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Previous Nationwide Series trials helped shape driver’s future
LAS VEGAS — On a cold and rainy afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sat in his race car clad in jeans and a pullover, his cowboy hat resting upside down on the roof. There would be no on-track activity this day at the 1.5-mile facility — in a matter of minutes, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series director John Darby would announce that everything had been canceled — but Stenhouse remained nestled inside his vehicle, even as crewmen jacked up one side to change the qualifying setup to race trim.
“Welcome to my office,” Stenhouse said with a laugh. He was snug in the race car partly, he said, to keep warm. But it was clear that the Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate was using the rain delay as an opportunity to further bond with members of a race team that had been cobbled together from other programs at Roush Fenway Racing, for whom Stenhouse had won a pair of Nationwide Series championships before moving up to NASCAR’s premier division in a No. 17 car most recently occupied by Matt Kenseth.
“That’s the first thing you think — oh, these guys aren’t going to like getting stuck with me,” said Stenhouse, who by virtue of 2012 owners points will start seventh in Sunday’s event. “Because some of them were on Matt’s car, some of them were on Carl (Edwards’) car. Those guys are in contention for wins every week, winning championships. … But they were all pumped up and told me they essentially volunteered and wanted to do this, and I think that says a lot.”
"I didn’t really ever race for points growing up, and so I had to learn that."
— Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
It clearly eases the transition for a driver who lately has been getting a lot more attention for who he’s dating — fellow Rookie of the Year candidate Danica Patrick — than what he’s capable of on the race track. Through two races, though, Stenhouse finds himself ninth in points after a pair of solid if unspectacular finishes to open his first full-time Sprint Cup campaign. For a driver more accustomed to chasing race wins and championships, the goals are now more modest: acclimate to the faster pace of the sport’s top circuit, and aim for top-15 results in the process.
Getting there requires an adjustment. “It’s like everything is fast-forward,” Stenhouse said.
In the Nationwide Series, where teams get only one set of tires for practice, crew chiefs can afford to be patient. Cars dribble out onto the track a few at a time, and do the same on pit road during the race. There’s less horsepower in the vehicles, and typically less depth in the starting field. In the Sprint Cup, by comparison, everything happens at warp speed, and all at once.
“Everything’s at a faster pace,” Stenhouse said. “You’re coming into the garage, making changes, getting on the race track as quick as you can and getting off the race track as quick as you can so you can make another run. Practice for the Nationwide car, you only have one set of tires, so you kind of draw the practice out. You’re not in a huge hurry. You’re taking your time. With more tires, you literally rush in here, make the change, hurry up to get back out. So practice is a little fast-paced. Jumping out on the race track, there can be 20 cars on the track at one time. Nationwide, there may be six or seven cars. That adds up.”
It goes much deeper — from setups that can vary completely from qualifying to the race, to crew chiefs who search not for just a good balance but an ideal one, to drivers who need to have a fuller grasp of how to make the vehicle better, and translate information from practice to the race. Stenhouse got a taste of it by making five Sprint Cup starts prior to this season, but his eyes are wide open now that he’s in it full time.
“I had seen it, and I knew it. But doing it every week, it’s like — whoa. You’ve really got to be on your game,” Stenhouse said. “These guys are sitting in their car 10 minutes before practice, ready to go out. So I’m sitting here ready to go out.”
That kind of patience hasn’t always been a Stenhouse trademark. He endured plenty of rocky moments on his career climb, most notably in a Nationwide rookie season in which he crashed cars with alarming frequency. There was the time he spun in qualifying at Nashville, failed to make the event, but still had to stay for the race because he didn’t have a ride home. There were the times Jack Roush pulled him from the car at Kentucky and Watkins Glen. There were the times when Stenhouse had to escape to the beach just to clear his head, and his team was so short on equipment it brought whatever cars it could manage to the race track.
