Comments on: Who’s To Blame For The Plight of JR Motorsports’ Other Driver?

By: grumpyoldman

grumpyoldman — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:35:43 +0000

Kelly Bires running for a championship? That’s rich.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:05:56 +0000

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.

By: Neon

Neon — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:33:26 +0000

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.

By: Karrie

Karrie — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:50:36 +0000

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.

By: red

red — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:44:08 +0000

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.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:24:09 +0000

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.

By: Joe W.

Joe W. — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:34:58 +0000

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.

By: T.C.

T.C. — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:04:49 +0000

Rachel: Where do you find sarcasm or a bias in Journo’s piece, except for the opening sentence?

By: JT

JT — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:36:03 +0000

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.

By: rachel

rachel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:20:48 +0000

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?