Offseason of transition

Even while Roush Fenway Racing attempts to find the sponsorship that will enable it to maintain three full-season Nationwide Series programs, Jack Roush's motorsports conglomerate is moving its second-tier racing operation from a leased property in Mooresville, N.C., to a building within its own complex at the Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport.

A team spokesman said work had begun last week on remodeling the downstairs portion of the building in which Roush Fenway's public relations and marketing offices are located. The plan is the facility "would be operational by the time the season starts" in February at Daytona's Speedweeks.

At the beginning of the 2010 season Roush Fenway, which either owns or leases a number of structures in the area surrounding Charlotte, N.C., consolidated the eight Sprint Cup teams that were close allies -- four from RFR and four more from Richard Petty Motorsports -- at its Concord complex. RPM was housed in a shop within Roush's complex co-owned by part-time driver Boris Said.

The spokesman said Roush Fenway would maintain the lease on the Mooresville facility but is moving its three remaining Nationwide teams to Concord in hopes of fostering a more beneficial information exchange, similar to what the RFR Cup teams enjoyed with RPM, as three Roush Fenway's teams made the 2010 Chase.

The unfortunate part of the transition, for 21 employees who formerly worked in RFR's Nationwide operation, is that they lost their jobs.

Veteran crew chief Rick Viers took over the No. 16 Nationwide car in mid-season, when it was 23rd in owners' points. In three races he guided it to 18th in points after Colin Braun and Brian Ickler scored three top-12 finishes, including Ickler's eighth place at Daytona. The car ultimately ended the season solidly in 13th spot. However, when several Nationwide sponsors left RFR at season's end, Viers and 20 teammates were released.

That was only part of the typical postseason shuffle, which this year at Roush Fenway meant a net loss of 35 positions from 2010, RFR's spokesman said. The organization, which reorganized its engineering section, actually hired 18 employees since the end of the 2010 season.

But RFR had to cut back its fabrication department due to losing one full-time and one part-time Nationwide program and two full-time Cup teams when RPM, which gets cars, engines and technical support from RFR and Roush Yates Engines, downsized from four team to two for 2011.

Sponsorship is at the root of many of the evils afflicting RFR this offseason, and it may not be over. The team plans to run its three Nationwide teams for full schedules, but it has "plenty of inventory [to sell] in the Nationwide Series;" and that might ultimately affect some of the scheduling.

Former series champion Carl Edwards, who plans to once again run full schedules in both Cup and Nationwide, will continue working with crew chief Mike Beam. However, only about half the 35-race schedule is covered. Fastenal and Copart co-branded the No. 60 car last season, but only Fastenal remains.

Edwards had four 2010 races covered by three other sponsors. Ironically, Copart was on Edwards' car for two of his four victories.

The sponsors that covered partial schedules for both the No. 6 Ford, which was primarily driven by 2010 Nationwide rookie of the year Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and the No. 16, which was mostly wheeled last year by 2008 Truck rookie of the year Colin Braun but this year will be driven by Trevor Bayne, are gone. Neither car currently has any sponsorship.

"They're talking to people daily," the spokesman said of RFR's marketing department's sponsorship efforts. "And [sponsorship status] could be changing as we speak. They're talking to so many people and we have so much open inventory, who knows how it could break down."

While Edwards had joked this past fall that he was going to negotiate with Roush to get his former Nationwide crew chief, Drew Blickensderfer, back on his 60 car this season after Blickensderfer was reassigned to RFR teammate David Ragan's Cup car. But Edwards actually won twice with Beam, in the 2010 season's last three races.

Stenhouse will start the season once again working with Mike Kelley, who guided the former open-wheel standout to three top-five and eight top-10 finishes and the No. 6 to 16th in the owners' standings. Former RFR lead Cup engineer Chris Andrews comes back to crew chief for Bayne.

"The hope is that with the Nationwide car's style changing [to something more similar to the Cup cars] Chris can bridge the gap and both of our programs can help each more," the spokesman said. "Where before, there was no way that one helped the other in any way from an engineering or R&D standpoint."

Engineer Tommy Wheeler, who began transitioning at the end of last season, assumes Andrews' lead role in the Sprint Cup engineering department, in conjunction with a second person who's yet to be assigned.

At this time there are no plans for RFR to field Bayne -- who made his Cup debut with a 17th-place run this past fall at Texas driving a Wood Brothers Racing Ford -- in any Cup races.

However, Bayne has already tested the Woods' car at Daytona at the recent Goodyear tire test, has hit it off particularly well with the Woods' crew chief, Donnie Wingo, who most recently worked at Roush Fenway, and may be placed in more races by the Wood Brothers.

 

Last year at various times RFR fielded five Nationwide Series numbers for a total of nine different drivers. Paul Menard, who raced in the Cup Series for RPM, finished fifth in the Nationwide standings in a No. 98 RFR car but has moved to Richard Childress Racing for 2011. That Nationwide program, which was underwritten by Menard's family business, the Menards home-improvement store chain, won't continue.

Braun and Erik Darnell, who both won Truck Series races for Roush but had less-than-satisfying Nationwide results, have been released by the team. Ickler, who started the season racing Trucks for Kyle Busch Motorsports, could get some races in 2011, the spokesman said. But with Stenhouse and Bayne's programs the primary sales goals, Ickler racing a Roush Fenway car in 2011 isn't likely.

At this time, what will be done with the ninth-place owners' points that Menard accrued is unknown. Pending NASCAR's approval, they could be reassigned to another RFR team, transferred to an RFR "partner" or not be used.