Any thoughts on what might be happening with the JGR groups? I just cannot believe the "errors" lately not including the on-track stuff.

Posted by CJ4Tony14, Oct 3 2008

jayski



Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) announced that NASCAR veteran Robert "Bootie" Barker will be the crew chief of the #55 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota driven by two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip for the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season. Bobby Kennedy, who has worked with Waltrip in multiple roles for over a decade, is moving into a crucial management position at MWR. "Our organization continues to grow and add depth in several key areas," Waltrip said. "Bringing Bootie on as my crew chief is part of a larger plan that enables Bobby Kennedy to move into a critical management position. We have discussed this move since the summer, but waited until we were able to hire a crew chief of Bootie's caliber and we're really glad to have him join MWR."
"I really appreciate the confidence that Michael has in me," Barker said. "He has accomplished a lot in his racing career and the fact that he wanted me to be his crew chief goes a long way for me personally. Everyone I met from the crew chiefs to the management team are very welcoming and they are all racers. I’m looking forward to being able to help the #55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry team achieve their short-term and long-term goals."(MWR PR) see full PR on my #55 Team News and Links page.(10-1-200 Comment here

Posted by Buckeyefan, Oct 1 2008

jayski


hearing that Marcos Ambrose and Little Debbie's could be moving to Michael Waltrip Racing in 2009 and Ambrose would not run in the Cup Series for JTG Racing.(9-22-200
UPDATE: JTG Daugherty Racing hasn't named a manufacturer for next season when it moves full time to the Sprint Cup Series from the Nationwide Series but the team was working out of a Michael Waltrip Racing hauler on Saturday at Kansas Speedway. JTG Daugherty, which qualified on speed for Sunday's Cup race with driver #47-Marcos Ambrose, had a hauler fire in June that destroyed one of its transporters. The team got some help from Richard Childress Racing when it qualified for the Allstate 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in late July. But could the team working out of a MWR hauler at Kansas be a sign of a potential affiliation and a move to Toyota? JTG Daugherty currently fields Fords. "Obviously we have a really good relationship with Michael Waltrip Racing," Geschickter said. "At this point, we're not ready to announce anything. But we know them better than most in the fact that we were able to go straight over there and borrow some equipment."(SceneDaily.com)(9-28-200
UPDATE 2: JTG Daugherty Racing has signed what team co-owner Brad Daugherty called a "technical alliance" with Michael Waltrip Racing, and thus will field Toyota Camrys full-time in the Sprint Cup Series beginning in 2009. The deal will be announced formally Wednesday afternoon. Under the agreement, JTG/Daugherty receives the same chassis, engines and technological information-sharing that Waltrip gets through Toyota Racing Development. "This way we don't come out of the box already behind," said Daugherty, reached by phone Wednesday. "Actually, this puts us about two years ahead of where we would have been otherwise." Daugherty, an ESPN NASCAR analyst, said the alliance includes the #47 team being housed under the MWR roof. Daugherty stressed there was still independence from MWR, however, saying it is not a merger and that the #47 is not a fourth Waltrip team. "We'll work with Toyota Racing Development out of Costa Mesa [Calif.], and all their parts and pieces already flow through MWR," Daugherty said. "It just makes sense for us to be in-house over [at MWR]." Marcos Ambrose will drive the #47 Toyota, with sponsorship from Little Debbie Snack Cakes and Clorox.(ESPN.com)(10-1-200 Comment here

Posted by Buckeyefan, Oct 1 2008

DEI wants replace sponsor Menard; Army as well in '09


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Bob Pockrass / SceneDaily.com
It wasn’t a good day for Dale Earnhardt Inc. Tuesday as it was announced that Paul Menard would leave for Yates Racing and take his family’s sponsorship with him.

