IHMO I think he would, at most, run part time again w/ Champions rights and mentor the remainder.

As much as MM has said that he didn’t “have” to win the Cup to consider himself successful, deep down he does “need” to win it to feel content. You don’t finish 2nd that many times only to be left without. I just hope the points differential from running 1st at Indy vs 2nd to JJ doesn’t cement another 2nd fiddle spot for Mark at the banquet.

I think Rick may have pulled this deal last year to keep Keselowski from going to another team. Im sure Brad could have got a full time ride this year in cup. Rick added to his races this year by putting him in HMS cars with Finch racing.

Question for anyone: Would Martin still run full time next year if he wins the cup this year?

On Vicker, his contract is up and can be released, but mark my words, Red Bull has invested a lot on Scott Speed, they will not release him, maybe not racing in the Cup, but they will keep him, that’s there boy. Vickers would be the one out if they want another driver.

As for leaving toyota, I agree with about the support, but consider this, Hendrick and Stewart-Haas Racing are having huge success this season, Red Bull wants that too and they might believe that with Hendrick equipment and support, they might be able to successed, plus Brad Keselowsk is a good driver, he might fit in there only if they are moving to Chevrolet.

BTW: Chevrolet might not give them factory support anymore or very little, but consider this, if I were starting a team today in the Cup Series, I would want Hendrick equipment and support, that is worth its weight in gold if I could get the right people in place. I.e like Stewart-Haas Racing has done.

I don’t think NASCAR cares either about team owners semi-owning teams like is going on with Roush-Yates and Hendrick-et al. When they set a 4-team limit, the economy was way different and sponsors were throwing hookers through bedroom windows to get spots on cars. Everyone had excess money and NASCAR was the popular marketing tool earlier this decade. Now, everyone is rolling pennies to get by and no one wants to “waste” money sponsoring a stock car. I doubt they intervene with these guys at all, maybe down the road they will if the sponsor dollars start rolling in again.

I agree that dumping Vickers would be a mistake for TRB. While I never see BV being a champion, he is pretty good and pretty mature now. He can provide solid feedback to the engineers. TRB suffered through a year with Dinger learning the cars, just in time to dump him as he is starting to improve. They are living through it again with Speed.

I think Brad is talented, but not as talented as he thinks he is. I think he has been reading too many of his own press clippings. He still makes too many mistakes and wrecks too many people.

I also agree that NASCAR is not going to do anything to stop the alliances. Before this rule was adopted, technically no owner could have more than 2 cars. It had nothing to do with who actually owned stock in the company. It was just when you paid for the owner’s license who you listed. That is why you saw Papa Joe, Kenseth, Gordon, Geoff Smith, etc…

When they adopted this rule, you already had alliances between JGR/HOF, HMS/MB2 and Roush/Wood/Yates. It was very easy to see how this was going to unfold. Not that they wanted to, but IF they WANTED to, that was the time to stop it.

Now I realize the JJ/JG Martinsville duel was short track and not Indy, where MM just loses the front end and cannot get close to JJ in theory. But fancy this, if Indy was the final race of the chase and they were about tied MM would have stuck his nose in deep and influenced JJ to just about wreck to take the win. If JPM was shuffled to second at the restart behind JJ, last race or not he goes in much, much deeper on JJ than MM did.

See how you guys remember that Martinsville race? You loved it, right? But you had to go back to 2007 to find a thrilling example of a teammates duke’in it out for the coveted trophy. That’s what I’m talk’in about!

IMHO Teammates “points race” with each other most of the time, but not until it gets down to crunch time to they pull the gloves off. That’s why I like 1st time winners. There is a sense of “I may not get this opportunity again…..ever!”.

Being of an on-track mind set, you are right, the last thing I want to see is teammates, or not, take one another out. That’s too easy. I want “all’ competitors to absolutely push the envelope as if there is no tomorrow. Professionals will find a way to get it done with some leaning on each other. When teammates aplenty are involved, there is always that second set of “what ifs” that flash through the mind at speed. Seems like the worst sport for teams selecting the “chosen” rider is cycling Tour de France. At least this year there was some inter-team trash talking. On the flip side, how about Michael Phelps beating the Serbian dude last w/e after trash talk. That my friend, if you happened to catch it live, was a race fueled by pure passion and intensity.

Can’t really use the Pruett and Pablo saga. Those two were about as far from teammates as you could get. Heck! Chipster didn’t mind a bit that JPM made a stupid dive bomb move in Mexico because Ganassi had something to prove bringing over the F1 defector (in Latin America to boot). That Busch race was a throw away for Chip w/ two non-points drivers…hardly a comparison to the teammate issue. I would have, however, loved to have been in “that” post race mtg w/ the three amigos.

Just trying to stir the TNI pot.

off topic: Nascar is making a mistake by limiting teams to only 4 cars. In this economy if a team can get sponsorship and afford the cars they should be able to have all the cars they want. I understand the reasoning behind it but now that the economy is as bad as it is that rule should be placed on hold until things turn around.

How much influence does Dale Jr wield in this deal I wonder?