Penske Racing opens all kinds of possibilities with move to Ford in 2013

An offseason of near non-stop driver and team moves has carried right into the beginning of the 2012 NASCAR season.

Penske Racing announced Thursday it will switch manufacturers by ditching Dodge to return to Ford for the 2013 season, a move that sets up a long line of dominoes for the next Silly Season.

Over the last several years the number of Sprint Cup Series teams running Dodges had dwindled to just Penske and Robby Gordon. Now that number could drop to zero without Penske. Gordon is looking to sell his team or find investors to keep it afloat.

Team owner Roger Penske previously fielded Fords from 1994 through 2002 with Rusty Wallace leading the charge.

Ford Motor Co. had to offer Penske a pretty sweet deal to leave Dodge, even though “The Captain” said the move is not about money. Penske often talked about the virtues of being the only big-time team for an entire manufacturer, even though other manufacturers found success as more teams joined the fold.

Apparently prevailing assumptions that being on a manufacturer island is a bad thing are true. Penske might have gotten Dodge’s full support, but it still had just two full-time teams to use to gather information. Other manufacturers such as Ford and Chevrolet have as many as seven and nine teams that finished in the top 20 in points a year ago.

Still, Penske did well under the Dodge banner and consistently put cars in the championship Chase.

Just like with driver moves, this move by Penske is going to have a ripple effect throughout the sport. Dodge said it will remain in the sport and will unveil its 2013 Charger next week, but right now it doesn’t have a team lined up to drive those new cars.

People quickly turned to Richard Petty Motorsports as a likely candidate to move to Dodge, and there are decent reasons to think that might happen. RPM’s contract with Ford is up at the end of the season, and Petty has long been connected to the Dodge brand.

But, the Petty organization has had trouble just staying in existence throughout the past several years, and it is tough to think the organization suddenly has the resources to venture out on its own with a new manufacturer.

If they do, the performance on the track could be dreadful. Just think of the 2001-2006 stretch when Petty Enterprises switched to Dodge and never had a car finish in the top 20 in the points standings.

The other factor in this situation is how Roush-Fenway Racing will react to Penske’s move. Owner Jack Roush had been on a decade-long run in which he became Ford Racing in NASCAR. Anything associated with Ford was also associated with Roush. The “Cat in the Hat” might not welcome a new organization with open arms, especially if it doesn’t run Roush-Yates engines.

Penske hasn’t yet said how his organization will handle the engine situation. If Penske Racing runs its own engines, there likely won’t be much information flowing between Roush and Penske. If Penske does run the Roush-Yates engines, then he might as well be in the same position as what RPM is in now.

Either way, it didn’t take long for teams set their sights on the 2013 season even though the current season is only one race old.

With Penske’s move forcing a manufacturer to look for teams, the door is now wide open for all kinds of movement to begin.

Many NASCAR teams in worse sponsorship situation than when economy collapsed in 2008

NASCAR teams entered the 2009 season with a bleak outlook in financial and sponsorship terms, but the outlook for this season doesn’t look any better.

In fact, it might be worse.

As the 2008 NASCAR season came to a close, the United States economy was on the verge of disaster, and its struggles quickly affected NASCAR teams.

Many teams had to lay off large parts of their staff, and the Sprint Cup Series went from having nearly 43 fully funded teams to questions about whether enough cars would show up on a race weekend to fill the field.

It turned out that every race still had a full field, but more and more teams showed up to run just the first few laps in a race and then head home while collecting the prize money. Even then, cars with mostly full sponsorship packages filled the top 35 guaranteed spots in a race.

Now cars that finished last season in the Chase might not even have full sponsorship for the 2012 season. Matt Kenseth, who finished fourth in the points standings last year, has sponsorship lined up for less than half of the season so far.

Several teams are still looking to put together a sponsorship package to fund the entire season, and other teams have completely shut down.

Red Bull Racing has fielded two cars since 2008, but it folded at the end of the 2011 season for financial reasons. TRG Motorsports won’t return in 2012 after fielding one full-time car for the past three seasons, and Front Row Motorsports, has yet to announce its plans for the upcoming season.

In addition, some of the big-time teams are cutting back, as well. Roush-Fenway Racing will run Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the #6 car for the Daytona 500, but it currently doesn’t have any sponsorship for the race, and the #6 car could very well be shut down for the remainder of the season.

