Obviously there are teams that are making changes to their lineup to improve from 2011. Let’s face it, there is only one champion and his name is Tony Stewart. After that, everyone has to look in the mirror at what they can do better to make a run at the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.
Probably one team at the top of the list that was thankful the 2011 season ended was Joe Gibbs Racing. Yes I know they won five races this year, but look how the #20 car ran. Look at the difference a year makes on that #11. Denny Hamlin won eight races in 2010 and was vying for the championship all the way to Homestead. This year he only won one race and unfortunately, weren’t even mentioned on most weekends.
On top of all that you had the well publicized on and off the track incidents with Kyle Busch. You had sixteen engines failures across the three teams. They are moving across the board to the TRD engines. Internally Jason Ratcliff has been named Joey Logano’s crew chief, replacing Greg Zipadelli who left to go to Stewart-Haas Racing at their Competition Director. Championship winning crew chief Darian Grubb moves from the #14 to take over the #11 car replacing Mike Ford.
Another organization that has a lot of work to do is Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing. They have got to figure out what happened to their program. In 2010, that organization won four races including two of our biggest races of the year. This year has been the complete opposite. They could barely even get Top 10 finishes in 2011. They, like Joe Gibbs Racing, have to regroup.
I think it is somewhat harder to find the answers in the Earnhardt-Ganassi camp. Both drivers struggled all year long. At least Joe Gibbs Racing enjoyed some success with a couple of their cars, so they as least have a measuring stick with by looking at what the #18 did to win four races or what the #11 did to win its race.
In addition to this, you have guys out there that probably won’t know their futures until mid to late January. What is David Ragan going to do? What about David Reutimann and Brian Vickers. Oh yeah, don’t forget about Kurt Busch. I’ve mentioned this before, but I feel bad for all the men and women that are without a job in NASCAR as the Holidays are here. I’ve been blessed to have never been in that position, so I can only imagine the pain and stress these families are facing.
Just think about the flood of people into the NASCAR marketplace. You had the Red Bull teams. You have the #6 car. You have the #33 car. In addition to all that, you have all the employees of Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
Now the upside is there’s a second chance for a lot of these people. Any owner, team manager and crew chief worth his salt in this sport are looking over the list of available people in hopes of improving a weak area on their team. It could be a gasman, a tire changer or even a public relations person. It doesn’t matter because if you have a chance to improve any part of your organization, now is the opportunity with so many people out there looking for work due to no fault of their own.
Larry Mac
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