Sterling Marlin may not be without a Nextel Cup ride for long. Late Tuesday a team source at Morgan-McClure Racing which currently fields the no. 4 Chevy with veteran Ward Burton said that officials there are in discussions with Marlin for a possible second team. Marlin scored six of his ten career wins at Morgan-McClure while driving the No. 4 from 1994-1997.
Sterling wants to keep driving some. He just likes driving. The money is good. But he doesn't need it.
More than one driver has stayed out there too long. Richard Petty did. Darrell Waltrip did. More recently, Kenny Schrader, Kenny Wallace, Ward Burton and Ricky Rudd are.
I have a lot more respect for people like Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin and Terry Labonte who know when to say when. Bill Elliott is in a class by himself. He has proven to have an uncanny ability to drive anyone's car and help them out. See his recent renaissance in the Wood Brothers/JTG Racing car.
If Sterling goes to MMM, I'll give him a chance to pull off a miracle this year before giving up on him.
I do not like the way things at Ginn went down. However, all you had to do was look at Ginn's business record to know that he might do something like what he did.
Given Ginn may merge with DEI, might MMM merge with Haas? Burton plus Marlin = two car team + Haas = four car team (franchise for 2009)?
Wouldn't it be sweet to see Sterling back in the 4 with Kodak on the side? Damn, I'm starting to dream again already.
And oh yeah, wasn't Ward going to pay Sterling back or something? How might this work out?
One more thought. 1997? Ten years have gone by already?
Kevin LePage drove the No. 52 Ford for Jimmy Means Racing and moved into the top 40 in Busch Class points. Hopefully we will see LePage running more in this series now that he is not attempting to make Cup races with Front Row Motorsports.
Alabamian and ARCA regular Mike Harmon ran Busch in Phoenix and moved up into the top 40 as well. He drove the No. 44 All Sports Armour TUSCON Chevrolet.
Morgan Shephard made his 3rd Busch race of the year and moved up to 43rd in Busch Class points. I am happy to see old Morgan do this. He doesn't belong attempting Cup, but he can still wheel a car.
Timothy Peters had an excellent run in the No. 21 for Kevin Harvick Racing. The former bring your sponsor and pay to drive member of the Bobby Hamilton Racing team is getting the chance of a lifetime to drive excellent equipment thanks to Harvick's association with Richard Childress Racing. Peters is now 17th in Busch Class points.
Shane Huffman settled for bad luck Friday night when he crashed out early. "As the field came through turn four to complete the first lap of the race, the No. 88 car cut through the grass and then went back up the track collecting the No. 33 and 18 cars. The Navy Chevrolet sustained significant damage and Huffman drove the mangled car directly to the garage area. Crew Chief Wes Ward assessed that the damage was too significant to repair and the team loaded up.
“I don’t know what happened there,” Huffman said. “It just cut hard to the left when I got on the brakes in four. I hate it for this Navy team. We had such a good run here in the fall and I was looking forward to a repeat of that performance here tonight.” Huffman fell to 9th in the Busch Class standings.
O.K., I have blogged on about all sorts of various details for all of the guys who need to quit trying to qualify for these Cup races. If you haven't got the message yet you must be deaf. I haven't mentioned our newby this week, Brandon Ash. But Brandon Ash? What is he thinking?
The snakes will be picked up on Snake Hill in Phoenix this week by Brandon Ash, Michael Waltrip, Jon Andretti, A. J. Allmendinger, Jeremy Mayfield, Ward Burton, and David Reutimann.
Now it is also time to pay a lot more attention to something else. I have a new game. Jay Jay has posted similar posts. But this has more to do with who can possibly make it to the top 35 in points this year to set themselves up for next year. This is a big deal. The stakes are high. Real high.
I am calling it "You Can't Drive 35." Some of these guys are so anchored as go or go home cars that they really need to start thinking about what they are going to be doing next year. If they don't, Silly Season may come really fast whether they want it to or not.
So let's start taking a look at candidates this week that are really in trouble because while they may continue to make races this year on time, they probably can't get into the top 35 thus failing to anchor five starts for their teams to start the 08 season which will make it darned hard if not impossible to secure sponsorship next year.
The first " You Can't Drive 35" candidate is a familiar face. Yes Kenny Wallace is back. Kenny drives for Furniture Row Racing sponsored by itself, Furniture Row so Silly Season may not apply to him in the usual manner. But how long can these rich boys continue spending their own funds to do this? And why do they do it? Oh yeah, I forgot, the purse for starting a cup race is almost more than winning a Busch race. We have to fix that.
O.K. then, why does Kenny demean himself by driving their car? The money?
He can't need the money. Of course, a million dollars is a million dollars and if you would like to have another million dollars and you could get it by doing something you love. And if you might just luck out and eek out a real upset win on gas mileage or something one time provided you can stay on the lead lap, well, I guess then, that's it. A million dollars. "If I Had A Million Dollars...
There are 22 Big Time Buschwackers in this Saturday's Busch Race. This is totally out of hand and destroying the series. NASCAR needs to change things soon. All this is is Cup practice. There is no semblance of a Busch race left.
Given that ####, let's see who the Busch Class points leader may be come Sunday. Marcos Ambrose is starting 12th in class and 29th overall. Can Bobby Hamilton Jr. catch him? It's very possible that Hamilton will be the number one Busch Guy come Saturday. He starts 9th in class and 26th overall.
But isn't the door wide open for someone else? It sure appears so. First in line is Shane Huffman. Huffman is third in the true Busch standings. He will start 6th in class and 20th overall.
Any other takers? Mike Wallace? Nope he qualified like #### Regan Smith? No he starts behind Huffman.
So while your watching the Nextel Cup Series Busch Series Practice Session keep in mind there is a Busch Class points race going on out there between Ambrose, Hamilton, Huffman and others. I'll give the best odds to Huffman. But I won't take your bets.
This list was compiled based on the following. Any Cup driver who has run 4 or more of the 6 cup races is not qualified.
However, attempting to qualify for a Cup race and not qualifying does not make you a Cup driver. If you fail to qualify for less than half of the cup races, you are simply a Cup wanabee. Therefore you will find a driver on this list who has attempted to make the field for all of the Cup races. However, he is a Cup wanabee and needs to run Busch the rest of the year to see if he is capable of learning more on the Busch track instead of on the Cup sidelines. Can you say Paul Menard? Or should we say Daddy's Money Menard.
You will find also Ward Burton on this list for a similar reason. He has tried to make five of six Cup races but Morgan McClure Racing just needs to hang up the Cup dream. Face it guys, if you can't get along with other people well enough to merge with another potential Cup team, your days of Cup dreams are over.
This list also includes drivers that have not attempted all Busch Races. You don't have to try to race all Busch races to be a Busch regular or a "Busch guy." All of these drivers have run at least four of the seven Busch races.
It's an interesting group. And with more support from NASCAR it could be a very interesting group.
C'mon NASCAR, word is some NASCAR fans were bored this weekend because there was not a Cup race. We will never fix that really. There will always be singularly focused fans who are bigger celebrity worshipers than race fans and will never see past the NASCAR trees thus missing out on other great forests. But maybe somewhere out there under some of those eight caps there may be some fans that we might attract to other racing series if we package them right. What do you say we put our heads together and see what we can come up with?
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