The End and Another Beginning
Testing week #1 is done and over with, with results that are looking good for MWR. DJ had the 3rd fastest time overall from the six sessions – I’d say that’s pretty acceptable! It’s far and wide beyond my hopes.
We learned this Friday that A.J. Allmendinger will be piloting the #00 Tundra (formerly known as the #17 David ran last year) in the Truck Series for 12 races this season. Apparently he’s going to be sharing this ride with MWR development drivers Josh Wise and Ken Butler III, but no word yet on how many races these drivers will get or if there are more to hop in the seat as well. Rumor has it that Michael and DJ will be doing some truck races but it isn’t known whether it will be the 00 or another entry.
This alliance between MWR and Red Bull Racing is interesting. Toyota is already known for strong communication between different organizations and logically it would be a good plan for their Cup teams too. However, I’ve heard there was some info-sharing between MWR and RBR during testing…and yet Bill Davis Racing has stayed off the radar so far. I can imagine that Michael’s relationship with Davis is not especially rosy after the season Michael had using his equipment in 2006, not to mention what Davis said about Michael to the media, basically blaming Michael for BDR’s problems. At the moment it appears that MWR and RBR may become “cousin” teams while BDR stands alone. Though from the new employees BDR recently hired, including Gene DeHart (a body/chassis expert), Gene Nead (formerly a crew chief for Kevin Harvick Inc.) and Dr. Andrew Randolph (formerly of Hendrick Motorsports!) it may not be very difficult to be successful. Fans, Michael fans in particular, have relished in the fact that BDR is building its own engines instead of having them shipped from TRD in California, predicting BDR’s demise. I was very interested to learn of BDR’s new staff additions, especially in the case of Dr. Randolph because he was HMS’s Director of Engine Development. We know those Hendrick engines pack a ton of horsepower.
Other than that, something else that also perked my thoughts was that DEI has just hired Kerry Earnhardt to take over Tony Eury Sr.’s job last season of overseeing operations of the team’s Cup and Busch teams. For some reason this move leaves me feeling anxious. It seems to come at a very tense time for DEI as a result of Dale Jr.’s contract decision being up in the air. In a way I wonder if Teresa is planning on holding onto Kerry in case Junior decides to leave…and put Kerry in the 8 car in hopes of wooing Budweiser to stay put (ha ha) and keeping DEI alive.
Tomorrow the test week starts with another group of drivers I’ll be keeping an eye on: Michael, David, Kurt and Brandon Whitt (who I’ll talk about in the future). Michael and David need to be fast in qualifying and racing setups (the former to hopefully qualify on the front row and guarantee themselves a spot in the Daytona 500 and the latter to race their way in during the Duels if they can’t qualify well enough). To say the least, I’m nervous! Kurt I’m not worrying about, since he had a great car here last season and is an excellent and underrated drafter. As for Brandon, who is running for ROTY, he may have the most difficult job. NASCAR is going to be observing him, apparently to make sure he’s skilled enough to run with the Cup boys. I assume he may have to run a certain speed to qualify to attempt to qualify, and since the #72 is not exactly a top-notch team that may be harder to achieve than one may think. But let’s hope he and the rest of my boys have a great test and pass with flying colors!
We learned this Friday that A.J. Allmendinger will be piloting the #00 Tundra (formerly known as the #17 David ran last year) in the Truck Series for 12 races this season. Apparently he’s going to be sharing this ride with MWR development drivers Josh Wise and Ken Butler III, but no word yet on how many races these drivers will get or if there are more to hop in the seat as well. Rumor has it that Michael and DJ will be doing some truck races but it isn’t known whether it will be the 00 or another entry.
This alliance between MWR and Red Bull Racing is interesting. Toyota is already known for strong communication between different organizations and logically it would be a good plan for their Cup teams too. However, I’ve heard there was some info-sharing between MWR and RBR during testing…and yet Bill Davis Racing has stayed off the radar so far. I can imagine that Michael’s relationship with Davis is not especially rosy after the season Michael had using his equipment in 2006, not to mention what Davis said about Michael to the media, basically blaming Michael for BDR’s problems. At the moment it appears that MWR and RBR may become “cousin” teams while BDR stands alone. Though from the new employees BDR recently hired, including Gene DeHart (a body/chassis expert), Gene Nead (formerly a crew chief for Kevin Harvick Inc.) and Dr. Andrew Randolph (formerly of Hendrick Motorsports!) it may not be very difficult to be successful. Fans, Michael fans in particular, have relished in the fact that BDR is building its own engines instead of having them shipped from TRD in California, predicting BDR’s demise. I was very interested to learn of BDR’s new staff additions, especially in the case of Dr. Randolph because he was HMS’s Director of Engine Development. We know those Hendrick engines pack a ton of horsepower.
Other than that, something else that also perked my thoughts was that DEI has just hired Kerry Earnhardt to take over Tony Eury Sr.’s job last season of overseeing operations of the team’s Cup and Busch teams. For some reason this move leaves me feeling anxious. It seems to come at a very tense time for DEI as a result of Dale Jr.’s contract decision being up in the air. In a way I wonder if Teresa is planning on holding onto Kerry in case Junior decides to leave…and put Kerry in the 8 car in hopes of wooing Budweiser to stay put (ha ha) and keeping DEI alive.
Tomorrow the test week starts with another group of drivers I’ll be keeping an eye on: Michael, David, Kurt and Brandon Whitt (who I’ll talk about in the future). Michael and David need to be fast in qualifying and racing setups (the former to hopefully qualify on the front row and guarantee themselves a spot in the Daytona 500 and the latter to race their way in during the Duels if they can’t qualify well enough). To say the least, I’m nervous! Kurt I’m not worrying about, since he had a great car here last season and is an excellent and underrated drafter. As for Brandon, who is running for ROTY, he may have the most difficult job. NASCAR is going to be observing him, apparently to make sure he’s skilled enough to run with the Cup boys. I assume he may have to run a certain speed to qualify to attempt to qualify, and since the #72 is not exactly a top-notch team that may be harder to achieve than one may think. But let’s hope he and the rest of my boys have a great test and pass with flying colors!