Stenhouse was worried about getting fired. Instead his team put an emphasis on getting to the finish, forcing a change in mentality from a driver who previously had always gone big or gone home. The 25-year-old from Olive Branch, Miss., had always been that way, even in his days running U.S. Auto Club cars for Tony Stewart. “It’s like, if we didn’t win, we were crashing,” Stenhouse remembered. Stewart has the remains to prove it.
“I’ve got a lot of race car frames in my lake that have his name on them, or cars that he crashed,” Stewart said. “But the thing about Ricky that was good about him from the start was he was always fast. It didn’t matter whether it was the sprint car, the midgets, the silver crown car, all three cars he got in and was quick right away. The hardest part was pulling the reins back in on him. There were races he’d have half a lap lead on second place, and crash the car with 10 laps to go. That was the hard stuff to get him to understand, is you don’t have to go 100 percent every lap.”
It took Stenhouse time to learn how to harness that aggressive style, and how to be patient when the situation or the vehicle demanded it. Those are the lessons that kept him off the brink of unemployment while in the Nationwide Series, and transformed him into a two-time champion. Those are the lessons that will serve him well on the Sprint Cup tour, where the events are longer, the season is more demanding and there’s such an emphasis on maximizing points and getting the vehicle home.
“I like to drive hard, and obviously when you get to this level, especially running for points — you’ve got to make sure when you have a car that can run 10th, that you run 10th with it,” Stenhouse said. “You can’t sit here and try to make it go from 10th to a win and end up 30th. That’s just something I had to figure out. I didn’t really ever race for points growing up, and so I had to learn that.”
The result was a calculated driver who was aggressive when he needed to be, and proved absolutely dogged when near the front. Stenhouse’s ability to seize the lead and not relinquish it fueled his eight victories in the Nationwide Series over the past two seasons, and in Roush’s eyes made him the clear heir apparent to Kenseth once the 2003 champion left for Joe Gibbs Racing.
“Ricky Stenhouse will be as good in this business as any driver has been in the modern era. He is the real deal,” Roush said. “There are a lot of drivers that have the mechanical and technical skill to drive these cars, but there are fewer of them … that actually can close the deal. You’ve got to be able to hang on to this victory, this space on the race track, tighter than the guy next to you. It’s a tug of war. It’s necessary to be able to drive the race cars, it’s necessary to be able to diagnose what the race car needs, but it’s absolutely required — it’s essential — to have the fight as big as the guy next to you when it’s time to cross the start/finish line.”
High praise indeed for a guy who these days seems better known as Danica’s boyfriend. But Stenhouse is trying to make his own name, and now embarks upon a Sprint Cup career that’s been shaped by all those lessons he learned through difficult times so long ago.
“I do know those times can come at any moment, so we’ve got to stay focused,” Stenhouse said. “I think it makes me stay more focused in the race car during practice, in the race car during qualifying, in the race. It makes me stay more focused, because I think that’s one reason we did have all the crashing — I didn’t stay focused enough to really put everything together. So all in all, I think it was great to go through it. I hated going through it at the time. But it also made me appreciate everything we were able to accomplish.”
READ MORE:
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READ: Edwards ready
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READ: Fantasy
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READ: Las Vegas
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READ: Johnson vs.
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Sorenson will fill in for Annett in No. 43 car until the Nationwide Series star recovers
Sam’s Town 300: Lineup/Practice results
LAS VEGAS — In the hospital following his head-on crash in the Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Michael Annett had a request for his friend Reed Sorenson — to feel a point on Annett’s sternum. No one realized it at the time, but the Richard Petty Motorsports driver had suffered a fracture of his breastbone, one piece of which was sticking above the other.
“I remember driving home the next day,” Sorenson said, “and thinking, ‘That sure did look weird.’”
