It seems that it is signing week in Nascar this week as there are two drivers that have or are about to make career-altering decisions in the very near future. Lets talk about the one that has been confirmed this morning and that is that Carl Edwards has re-signed with Roush/Fenway Racing. I would bet that there was a collective sigh of relief at Roush/Fenway Racing this morning after “Cousin Carl” signed a new contract with the group. I mean here we are heading for the chase cutoff with a driver who is on top of the points and doesn’t have a contract past next season. It had to have been a distraction for at least some of the key players in the group especially the one driving the car, Carl. In order to number one get into the chase, and number two win the championship, you need to be totally focused on just that. Just ask Denny Hamlin who was doing everything in his power to win the whole deal last year. A bad pit strategy took some very important points from him due to finishing position. You can’t tell me that it didn’t affect him at Homestead. He was so on point for that championship and one little thing can mess you up.
Had Denny been under the pressure of signing a new contract I doubt he would have been in the position to win the whole deal. What I am trying to say is that I think that this goes a long way towards Carl Edwards and the 99 team winning the championship this year. Distraction is never a good thing. Carl Edwards, who has been with Roush/Fenway for his entire Sprint Cup career signed a multi year contract that extends him past the 2013 season. How far beyond I don’t think has been released as of yet but I would not be scared to say that Carl Edwards will probably spend the rest of his cup career right there at Roush/Fenway. What I couldn’t garner from the press releases today is weather or not Aflac would continue to be the sponsor after the 2011 season. With the recent success of David Ragan, I doubt that UPS is ready to jump ship just yet but you never know. I never would have guessed that Dale Earnhardt Junior would have gone to Hendrick Motorsports.
On the rumor mill side of contracts and negotiations there was an AP report out earlier this week that stated Danika Patrick is hammering out the details on her decision to leave the Indy Racing League and run full time in one of the Nascar series. The report said that she was working on the contract details to run a full season of Nationwide series racing with Dale Junior’s JR Motorsports as well as a limited schedule in the Sprint Cup series for Stewart/Haas racing. She already has sponsorship that will be in tow from GoDaddy.com. They would be really dumb not to follow her over here. I know that this comes as a disappointment to some of the folks over there at IRL but in a world of uncertainties when it comes to athletes careers and financial stability of a sport, Nascar is the sure bet. She will earn three times the cash over here and twice or more the notoriety. The rumored contract seems to be for the 2012 season but I can’t be sure as there has been no official release that I have found as of yet. I think the fact that the IRL season next year will be heavily weighted in road courses might be pushing her over the edge to Nascar next year.
In other news this week Brad Keselowski was injured in a testing crash at Road Atlanta Wednesday when his brakes failed at around 150 MPH. He sustained an avulsion fracture of his left ankle but doctors in Charlotte told him that he would be able to race Sunday at Pocono. He has been pulled out of the car for this weekend’s race at the Iowa Speedway and will be replaced by Sam Hornish Jr. The car was totally destroyed and that he is lucky to have gotten away with such a minor injury compared to what the old style car would have brought him. This raises the question again about whether or not Nascar should go back to allowing testing at tracks that we actually race on. Many
of the tracks that the teams test on do not have “Safer Barriers” and the lack of that safer barrier contributed to the severity of Brads crash at Road Atlanta. I say let them test at Nascar sanctioned tracks with safer barriers but limit the amount of time that they can do it. Lets at least be safe about it. Looking at that leg, tell me how he is going to stand much less race anything on Sunday?
Stay safe out there
TW
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