Menard’s departure leaves DEI with only one driver-sponsor combination locked in for 2009 with Martin Truex Jr. and Bass Pro Shops. It has signed Aric Almirola to drive the No. 8 car next year, but that car also needs a sponsor as U.S. Army appears to going elsewhere, DEI Vice President of Motorsports John Story said Tuesday afternoon. The team also needs to obtain sponsorship for its fourth car, currently driven by Regan Smith.

“We don’t anticipate the Army will be here next year,” Story said. “We haven’t for quite some time. … It would be great to have both Army and Menards here, but we’ll work hard in spite of that.”

With all four cars having points in the top 35, Story said that makes them valuable.

“Rather than try to prioritize what the next steps would be, certainly we have to shore things up and make it work for all of our teams and our drivers,” Story said. “We have [top-35] points on all four cars. We’re going to finish the season that way. That’s something we’re all proud of, and that’s a testament to the work the people here have done.

“There are a lot of teams in the industry that would love to be in that position. While we may not have as much sponsorship as some other programs, we have some very valuable assets in terms of points and positions in the top 35 that very few teams do have. There’s a ton of value in that, and we’re certainly going to use that to our fullest advantage. We’re not going to let that evaporate.”

Could one of those scenarios include a merger?

“Through the last 12 months, there’s been a number of people that have contacted us about different scenarios, and none of them have made perfect sense to us,” Story said. “We’re always willing and ready to listen, but to discuss what the future holds would be premature.”

Story said he wasn’t surprised by Menard’s decision.

“Certainly we’ve been in long, long talks,” he said. “We had hoped the decision would be different, for sure. … Certainly today is a bad day, but it just makes us more determined and makes us want to work harder to see things through.”


Posted September 30, 2008 , 9:54 pm EST
Last Updated October 01, 2008 , 12:14 am EST
www.racegear.com

Posted by gfunkerror, Oct 1 2008

I figured that since articles from NASCAR.COM are popping up a lot
today I'd add this one to the mix. Wouldn't want it to look like a
favourites game, now would we?





Crew chief Steve Addington talked about the unexpected freefall from
first to 12th in the Chase standings even before further problems --
this time related to the fuel system in the No. 18 car -- led to yet
another disappointing finish of 28th in Sunday's race at Kansas
Speedway.

THIS IS SOME GOOD STUFF.. NEXT POST

Posted by NightPhoenix, Sep 30 2008

If I remember correctly 2009 is the year that all teams can have only 4 drivers and not 5? Roush has five, and there is a grandfather clause for 2009 so he can have all 5 for 2009. So I was wondering who will he cut for 2010? Maybe send one to Yates so they can still race with Roush engines? I don't think it will be Biffle since he just upgraded his contract.

Posted by JW81, Sep 30 2008

Skinner, Speed to share No. 84 for rest of season (Article at Nascar.com)

Posted by DCRacing1, Sep 30 2008

jayski
While many teams continue to search for sponsorship for the 2009 Sprint Cup season and beyond, one team that seems confident about sponsorship is Michael Waltrip Racing. MWR Executive Vice President Cal Wells said Saturday that he believes the team has enough sponsorship for two cars and three-quarters of another. He said he could envision the team running a fourth car part time in 2009. “I believe we’re in really good shape,” Wells said. “I’m hoping we’re actually going to run a fourth car. I don’t know that we can get it off, but we have so much in the pipeline.” As far as who would be teammates with already signed #55-Michael Waltrip and #44[will be #00 in 2009]-David Reutimann, Wells said the team hopes to re-sign Michael McDowell, who has run most of the season in a third car for MWR. “We’re selling hard around McDowell,” Wells said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff we’re working on. I honestly don’t know. There’s some [more] talent out there.” Wells also dismissed the idea that MWR would merge with another team [Like the Ganassi rumor]. “We’re looking at doing some service providing stuff with some folks that are trying to come in, kind of like the Hall of Fame [Racing] deals [with Joe Gibbs Racing],” Wells said. “We’re not to the point of announcing anything yet, but we’re looking for business. We’re not looking at [merging].”(SceneDaily.com)
AND: hearing that Marcos Ambrose and Little Debbie's could be moving to Michael Waltrip Racing in 2009 and Ambrose would not run in the Cup Series for JTG Racing.
AND II: also hearing that the other primary sponsor for Reutimann in the #00 Toyota in 2009 will be Dow Chemical Company.(9-22-200 Comment here

Posted by Buckeyefan, Sep 22 2008

Mike Harris / ThatsRacin.com
Changing a team from an also-ran to a serious contender can be an agonizingly slow and difficult process.