The #33 driven by Clint Bowyer for the past three seasons will cease to exist as Bowyer moves to the #15 car for Michael Waltrip Racing. Richard Petty Motorsports recently tabbed Aric Almirola to drive the #43 car, but it doesn’t have any sponsorship as of yet. Even Tommy Baldwin Racing’s two cars currently don’t have a sponsor.

All of these changes could lead to a season where less than 30 teams have sponsorship to run the entire schedule.

Last season 30 teams ran all 36 races. A few others attempted to run every race and didn’t qualify on time. However, this season there could be cars in the top 35 in the points standings that won’t have the money to show up at the track.

TV ratings improved in the 2011 season, and attendance numbers started to stabilize after several years of freefall. At least it appears fan interest in the sport has stabalized, if not started to grow once again.

Hopefully this is rock bottom and money will start flowing back into the sport throughout the 2012 season and years beyond. But, the current situation might be the toughest stretch NASCAR teams have ever faced.

For his sake, Clint Bowyer needs to stay at RCR

Carl Edwards announced he will return to Roush-Fenway Racing in 2012, Danica Patrick announced she will go to NASCAR full-time next season and Dale Earnhardt Jr. has all but announced he will stay at Hendrick Motorsports long term.

But, the Silly Season isn't quite finished.

While it seems most of the NASCAR rides are accounted for in 2012, there is still one nagging situation that won’t wrap up. Clint Bowyer still needs a contract for next season.

When Edwards announced he would stay in a Ford next season, the talk was that everybody else would stay in their current ride, including Bowyer. Reports said Bowyer and Richard Childress were close to a deal and just hammering out sponsorship for the full season.

Now, less than a month later, it sounds more and more like Bowyer might not return to the #33 car. Reports are that the organization is still having trouble securing sponsorship, and Bowyer doesn’t want to take a pay cut.

Both of these problems are understandable. The sponsorship issue has been a problem throughout the sport for several years, and it’s tough for a driver who has been in the Chase three of the past four years to accept a pay cut after Edwards just signed one of the largest contracts in the history of the sport.

With all that said, Bowyer still needs to come to an agreement with Richard Childress Racing, even if it means a pay cut. Sure, he might get more money if he jumps ship and finds a ride at Richard Petty Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing, but the #33 car will be better in 2012 than any of his other options.

Bowyer started in the #07 at Richard Childress Racing in 2006 as a rookie, but then moved to the brand-new #33 team in 2009 after Casey Mears came in to drive the #07.

The 2009 season was a bad one for the entire RCR organization as none of its four teams made the Chase. However, it downsized to three teams in 2010 and every car made the Chase.

By leaving RCR, even though it is struggling mightily at the moment, Bowyer would put himself back in a similar position to his 2009 season. He would most likely drive for a start-up team as the third or fourth car at whatever organization he chose. Those teams don’t typically challenge for a Chase spot, much less contend for a championship.

It would feel like he’s starting over, and he would likely have to spend a few seasons waiting for the team to develop into a contender.

Richard Childress Racing might have stretches where the entire organization struggles, but as Kevin Harvick found out when he re-signed with RCR following the 2009 season, it comes back with a vengeance. Harvick nearly won the 2010 championship.

Right now RCR might look like it’s in trouble and can’t keep up with the other big teams, but when this organization figures out what is wrong, it generally rises to the top of the sport.

Even if Bowyer misses the Chase this season, the #33 team could easily be in the Chase and battle for a championship next season. That might not be possible at any of Bowyer’s other options.

With Austin Dillon contending for a championship in the truck series, RCR has options if Bowyer bolts. Right now Bowyer needs Childress more than Childress needs Bowyer.

Even if it means a lower salary, Bowyer needs to stay at RCR if he wants to be a contender in 2012.

Edwards stays put, leaves possible seat open at Gibbs

Finally, the first move of the 2011 NASCAR Silly Season happened Thursday, although it turned out not to be a move at all.

After weeks and weeks of speculation, Carl Edwards signed a multiyear deal to remain the driver of the #99 Ford for Roush-Fenway Racing.

However, his decision to stay with his current team might be more surprising than if he left. People knew Edwards’ contract was up at the end of this season, and even as far back as last year the speculation was that Edwards would remain with Roush.

Then Joe Gibbs Racing came into play.

All of a sudden reports started to surface that Edwards was going to sign with Gibbs and possibly take over Joey Logano’s current ride, with Logano moving to a fourth car in the organization.

