Busy week in NASCAR racing. Some of the highlights are;
AT&T is back on the #31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. An agreement has been reached with NASCAR, AT&T and Sprint Nextel that will keep AT&T on the car until the ned of 2008. RCR must have another sponsor for 2009. RCR staff was applying the AT&T decals to the #31 car and transporter today at Richmond.
Dean Kessel from Sprint Nextel marketing said they gave RCR ” an appropriate amount of time to transition to a new sponsor.” NASCAR and RCR declined to say if any financial transactions took place in the agreement. NASCAR did say this was a “good compromise.”
I wonder if this was a good compromise in competition on or off the track. You be the judge.
Toyota will be in Joe Gibbs Racing cars in 2008. JD Gibbs is looking to be successful right out of the box at Daytona. All the R&D has been done in 2007. Gibbs said that JGR will be in a leadership roll with Toyota, instead of being with three other great teams like RCR, Hendrick and DEI.
For 16 years Joe Gibbs Racing has been with GM, first with Pontiac, then with Chevrolet. Along the way, Bobby Labonte won the 2000 Winston Cup Title, and Tony Stewart won the 2002 and 2005 Cup Titles. Also, Dale Jarrett won two Daytona 500 races.
Chevrolet was disappointed in JD Gibbs decision and so was I. Junior and Tony won’t be in any more Chevy commercials again.
DEI has done it again. Mark Martin and Aric Almirola will split driving duties in the #8 US Army car. Ryan Pemberton will also move over from the 01 car. No sponsor was noted for the 01 car.
Back before 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr had picked Mark Martin or Jeff Burton to take over his #3 car when Sr retired. Richard Childress told Mark Martin this and said to him,” Dale would have wanted to see you in that 8, and he’ll be proud to see you drive it.” Martin was against the idea until he heard that. What will present 8 fans think?
Brad Keselowski signed with JR Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt Jr to drive the #88 Navy Chevrolet for the remainder of the season. He was also cleared to drive this week at Richmond from that violent crash at California.
The 88 Navy car will also be the first Hendrick chassis at JR Motorsports and an RCR engine. I guess nothing from DEI.