Sorenson found out why a few days later, when he called Annett to make dinner plans and discovered his friend would need surgery to repair a sternum that had been broken and dislocated in the accident. Recovery would take up to two months, meaning Annett would have to step out of a car that finished fifth in final Nationwide points a season ago. For a replacement, there was one natural choice — the driver with whom Annett plays golf, who visited him in the Daytona Beach hospital after the accident, and was there in North Carolina after he underwent surgery.
"He knows this is an awesome opportunity for me. That makes me feel good."
— Reed Sorenson, on filling in for his friend Michael Annett
Which is why Sorenson found himself wearing an RPM golf shirt this weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and preparing to strap into a No. 43 car that still has Annett’s name stenciled above the door. RPM Sprint Cup driver Aric Almirola piloted the car last week, because Annett’s injury was discovered only days earlier and Almirola’s seat was already in Phoenix. But for a longer-term substitute, the team turned to a four-time Nationwide race winner and the one driver Annett would most want to see take over his race car.
“He wants me to succeed,” Sorenson said. “He knows this is an awesome opportunity for me. That makes me feel good, and I think it helps with the guys on the team, too. Because they know he’s supporting it, and he’ll be right there rooting us on.”
Annett and Sorenson, two drivers who share the same management company and are only months apart in age, became friends through racing. The Wednesday before Phoenix, Sorenson called Annett to discuss dinner plans when he learned his friend — who had visited the doctor earlier in the day, hoping to get cleared for the race weekend — instead needed surgery the next morning using screws and a metal plate to return the pieces of his fractured sternum to their natural position. Sorenson visited the hospital the next afternoon, and the two chatted about everything but racing.
What they didn’t talk about was the fact that Annett would be out of the car for several weeks, a crushing blow to a driver who had hoped to build on a breakthrough 2012 season. Annett was out of the hospital quicker than expected, and RPM officials are hopeful of a return sooner than anticipated, but during the interim the team would still requite a replacement — and everyone had a very clear idea of who that would be.
“With Michael and I being friends, I was hoping I’d get this chance, but you never know until everything’s done,” said Sorenson, who competed in the first two Nationwide events for Curtis Key’s team. “We got everything figured out, and it was pretty exciting.”
For Sorenson, it’s a bittersweet situation — on one hand, he’s stepping into a car his injured friend has left vacant, on the other he’s in a premier Nationwide ride for the first time since his surprise release from Turner-Scott Motorsports with five races remaining in a 2011 season in which he contended for the series title. Since then Sorenson has made only limited Nationwide starts, primarily for smaller, underfunded teams. He’s also competed in a number of Sprint Cup events in cars at the back of the field.
“It’s just tough out there,” said Sorenson, whose last victory was at Road America in 2011. “To get rides in good equipment is hard to do these days. It doesn’t matter if it’s Trucks, Nationwide, or Cup, it’s hard to come by. I’m very thankful for this opportunity and to be able to drive for RPM .… It’s weird, because maybe it hasn’t hit me fully yet. Once we get out there and get going, it will be nice. But this is definitely the best opportunity I’ve had in a year and a half. Unexpected, but good.”
Annett’s race team, which after last season had hopes of contending for race wins and a series championship, was as devastated by the injury as their driver. Crew chief Philippe Lopez can now take some solace in knowing he’ll have the same person in the seat until Annett’s return. He also expects a smooth transition, given the 27-year-old Sorenson’s experience at NASCAR’s national levels.
“For a guy who has as much experience as him, it’s easy to jump in a good car and go,” Lopez said. “It’s harder to jump in a not-so-good car — you’ve got to figure out what they’ve got going on. It’s a good car. He’ll do good in it.”
Even so, Annett’s injury has forced the No. 43 team to readjust its preseason goals — with the driver’s title out of the picture, the best it can hope for now is to vie for the owners’ crown and perhaps pick off a race victory using aggressive strategy calls. Sorenson hasn’t talked with Annett about how disappointed his friend must be over it all. He doesn’t need to.
