Offseason Asides: Cup teams from the woodworks, Georgia boys Truckin’ 

Several Little Cup Teams All In A Row

The void left by the shuttering of Red Bull Racing and the fourth teams at Roush Fenway Racing and Richard Childress Racing is getting filled and then some. Within the past few weeks, several small teams have announced big plans to go Sprint Cup Racing in 2012.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team Turn One Racing said this past week it will start trying to run Cup races starting the season’s 2^nd week at Phoenix and plans to run eight to ten full races and maybe the whole rest of the schedule starting-and-parking. Jay Robinson Racing is going to run a full schedule in both Cup and Nationwide in 2012, fielding Toyotas – it had been running Chevys in NNS in the past. Neither team has announced drivers or sponsors, though Turn One has formed an alliance with Richard Childress Racing, so that could mean they use the points from the closed No. 33 team.

Jimmy Means’ race team has become Hamilton Means Racing and will run the No. 52 in Nationwide and Cup. RAB Racing is expanding from just its NNS team to Trucks (more on that in a moment) and to the Daytona 500 with its NNS driver Kenny Wallace and sponsor American Ethanol. Another NNS team, Go Green Racing, will run the No. 19 in the Cup Series with Fords bought from Roush Fenway Racing, driver Tim Andrews, and crew chief Paul Andrews. The team will run both the No. 39 (full-time with Joey Gase driving) and the No. 37 (part-time with Andrews driving) in the NNS. Robert Richardson announced a few weeks ago that R3 Motorsports would run a partial Cup schedule and he said recently the team would split its No. 23 NNS ride’s driving duties between himself and Jamie Dick.

Then there are the teams that already exist. HP Motorsports has become Phil Parsons Racing and is now merging with Whitney Motorsports and will run Fords. Michael McDowell will drive and reports indicate that team will run the distance, instead of starting and parking, for the first five races. There are no indications that other low budget and/or start-and-park teams of NEMCO Motorsports and driver Joe Nemechek, Inception Motorsports and driver David Stremme, the No. 50 of LTD Powersports and driver T.J. Bell, Sinica Motorsports’ No. 93 team, Leavine Family Racing’s No. 95 and driver Scott Speed, and Robby Gordon Motorsports will not attempt at least some of the Cup schedule as well.

And then there is Larry Gunselman’s MaxQ Motorsports, which ran the No. 37 last season and indicated late in 2011 that the team would run full-time with Josh Wise vying for the 2012 Rookie of the Year. In an email, Gunselman tells News/Talk WSB that the team still plans to run, but is now considering three or four drivers, including Wise. Wise start-and-parked the No. 37 three times and the No. 66 one time last season.

As discussed in a recent column, these teams join several others in the category of, “Big plans, little money.” If most of these teams plan running a full schedule, how are they going to pay for it? And if they all just plan on starting-and-parking, there are still going to be a lot of teams going home each week. We saw this phenomenon mushroom in 2009, because so much cheap race equipment was available, due to the shutting down and consolidation of so many race teams. In the down economy, we saw Nemechek’s and Phil Parson’s teams for full-time start-and-park efforts. We also saw Tommy Baldwin form a team that has managed to run full races recently and survive and expand into 2012. Blackjack Racing formed and quickly folded, as did several teams along with it – including Jeremy Mayfield’s infamous No. 41 team.

Watching these teams come together – who they hire to drive (Brian Vickers, Reed Sorenson, Steve Wallace, and Michael Annett are among the available drivers) and who will fund the teams – will be an intriguing storyline to start 2011. This wave of teams is also evidence of how starting-and-parking in the Cup Series is more profitable than running full races the Truck and Nationwide Series, which is a bad trend. Nonetheless, there will be plenty of teams huddled on the other side of the garage, not in stalls, but under four-sided tents with tools and a few guys, trying to make a big team’s garbage cars go fast, so they can chase the dream.

Sweet Georgia Peaches On A Daytona Stage

The bad news surrounding the lost rides of Georgia drivers David Ragan and Reed Sorenson tastes a bit better than it did back in November. Since then, Ragan has pursued several rides and now has a home with Front Row Motorsports. While Sorenson is still looking, several other Georgia drivers are will be fixtures in the Camping World Truck Series in 2012. John Wes Townley of Watkinsville and his old team, RAB Racing, will attempt a full NCWTS schedule and Townley’s dad’s company, Zaxby’s, has not been announced as the sponsor. Townley ran in NASCAR 2008-2010, but got taken out of his Richard Childress Racing ride mid-2010, after poor performance, and he sat out the 2011 season. Griffin’s Max Gresham, the defending NASCAR K&N Pro Series East champion, will run a full schedule in Trucks and join Townley in the Rookie of the Year race, piloting Joe Denette Motorsports No. 24 Made in the USA Chevy, as a teammate to Ron Hornaday.

Tucker’s Ryan Sieg will begin his third full year in the NCWTS in the No. 39 Chevy and hopes to run a few Nationwide races this season as well. RSS Racing plans to field other trucks to start-and-park and funnel money toward the No. 39, but the team will have a dance partner for the full Truck race at Daytona. Chris Cockrum’s father, Lynn, confirmed on the phone with News/Talk WSB yesterday that they have forged a partnership with RSS Racing to run the No. 93 truck at Daytona and possibly more races. The No. 93 ended 2011 ranked high enough in the points to be locked into the field at Daytona, assuring Cockrum and sponsor Advanced Communications Group (his father’s company) a spot in the race. Cockrum plans to commute Monday from Conyers to Tucker to start working with Sieg on preparing his Daytona truck.

Three full-time Georgia drivers in the NCWTS and one more getting a big break in the season’s biggest race?  Lawrenceville’s Casey Roderick getting a full-time ride with Randy Hill Racing’s No. 08 in the Nationwide Series in 2012? There will be a lot to look forward to in the 2012 NASCAR season for local racing fans.