At heart it is designed as a ladder series, one where Nextel Cup organizations place their young, up-and-coming drivers to prepare them for the big show. But in reality it's something different, a haven for sponsors who want to back the big names of NASCAR for a lesser dollar amount, and fans who want to see their heroes race without paying the price of a Sunday ticket.
This is the strange, conflicted world of the Busch Series, which attempts to be everything to everyone but succeeds in only being something that no one can quite figure out. NASCAR claims it's the No. 2 motorsports series in America, behind Nextel Cup. Nationwide paid a reported $12 million annually to take over the naming rights for the next seven years. So, what is the insurance giant getting -- a developmental circuit, or a secondary stage for the sport's biggest stars?
What's the best advice you ever received and who was it from?
Bobby Hamilton Jr.: I guess it'd have to be from my dad: just to be myself. It's easier to get people to like you for who you are than to find out later on you aren't that person. It was one of the things he always talked to me about in this line of sports. I'm not your typical really preppy-looking guy. I'm just me. You're going to see me at my restaurant like you see me here. I think that was the biggest thing. It keeps me at peace. If you like me the way I am, you'll like me for a long time, because I'm not going to change, on or off the racetrack.
What was your first car?
Hamilton: It was a Ford Tempo. It was brown, had tan interior. It had like 150,000 miles on it. My uncle was working at a transmission job and he had it down there. They were talking about getting rid of it for $100. I had $100 in my pocket, since I got paid that week. I was down there, washing cars, stuff like that. It was right when I was 16 or 17. That's when I bought my very first car.
The Colorado license plate gives away the final destination. Other transporters leave the racetrack and head east on the Interstate, toward North Carolina and the hub of NASCAR nation. But the brown and black truck turns west, on the lonely road toward the only Nextel Cup shop nestled on the front range of the Rocky Mountains.
Furniture Row is owned by Barney Visser, a Denver-based businessman who has fielded cars on NASCAR's top circuit since 2005. The attempt to go full-time has been a difficult one, with the team making just 10 events this season. The organization split with driver Kenny Wallace after the Aug. 12 race at Watkins Glen, failed to make Michigan with Scott Wimmer in the seat, and will have Sterling Marlin in the No. 78 car for this weekend's event at Bristol.
"The common thought is, there are a lot of negative things, maybe all negative things, about being out in that area. What we're finding is, there are some positives," Team Manager Joe Garone said. "Once you have your people, and whether you train them or whether you hire them, once they're there, they're more apt to be focused more on their program. They don't have any race teams there to be interrupting their work or their thought process.
"We've gotten some people from some big organizations to come here, and they were in the same boat that I was -- tired of being in the rat race in Mooresville, where people are jumping ship all the time and all that," Crew Chief Jay Guy said. "This is kind of refreshing, because there are no other race teams around here on this level. You can work on a lot of projects and keep secrets that will help the car go fast from getting out by lunchtime."
They rave about the skiing, and the landscape, and the fact that you don't bump into employees from other shops in line at the grocery store. But the distance clearly presents hurdles, most of them logistical for a team much father removed from eastern races than its competitors. Cars are prepared not two weeks out, but four weeks. Parts have to be ordered a week earlier than they would be for a team based near Charlotte, where many of the sport's vendors are located as well. Cars have to be loaded a day earlier on the transporters, which have to depart the race shop a day earlier than their eastern counterparts.
"The location is not a problem at all, because we have both trucks running up and down the road," Guy said. "You just have to have enough good people in place to where your stuff is done a little ahead of everybody else. Anywhere from like Texas west, we're a lot closer than anybody else."
"Some people, and I've found this surprising, would rather live in Denver than in North Carolina. A lot of skiers and a lot of people who like that dry air. It's not been a bad deal."
"Obviously, you want to compete to run up front," Guy said. "But you've got to be realistic with your goals. Lately, we've fallen short on our goals in qualifying, and haven't really been able to work on anything race-related. But we've got a seven-post shaker machine installed [in Denver], and we're working on that a little better, the guys in the engine shop are working harder and harder to get us more horsepower.
Regan Smith will replace Sterling Marlin in the No. 14 car next week at Indianapolis, and Joe Nemechek has been released from his duties in the No. 13 car as Ginn Racing continues its ongoing restructuring.
"We are starting our future now," said Jay Frye, Ginn Racing's CEO and general manager. "A lot has been said about our program recently and this shows we've been working hard to solidify our future."
Marlin said he was shocked by the news.
"You know, it kind of caught me by surprise," the driver said Wednesday [ Wednesday? That would be hard to do since it is only Tuesday] evening on Sirius Satellite Radio. "I guess they've got to do things to reorganize and do what they gotta do. And, you know, I do have a valid contract with them and they gotta do what they say they're gonna do and everything will be fine."
Marlin said he would have liked the situation to be a little more classier.