Nobody knows that better than Robbie Loomis, executive vice president of operations for Petty Enterprises.

The Petty team, one of NASCAR's pioneer organizations and long one of its most successful, is in the midst of an extensive overhaul intended to get back to the top nearly 30 years after Richard Petty won the last of his seven championships.

The team, which has 268 victories in its storied history, has won only three times since 1984, the last by John Andretti in 1999.

But Richard Petty and son Kyle are determined to turn things around. Hiring Loomis, who began his career with the Pettys and later became a championship crew chief with Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports in 2001, was the first big step in that direction.

The face of the team has changed considerably since Loomis came on board in late 2005.

Bobby Labonte, a former Cup champion, is now the lead driver and recently signed a contract extension. Loomis also hired Jeff Meendering, a former car chief for Gordon at Hendrick, to be Labonte's crew chief.

Earlier this year, the team moved 70 miles from its longtime home in Level Cross, N.C., to Mooresville, a suburb of Charlotte, the hub of stock car racing. And, in June, the Pettys sold majority interest in the family team, started in 1949 by Richard's father, Lee, to Boston Ventures, a private equity firm.

Outwardly, little has changed.

Labonte, now 44, is 20th in the season points, while 48-year-old Kyle Petty, drives only part time, sharing his team's second Dodge with 22-year-old Chad McCumbee, road racing ace Boris Said and two-time Cup champion Terry Labonte, Bobby's older and semiretired older brother.

But Loomis said the changes are working.


much more of article @ www.racegear.com

Mark my words, Robbie will get it done. He just needs Hendrick Chevys, LOL

Lee

Posted by gfunkerror, Sep 18 2008

Written by David Whisenant

MOORESVILLE, NC (WBTV) - Thieves made a fast getaway after taking three NASCAR racing engines from a well-known race shop in Mooresville.

Police say someone broke into the Roush/Yates engine shop and got away with three of the big Ford engines used by the team in the Nationwide and Truck Series.

If the thieves are thinking of dropping one of these engines under the hood, they better think again.

They are 358 cubic inch Ford racing engines known for putting out lots of horsepower. The engines are worth $50,000 each.

"These are not everyday engines, these are NASCAR specific engines, you can't put them in a car, plus they are Roush Yates engines, very specific," said Mooresville Police Lt. Joseph Cooke.

The engines were taken sometime Monday night from the shop off Mazeppa Road.

One of the workers said he knew it was going to be a bad day when he came to work and saw a big hole in the wall.

The hole is big enough for thieves to get inside, then open the door.

Each of the engines weigh more than 500 pounds. They're kept on rollers and that made it easy for thieves to roll them into a cargo van they happened to steal from another race team.

"They stole a Penske rental truck, like a cargo van and used the cargo van to load up the engines and take the engines away."

The thieves dumped the van, but made off with the engines. Unless they are in the racing business, they may find them tough to unload.

"Those are specialty items you'd have to be in NASCAR or the racing business to use them, you can't just put these engines in your car."

In a town where even the police cars resemble checkered flags, Roush Yates will be hoping for some swift justice.

If you can help Mooresville Police, call them at 704-664-3311, or South Iredell Crime Stoppers at 704-658-9056. If your information leads to an arrest, you be eligible for a reward.

www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9027466&nav=menu1434_3

Posted by Bigdog333us, Sep 18 2008