Of course, the critics complain that Bristol has never been the same since they resurfaced it a few years back, trading the one-groove slam-bang concrete for a progressive surface that lets cars race and pass each other without crashing each other out. It's hard to judge any race in which Kyle Busch leads 268 of 300 laps, but I'd still take the Bristol high-banks over next week's California.
What caught my blogging eye this week, though, was a peek through the Nationwide Series standings before the fourth race of the year. My eyes fell on a couple names mired deep in the pack, names who had made all three races, but apparently finished poorly in all of them. They're this year's start-and-parkers.
A start-and-parker, for the casual fan, is a driver who qualifies for a race, sometimes very well, and starts that race. And after a few laps, they return to the garage area, claiming some mechanical problem with the car. The day is done, they collect last-place prize money, and load the car up for next week. Where they might try to race. Or they might just pit for that "vibration" or "brake problem" that slowed them the week before, and the week before that, and a couple weeks before that, too. Start-and-parkers have been around in some form for ages; when there's a short field, teams will sometimes enter a backup car to fill out the field, collecting last-place prize money. It was sort of a win-win; NASCAR got their full field, and a low-budget team collected an extra check. And for some low-budget Cup teams, it was the only way to maintain credit for attempting all the races with a budget big enough for a part-time schedule. There were some exceptions; Joe Nemechek was criticized in 2004 and 2005 for running a full-time start-and-park team with Jeff Fuller, and two ARCA teams ran full-time start-and-park teams in 2001 to pay the tire bills for their primary cars. But as long as fields were full, NASCAR looked the other way.
Then one team came along and made a mockery of the system. In 2008, a new team called MSRP Motorsports filed two Nationwide entries at Daytona. The team was owned by for driver-turned-broadcaster Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey, but that was all anyone knew; there was no team Web site, and Parsons would shrug off interview questions about his team. The questions were in regards to team performance; Parsons' two full-time teams failed to finish a single race in 2008. It wasn't just bad luck that brought the cars to the garage after five or ten laps week after week with brake or ignition troubles.
Parsons continued the charade in 2009, starting a Cup team (PRiSM Motorsports) to shadow his Nationwide Series operation. The MSRP Nationwide teams combined for two finishes in 2009 and 2010, both races where drivers with sponsorship started the cars; otherwise, they parked in every race, sometimes qualifying just outside the top-ten. The PRiSM Cup team ran about as well, making a full-race effort only when sponsored, and parking before the first pit sequence the rest of the time. After the 2010 season, it was announced that the Cup team would run part-time in 2011, attempting to finish the races. Not a word was said about the Nationwide team, but with the Car of Tomorrow chassis being phased in for 2011, it was doubtful that MSRP would field a new car in 2011. So much for the full-time start-and-park teams, we thought.
Enter Ed Rensi.
Back in the late '90s, former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi started an ARCA team for young driver Billy Venturini. Venturini was replaced by Jeff Finley, who followed the team to the Busch Series where he was replaced by veteran Kenny Wallace to get the team on track. Bobby Hamilton, Jr. joined the team in 2002, and in 2003 they had a breakthrough season with four victories and a strong fourth-place points run by season's end.
Since then, it's been a struggle. Hamilton went winless in 2004, was replaced by Mike McLaughlin and then Ashton Lewis, then a few other part-time drivers. Hamilton returned to the team in 2008, starting all but two races and scoring only two top-ten finishes all season. In 2009 and 2010, Eric McClure brought some sponsorship money to the team, but ran miserably. In a few years, Team Rensi Motorsports went from one of the most promising Busch-only teams to a backmarker that was dependent upon Hamilton's personal money to finish the 2008 season.
Last year, Kevin Lepage, a Vermont veteran on the downswing of his career, announced he would pilot the Rensi #24 Ford. In the press release, he explained how he was pleased to be racing, not just start-and-parking as he had resorted to since 2008. Rumors had it that Rensi would enter a second car for Kelly Bires, a promising driver whose big chance in one of Dale Jr.'s Chevrolets was cut short twice in 2010, once by sponsorship and then when Tony Eury fired him a few races into the season. Meanwhile, as Eric McClure moved his sponsorship dollars to another team, he lamented how he had rarely had enough money to buy tires in 2010, forcing him to nurse the car to a poor finish on worn rubber.
Lepage and Bires showed up at Daytona in 2011, and within five laps, Kevin Lepage was limping toward the garage area in his #24 Ford Mustang. Bires was not too far behind. Lepage made a few more laps, but his debut was a bit concerning for a driver who had promised to race in 2011.
And like MSRP Motorsports, it wasn't just bad luck. After three races, Kevin Lepage had completed only 40 of 520 total laps. Kelly Bires had completed 29 laps...total. At Bristol, Kevin crashed in the third practice session Friday. Shortly afterwards, the #24 team withdrew their entry. Their backup car, after all, was the #25 car...the car that completed two laps on Saturday before parking the car due to "handling problems."
