February 9th, 2010 
Journo So get this, JR Motorsports has three drivers. I know, it’s almost hard to believe.
In all seriousness, this week has got to be the pits for Kelly Bires. He started the month hopeful he’d be making his JR Motorsports debut at Daytona with Dale Earnhardt Jr., only to find out he was being booted from the ride in favor of Danica Patrick.
Now Danica is obviously an easy target. It looks pretty bad for her that Kelly Bires is now out of a ride (for Daytona). In one breath she says she’s got to consider he’s running for a championship and in the next she says “I want more racing.” While it’s a safe bet to start the blame game here I would caution you to wait.
As for Jr.’s ride in Daytona, the sponsor obligations were in place long ago. No matter what happened with the #5/#7, he was going to be in the #88. Why doesn’t Jr. just pony up the money you might ask? Again, while it might be easy to go here, this is not the problem (Click here for a response to that question and others).
You might be asking, who then is to blame? The long and short of it is the front office, though not the part you might think. The part I’m talking about is the part responsible for selling the team to corporate America. Through a tough economy and an inability to close any big new prospects (other than Danica and GoDaddy), the team finds itself short on sponsors; and as we know sponsors make the world go round.
I say this not suggesting that selling multi-million dollar deals is an easy thing. It most definitely is not. I do struggle though to understand how they were never able to lock everything up for Bires, when others have been able to. They even lost a sponsor in Fastenal. Mind you, Roush is notorious for undercutting other teams’ offers (they then are notorious for driving sponsors out of the sport, or out their front door); but that still isn’t a great excuse.
Roush was able to re-sign Conway Freight with Colin Braun this season, and last season Penske brought on Verizon (without logos in the Cup Series) to sponsor David Stremme and Justin Allgaier. While these situations certainly vary, they all lack the fundamental strength of JR Motorsports – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I can’t say why JR hasn’t been able to sign any big new sponsorships. They could be asking for too much money, or they might not be offering enough support, who knows. What I do know is, is a team that operates as a satellite of Hendrick Motorsports and is owned by the most popular driver in the sport shouldn’t be struggling on the sponsorship front like they are.
So don’t blame Danica. She brings with her money and star-power and an existing commitment to run races with a partner she brought.
As we say here so often, this is a business, and this situation is a great example of the reality of that.
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I blame Dale Jr.’s beard for Kelly Bires’ plight.
Maybe Kelly Earnhardt isn’t the great businesswoman we have all thought she was?
too bad for Bires..being replaced by someone with no long term goals this year must sting..but we all know jr does not have a head for business anyway. teressa looks smarter each race that he’s mired in the back trying to polish his persona
I’m a little confused, Bires would have been racing in an unsponsored car if Danica did NOT race at Daytona, OR was Go Daddy suppose to be his sponsor?
Another thing to remember (if I’m remember correctly what I read some where last week) that if JRM bought a third car to Daytona there was no guarantee that the third car would make the race. They have two, and only two, cars in the top 35. So pouring money into a third team and hoping it makes the race is a big gamble for anyone with or without a sponsor.
I can’t say I really blame anyone (ok maybe the front office a little for lack of sponsorship), to me it’s all apart of racing / doing business.
Windowlicker- I stand corrected. It was the beard.
Journo-nice piece.
I have the answer for “who is to blame” and its not DP, or JR, or JMS marketing, certainly not Kelly Bires or even the stinky economy. No folks, it is us…the fans. You betcha! NASCAR fans all too often settle for mediocrity in performance for the sake of brand loyalty. I have literally seen fans leave their seats and head home as soon as JR drops out. Never considering they could be missing the ultimate dogfight to the checker between two (or more) drivers that they are not loyal to. I give kudos to JR and DP who are very successful marketing pawns. They have this “show” figured out.
Now, I’m not necessarily a Kurt Bush or Ricky Craven fan. They are both, well sorry to say somewhat goofy looking and probably look awfully sad in a bikini, but watch this wonderful footage from Darlington then….you tell me if you would rather see talent perform or merely an info-mercial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV7hAz-75UA
I am not so naïve to the fact that money drives the sport, but plucking a line from one of the referenced articles sadly sums it up…
“The bottom line is that in this struggling economy, a driver who can bring money trumps a driver who can bring talent. Teams would prefer both, but if given a choice, most are taking the former (see: John Wes Townley).”