“I know he was excited. I know all the guys on this team were excited to pick up where they left off last year, and then in the first race of the year something like this happens,” Sorenson said. “But he’s smart enough to know it’s something you can’t help. We haven’t gotten into that conversation of this kind of ruining his season in terms of points and things like that. But he’s excited about doing what he can when he comes back, and winning a race, and there’s still owners’ points, too. So he’ll be ready to come back.”
Annett may return to the track next week at Bristol, though only as a spectator. Until he’s healed enough to return to competition, it will be Sorenson in the car with Annett’s name over the door — and secure in the knowledge that his friend is comfortable seeing him in the seat.
“I’ve never really had to deal with it, but no race car driver wants to see their car out there without them in it, and coming into this weekend he’s just been real supportive,” Sorenson said. “I think he wants to see me run well. He cares about me as a friend, and knows this is a great opportunity for me. A week ago I didn’t think I’d have an opportunity like this. He’s happy for me and he wants me to run well, which means a lot, because he is the driver of this car. It’s nice to have the guy who’s sitting out cheering for you, instead of being angry he’s not in the car.”
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Series points leader gets first win since 2011 in Phoenix
LAS VEGAS — Sam Hornish Jr. drove an absolutely dominant car to victory Saturday afternoon, streaking away from Kyle Busch during a seven-lap dash to the finish in the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The win was Hornish’s second in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series and his first since Nov. 12, 2011 at Phoenix. It was the first Las Vegas victory for Penske Racing in any NASCAR series and the first Nationwide triumph for crew chief Greg Erwin, a winning Sprint Cup crew chief who signed on with Penske during the offseason.
The Penske organization also collected its first victory after switching from Dodge to Ford between seasons.
Busch rolled across the finish line in second, 1.1 seconds behind Hornish. Brian Vickers ran third, followed by Trevor Bayne and Elliott Sadler. Bayne recovered from an early brush with the wall to post the fourth-place result.
Hornish, who led 114 of the 200 laps, leads the series by 19 points over Sadler, Justin Allgaier (15th Saturday) and Brian Scott (ninth).
It wasn’t until race day that Hornish learned of the similarity between his name and that of the title sponsorship.
“I didn’t know until this morning that this was the Sam’s Town 300,” Hornish said. “It’s kind of cool that I was able to win it. … It’s great to get Penske Racing’s first win back in a Ford.
“Man, the car was awesome today. It was a real joy to drive. I’ve got to thank all the guys on the Penske team for giving me an awesome car to race with. When you have a car that good, you’re always worried something bad is going to happen or you’ll get caught in somebody else’s problem. I’m glad that didn’t happen today.”
Busch, who had dominated at Phoenix a week earlier, had an excellent car on Saturday — but not quite strong enough.
“It was a tough race out there today all around,” Busch said. “Cars were really getting loose out there in the early stages of the race through the middle part of the race. … The second-to-last run and the last run, I felt like our car was really good. There wasn’t much else that we could do to make it better.
“Sam was just that much faster than us. He was beating us a little bit everywhere, all the way around the race track. Certainly, when he stepped on the gas, that thing would go forward in a hurry. Us two were kind of the class of the field, but he was the class of everybody.”
Hornish dropped from the lead to third during pit stops on Lap 139, after NASCAR called a debris caution one lap earlier. Eight circuits after a restart on Lap 145, Hornish regained the top spot, sailing past Busch and driving away.
Hornish led Busch by almost three seconds when Scott Lagasse Jr.’s spin in Turn 1 on Lap 182 caused the seventh caution of the race. The top seven cars stayed on track under the yellow while those behind them came to pit road for fresh rubber on Lap 184.
Four laps later, moments after Hornish led the field to the green flag, a hard wreck in Turn 2 involving rookie Kyle Larson, Joey Gase and Ryan Sieg slowed the race for the eighth time and left Larson’s No. 32 Chevrolet Camaro a smoking ruin.
Larson, whose car flew into the catch fence on the final lap of the NNS season opener at Daytona, hastily climbed from his car as safety workers arrived with fire extinguishers.
