this point.
But their situations could be worse.
David Ragan and Brian Vickers, two young drivers who have won Cup races, currently don’t even have Cup rides for 2012 after competing full time last season.
Such is life these days in the dog-eat-dog world of the Sprint Cup Series.
With sponsorships scarce and competition at an all-time high, drivers have learned two things in the past few months:
• If you want to continue to compete at NASCAR’s highest level, you better perform, produce and protect your ride and sponsor.
• And, even if you are winning races and competing for championships, you better walk the straight and narrow, be on your best behavior and do the best you can to represent your sponsor in a positive light, or, like Busch, you could be sent packing despite a sterling on-track record.
And this high-stakes, pressure-packed game doesn’t just apply to drivers. As we’ve seen during this offseason, crew chiefs are at risk, too.
Darian Grubb led Tony Stewart to the Sprint Cup championship but was still let go in a move that was orchestrated before Stewart and Grubb made their spectacular run to the title.
Grubb, fortunately, quickly landed a job as crew chief for Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing. That job came open when Gibbs released crew chief Mike Ford, who nearly led Hamlin to the 2010 championship but struggled in 2011.
Now, it is Ford looking for a job.
And he isn’t the only one.
Crew chief Gil Martin led Kevin Harvick to a second straight third-place finish in points, but that wasn’t good enough for Harvick and Richard Childress Racing, which replaced him as soon as the season was over.
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, meanwhile, released their top two managers, letting competition director Steve Hmiel and team manager Tony Glover go after a dismal season.
The pressure to produce has always been intense in NASCAR’s Cup series, but with the competition tougher and sponsors demanding more bang for their buck, that pressure seems to be at an all-time high, making jobs and rides even more valuable and hard to come by.
Penske released Busch, the 2004 champion, at the absolute worst time. When team owner Roger Penske and his sponsors finally had enough of Busch’s continuous tirades and embarrassing outbursts, it left one of the sport’s top drivers looking for a ride when there were precious few to be found.
With limited opportunities available, Busch signed with team owner James Finch and Phoenix Racing, an organization that typically doesn’t run the full schedule and usually focuses primarily on the circuit’s restrictor-plate races.
It’s lone win came in 2009 when Brad Keselowski – who, ironically, was Busch’s teammate at Penske the last two years – produced a stunning upset at Talladega.
The No. 51 team ran the full schedule last season – mainly with young driver Landon Cassill – but finished 30th in owner points. It occasionally fields fast cars, but typically is a mid-pack team that rarely finishes in the top 20.
Will Busch, who has 24 career victories, be able to change that? He will have to try.
Busch likely will get more out of the No. 51 car than most drivers, and then move on to bigger and better things in 2013. This season will be a year in which he focuses mainly on trying to repair his damaged reputation and resurrect his career.
Reutimann, Ragan and Vickers – so far – don’t look like they will be quite so lucky.
Each has won Cup races in recent years, but all three struggled in 2011 and lost their rides at seasons end. Only Reutimann currently has a ride entering 2012, and so far it’s with a part-time Tommy Baldwin Racing team that still needs sponsorship to compete.
Ragan, a winner at Daytona in July last year, was released by Roush Fenway Racing when sponsor UPS reduced its involvement. After struggling for the past three years at Roush, he is still looking after missing out on Busch’s former ride at Penske, which went to AJ Allmendinger.
Vickers, who won a race and made the Chase in 2009, lost his ride when sponsor and team owner Red Bull decided to pull out of the sport and the team leaders could not find new investors.
Now he and Ragan, who are both marketable drivers still in their 20s, are scrambling to find something – anything – to drive in 2012.
And the market is not good for out-of-work stock-car drivers.
Even some of the up-and-coming rising stars are having trouble.
Trevor Bayne, 20, won the Daytona 500 last year, and yet he still doesn’t have a full-time ride for 2012.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the Nationwide Series championship for Roush Fenway Racing, but he doesn’t have sponsorship for 2012 and his future is in limbo.
Though NASCAR appears to be on the rise again after a few lackluster years, and competition is at an all-time high, sponsorships are scarce and rides are tough to find – even for some of the best drivers.
Which means those drivers that have them better perform and produce.
And they better be on their best behavior.
SceneDaily.com • Greg Biffle honored with NMPA quarterly Spirit award
David Reutimann went from a full-time team that he won two Cup races with to a second-tier, underfunded organization that can’t even promise him a full schedule at this point.
