Saying his commitment to the New England Patriots, his focus on football, and his desire to win a Super Bowl title would remain his top priorities, Randy Moss announced July 3rd at Daytona International Speedway he was getting involved in NASCAR as a team owner in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Moss gained entry into the sport by purchasing a 50-percent stake of Morgan-Dollar Motorsports and will pair with co-owner David Dollar in forming Randy Moss Motorsports, which will field a No. 81 Chevrolet Silverado for driver Willie Allen in the team's debut July 19 at Sparta, Ky.
Accustomed to making long hauls on the football field, Randy Moss acknowledged he was operating far afield from his chosen area of expertise when it came to owning a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.
But the Patriots wide receiver, despite being new to the sport, said he was prepared to make a long-haul commitment.
Morgan-Dollar Motorsports has posted 13 victories in the truck series, 11 with Dennis Setzer and one each with Bobby Labonte and Clint Bowyer. Setzer finished second in the championship standings for three straight years (2003-2005) as Dollar's full-time driver.
NASCAR has had other NFL players, such as Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, and Roger Staubach, dabble in team ownership, only to fail. Moss is aware he could wind up suffering the same fate.
File this in the Makes No Sense Department. The co-owner of one of the top teams in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series has hired Paul Tracy to run later this season but the 2003 CART champion still can't get a ride in an Indy car.
A few weeks ago, P.T. tested Todd Bodine's truck at Chicagoland Speedway and impressed Bob Germain enough to get a one-off deal.
"Paul did a nice job so we got a little bit if support and decided it would be fun to run him in his hometown," said Germain, who along with his two brothers owns 19 car dealerships in Ohio and Florida. "He's our style, very aggressive, and he and Todd are a lot alike."
Tracy, who had a few rides in the old Busch series with mixed results, looks at his truck debut as something bigger.
"I figure it's an audition for 2009 with those guys, because I think Todd wants to go to the Nationwide series," said Tracy.
Currently, Germain runs Mike Wallace in the Nationwide series, plus Justin Marks and Bodine in the trucks (along with Chrissie Wallace, Mike's daughter, in selected events), and may be looking to expand.
"We're going to run Chrissie full-time in the trucks next year and we've got another year for sure with Mike (sponsored by Geico)," said Germain. "I know Todd would like to run the Nationwide series and we've got about a dozen different possibilities we'll be looking at. "And running Paul full-time in the trucks is one of those."
Mike Wallace said Friday at Kentucky Speedway that sponsor GEICO has indicated what it wants to do after next season, and it appears it won’t be sponsoring Wallace. GEICO, an insurance company, is not allowed in the Nationwide Series in 2010 as part of a non-competing sponsor agreement with the series sponsor. Nationwide began sponsoring NASCAR’s No. 2 series this year. Wallace drives the No. 7 Toyota for Germain Racing.
“We have an indication of what they’re going to do,” Wallace said of NASCAR. “Who really knows? I’ll just leave it at that.”
GEICO has been one of the most visible sponsors in the series, with its popular commercials featuring fictional Wallace relative Lauren Wallace.
I just can't seem to catch a break. I guess that's what I get for sticking with my Tennessee and Missouri boys. It's tempting to jump on a band wagon. But how much fun would that be? No, don't expect me to be hollering "Joooooonyer!," anytime soon.
Hopefully Mike will find a sponsor and I'll be able to stay with him.
Here Crocodile. Here's your chance to eat a gecko.
Pay attention Construct. Here is your chance to build something.
Not that I have anything against Justin Marks, but these two Germain Racing sponsors might get more mileage out of Mike.
Which is it truckseries.com? One of your reports says...
For Dodge driver and defending Ohio 250 race winner, Dennis Setzer, the scenery through his windshield was looking very familiar when took the lead on lap 72. Setzer maintained a solid lead for several laps before an impatient second place driver, David Starr, punted him in the rear left side corner of the No. 18 Dodge. Setzer showed off his stellar driving skills by keeping the spinning Dodge Ram off of the wall and away from all other competitors.
Another report says...
Being in the back half of the field, David Starr used patience to work his way back up to the front, while being reminded to save as much fuel as possible. By lap 77, all 36 trucks had made their one scheduled pit stop, putting the No. 11 PIT Corporate Training Toyota Tundra in the second position.A quick caution came out on lap 81 as Starr made slight contact with the leader, which relinquished the lead to the Houston, Texas native.
You can't have it both ways. Patient or impatient?
Whatever! Back to my man Setzer.
After receiving four fresh tires Setzer returned to the track in 30th position and was on a mission. In just 84 laps he raced his way back into the sixth position. It was under the 11th caution of the day that Setzer radioed in saying, “I have smoke in my cockpit.”
Immediately, following the restart it appeared Setzer’s engine expired when a cloud of smoke bellowed from the rear. After pulling the No. 18 truck behind the wall it was determined a lower radiator hose busted draining out all the water out which resulted in a blown engine. Setzer finished in 34th position and dropped to 12th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver point standings.
The Craftsman Truck Series will run an early Saturday afternoon race at the tiny 0.50-mile Mansfield Motorsports Speedway oval.
Short track specialist Dennis Setzer is the defending champion after he edged Jack Sprague by 0.522 seconds. Setzer did it by completing all 250 laps without a pit stop. The race was interrupted by three rain delays and more than 100 caution-flag laps, but with 27 laps to go Rick Crawford led Setzer, Aaron Fike, Sprague and Ken Schrader to the restart.
Crawford's No.14 Ford pulled away from the field on the restart, but with 20 laps remaining Setzer started to chip away at Crawford's lead. With 13 laps left a flat right-front tire for Crawford caused him to slide high on the track allowing Setzer to make the pass for first.
Can it be done again?
Says Setzer: "We have smaller fuel cells this season and I can't help but wonder if that is because of me. But I think if the right circumstances played out it could still be done at a short track such as MMP. NASCAR also changed the carburetor this season. We are seeing with the combination of the new carburetor and smaller fuel cells that we are getting within a few laps of the fuel mileage we got last year at certain tracks. It may never be done again, but I wouldn't write it off just yet."
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