Bayne and Larson made track-position plays on Lap 83, taking fuel only under caution for Robert Richardson Jr.’s spin in Turn 2. Though they started at the front of the field, the strategy backfired, as both Bayne and Larson hit the outside wall battling for the lead on Lap 87.
Larson, in the outside lane, crowded Bayne on the bottom as the drivers raced side-by-side. Bayne’s No. 6 Ford broke loose, carrying both cars into the wall. Bayne remained on the lead lap, but Larson’s No. 32 Chevrolet was damaged more extensively, and the rookie lost two laps during repairs.
Race results
1. (7) Sam Hornish Jr., Ford, 200.
2. (23) Kyle Busch(i), Toyota, 200.
3. (1) Brian Vickers, Toyota, 200.
4. (2) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 200.
5. (15) Elliott Sadler, Toyota, 200.
6. (4) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 200.
7. (12) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 200.
8. (18) Alex Bowman #, Toyota, 200.
9. (3) Brian Scott, Chevrolet, 200.
10. (31) Travis Pastrana, Ford, 200.
11. (5) Ty Dillon(i), Chevrolet, 200.
12. (17) Brad Sweet, Chevrolet, 200.
13. (11) Nelson Piquet Jr. #, Chevrolet, 200.
14. (32) Dale Earnhardt Jr.(i), Chevrolet, 200.
15. (10) Justin Allgaier, Chevrolet, 199.
16. (9) Reed Sorenson, Ford, 198.
17. (20) Mike Bliss, Toyota, 198.
18. (21) Ryan Sieg, Chevrolet, 198.
19. (27) Johanna Long, Chevrolet, 198.
20. (40) Scott Lagasse Jr., Chevrolet, 198.
21. (22) Blake Koch, Toyota, 198.
22. (36) Jamie Dick, Chevrolet, 197.
23. (37) Dexter Stacey #, Ford, 197.
24. (14) Hal Martin #, Toyota, 197.
25. (26) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 195.
26. (34) Jeffrey Earnhardt #, Ford, 195.
27. (16) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, 194.
28. (30) Juan Carlos Blum #, Ford, 193.
29. (29) Robert Richardson Jr., Chevrolet, 192.
30. (8) Parker Kligerman, Toyota, 189.
31. (25) Daryl Harr, Chevrolet, 189.
32. (13) Kyle Larson #, Chevrolet, Accident, 182.
33. (38) Joey Gase, Chevrolet, Accident, 181.
34. (19) Mike Wallace, Chevrolet, 167.
35. (28) Jason White, Toyota, 156.
36. (35) Kevin Lepage, Chevrolet, Engine, 153.
37. (6) Brad Keselowski(i), Ford, 144.
38. (33) Jeff Green, Toyota, Vibration, 16.
39. (39) Chase Miller, Chevrolet, Vibration, 5.
40. (24) Eric McClure, Toyota, Oil Pump, 2.
Race statistics
Average Speed of Race Winner: 125.087 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 23 Mins, 54 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 1.100 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 37 laps.
Lead Changes: 19 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: B. Vickers 1-7; A. Dillon 8; B. Vickers 9-19; B. Keselowski(i) 20-37; T. Bayne 38-56; R. Smith 57-60; S. Hornish Jr. 61-82; B. Vickers 83; J. Earnhardt # 84; T. Bayne 85-86; K. Larson # 87; B. Vickers 88-93; S. Hornish Jr. 94-138; B. Vickers 139; K. Busch(i) 140-144; B. Vickers 145; K. Busch(i) 146-152; S. Hornish Jr. 153-193; K. Busch(i) 194; S. Hornish Jr. 195-200.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): S. Hornish Jr. 4 times for 114 laps; B. Vickers 6 times for 27 laps; T. Bayne 2 times for 21 laps; B. Keselowski(i) 1 time for 18 laps; K. Busch(i) 3 times for 13 laps; R. Smith 1 time for 4 laps; J. Earnhardt # 1 time for 1 lap; A. Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; K. Larson # 1 time for 1 lap.
