Ragan’s breakout season; RCR getting a 4th car in ’09; Trouble getting sponsors

David Ragan’s breakout season
David Ragan is having a great season in his second full year in the Sprint Cup Series. He’s currently in 13th place after slipping one spot from the 12th place Coca-Cola 600 finish. In an interview earlier in May when David was 12th in points he said, “I still got a lot of hard racing in front of us” to get into the chase. “Don’t want to stop at 12th. Want to move up to 11th, 10th, and so on.

He says he’s better this year since he doesn’t push at the start of races anymore, and he’s smarter driver now that he’s doing everything for the second time.

Last year, in his rookie season, David had two top 5’s and three top 10’s with an average finish of 24.5. This season David already has two top 5’s and three top 10’s with an average finish of 16.33.

I don’t know if David will be able to keep the good run going and make the chase, but he has the potential to do it. When asked about his success he said that he’s not surprised about it, and expects to contend for the chase.


4th Car in 2009 for RCR
Richard Childress Racing will add a 4th car to their team in 2009, and it will be #33. General Mill will be the sponsor since they’re leaving Petty, and they want a driver by June to start a marketing scheme with him in it.

They don’t have a driver for the car yet, but current General Mill driver Bobby Labonte says he’s staying with Petty racing although he has been linked to moving to RCR. A couple of other candidates for the spot are Scott Wimmer and Martin Truex Jr. Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards contracts are up at the end of this year, so they may be candidates also.

Bobby Labonte Labonte may be a better choice since he’s won a championship and guaranteed to start the first five races, and he already has established a relationship with the sponsor.

So, what do you think? Who should RCR get to be their driver for the new team?

Sponsor Issues
Several teams are having issues getting and keeping sponsors for their teams. It costs teams about $300,000 to $400,000 per race for a car, which adds up quickly to $10.8 Million to $14.4 Million to finance a since car for an entire season. With these high costs it’s easy to understand how teams can get into financial trouble.

There are only a handful of teams that have legitimate shots at winning races and making the chase for the championship, so it’s also easy to understand why corporations don’t want to shell out $10 - $15 Million for sponsorship. You’re seeing more teams have multiple sponsors to help pay for an entire season.

There are some sponsors looking to get out of their contracts and/or restructure them. UPS and Office Depot are a couple of the sponsors that are looking to get out of their contracts or restructure them.

Even established teams like Robert Yates are having problems. They didn’t have a sponsor for six races already this season. Their team has been on the decline since the 1999 championship. Yates has a technical alliance with Roush which has helped them get back on track.

BAM racing is going to part time schedule due to lack of sponsors

While on NASCAR Now on ESPN, Dale Jarrett suggested cutting some races to save money and reduce the financial strain on the teams and corporations. I like Dale’s idea, and even suggested it myself in an earlier blog (How To Bring Back The NASCAR Viewers). Trimming the schedule to 28 – 32 races would be nice, but there’s no way they’ll turn down the revenue that TV coverage brings for the races.

Leave a comment letting us know what you think.

Crown Royal 400 at Richmond Review and Fantasy Recap

This looked like a pretty boring race for 350 laps as Denny Hamlin absolutely dominated, leading close to every lap. It seemed that the only suspense would be, who is going to finish 2nd, until his right front tire started to go down. If it weren’t for the bad luck Denny would have run away with the win.

The last 40 or so laps of the race were worth the wait. There was lots of aggressive, side-by-side, racing and lots of drivers trying to fit into spots that they couldn’t, causing some impressive wrecks.

After Denny went out, and Dale Jr. and Kyle Busch’s wreck Clint Bowyer seized the opportunity to take home his second career Sprint Cup victory. Kyle Busch was able to hold of Mark Martin at the end for 2nd place.

The surprise finish of the race had to be Reed Sorenson finishing 10th, a solid run for that group, and his best finish since coming home 5th at Daytona.

