Chicago Post Race Report

Tomorrow...

Up to 19th in practice

Well he went from 41st in second practice to 19th in final practice. Not something to be extatic about, but better than 41st anyway. I predict he'll work his way up and hopefully the team will adjust it to move it in the top ten and beyond. I just hope his day goes better than Rick Crawford's did today (Truck driver, #14, My guy...he crashed :()

Let's go Sterling!

Sterling starting 37th

I didn't get to see qualifying, but I guess I didn't miss anything :( He'll start 37th, or I guess 36th because Kurt has to go to the back. Either way, it's disappointing but he was 46th in practice, so I'm not surprised. According to the Ginn PR thing they put out, the car felt pretty good actually, but they were losing a few tenths somewhere. I also heard that Sterling said on MRN that they got something from the 13 and the 01, but they didn't have time to put it in :(

At least he didn't wreck or have any major issues though. And he didn't the top 35 provisional. So that's something. Hopefully it'll be a fun race of watching Sterling work his way through the field. Let's just hope that his spotter does a good enough job of keeping him out of trouble. If they could unload fast then that wouldn't be a problem...but oh well.

Dale Jr. and Bud no more

Today Hendrick Motorsports announced that Jr. will NOT be sponsored by Budweiser in 2008. "We have agreements in place with sponsors for the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, which prevent us from having a relationship with Budweiser,"

It's rumored that Budweiser will sponsor Kasey Kahne. Evernham confirms that they have had talks with Bud, but Budweiser has also talked with other teams. Kahne would fit in well with the demographic. It is also rumored that Bud will end up with one of the Busch brothers. If Kyle goes to DEI, then I think that this is a very likley scenerio.

But who will sponsor Jr.? Rumor has it that it'll be VISA or Pepsi. I don't really care, but I hope it's not Pepsi, I like Jr. but I HATE Pepsi. I guess we'll just have to wait and see now. I just hope that nobody got a Jr. Budweiser tattoo.

Sponsorship woes

When I found out that the number 13 and 14 cars were unsponsored at New Hampshire, I was at a barn where I had been staying at for a week. One of the owner's is a Sterling fan, and he was telling me about qualifying. I asked him where he qualifyed and I thought THAT was bad enough (41st, if you don't remember), "But the worst part is he was in an all black car," That certaintly was the worst part.

The reason for this? Ginn felt that it would make it clearer to sponsors that they needed them. While this is true, it also made the team look bad, like the team nobody wanted. Why would anyone want to give $12 to that?

I don't see why Sterling and Joe can't find sponsors and guys outside of the top 35 can. At least Sterling and Joe are garunteed into the show every week. And if not for some bad luck they would both be way higher in the standings. Unfortunatly, not many big important company people WATCH NASCAR so they wouldn't realize that Sterling has had some good runs this year.



I'm mad at Waste Management for bailing out. I don't know how much they've decided to leave, hopefully not completley. But if you noticed last week the quarter panels on his car were bare. Normally, Ginn would just put the Ginn logo on it, but I guess again he wants to show that there's room.

Jay Frye said about a week and a half ago that they were coming close on a sponsorship deal for Sterling, but I haven't heard anything else on that since. Hopefully it didn't fall through. I wish the Panasonic thing had worked out, I REALLY liked that car.

I was mad about the whole situationa and I still kind of am, but really it's just kind of sad. Sterling wants to go out with a bang, but how is he supposed to do that if they can't find a sponsor? I just hope that he isn't kicked to the curb because of all of this. So if anyone knows somone that's really high up in a super rich company, then maybe you could pull a few strings?

Where will Kyle Busch land?

Kyle Busch could land in a pile of horse manure for all I care, but since I guess he's an important person in the NASCAR world, I'll talk about him. I haven't read any rumors about him, so this is all just coming straight from what I think.

I think that Kyle Busch could very well switch manufacturers, so I wouldn't automatically eliminate all non-Chevy teams like we could do with Jr. I also think that he wants to be top dog at an organization, I don't think that's a good idea from an owner's standpoint, but I think that's what Kyle wants. We know he couldn't go to Roush, because the inn is all ready overbooked there, so count them out. I wouldn't suspect him to go to a Toyota team, because he also wants to win races, and we all know how impatient he is. He's not going to want to wait for a team to develop, so that eliminates all the Toyota teams, Haas, Hall of Fame, Robby Gordon's team, Morgan McClure, and probably Ginn. I know that many people suspect he's going to Penske (okay, so I've payed a little bit of attention), but I don't think so. Penske is probably going to add Sam Hornish Jr. in the near future, and I don't think they'd be ready to take on two teams so quickly. Evernham is way over his head as it is, he doesn't need a Busch to complicate that even more. So what does that leave us with?

DEI-They're looking for a replacement for Jr, and they've shown with Martin Truex that they can play with the big boys. And how ironic would it be if he ended up in Jr's old ride?

Gibbs-I don't know if he'd quite fit in with the other drivers, but look where Jr. ended up! I'm not quite sure that Gibbs wants to take on another team right now, but I could be wrong. Gibbs is a top team that can deal with Hendrick, the kind of place that Busch probably wants. He might not want to be teammates with Tony though, because then he'd be in the same place that he was at Hendrick.

RCR-Kevin Harvick doesn't want him as a teammate, but I think it's a real possibility. I don't think that Childress would be at all "afraid" of Busch, in fact, Childress has taken in similar drivers (Kevin Harvick) and honed their ability. They're a top team and I don't think Busch would be seen totally at the bottom. He'd probably feel a little left out though, because I think that the Burton/Harvick combination is a really strong one. I expect that Childress will try to get Busch, and I don't think Busch would mind driving for RCR.

TJ let go

As many of you probably know, Ginn has layed off quite a few employees latley, and I have just been informed that one of them was our good friend TJ. TJ was Sterling's spotter, and a damn good one at that. This year he kept our guy out of countless wrecks and helped to encourage Sterling. Not only did he tell Sterling when he was clear, but was never short on jokes and "good jobs" either. You could easily tell that Sterling trusted TJ and that they had a good relationship. I'm pretty upset with the decision to lay him off, because it was obvious to me that TJ was a great guy and a great spotter. He will be replaced by the spotter from the #4 Busch team, which got shut down (or "opperations suspended"). He better be damn good, because with the luck Sterling has, he needs a good spotter to help keep him out of those wrecks tend to come his way. Not that Sterling doesn't know how to keep himself out of trouble, but behind every great driver there's a great spotter.

TJ, you will be missed! Good luck with whatever you do in the future!