This would have made for a powerhouse team at Gibbs. The team currently has three of the young guns in the sport with the brightest futures, and Edwards would have immediately shot to the top of that group.

But, Edwards decided to stay with the organization that brought him into NASCAR and might carry him to a championship as early as this November.

Now that Edwards has signed, the rest of the moves can follow. Every year there is one big-time driver everyone waits for to make a move before the rest of the puzzle pieces fit into place. A few years ago it was Tony Stewart starting his own team, then it was Martin Truex Jr. moving to the #56 car and last year it was Kasey Kahne leaving the #9 car.

Since Edwards stayed put, that might open the door for somebody else to hop on as the fourth driver at Gibbs, but it looks like many of the other big-name free agents will follow Edwards’ lead and stay with their current team.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer are said to be close to finalizing their deals to remain at Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing next year. Juan Pablo Montoya will also likely re-sign with Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing.

Still, however unlikely, the option of a fourth car at Gibbs is a possibility, and it would be a steal for a second-tier driver to get in that ride next year.

Right now it looks like all of the main championship contenders will remain in their same colors and with their same teams next year, but the extra car at Gibbs could keep the Silly Season at least a little bit silly.

Edwards and Beltran hold keys to moves in NASCAR and MLB

The Major League Baseball trading deadline is less than a week away, and there is plenty of speculation about who will be moved, and similar statements could be said about NASCAR.

NASCAR doesn’t have a deadline and drivers aren't traded, but speculation about who they will drive for next year is just as rampant.

Carl Edwards is the NASCAR version of Carlos Beltran this year. Everybody wants to know where he will drive in 2012, just as they want to know which team Beltran will try and help make a push for the playoffs.

Both men came to this point in a similar fashion. During the mid-2000s, Beltran was the best postseason hitter in baseball bar none. That postseason with the Houston Astros in 2004 was simply incredible. However, after he tied the big league record of eight homeruns in the playoffs that year, Beltran has seen his production decline.

Beltran hit just 17 homers combined in the past two seasons with a career-worst .255 batting average last year. But, this season his average is back up to .291, he has 15 homeruns and several teams want him to join them for the stretch run.

Edwards has had a similar career path. At times he has looked like the best driver on the track every week, and other times he has fallen back into mediocrity will long winless stretches.

He had 12 wins combined in 2007 and 2008 while finishing in the top 10 in points both years. Then he hit rock bottom during a 70-race winless streak before winning last fall at Phoenix.

Now Edwards is back on top of the standings and is the most sought-after driver available for teams to lure for 2012.

Joe Gibbs Racing has made quite an effort to bring Edwards aboard, and it might work. Edwards has kept his mouth shut so far, but it might not be too long before the actual race during a weekend becomes a secondary story if Edwards does choose to move from his current #99 ride with Roush-Fenway Racing.

In both cases, the rest of the puzzle pieces will fall into place once these two athletes make a decision to either stay with their current team (Beltran has a no-trade clause) or take their talents somewhere else.

Particularly for the NASCAR world, Edwards’ decision will have far-reaching consequences. Joe Gibbs Racing could suddenly have maybe the best team in the sport, and Roush-Fenway Racing will have to shuffle people around to make things fit for 2012, not to mention try and find sponsors to fill the hoods of both Matt Kenseth’s #17 car and the #99 car, perhaps driven by Trevor Bayne or Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Until Edwards and Beltran make their decisions, tension will continue to build throughout both sports.

Rating the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400: 3 Stars ***

Matt Kenseth gave it everything he had in the final laps Sunday at Michigan, but he couldn’t quite catch Denny Hamlin, who finally won his first race of the season. Overall, the first race of the year at Michigan gets a 3 Star Rating.

Except for a rare spin by Jimmie Johnson early in the race, everything went as planned throughout the first half of the race. Several Roush-Fenway Racing drivers traded the lead, Robby Gordon hit the wall and the race stretched out to make for a couple of green-flag pit stops.

By the halfway point Kyle Busch appeared at the front, and as is typical on days when he has a good car, Busch jumped out to a comfortable lead. Had the race stayed green, Busch and Kenseth would have battled for the win, barring their respective fuel-mileage situations.

However, Juan Pablo Montoya’s spin on lap 158 came right at the beginning of a green-flag pit stop sequence, and Kenseth again became the big winner as he came out of the pits with the lead. Busch dropped several spots and never could make his way all the way back and finished third.