But their situations could be worse.
David Ragan and Brian Vickers, two young drivers who have won Cup races, currently don’t even have Cup rides for 2012 after competing full time last season.
Such is life these days in the dog-eat-dog world of the Sprint Cup Series.
With sponsorships scarce and competition at an all-time high, drivers have learned two things in the past few months:
• If you want to continue to compete at NASCAR’s highest level, you better perform, produce and protect your ride and sponsor.
• And, even if you are winning races and competing for championships, you better walk the straight and narrow, be on your best behavior and do the best you can to represent your sponsor in a positive light, or, like Busch, you could be sent packing despite a sterling on-track record.
And this high-stakes, pressure-packed game doesn’t just apply to drivers. As we’ve seen during this offseason, crew chiefs are at risk, too.
Darian Grubb led Tony Stewart to the Sprint Cup championship but was still let go in a move that was orchestrated before Stewart and Grubb made their spectacular run to the title.
Grubb, fortunately, quickly landed a job as crew chief for Denny Hamlin at Joe Gibbs Racing. That job came open when Gibbs released crew chief Mike Ford, who nearly led Hamlin to the 2010 championship but struggled in 2011.
Now, it is Ford looking for a job.
And he isn’t the only one.
Crew chief Gil Martin led Kevin Harvick to a second straight third-place finish in points, but that wasn’t good enough for Harvick and Richard Childress Racing, which replaced him as soon as the season was over.
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, meanwhile, released their top two managers, letting competition director Steve Hmiel and team manager Tony Glover go after a dismal season.
The pressure to produce has always been intense in NASCAR’s Cup series, but with the competition tougher and sponsors demanding more bang for their buck, that pressure seems to be at an all-time high, making jobs and rides even more valuable and hard to come by.
Penske released Busch, the 2004 champion, at the absolute worst time. When team owner Roger Penske and his sponsors finally had enough of Busch’s continuous tirades and embarrassing outbursts, it left one of the sport’s top drivers looking for a ride when there were precious few to be found.
With limited opportunities available, Busch signed with team owner James Finch and Phoenix Racing, an organization that typically doesn’t run the full schedule and usually focuses primarily on the circuit’s restrictor-plate races.
It’s lone win came in 2009 when Brad Keselowski – who, ironically, was Busch’s teammate at Penske the last two years – produced a stunning upset at Talladega.
The No. 51 team ran the full schedule last season – mainly with young driver Landon Cassill – but finished 30th in owner points. It occasionally fields fast cars, but typically is a mid-pack team that rarely finishes in the top 20.
Will Busch, who has 24 career victories, be able to change that? He will have to try.
Busch likely will get more out of the No. 51 car than most drivers, and then move on to bigger and better things in 2013. This season will be a year in which he focuses mainly on trying to repair his damaged reputation and resurrect his career.
Reutimann, Ragan and Vickers – so far – don’t look like they will be quite so lucky.
Each has won Cup races in recent years, but all three struggled in 2011 and lost their rides at seasons end. Only Reutimann currently has a ride entering 2012, and so far it’s with a part-time Tommy Baldwin Racing team that still needs sponsorship to compete.
Ragan, a winner at Daytona in July last year, was released by Roush Fenway Racing when sponsor UPS reduced its involvement. After struggling for the past three years at Roush, he is still looking after missing out on Busch’s former ride at Penske, which went to AJ Allmendinger.
Vickers, who won a race and made the Chase in 2009, lost his ride when sponsor and team owner Red Bull decided to pull out of the sport and the team leaders could not find new investors.
Now he and Ragan, who are both marketable drivers still in their 20s, are scrambling to find something – anything – to drive in 2012.
And the market is not good for out-of-work stock-car drivers.
Even some of the up-and-coming rising stars are having trouble.
Trevor Bayne, 20, won the Daytona 500 last year, and yet he still doesn’t have a full-time ride for 2012.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the Nationwide Series championship for Roush Fenway Racing, but he doesn’t have sponsorship for 2012 and his future is in limbo.
Though NASCAR appears to be on the rise again after a few lackluster years, and competition is at an all-time high, sponsorships are scarce and rides are tough to find – even for some of the best drivers.
Which means those drivers that have them better perform and produce.
And they better be on their best behavior.
SceneDaily.com • Greg Biffle honored with NMPA quarterly Spirit award
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