Bruce: Teams switching manufacturers hasn’t happened too often
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Whether or not a switch in nameplates is in the works for Furniture Row Racing remains to be seen, but additional support from Chevrolet or a fresh start with another auto manufacturer isn’t expected to depend solely on the organization’s ability to expand from its current single-car status to a multi-car team.
The Denver, Colorado-based NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization, with driver Martin Truex Jr., currently fields only the No. 78 Chevrolet. It has been a single-car effort since debuting in the series a decade ago but has its eye on expansion.
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The company does enjoy a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing, in effect giving it three more teams from which it can obtain data and information as well as “hard parts” related to it’s Sprint Cup effort.
The RCR organization consists of Sprint Cup Series teams for drivers Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Ryan Newman. It also fields four full-time teams in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series.
Truex recently ended a 69-race winless streak with a victory at Pocono Raceway. Second in the points standings, the 34-year-old likely earned himself and his team one of the 16 positions for this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
His third-place finish last weekend at Michigan International Speedway was his 14th top-10 of the year. It’s the first time a driver has managed 14 top-10s in the first 15 races since seven-time champion Richard Petty accomplished the feat in 1969.
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Team owner Barney Visser raised the idea of a possible manufacturer change early last week.
Joe Garone, General Manager for Furniture Row Racing, said at Michigan “we didn’t say we were changing (manufacturers). We were just saying that we are looking.”
Garone said the consideration was part of the overall plan for securing sponsorship for the organization as it continues to try and expand its footprint in NASCAR.
“One of the things about the No. 78 car is because it has always had Furniture Row and Denver Mattress on it everybody assumes it is sponsored,” he said. “It has made it tough to find partners, but again Barney owns those companies. We need to get the word out that we are actively looking for sponsorship to come on board. Not just for the No. 78, but to expand the company into a multi-car team. It is for the long term growth of the team.”
The last manufacturer switch involving a major Sprint Cup organization came at the end of 2012 when Team Penske announced it would swap its two-car effort from Dodge to Ford, a move brought about by Dodge’s decision to leave NASCAR at the end of ’12.
In ’09, Richard Petty Motorsports began making the transition from Dodge to Ford and became a full-blown Ford organization in ’10.
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates ran Dodge products through ’08; when it became Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in ’09, the move included a switch to Chevrolet.
Joe Gibbs Racing announced in ’07 that it was making the switch to Toyota for ’08, ending a seemingly unbreakable 16-year alliance with General Motors (primarily Chevrolet).
Speaking about the move during Toyota’s 10-year anniversary last year, team owner Joe Gibbs told NASCAR.com the decision was difficult but the change was necessary for his three-team organization. JGR has since added a fourth team to its Sprint Cup stable.
“We felt like after analyzing it, if you really look at the lineup inside GM, Rick Hendrick (Hendrick Motorsports) was in there and had won championships, Childress (Richard Childress Racing) had won many championships, and had been there longer than we had. We felt like moving to Toyota — this is a very competitive world — it gave us a better chance to distinguish ourselves and maybe be an elite team for a manufacturer that racing means a lot to.”
And it’s that is kind of support and stature that Furniture Row officials hope to obtain, whether from Chevrolet or someone else.
Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota provide financial and/or technical support to their respective teams in the Sprint Cup Series. But the levels of support vary among organizations and it is not static – it can change from year to year (such as when new teams are added) or even during the course of a season.
The support isn’t based soley on what happens inside the race track – business relationships outside the track also can have a bearing on the amount of involvement.
“It’s not just about dollars and cents,” Dave Wilson, President & General Manager, Toyota Racing Development, USA, told NASCAR.com. “Certainly that’s a component. But again, our mantra has always been about the tools we bring to the table, the technology we bring to the table versus our manufacturing colleagues.
“Those are very critical, strategic considerations for any team. … It’s a big investment, big changeover cost. Certainly nobody would take those decisions lightly.”
Wilson said if there were solid organizations interested in Toyota and the circumstances and timing were favorable, “then certainly we would be interested.
“Right now, our priority is 2015. It’s to keep getting better; we need to continue to help the folks over at Michael Waltrip Racing get better. We need to get at least Clint (Bowyer) into the Chase if not Clint and Kyle (Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing),” he said.
“We keep an eye on the garage; we talk to teams every week. But certainly there has been no decision.”
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Dave Pericak, Global Ford Performance Director, said his company is “very happy with the partners we have today and we have an approach where we are working to get everybody’s performance up and we are committed to doing that.
“We believe in long term partners and believe we have the right people that we are with currently,” he said.
Chevrolet-branded teams have won nine of the last 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships. Dodge interrupted the string in ’12 when Penske driver Brad Keselowski captured the title.
Ford’s last title came in 2004 with Roush Fenway Racing and then-driver Kurt Busch; it was the second of back-to-back championships for the organization that had seen Matt Kenseth capture the crown the previous season.
Toyota is still seeking its first championship in the series although it did put one driver, Denny Hamlin, in last year’s four-team Chase finale. Kenseth finished second in points in ’13 after making the move from Roush Fenway to JGR.
Regardless of how it shakes out, Garone called Chevrolet “a great partner” with a successful history in NASCAR.
“But to get to the level we need to get to we need to get a lot more support,” he said. “We are open and have been looking to try and get that just to push our team forward further.”