Finally, Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the wall with eight laps to go and eliminated the fuel-mileage game because everybody hit the pits and Hamlin came out with a lead he would never relinquish, even though it got close at the end.

This race was nothing out of the ordinary for Michigan International Speedway. These races usually go one of three ways: The race comes down to fuel mileage, a late caution makes for a decent battle to the end or neither happens and the margin of victory is more than a few seconds.

Sunday had the second option, as well as the closest finish since Regan Smith edged out Carl Edwards to win the Southern 500.

Also, after four debris cautions last week at Pocono, there were no such cautions this week on a track that generally has a few. The number of debris cautions at Pocono was awful, but it looks like that may be the exception this season rather than the rule, as it has been in past seasons.

As for Hamlin, this win should quiet the critics who say his team is off its game and he barely has a chance at the Chase. The win puts Hamlin up to ninth in the points standings with 11 races left in until the Chase begins. Don’t worry, the #11 team is fine, and it will be a factor come Chase time.

On the other side of the results, several big-name drivers struggled throughout the race, including Jeff Burton, who started outside the top 30 and never could make his way to the front.

Burton currently sits 25th in the points standings and has not proved yet this season the #31 team can consistently contend in a race, much less contend for a Chase spot. Burton could make a comeback late this season like he did two years ago, but this time the Childress organization is succeeding while Burton lags behind, whereas both the #31 team and Richard Childress Racing struggled for most of the 2009 season.

So, next week the Sprint Cup Series takes a break from the ovals and heads out west to Sonoma for the first of two road-course events.

Prepare for the annual “Should NASCAR have more road-course races?” and “Should a road-course race be in the Chase?” debates in the coming week. The two issues will likely never change, but people will still talk about them each time the sport visits a road course.

Ford engines are new leaders in NASCAR

After years of domination by Chevrolet teams, the Ford group has come back with the best start to its season since all five Roush cars made the Chase in 2005.

The Ford camp made this abundantly clear during the past two weeks at Charlotte Motor Speedway where Fords led a combined 319 of the 502 laps run in the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600.

Plus, the teams that have dominated the past five years or so had troubles of their own Sunday night. Two favorites to win the Coca-Cola 600, Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson, blew engines.

While they were both driving Chevrolets, they aren’t on the same team and have different engines. McMurray had an Earnhardt-Childress engine under the hood while Jimmie Johnson had a Hendrick engine.

It might not be terribly surprising the Fords have finally come back to the front of the field on tracks where horsepower and aerodynamics are important, but it is surprising to see the failures from the Chevrolets.

The Earnhardt-Childress engines won nine races last season, including all four of the restrictor-plate races, and all of those wins came on tracks that were at least one mile in length.

Hendrick engines also won nine races last season, with Johnson bringing home six of those wins.

The #48 car has been the gold standard in the Sprint Cup Series nearly since it was formed in 2002. The Lowe’s Chevrolet simply never breaks down, but it did Sunday night.

Are we seeing a changing of the guard? Possibly. The #48 team doesn’t always have a great first half of the season, and it likely will be in contention for the championship late into the Chase, if not all the way to Homestead again, but an engine problem combined with the resurgence of Roush-Fenway Racing has the path to a sixth championship a bit more cluttered.

The other aspect to this issue is the Ford engines. The FR9 engine has been in development for several years, and it just started running full time last season. However, the teams running the new engine are reaping the benefits in 2011.

NASCAR recently took an engine from each manufacturer and found they all make similar power. So, where does the Fords’ advantage come from? Maybe it has to do with more than raw horsepower. One feature of the new Ford engine was that it had a lower center of gravity and ran cooler than the old engine.

These factors help with the overall setup of the car just as much as the power to move the car forward. It’s great to have a fast car down the straightaways, but it doesn’t do much good if the car won’t turn in the corners.

So, the teams can use a lower center of gravity to help the car turn in the corners and a lower water temperature allows the team to run more tape on the grill, which gives the car more downforce.

Maybe it’s not so much the Fords all of a sudden have more power than everybody else; maybe they just have the ability to use that power more effectively.

In any case, the Fords are as strong right now as they have been in a long time, and they could hold this advantage for a while as other teams adjust to try and keep up.