Ok, Ok…I’m stepping down off my soapbox now.
On the contrary womenshouldwatch, Jr has a great mind for business. He is the one who has signed the employees at JRM including the drivers and pit crews. He and his staff train the future of Nascar. Unfortunately, the one going after sponsorship is slipping.
Journo, sarcasm looks very unflattering on this site. I thought at last we would have a Nascar site that would report without bias. Have you done a 180 degree turnaround?
Somehow, I sense that the “invisible hands” of ESPN and NASCAR are at play here.
If Kelly Bires runs the JRM car this Saturday, the race might have a 1.5 or 1.6 TV rating. But if Danica runs the JRM car, then The Duce will probably see a Nielsen north of 2.0. Furthermore, DP is probably good for an additional 10K+ raceday ticket sales.
Business is business: Danica moves the ratings/tickets needles, Kelly does not.
Rachel: Where do you find sarcasm or a bias in Journo’s piece, except for the opening sentence?
Danica didn’t take Bires ride. Jr. took Bires ride, due to a contractual agreement. Danica is in the 7 car. That is her car for the schedule she is running. Jr. is driving the 88 car. That is Bires car. At this point I blame management for bringing in a driver for a “full time” ride and then having no car for him at Daytona. Danica had said all along that running Daytona was a posability depending on how she did in the ARCA race. She did well and enjoyed herself. If she is really going to make the transition to Nascar then she needs the seat time. I really do not see how anyone can blame her for Bires situation. I think he will do fine this year and this is a good opportunity for him but he is not exactly a proven championship driver either.
Joe W… your assessment is spot on. Apparently some believe contractual obligations means nothing.
GoDaddy sponsors the 7 car and is the single reason it even exists, as such it goes to Danica.
The 88 car is Jr’s via a contractual obligation with Hellmann’s and specifically for the Nationwide race.
The crux of the problem is not with those two rides but with the cost to field a third one, due to expense it just isn’t going to happen.
just to agree w/joe w (and i can’t help it, joe w: whenever i see you screen name, i smile and think of joe weatherly!) the 7 was never intended to be bires’s ride. that car did not exist at jrm until go daddy and danica signed. the 88 was the n’wide car all along and was intended for bires.
for daytona, however, the sponsor — hellman’s — wanted earnhardt jr in the car, not bires. rather than lose the sponsorship, jrm agreed. so bires was out at daytona b/c of sponsor requirement, not b/c of anything else.
gluck has an interesting article about the situation at his sbnation site and i recommend people read it before continuing to blame patrick for whatever did/didn’t happen to bires.
like or dislike danica patrick for whatever reason you choose but “stealing kelly bires’s ride” is not a valid reason.
Well, if Kelly Bires is being so abused, then why doesn’t he pack up his tent and head to another Nationwide team? Oh, that’s right…there aren’t that many teams that will take on an unproven kid and give him a ride.
Kelly has not complained, that I’ve seen, nor is he playing the “poor me” card. He knows that he’s very lucky to be in the seat he’s in and I’ve read where they will run a good deal of his races unsponsored.
So personally, I’m not sure why we need to “villanize” anyone here. No one is a victim that I can see but hey, in this day and age of entitlement, I guess he can be up in arms about getting a shot at the big time that maybe ain’t perfect but it’s up to him to make the most of it.
JRM has done ok so far. I say they’ll do right by Kelly Bires in the long run.
Here is a novel idea. JR buys a NW ride w/ a team for Bires to compete and collect at least some pts for Saturday. Neither JMS team 88 or 7 are adversely affected. Sponsor, or no sponsor, you cannot tell me that is no a drop-n-the-bucket for JR. Heck, what happened to the days when teams picked up local sponsorship the week of a race. It can be done.
I’m headed south to Daytona Beach for Th, Fr and Sat races. If Bires is in the field, I’ll ceratinly pull for him and hope he beats #88 and #7.
I was thinking what Neon was. If he is supposed to be running for the Championship, ask a start and park team to take him as their driver for Daytona. At least if he finishes last, he gets the minimum points as opposed to zero. In truth though, as long as Cup guys are allowed to be in the series, he has no chance at a championship this year anyway.
Kelly Bires running for a championship? That’s rich.