Top 10 in Points: S. Hornish Jr. – 127; J. Allgaier – 108; E. Sadler – 108; B. Scott – 108; R. Smith – 103; A. Dillon – 100; B. Vickers – 96; T. Bayne – 95; N. Piquet Jr. # – 93; A. Bowman # – 90.
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Roush Fenway driver pilots battered car to fourth-place run
LAS VEGAS — Trevor Bayne’s crew chief Mike Kelley said he was impressed with his young driver’s perseverance in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
After all, Bayne rallied to a second consecutive fourth-place finish after hitting the wall, nearly hitting a crew member on pit road and having to fend off some ravenous competition in the waning laps as his car was running out of fuel.
But it wasn’t until after the veteran Kelley looked over Bayne’s dinged and taped and scraped No. 6 World Financial Group Ford Mustang on pit road that he really gained an appreciation for this particular top-five finish.
“I didn’t realize it was as tore up as bad as it was, so to come back and finish fourth is a testament to the group I’ve got and our driver, Trevor Bayne, who stood up on the wheel all day and battled adversity and got us a top five,’’ a proud Kelley said.
The afternoon actually began quite promisingly. Bayne, who started on the outside of the front row, led twice for 21 laps and at times early looked as racy as anyone in the field, including winner Sam Hornish Jr.
But while racing for the lead on Lap 87, he collided in Turn 4 with rookie Kyle Larson. The two cars ricocheted into the wall and had to pit for repairs. Bayne’s Roush Fenway Racing team made quick work of his Mustang and he never went down a lap, while Larson’s car suffered more substantial damage.
“He (Larson) put it on my door,’’ Bayne said, still sounding a little frustrated with the situation after the race. “He’s gonna learn what air does. I had to learn the hard way and wrecked a few times and wrecked a few people. It just stinks we were battling for the lead there.
“He was really fast but I don’t think he quite grasps the concept of side force yet and he’ll get that. It’s not something you learn when you get here, in short track racing you don’t use that. So it’s just by experience you figure it out.’’
Bayne methodically worked his way up through the field following the incident as tape waved off the rear end of his banged-up car. He was already back running among the top 10 with 50 laps remaining and was fourth on the final restart with seven laps to go.
Even as his car was running out of fuel, he held off Elliott Sadler and challenged third-place Brian Vickers.
The fourth-place effort moved Bayne up three positions in the standings to eighth and he trails fifth-place Regan Smith by only eight points and leader Hornish by 32 in his quest to answer Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s back-to-back series titles in the car.
It’s definitely righted the ship after a disappointing 31st-place finish in the season opener at Daytona.
“Even with this thing all torn up, we had a chance at the end and I’m just so proud of these guys for not getting down on me and not getting down on the situation,’’ Bayne said. “We fought back and that’s what it takes to win championships.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more.’’
Kelley was equally as complimentary of the 2011 Daytona 500 winner Bayne. The new pairing had high expectations considering Kelley’s championship work with Stenhouse and Bayne’s eagerness at such a high-profile, full-season ride.
“For never working with him before, the last two weeks he’s proven to me he’s destined to be a champion in this sport and has earned his right to be a mainstay in the NASCAR series,’’ Kelley said. “He has all the qualities and things you look for in a great driver and I’m just fortunate I’m working with him.
“A day like today is what actually puts you in line to win championships. You don’t win championships for winning races as much as recovering from really bad days and getting decent finishes out of them.’’
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Yeley sits 13th in points entering Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400
LAS VEGAS — Parked on the far side of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s famous Neon Garage is a fittingly bright spot among the small teams and underdogs.
Driver J.J. Yeley, a former USAC champ who is still doggedly plying his way in the NASCAR establishment, couldn’t be more upbeat about the start of the 2013 Sprint Cup season.
