On the Nationwide tour, winning isn't good enough

WELCOME, N.C. -- Stephen Leicht won his first career race in the then-Busch Series last season at Kentucky Speedway, and might have won another had the caution not come out when he was leading late in the finale at Homestead. He compiled seven top-10 finishes, placed seventh in final points, and earned a little more than $1 million in his second season on NASCAR's junior circuit. And his reward for all that is a part-time ride for 2008.

"You would think, after two years now, all the auditioning would be over," Leicht said during a stop on the Lowe's Motor Speedway preseason media tour. "Now I'm auditioning again for an ever bigger job. I feel like it's just starting."

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In a way, he is starting over again. A full-time driver for two seasons on what's now known as the Nationwide tour, the 21-year-old Leicht currently has only two races on his 2008 schedule. He'll drive the No. 21 Nationwide car for Richard Childress Racing at California and Nashville, and turn the vehicle over to Sprint Cup veteran Bobby Labonte for 15 other events. Leicht might get a few more starts, if the sponsorship comes through. In the meantime, he'll become RCR's primary test driver, and cross his fingers that some company wants to put its name on the side of his car.

Unfortunately, it's not a situation he's unused to. Despite the moderate successes he experienced on the racetrack last season, Leicht spent the latter part of the 2007 campaign fretting over where he would race the next year. CitiFinancial, the corporation that had backed his No. 90 car at Robert Yates Racing, was moving on to Roush Fenway Racing, and Nationwide cars with Sprint Cup drivers in the cockpit. He found himself caught in the vise so many young drivers are caught in today, trapped in a series dominated by sponsors who want moonlighting Cup drivers in their cars. His results were good -- but not good enough to attract a sponsor that would rather back a big name.

So here he is at Childress, with a small piece of a historically potent car, and hoping for a little more. Given the recent upheaval at his old shop -- the retirement of patriarch Robert Yates, and the loss of Sprint and Nationwide car sponsors -- he's happy for a little stability. But he's also clearly and understandably frustrated, with so much of his future beyond his immediate control.

"Through the offseason to this point, probably in the past week or two when this really started happening, I was thinking to myself, 'Man, we finished seventh in the points, we won a race, bunch of top-fives [three], a bunch of top-10s.' It was like, what do we have to do?" Leicht asked. "It comes down to nowadays, sponsors want Cup drivers in the [Nationwide] cars. Fortunately, that's going to change soon, with what they're doing with the age changes and making Cup drivers not able to run for championships anymore. I think you're going to see that change. Unfortunately, where I am with my career and my age, I'm caught in the middle. I'm kind of in the waiting stage as the process is turning over, and I'll catch the tail end of that pretty soon, hopefully."

Maybe. NASCAR is considering a 21-year-old age minimum for Sprint Cup drivers, and making Cup regulars -- like defending series champ Carl Edwards -- ineligible for the Nationwide title. But right now, the trend of wanting Cup drivers almost exclusively in Nationwide cars seems entrenched. Leicht isn't the first Nationwide driver squeezed out by sponsorship, and he won't be the last. Teams know this, hence the practice of teaming young drivers with more established names in Nationwide cars. That's what's happening at Chip Ganassi Racing, where young Bryan Clauson will split a Fastenal-backed car with Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti.

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"I think the reason that sponsors like to have the driver with a name is, obviously they're trying to attract people to their product," said John Fernandez, managing director of the Ganassi team. "If they have a Dario Franchitti or a Juan Pablo Montoya, that name already attracts a lot of people, and people look. Whereas if you had a Bryan Clauson, nobody yet knows who Bryan Clauson is. The other side of that is, if you start with Bryan Clauson and he makes the progression, you've got a new hot star and he blossoms. As a sponsor, you've got to look at both ends of that. But again, the reason they want to see a name driver in it is because they want the attraction."

Economics plays as large a role as name recognition. Companies that want to be involved in NASCAR but can't afford the $20 million cost of backing a premier Sprint Cup car can often get the same driver at a much lower price in the Nationwide Series. It all adds up to a difficult situation for drivers like Leicht, who feel they've proven themselves on the racetrack but can't find a car to drive. Leicht missed all of Daytona testing because he didn't have a seat, and struck the deal with Childress only two weeks ago.

Mike Dillon, general manager of RCR, understands his newest driver's frustration. "It's not real fun, I wouldn't think," said Dillon, a former driver himself, and the father of two racing teenage sons. "He's a good talent. I think we can go out there and have some good races. They're going to try to sell sponsorship. I think you're going to see him racing in more races than two. I feel pretty confident that Richard will run him in more than two."

Leicht can only hope. As early as the first half of last season, he knew his chances of driving a CitiFinancial-backed car in 2008 were no better than 50-50. The team needed the bonus money that would come with a top-15 finish in points. After the victory at Kentucky, the worries faded -- but not for long.

"We were excited, we were ready to race, looking forward to next year," he said. "There were just so many things that went on inside the organization that even I don't know about that led to them leaving. I can't really point fingers, I don't really know anything about it. Robert retiring and not coming back this year played a big part in that. They signed with Robert. They wanted to be with Robert and his team. It's his name. The fact that he was leaving was a big reason why they left RYR."

Leicht has small solace in knowing that some others have had it worse. Danny O'Quinn was the Busch Rookie of the Year in 2006, and was released from his ride at Roush Fenway because the team couldn't put a sponsorship package together. As of late last year he was still seeking opportunities for 2008, according to a message posted on his Web site. He recently was at Preseason Thunder for the Nationwide Series, testing the No. 56 Chevrolet for MacHill Motorsports.

Leicht's opportunity is there, in the form of RCR's No. 21 Nationwide car. Now all he needs is a little corporate help.

"Do I have a full-time ride? No," Leicht said. "Do I have a ride with one of the best teams in NASCAR? Yes, and that's what I'm excited about."

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.