How'd my picks do?
4 With a real shot to win.
Kyle Busch – After he and Jr. got together, he was able to hold off Mark Martin for 2nd.
Jimmie Johnson – Jimmie had a strong run going before he got caught up in a wreck and finished 30th.
Denny Hamlin – Talk about domination. If anyone deserved to win, he did, but an untimely flat tire in the last 40 laps of the race cost him the victory, and he ended up with a 25th place finish.
Kevin Harvick – Harvick was in the top 10 all night, and finished 6th to cap off a solid run.

2 others that could do well
Tony Stewart – Solid run with a 4th place finish.
Jeff Gordon – Solid run with a 9th place finish

Sleeper
David Ragan – David was able to keep up with the leaders most of the night, and finished a respectable 17th, but getting caught up in an early wreck cost him a chance to finish in the top 10.

On the fantasy side of things buckeye65 & highlife got the high point total with 601. Buchsmoto now only holds a 22 point lead over highlife.

Big movers of the week:
Nascar_nut – Up 9 spots to 29th. Can they make it all the way into the chase?
Browngw – Up 8 spots to 12th, back in the chase, after forgetting to change his drivers last week.
Hollydiaz – Moving the wrong direction, down 10 spots to 32nd. Looks like holly forgot to dump Ken Schrader.

Race 10 - Crown Royal 400 at Richmond Preview

Well, this weekend the boys are running under the lights on a Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia. This is the short track that thinks it’s a super speedway. The ¾ mile track should give us a little bit of everything; high speeds, bumping, and good racing.

Kyle Busch
With the win last week Kyle Busch trimmed Jeff Burton’s points lead 58 points, down to just 22. Kyle has done really well at Richmond in his career. In six races he’s only finished out of the top 5 once (20th last year). Even though his two worse finishes of the season came on the short tracks at Bristol (17th) and Martinsville (38th), don’t look for him to finish that bad in Richmond. The D shaped track should fit Kyle’s aggressive style, so he should continue to do well.

Denny Hamlin
The third year driver has been having a solid, but fairly quiet year so far. He’s fourth in points with six top 10s, four top 5s and one Win. In four career races at Richmond he’s finished in the top 10 three times. His worst qualifying position has been 7th, so look for him to do well and run up front most of the night.

Kevin Harvick
Harvick’s career started out kind of rough at Richmond. In his first eight races (2001 – 2004) he only finished in the top 10 twice. Since then he has six consecutive top 10 finished with three top 5s. It’ll be hard to bet against those numbers.

Jeff Burton
Not much gets said about the Sprint Cup points leader and his chances to win races. It seems that Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, or the Hendrick drivers take a lot of the spotlight. Jeff has had a solid season so far with one Win and his worst finish being 13th in Daytona. Unfortunately I don’t think that success will translate to Richmond. Since 2004 (a span of 8 races) Jeff has only finished in the top 10 once. In the eight races before that (2000 – 2003) he had finished in the top 10 six times. That’s quite a drop off in performance. He may do okay and finish in the top 15, but I don’t see him challenging for a victory.

Tony Stewart
Smoke needs to start heating up. After the crash in Talladega and a 38th place finish Stewart dropped to 9th in the standings. Historically he’s done well at Richmond, and should have a shot at success on Saturday night. He has twelve career top 10s and three Wins at the track in 18 races. Look for him to be aggressive and push to the front.

4 with a real shot to win
· Kyle Busch – He’s been hot all season, and he does well in Richmond.
· Jimmy Johnson – Won last two, and is looking more like the Jimmy that dominated last year
· Denny Hamlin – He has a 6th, 3rd, 2nd in 3 of the last 4 in Richmond.
· Kevin Harvick – Six consecutive top 10s at a track is hard to ignore.

2 others that could do well
· Tony Stewart – 2nd, 8th, 6th in 3 of last 4, and ready to make up points after last week’s wrecks
· Jeff Gordon – Finished 4th in the last two races here, looking to get back in the top 12

Sleeper
· David Ragan – He’s only had two career races at Richmond, but finished 3rd in last fall’s race. He may be able to get another top 5 or 10 finish this weekend if he can avoid wrecks.