We’re only eight races into the season and already the chaotic silly season has come full circle. There is talk of Greg Biffle leaving Roush, Martin Truex leaving DEI for Childress, Carl Edwards becoming the newest guy to drive the big brown truck, and now Tony Stewart to exit Joe Gibbs Racing. Now unfortunately I can’t shed anymore light onto the situation than has already been shed, but I will add my two cents for what they’re worth.
Lets begin over in Concord with the Roush-Fenway teams. Greg Biffle’s contract comes up at the end of the season and he has not made any guarantee to stay. Earlier this month he said that he is 90% sure that he’ll stay with the organization. This is far less than an assurance he’ll stay with the team. Another interesting issue with this is that Roush must get rid of one of their teams to stay within the four team limit (they currently run five teams). Now this is not really an issue since the “partnership” that they now have with Yates. If you forgot, this is the partnership where former Roush chief Max Jones heads up RYR with Doug Yates; where they now occupy a building, far from as nice as the one they had in Mooresville, in the Roush complex; where Roush driver Travis Kvapil drives one of the Yates cars; and where strangely many if not all of the components are from Roush. That is neither here nor there though.
That brings us to Carl Edwards who has one sponsor possibly at the door, and another knocking it down. Office Depot, who is currently experiencing some financial issues, and less than happy shareholders, may not be willing to pay what Roush is asking, reported to about $24 million. From what I hear they have even been out around town, including a stop at Chip Ganassi Racing. What this means for their future at Roush is unclear. UPS who wants out from under Michael Waltrip racing seems more than willing to foot the bill and have the young driver represent their brand.
Up in Mooresville discontent may be growing from now DEI team leader Martin Truex Jr. His dismal performances in large part due to equipment may be the thing that drives him from the team. With an opening at Richard Childress Racing, Truex may be the right guy for the spot. If his performances don’t improve very soon this may become a real possibility.
Heading south to Huntersville, Joe Gibbs cornerstone Tony Stewart is now being rumored to Haas CNC Racing. This was reported almost two weeks ago by Lee Spencer, but everyone dismissed it as a crazy rumor. Now they are changing their tunes. Haas CNC has had their fair share of troubles over the last year. Johnny Sauter was released after last season and Jeremy Mayfield, who took Sauter’s spot, was released after Texas due to abysmal performances. In addition team owner Gene Haas now sits in federal prison after he plead guilty to tax fraud. He is scheduled to be released in late 2009. Needless to say this would be a real coup for the team. Providing Stewart with 50% ownership of the team would be a small price to pay for a winning program and one of the most popular drivers in the sport today.
Every year Silly Season gets longer and longer. With seven months left in the season anything could happen and I doubt we’ll be getting answers any time soon. None the less it’s part of what we love about the sport. Stay tuned!
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on Jun 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Mayfield and K. Wallace, Are they real bonafide drivers or just wannabes? I would like to see them in real quality rides so we could see for ourselves. Give them both a year.