"Well, you know, the classiest thing to me would have been to finish the year out," Marlin said. "I didn't make it any secret that I was planning on cutting back next year, running 15-20 races. But to do something in mid-year, just totally unexpected -- you know, Joe [Nemechek] had the same thing happen to him -- and, you know, it's sponsor-driven. "... I can get up and look in the mirror and know I've done everything right. I don't think that's the case on the other side so I'll just leave it at that."
I just don't understand Sterling. I call it and he is shocked? What world is he living in? The imaginary world of the old elementary school library book "Fair Play?" He is (was) my favorite race car driver. But his ignorance of the business of NASCAR just blows my mind.
Or is it just a good ole boy act that fakes out his less than average educated fan base but has grown weary on my ears? If he was so shocked, how come many of us knew he and Joe were scheduled to be on that Sirius broadcast this afternoon?
I don't know what to think really. But barring a sponsor riding to the rescue, putting him in a Furniture Row car, and some kind of bizarre victory at Bristol or another short track this year, I probably won't be worrying about it much longer.
How about that Jamie McMurray and that win at Daytona? Huh? Huh? Nudge, nudge. Say no more, say no more.
The plans for next year are for three cars: Mark Martin and a yet-to-be announced driver in the No. 01, Regan Smith in the No. 14, and Joe Nemechek in the No. 13. But only one of those vehicles -- Martin's U.S. Army car -- has sponsorship in place for 2008.
The odd man out appears to be Marlin, who turned 50 earlier this year. The former Daytona 500 champion would like to run a partial schedule next season like the one Martin is running now, but the prospects of doing that at Ginn seems dim.
"Sometimes thing happen for a reason, and you've got to step back and reevaluate where you're at, and it will make you better for a long time. I think that's where we're at," team CEO Jay Frye said. "We're backing up, we're evaluating where we're at, and that's going to help us better next year this time. Joe and Sterling's contracts are both up at the end of the year. If we continue like we are, what effect does that have? What do we do? What are we doing? Is that part of our future? Joe certainly could be. Sterling, probably not. If we have a part-time opportunity for him and we can put it together, great. Right now, I can't guarantee that's going to happen."
With the Busch team shut down -- right now, there are no plans to revive it -- Smith is losing out on valuable seat time. Frye said the team wants to get Smith in more Cup races, other than those he's splitting with Martin in the No. 01 car. How? "We're working through that, too," said Frye, also a minority owner of the team. "He's got to race every week, too."
Sponsorship would solve a lot of problems, but it's proven hard to find. Every week, Frye watches his three cars -- all inside the Top 35 in owner points -- make the race. And he watches other teams with big sponsors and better funding go home.
"We couldn't be more frustrated because of that," Frye said. "The sponsors that we have, they've been with us a long time. There's a reason. We provide a good value to them. It's a partnership. We're not just taking their money, not that other teams are. We're a good place to be, we think. You continue and continue, and it's like the twilight zone. Every week is the same thing. We do what we do, and others don't. I'm not knocking those teams, but it is what it is. How do we show that value to somebody? We're trying. Every day, we're trying."
"Unfortunately we did what we did a couple of weeks ago, and basically that was a derivative of, we grew so fast, and we just had to reevaluate where we were at people-wise," Frye said Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. "Again, even at that point, we didn't know what we were going to do. Did we have enough, not enough? We didn't know where we were at. It became apparent we had too many [people]."
"The core group here is still here and will continue to be here," Martin said. "The 01 is sponsored for '08 and the driver lineup is set for '08 and the crew chief is set for '08 and I know the team members are the same ones who have been involved at that place for a long time. Don't forget this is the little team that could, and I expect it to get back to that. Trying to go through explosive expansion is a really tough thing to do, and for various reasons, [Ginn isn't] being as successful at expanding as quickly as they had hoped. Getting back to that core group and getting stronger, it's exciting for me in that respect."
Did I just watch Sterling Marlin's last NASCAR Nextel Cup race? Will Regan Smith be announced as the new driver of the 14 on Tuesday? While it sounds like Joe may still be with Ginn, it doesn't sound like Sterling will be. Stay tuned.
Most Interesting Blog, June 16, 2008 (unofficially ) and six other occasions (probably if they still did this). Lisa awarded him Best "breaking news" blogger March 31, 2008. Blog of The Day, Christmas Day, 2007. edhardiman wrote, "Falco's tribute to Rocket Richard reminds us all the stars of today stand on the shoulders of giants..." October 23, 2007. Three Golden Swirrly p00p Awards (Hockey, NASCAR and Use of Graphics), FlyingPig, July 18, 2007. 2007 Memorial Day Weekend Trifecta sponsored by williamwilman . Featured on WFORacingFans April, 2007. "Stylin'" award, Dusty, February 07. "One of ten new bloggers to watch" Dudski, January 2007.