And so we have a rising-star team that has become something of a punch line this year. Ed Rensi has not been shy about the financial problems of the series; he said years before that he had lost sponsorship from McDonald's because they insisted on putting a Cup driver in their car. Yet how encouraging is it to a sponsor when a team cannot bother to attempt more than a few laps each week? The Rensi cars have some sponsorship - from a Web site that claims to leverage local sponsors for small teams - but the fenders of the Rensi cars have been sponsorless for the most part. And what sponsor would want to support a car that disappears ten laps into the race? Worse yet, by withdrawing from Bristol, Lepage eliminated his shot at a guaranteed start based on race attempts. If they were to secure a sponsor, it would be a long, hard road from here. Bires is no better off, a tough break for a driver who was pegged as a championship hopeful before the 2010 season. There is a Team Rensi Web site...but all it promises is that the team will be "racing" in 2011. Parking a car after a mile of driving is not racing.
I don't think there's any doubt that this business of racing is expensive. Junior Johnson once said that the best way to make a small fortune in auto racing was to start with a large one. In the last five or six years, we've seen the departure of such long-term, visible NASCAR sponsors as Kodak and General Motors, with others like Interstate Batteries, DuPont and Budweiser scaling back their programs. Even Jack Roush has had difficulty selling sponsorship programs; his Nationwide programs are largely sponsorless, and early in the 2010 season he was struggling to find backers for Matt Kenseth's season.
But this is about making mediocrity an art form. It's about finishing last with a purpose, being out there to collect a paycheck instead of trying to earn that paycheck. It's about qualifying for a race with no intent to race, while other teams with a desire to compete go home early. It's a shame, really.
As a parting note, the start-and-park battle got exciting in a neighboring garage stall Saturday as well. Before the season, Jennifer Jo Cobb had signed on with Second Chance Motorsports to run in the Nationwide Series, pooling Second Chance's small team with Jennifer's Truck Series pit crew and her marketability. Immediately before the race yesterday, Jennifer informed Rick Russell, team owner, that she refused to start the car, nor would her pit crew pit the car. When the press caught up with Jennifer, she explained that ten minutes before the race, she was told that she would be parking the car within a few laps, and if she did not, he would order NASCAR to black-flag the #79 Ford. Moreover, she would not be in the car at California. Jennifer insisted that she would not start-and-park her car to collect a paycheck, and quit minutes before the race. Rick Russell insisted that Jennifer and team knew of the start-and-park arrangement when they arrived at the track. He managed to put another driver in the car Saturday, too...who made four laps and returned the car safely to the garage area. Ultimately, it cost Jennifer Jo Cobb her ride. She claims another owner "has her back," and judging by a brief relationship with the Baker-Curb team last year, I could see her stepping into the #27 car. But the Baker-Curb team has been starting-and-parking since Daytona, where their car crashed out early on. Jennifer markets herself well and has her own apparel companies, but that might not be enough funding to get her back on the track for more than a few carefully-planned laps.
Maybe there is justice, though. Phil Parsons' #66 Toyota, the car he insisted would run full Cup races in 2011? They blew an engine early on at Bristol today and finished dead last.
Then one team came along and made a mockery of the system. In 2008, a new team called MSRP Motorsports filed two Nationwide entries at Daytona. The team was owned by for driver-turned-broadcaster Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey, but that was all anyone knew; there was no team Web site, and Parsons would shrug off interview questions about his team. The questions were in regards to team performance; Parsons' two full-time teams failed to finish a single race in 2008. It wasn't just bad luck that brought the cars to the garage after five or ten laps week after week with brake or ignition troubles.
Parsons continued the charade in 2009, starting a Cup team (PRiSM Motorsports) to shadow his Nationwide Series operation. The MSRP Nationwide teams combined for two finishes in 2009 and 2010, both races where drivers with sponsorship started the cars; otherwise, they parked in every race, sometimes qualifying just outside the top-ten. The PRiSM Cup team ran about as well, making a full-race effort only when sponsored, and parking before the first pit sequence the rest of the time. After the 2010 season, it was announced that the Cup team would run part-time in 2011, attempting to finish the races. Not a word was said about the Nationwide team, but with the Car of Tomorrow chassis being phased in for 2011, it was doubtful that MSRP would field a new car in 2011. So much for the full-time start-and-park teams, we thought.
Enter Ed Rensi.
Back in the late '90s, former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi started an ARCA team for young driver Billy Venturini. Venturini was replaced by Jeff Finley, who followed the team to the Busch Series where he was replaced by veteran Kenny Wallace to get the team on track. Bobby Hamilton, Jr. joined the team in 2002, and in 2003 they had a breakthrough season with four victories and a strong fourth-place points run by season's end.
