There Are No Guarantees In Racing; Ask Bryan Clauson

Yet another tough lesson that will bear its ugly head to everyone at some point or another in their career is the fact that there are no guarantees in racing.  It makes no difference whether you are a driver, crew member, or team owner.  Sometimes, circumstances are just beyond your control.

The most recent example of this lesson came to light Wednesday, when we heard that the combined Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing would be shutting down its Nationwide Series program for 2009 and that most of the team had been let go.  Not too many of us saw this coming, as we all thought the team had backing from Fastenal to run the entire NNS schedule with Bryan Clauson at the wheel.  Here is where those circumstances you can’t control jump up and bite you.

Apparently part of the funding package behind the team, along with the Fastenal dollars, was money from Dodge.  With EGR becoming a Chevrolet team in 2009, Dodge obviously wouldn’t be continuing their relationship with the #40, so something had to be done.  We’ve heard EGR attempted to move the Fastenal deal up to their Cup program, but the suits at Fastenal balked at that idea.  It was then that Fastenal decided to look elsewhere.

While nothing is official, we keep hearing that Richard Childress Racing is the leading candidate to land the industrial and construction supply company.  The deal would most likely be for a partial schedule on one of RCR’s NNS cars. 

Anyways, back to the topic at hand.  As you can see, things can go south in a hurry.  Even as recently as a few days ago, Bryan Clauson and the entire #40 team were preparing for a full run at the 2009 NNS Championship.  Now Clauson is without a ride, and several guys are jobless.  It happens.

It is probably one of the toughest challenges those of us in the sport face.  You can never really get comfortable in a position because everything could change tomorrow.  And I think for those that do get comfy, this can be especially tough.  Look at all those let go from DEI, ECR, and all the other teams.  Some of those employees had been at these companies for 5 years, 10 years, or longer.  I guarantee some of these folks didn’t know they were in trouble.

The other hard part about these situations, is that you can’t hide from them.  Smaller teams are often those to fall first, but you can’t escape the reality by working for a larger, more established team.  Two years ago, DEI was a Cup Series mainstay.  Now look where they are.  Everyone is at risk.

As we inch closer to Daytona in February, we can only hope that we won’t hear any more stories like this.  There are already too many people looking for work, we don’t need any more.  And hopefully the sponsorship folks at EGR will come through and find somebody to back Bryan Clauson.  It sure would be nice to hear some good news for a change.

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