Rating the Samsung Mobile 500: 4 Stars ****

The Sprint Cup Series battened down the hatches for a windy one in Texas on Saturday night where a long winless streak was broken. No, not THE winless streak, but Matt Kenseth visited Victory Lane for the first time in 76 races. The first Texas race gets a 4 Star Rating.

Kenseth simply dominated the night. Many questioned if somebody would find the magic setup after all the practices took place during the daytime, and the #17 team certainly found it. The best car definitely won this race.

Kenseth’s journey to take the checkered flag first wasn’t without drama, however. Fuel strategy almost negated his team’s strong effort as both Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart tried to stretch the fuel mileage but both came up empty, in the literal sense for Stewart, who limped across the line in 12th after running in the top-five on the final lap.

This was a thinking-man’s race, and the one with the most strategy of the season so far, which is good. Strategy creates suspense, and makes every move that much more crucial.

The race, with exception of the debris caution on lap 208 that directly led to the Mark-Martin-Martin Truex Jr. wreck, was pretty clean, overall. And while the field did get spread out in the second half of the race, several drivers were able to stay close to Kenseth and keep him from running away. I don’t think that would’ve been possible in the days of the rear wing. Kenseth wouldn’t have been touched all night.

So now we’ve got three intermediate-track races under our collective belt, and it looks as though everyone but the Fords have some catching up to do. It took a long time for the new Roush-Yates engine to be developed, but it is sure paying off now. Fans of Roush-Fenway Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports should be ecstatic after Saturday because every single Ford in both of those camps spent time in the top 10.

Aside from the Roush gang, the folks at Richard Childress Racing also still have their program running close to full speed. Clint Bowyer was about the only other driver to even catch a whiff of Kenseth all night, and once again, Paul Menard came on strong late for yet another top-five finish.

Interestingly, Jimmie Johnson had a rough night. The #48 team missed the setup for the start of the race and never could quite get the car dialed in. No worries, though, Johnson will be right there at the end of the Coca Cola 600 next month in Charlotte, the next night race at a 1.5-mile track.

Now its time to strap in and go on the ride that is racing at Talladega Superspeedway. Doesn’t just thinking about it make your heart beat a little faster?

After the racing we saw at Talladega last year and at the Daytona 500 this year, it would take something really stupid to happen for this not to be an absolutely amazing race. Get fired up, it’s Talladega week!

500 miles at night usually brings good, solid racing

A 500-mile race like the one coming up at Texas on Saturday night is an endurance test, even today with all of the fancy engine and cooling technology on the cars, and this type of race is also nice because people don’t have to panic and be up on the chip at the very beginning of the race.

So to begin the first of the season that hasn't been run on Sunday afternoon, it’s time to shine the cars up and go racing under the lights.

The daylight portion of the first half of the season is over, and NASCAR will turn on the lights Saturday night to begin a stretch of the schedule where six of the next eight races are at night.

For the first time in several years, every race up to April has been at the 1 p.m. local time start since Phoenix moved into the second spot on the schedule and Fontana took the final March weekend.

As come the night races, so does the second stretch of the season. Yes, we had an off week in the second weekend of March, but that was still in the middle of the early season.

We are now getting close to the point where the season is no longer considered new and it is time to hit the long grind that is the summer stretch. If the All-Star Race is included, there isn’t another weekend after Easter without Cup racing until the weekend of July 24.

This weekend is also the second 1.5-mile speedway of the season. The Fords were incredibly strong at the other mile-and-a-half track of the season, Las Vegas, and Carl Edwards won the race, and Greg Biffle certainly could have if he hadn’t had problems in the pits.

If the Ford power shows itself again this weekend, and it looks like it will, as David Ragan was fastest in practice Thursday, this could really be a dogfight into the summer among the Chevrolets of Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports and the Fords of Roush Fenway Racing.

The Joe Gibbs Racing camp has struggled with engine issues early this season, but once those get worked out the Gibbs cars will be fighting for wins, as well, and they have in several races already.

So sit back and enjoy the first Saturday night race of the season. It should be a show. These 500-mile races at tracks such as Texas, Atlanta and Charlotte always seem to bring out some of the best racing, a large part of which is because of the length of the race.

People love to say they want the drivers to drive like crazy from the start of the race, but a large part of a race is also about the flow that develops in green-flag runs, similar to the pace of a baseball game.

Don’t worry, there will be plenty of cautions throughout the night and at night’s end everyone will be on their feet cheering or yelling at the TV, but the journey there is important and it’s part of the fun.