Smith's stormy situation clouds Silly Season
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
November 8, 2001
12:13 PM EST (1713 GMT)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- NASCAR team owner Jimmy Smith is at the eye of one of the few remaining Silly Season storms, and even though the resolution of his problems will undoubtedly make several other situations fall into place, that’s no consolation to Ultra Motorsports’ head man.
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Ted Musgrave
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Even while Smith is in South Florida celebrating a wildly successful NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season in which his team and drivers Ted Musgrave and Scott Riggs won half of the 24 races, he faces an ongoing dispute with NASCAR Winston Cup sponsor NationsRent.
On top of that, the calendar and this weekend’s events, including Thursday night’s NCTS banquet in Miami and this weekend’s Winston Cup and Busch Series races at Homestead-Miami Speedway have conspired to keep Smith away from one of his first loves, the off-road classic Baja 1000.
Smith has scored multiple victories at Baja, but the agreements he’s currently trying to orchestrate could represent one of his biggest motorsports triumphs.
“About the only thing nailed down is the No. 1 Mopar truck and Ted Musgrave,” Smith said of the storm of rumors that is swirling about his teams in two of NASCAR’s three national touring series.
Smith said the plans for his second Dodge factory truck, whose primary sponsorship package with Team ASE will also remain unchanged with Jason Leffler the rumored driver, is “99 percent done.”
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Jason Leffler
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“That should be done and signed any day now,” Smith said. “We are just trying to get some other issues finalized. Everything is agreed on, but until it’s signed it’s not a done deal.”
One of the other issues, which pretty quickly blossoms into others when cached in the Silly Season scheme of things, is the status of Smith’s No. 7 Ultra Winston Cup team.
While the team has been the subject of rumors as far ranging as having either Jeremy Mayfield or Casey Atwood as its driver in 2002; while switching manufacturers from Ford to Dodge and taking on Ray Evernham as a partner -- its immediate need is much more basic, Smith said.
“We still have no sponsor for next year,” he said. “We’re talking to a couple different people and there are a lot of people trying to help us find something, but if it doesn’t come along the 7 car won’t be here.”
Smith said talk of drivers or partners for 2002 is inappropriate at this time given what else he is facing.
“It’s all speculation,” Smith said with a laugh. “It really is. Man, the key right now is to secure a sponsor. Any talk about who is gonna drive and who is gonna partner up is pretty premature.
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Casey Atwood
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“Dodge has a great interest in seeing me succeed -- we won 12 races for them -- and we’ve got a lot of people trying to secure sponsorship for the 7 team and make it a top 10 team besides. Right now, though, it doesn’t look real good.”
“As far as NationsRent is concerned, we’re under a lawsuit,” Smith said. “They outright refuse to pay or to continue the program as we were contracted to do. They owe me a lot of money. It’s a nasty situation to the point I may not even have NationsRent on the car this weekend if they don’t pay some of what they owe me.”
A spokesperson for Evernham said the team owner had met with current Winston Cup Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Casey Atwood and his father regarding performance issues, but no changes to the situation that pairs Atwood with veteran Bill Elliott has been executed.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen right now,” Atwood said at Rockingham last weekend. “I haven’t been told a lot about what’s going on (so) I really don’t want to comment on a lot of it. We’ll finish out this year and try to win every race we can.”
Atwood has a multi-year deal with Evernham to drive the factory-backed No. 19 Dodge Dealers/UAW Intrepids. When Mayfield was released as the driver of Penske Racing’s No. 12 Ford, Evernham soon commented that he would love to see Mayfield in a Dodge. However he has not made any specific commitment to doing that.
Mayfield, who has not been to a race track since he was released in September, continues to work on a deal behind the scenes that will see him return to Winston Cup in 2002.
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Jeremy Mayfield
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Whatever occurs with Smith, he said and has maintained right along that he is immensely proud of his Craftsman Truck Series operation, which won seven times with Musgrave and five with Riggs. Riggs won five Bud Poles and Musgrave had two.
“Ted is first of all, a quality driver -- much more than I ever thought,” Smith said. “But even more than that, he’s a quality individual. The lucky stars were shining on me when we got together. Nothing is better than when two people are really happy with what they’re doing, and he’s done a wonderful job for us and he’s wonderful to be around.”
Conversely, Smith said he has mixed emotions about the circumstances that caused Riggs to leave to drive ppc Racing’s Busch Series car in 2002. As bitter as a blow as it was, after Smith cemented Riggs’ case for advancing rapidly up the NASCAR “ladder,” the owner said he held no ill will.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that, that whoever gets into the No. 2 won’t be walking away at the end of the year,” Smith said. “Nobody really knew Scott Riggs before this season -- I didn’t know him and I didn’t know if he would win one race or five -- or tear up all our equipment.
“I am happy I made him a household word. That’s kind of racing, isn’t it? I won’t wish him nothing but the best, but I will say that, down the road somewhere don’t be surprised if you see him back at Ultra Motorsports.”
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