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Brian Vickers got out of his contract early to
drive for Toyota and Red Bull next year. Right after he
announced he was leaving Hendricks Motorsports, Casey Mears
jumped on board, announcing that he would be driving the no. 25
car next year.
Dale Jarrett has jumped ship to Michael
Waltrip Racing and will drive the UPS Toyota next year, leaving
Robert Yates Racing where he’s been the marquee driver for
years. Shortly after, his teammate Elliott Sadler announced that
he asked out of his contract early to find another ride.
Mark Martin has planned on retiring for the
past year and a half, and now word has it he may be back in the
no. 6 again next year.
Now Jeremy Mayfield, who has been the main
driver in the rumor mill lately will not be driving the no. 19
UAW/Dodge this weekend at Watkins Glen after falling out of the
Top 35 in points. Former Champion Bill Elliott will be driving
the car, using his provisional incase the car doesn’t make it on
time.
Mayfield was reached today by Nascar.com to
comment on the matter and he had no idea he wouldn’t be driving
in New York this weekend. Evernham had not contacted him to tell
him and he didn’t know if his contract was now voided. Rumor has
it that Sadler could be in the no. 19 as early as this season.
Hopefully not, for Sadler’s sake anyway.
Sadler and Jarrett are making a mistake in
leaving Robert Yates Racing. While Yates have been struggling
this year, so has the entire Ford field. Rousch is not
dominating the series like he did last year with Carl Edwards,
Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, and Mark Martin being in
the Chase.
Yates only real bright spot this year was
Sadler winning one of the Gatorade Duels.
If Sadler moves to Evernham, he will become
second to Kasey Kahne, the boy wonder of NASCAR. He needs to go
to a place where he will be top dog, even if that means going to
a new team or staying at Yates where he would have top bill.
Jarrett, on the other hand, has seemingly lost
his mind in going to Michael Waltrip Racing. Sure, it’s Toyota
and it’s a big deal, what makes Jarrett think that he will be
able to race competitively with Waltrip when Waltrip can’t even
give himself a good car right now to make a race.
Twice this year he hasn’t qualified for a
race, the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte and All State 400 at the
Brickyard this past weekend. Waltrip bought his way into the
race in Charlotte, but what happens next year when he, Jarrett,
and the third MWR driver doesn’t make the field? There will be
more than 43 cars trying to make the race next year, many more
than this year with the addition of several Toyota teams, along
with other teams such as Dale Earnhardt, Inc. moving up to three
teams (with the addition of Busch regular Paul Menard driving
the no. 15).
This ‘silly season’ so far has been more
far-fetched than last year. Fans and journalist last year
thought it was crazy when Jamie McMurray and Kurt Busch
announced their new contracts in the middle of the race season.
This season hasn’t even hit the Chase mark, and more than a
handful of drivers have already jumped shipped, changed teams,
and basically made more moves than are made in a round of Chess.
To make it even more far-fetched, Mayfield
finding out that he was sitting out this weekend from NASCAR.com
is tasteless on Evernham’s part. That just goes to prove that
maybe Mayfield was right all along, especially when he
questioned where Evernham was in Chicago a few weeks ago where a
lot of the inside ‘drama’ between owner and driver began. It
happened last year with Scott Wimmer who learned he was being
let go from Bill Davis Racing through certified mail except at
least Davis had the audacity to use certified mail.
When will this tic-tac-toe of NASCAR end? Will
we ever have a season where drivers don’t announce what they are
going to do the next year until the end of the season? Will
Sadler be Robin to Kahne’s Batman?
Silly season is in full season, and more
stupid than ever. |
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