Since then, it's been a struggle. Hamilton went winless in 2004, was replaced by Mike McLaughlin and then Ashton Lewis, then a few other part-time drivers. Hamilton returned to the team in 2008, starting all but two races and scoring only two top-ten finishes all season. In 2009 and 2010, Eric McClure brought some sponsorship money to the team, but ran miserably. In a few years, Team Rensi Motorsports went from one of the most promising Busch-only teams to a backmarker that was dependent upon Hamilton's personal money to finish the 2008 season.
Last year, Kevin Lepage, a Vermont veteran on the downswing of his career, announced he would pilot the Rensi #24 Ford. In the press release, he explained how he was pleased to be racing, not just start-and-parking as he had resorted to since 2008. Rumors had it that Rensi would enter a second car for Kelly Bires, a promising driver whose big chance in one of Dale Jr.'s Chevrolets was cut short twice in 2010, once by sponsorship and then when Tony Eury fired him a few races into the season. Meanwhile, as Eric McClure moved his sponsorship dollars to another team, he lamented how he had rarely had enough money to buy tires in 2010, forcing him to nurse the car to a poor finish on worn rubber.
Lepage and Bires showed up at Daytona in 2011, and within five laps, Kevin Lepage was limping toward the garage area in his #24 Ford Mustang. Bires was not too far behind. Lepage made a few more laps, but his debut was a bit concerning for a driver who had promised to race in 2011.
And like MSRP Motorsports, it wasn't just bad luck. After three races, Kevin Lepage had completed only 40 of 520 total laps. Kelly Bires had completed 29 laps...total. At Bristol, Kevin crashed in the third practice session Friday. Shortly afterwards, the #24 team withdrew their entry. Their backup car, after all, was the #25 car...the car that completed two laps on Saturday before parking the car due to "handling problems."
And so we have a rising-star team that has become something of a punch line this year. Ed Rensi has not been shy about the financial problems of the series; he said years before that he had lost sponsorship from McDonald's because they insisted on putting a Cup driver in their car. Yet how encouraging is it to a sponsor when a team cannot bother to attempt more than a few laps each week? The Rensi cars have some sponsorship - from a Web site that claims to leverage local sponsors for small teams - but the fenders of the Rensi cars have been sponsorless for the most part. And what sponsor would want to support a car that disappears ten laps into the race? Worse yet, by withdrawing from Bristol, Lepage eliminated his shot at a guaranteed start based on race attempts. If they were to secure a sponsor, it would be a long, hard road from here. Bires is no better off, a tough break for a driver who was pegged as a championship hopeful before the 2010 season. There is a Team Rensi Web site...but all it promises is that the team will be "racing" in 2011. Parking a car after a mile of driving is not racing.
I don't think there's any doubt that this business of racing is expensive. Junior Johnson once said that the best way to make a small fortune in auto racing was to start with a large one. In the last five or six years, we've seen the departure of such long-term, visible NASCAR sponsors as Kodak and General Motors, with others like Interstate Batteries, DuPont and Budweiser scaling back their programs. Even Jack Roush has had difficulty selling sponsorship programs; his Nationwide programs are largely sponsorless, and early in the 2010 season he was struggling to find backers for Matt Kenseth's season.
But this is about making mediocrity an art form. It's about finishing last with a purpose, being out there to collect a paycheck instead of trying to earn that paycheck. It's about qualifying for a race with no intent to race, while other teams with a desire to compete go home early. It's a shame, really.
As a parting note, the start-and-park battle got exciting in a neighboring garage stall Saturday as well. Before the season, Jennifer Jo Cobb had signed on with Second Chance Motorsports to run in the Nationwide Series, pooling Second Chance's small team with Jennifer's Truck Series pit crew and her marketability. Immediately before the race yesterday, Jennifer informed Rick Russell, team owner, that she refused to start the car, nor would her pit crew pit the car. When the press caught up with Jennifer, she explained that ten minutes before the race, she was told that she would be parking the car within a few laps, and if she did not, he would order NASCAR to black-flag the #79 Ford. Moreover, she would not be in the car at California. Jennifer insisted that she would not start-and-park her car to collect a paycheck, and quit minutes before the race. Rick Russell insisted that Jennifer and team knew of the start-and-park arrangement when they arrived at the track. He managed to put another driver in the car Saturday, too...who made four laps and returned the car safely to the garage area. Ultimately, it cost Jennifer Jo Cobb her ride. She claims another owner "has her back," and judging by a brief relationship with the Baker-Curb team last year, I could see her stepping into the #27 car. But the Baker-Curb team has been starting-and-parking since Daytona, where their car crashed out early on. Jennifer markets herself well and has her own apparel companies, but that might not be enough funding to get her back on the track for more than a few carefully-planned laps.
Maybe there is justice, though. Phil Parsons' #66 Toyota, the car he insisted would run full Cup races in 2011? They blew an engine early on at Bristol today and finished dead last.
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