Thursday, June 24, 2010

Parrott out before season hits halfway

Don’t set that pen and paper down just yet. More changes are on the way as NASCAR heads into New Hampshire this weekend. This time Matt Kenseth got his fifth crew chief in less than three years.

In a fairly surprising move, Jack Roush pulled Todd Parrott off of the #17 pit box just 15 races after he was sent in to replace Drew Blickensderfer. Parrott came from the research and development program at Roush-Fenway Racing, and to the R & D program he shall return.

What makes this move surprising is that Kenseth is sitting seventh in the points standings, well positioned to make the Chase after missing out the year before. The pair had pretty good runs together, including four top-five and seven top-10 finishes.

Parrott has always taken an aggressive approach to calling a race, and teaming him up with the #17 pit crew looked like a great combination, but there is a zero in the win column. The man replacing Parrott, Jimmy Fennig, is a championship crew chief in his own right. But still, why didn’t this work?

For that matter, why hasn’t Parrott been able to keep a job as a crew chief for one driver for an entire season? He won the 1999 championship with Dale Jarrett and had a fantastic run at Robert Yates Racing with 29 career victories.

Also, Parrott has always been fantastic at restrictor plate tracks, and Daytona is just two weeks away. The pair of Parrott and Yates was Dale Earnhardt Inc.-like in its restrictor plate dominance during the late ‘90s and early ‘00s.

However, since those glory days at Yates, Parrott has moved around as much as any driver during the last decade. In 2006, he moved to Petty Enterprises to work with Bobby Labonte and try to bring that organization back from the irrelevance. That didn’t work, as he left the organization in the middle of the season and returned to Yates.

He stayed at Yates from the end of the 2006 season until the organization merged with Hall of Fame Racing in 2009. Once again, Parrott was paired up with Labonte as they tried to make things work a second time. But, as in 2006, Parrott was replaced before the season was over, and he went to work in Roush’s R & D program.

Now, in 2010, he came in after Daytona to call the shots for Kenseth. Several races this year he has made a call on pit road that has directly led to a good finish for the #17. So why did this come to an end so quickly?

If Parrott would ever stay on one team for an entire season, or maybe even two for that matter, he could lead a team to contend for the championship. Instead, he either moves on or is replaced before the team can really come together as one.

This has been like the Baltimore Orioles replacing their manager every single season. Give the guy time, or for Parrott, give yourself time to get things turned in the right direction. Results don’t happen instantly. It takes time to build something, and Parrott hasn’t been with one team long enough to get any results.

When Jarrett won the championship in 1999, Parrott had been with that team for three full years. A championship isn’t won in one season. It takes time to build up to that level. Even the #48 team had to wait four years before winning its first championship in 2006.

So now Roush will continue to try and find lightning in a bottle with Fennig on the box. Maybe this will work out, but the #17 team probably is looking at a couple of years before it has a legitimate shot at the championship. All the pieces are there, but they have been for some time. They just haven’t stayed together long enough to produce anything.

10 comments:

  1. JM, I think Roush thought the championships would keep coming, so he stood pat. Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports kept plugging away and the #48 team has won four in a row. Unlike Roush's teams, the 48 team DOESN'T stand pat. They're always looking to improve. Unless Roush gets a handle on his teams, they'll slip slowly into irrelevance. Yes, he has teams that do make the Chase, but become nonfactors once they're in the Chase. Only Kurt Busch (2004) has delivered a championship to Roush. And if NOT for the Chase, Jimmie Johnson would have won the title in 2004. We'd be talking about Johnson as a FIVE time champion. I'm calling my shot now: Kenseth MISSES the Chase, as does Edwards. Only Biffle makes it from Roush's teams.

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  2. I'll clarify my statement: in the Chase era, only Kurt Busch has won a Championship for Roush.

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  3. jon_464 - And yet it should not be because of a lack of resources. Really, Roush is the only owner with as much to work with as Hendrick. Penske and Gibbs and Childress only have three teams while Roush really has about eight. I thought they would get things turned around this year but maybe next year is more realistic. I do think they will come back though. But, that new engine better be good. They can't afford for that whole deal to fall flat.
    Thanks!

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  4. I wonder why Parrott has such a hard time staying on the pit box - I dont really know him but have to imagine there is something wonky about his personality or how he gels with teams because his race calling seems good enough?

    I think Kenseth is still searching for the relationship he had with Robbie Reiser...they should have never split them up!

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  5. Can anyone remember how Todd Parrott cried all the time when Dale Jarrett would win a race? It wasn't like he was overjoyed, it was more like he had a major depressive disorder! DJ would still be winning if it was still the DJ/Yates/Parrott show!

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  6. JM, they are pushing ALL their chips to the center of the table re the new Ford engine. If it fails and has no more power than the current engine, they WILL be irrelevant for the next several years. But if the new engine takes off (no pun intended), they could easily contend for titles. I agree that next year would be more realistic.

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  7. klvalus - The break up of Kenseth and Reiser was maybe one of the worst decisions made this decade by any team. They had one of those magical driver-crew chief relationships.
    Thanks!

    ATHENS - Those were good days. I hate it that Yates isn't even its own organization anymore.
    Thanks!

    jon_464 - Exactly. This is a critical point for the Fords. If the engine doesn't work and they don't improve on the track it could be a long dry spell for Ford, which probably wouldn't be good for the sport in general as well.
    Thanks!

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  8. All the Parrotts are too old school for today's NASCAR. All the old guys that know their stuff.... but don't have that sparkling personality, end up at R&D.

    He is prickly, to say the least. Prickly gets old quick when you're not winning.

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  9. awesome point about Parrott and the restrictor plate races

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  10. Gene - It's unfortunate, for sure. There are several crew chiefs from days gone by that I wish were still out there each week.
    Thanks!

    Fireballr7 - If I had one chance to win a race, even in an underfunded car, I would want him on the box at a plate track. He is one of the best at those tracks I've ever seen.
    Thanks!

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