Garage Chatter: Childress squeeze to three teams leaves Mears jobless
By Pete Pistone | Special to CBSSports.com Follow PeteIt's the last chance to clear out the old notebook before the 2010 season really kicks in, and not a moment too soon. Maybe it's cabin fever, the cold weather that has locked up the country for the last month or just withdrawal, but racing fans seem a little edgy these days as we count down to Daytona.
Along with about 200 of my fellow motorsports journalists, I will descend on Charlotte next week for the annual preseason NASCAR Media Tour, with the highlight of the week no doubt NASCAR's decision regarding the impending rules changes for the coming season. Ditching the Sprint Cup car rear wing in favor of a more traditional spoiler, the elimination of the yellow "out of bounds" line at Daytona and Talladega and restoring drivers' ability to bump draft through the corners at 'Dega are all on the table.
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| Casey Mears is the latest driver to join the unemployment line. (Getty Images) |
Casey Mears is the latest driver to join the unemployment line after Richard Childress racing's decision to shutter the No. 07 ride due to the lack of sponsorship. Original plans were to run Mears and the team in the season-opening Daytona 500 and possibly the four subsequent races since the 07 had a guaranteed starting spot by virtue of its position within last year's Top 35. But that idea was scrubbed by RCR, with the absence of proper funding cited as the reason.
"Right now we're going to run three Cup teams out of our shop," Childress told the Peoria (Ill.) Star Journal, "and possibly a rookie somewhere along the line, but, right now it's three teams. Casey, I'm hoping to try to find him something. He hasn't landed anything yet. He's a great guy and did a great job for us at the end of the year, and I just wish there was something we could do with him, but right now, I don't want to do anything with a fourth team that's going to take away from our other three teams."
Mears is now scrambling to find something for 2010 and has said he's willing to run in the Nationwide and Truck Series if need be in addition to the Cup division to stay behind the wheel.
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There's the possibility Childress could move or sell the 07 team's points to another entity similar to what Jack Roush did earlier this week when he included the points position of his No. 26 entry in a sale of that team to businessman Bill Jenkins.
Since Roush was forced to shrink from five to four cars in 2010 per NASCAR's mandate of a Sprint Cup operation cap, he was allowed to include the Top 35 standing as a commodity in the sale to Jenkins, which now gives that start-up team a guaranteed spot in the lucrative Daytona 500. Because Childress is under that cap, any sale or transfer of the 07 points would have to include his involvement as a part or co-owner in order to stay within the boundaries of the rules.
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Two Sprint Cup races changed distances this week with Phoenix International Raceway's spring race adding to its length while Auto Club Speedway's Chase event shrunk by 100 miles.
The April stop at PIR picked up 63 laps and will now be a 600-kilometer event on the one-mile desert oval. Track officials increased the race to ensure more night racing for the race, which will now take the green flag earlier than in years past due to NASCAR's new standardized start times in 2010. The October ACS race will be contested at 400 miles, and that move has been well received. Most drivers and fans that have complained that 500-mile races at the two-mile track don't provide enough action or competition.
Lug Nuts
Lowe's Motor Speedway has returned to its original name of Charlotte Motor Speedway after the track's naming rights deal with the home improvement company expired at the end of 2009. ... Paul Menard's family home improvement store chain will back both his Sprint Cup effort at Richard Petty Motorsports as well as a full Nationwide Series campaign with Roush Fenway Racing. It'll mark the first time Menard has competed full-time in NASCAR's No. 2 series since 2006. ... Showtime will launch a new weekly program entitled Inside NASCAR on Feb. 10, modeled after the successful Inside the NFL show. The one-hour program will include highlights and analysis from the previous week's event as well as feature stories and run for 38 weeks during the racing season. ... Reigning Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year Joey Logano will return to compete in the seventh Toyota All-Star Showdown on Jan. 29-30 at California's Irwindale Speedway. The event features NASCAR's regional Camping World East and West tours. ... Jamie McMurray is the latest NASCAR driver to sign up for duty in the upcoming Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on Jan. 30-31. McMurray will co-pilot the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 02 entry with fellow drivers Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. ... Jack Roush, Rusty Wallace, Roger Penske and Robert Yates will be inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame during a ceremony Saturday night in Concord, N.C.