Essentially overlooked in the Daytona 500 history-making “Danica Mania” and Jimmie Johnson triumph, was Yeley’s own super achieving moment — a 10th-place finish for the small, under-funded, super-committed Tommy Baldwin Racing team. In NASCAR’s biggest race of the year, Yeley bettered six former series champs and seven former 500 winners.
If not for a last-lap move that backfired on him, Yeley might have finished seventh. Either way, he delivered on his car sponsor Golden Corral’s season pledge for kids to eat free on Monday when Yeley earns a top-10 in the four superspeedway races (at Daytona and Talladega).
"Ultimately in this sport it’s all about consistency."
—J.J. Yeley
“So as a race-car driver I was disappointed because I thought I could have been seventh instead of 10th,” Yeley explained. “But it’s been a good start and I know it’s helped the momentum of the team with some of the negotiations with the sponsors we have and with some we’re trying to work on to get some races throughout the year.
“So, so far everything has been really good.”
Entering Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas, Yeley (who finished 28th at Phoenix last week) is ranked 13th in the championship standings — 10 points behind 10th-place Aric Almirola and several positions ahead of preseason favorites Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
To this, Yeley smiles but shakes his head in a cautionary gesture.
“I do (enjoy hearing that), but I know as time goes by they’ll chip away and it’s probably going to reverse,” Yeley said. “That’s just reality. But we’re going to continue working hard; we’re not giving up.
“Ultimately in this sport it’s all about consistency. It gives TBR that much more credibility when we perform like this.”
And the timing is significant. The introduction of the Generation-6 car has equalized the playing field initially until one organization figures out a competitive advantage. This is when smaller teams stand the best chance of running alongside — and in front — of the larger operations.
“As time goes by, the bigger teams will find those little things that make a difference because they have more resources,” Yeley said. “There will be a bit more of a separation. But for our team, the first part of the year, this is when we can do our best because it’s a little more of a level playing field.”
Unlike NASCAR’s larger uber-teams, a top result for Yeley and TBR teammate Dave Blaney directly translates into improved resources.
The team started with six employees five years ago and doubled last year’s 25-person payroll to 50 this season. Chevrolet has increased its technical commitment meaning increased time in the wind tunnel and more engineering help.
And while kids across the country were eating free at Golden Corral the day after the Daytona 500, the phones were ringing anew at the team’s North Carolina headquarters.
“Being a small team, obviously we have a lot of advantages the bigger teams don’t,” Yeley said. “We can put together small race packages for sponsors that really honestly can’t afford to go to some of the bigger teams.
“There are a lot of companies out there that can see the net worth of NASCAR, it’s just a matter of convincing the people in their company, and it’s been a little more difficult to write a huge check. Because of that I think we can capitalize on a lot of the sponsors that want to come in and enjoy being in the sport but can’t afford to do it on a level that some of the bigger teams do.”
“I’ve been on both sides,” Yeley continued. “I’ve been with big teams that have really good sponsorship and then I’ve been with small teams that had no sponsors that are just barely being able to survive. Because of that, I have more compassion for the sponsors that can afford to be there and benefit.”
As business savvy as Yeley is, however, he knows it all comes down to performance and that’s what encourages him so much about Baldwin’s operation.
A former Cup crew chief who won the 2002 Daytona 500 with driver Ward Burton, Baldwin is a racer first and foremost. And scaling back expectations with his small, new team has been an exercise in patience and persistence.
Despite Yeley’s impressive Daytona performance, the team goals remain modest: top-20 finishes and limited damage to the equipment.
“Top-20s nowadays are like top-10s twenty years ago,” Baldwin said. “There’s just so many good cars. Top-20s are a realistic goal and we’d like to finish between 26 and 30th in points this year.”
Just saying that aloud, however, is a fundamental mind-shift for the ultra-competitive Baldwin who as a crew chief wasn’t afraid to confront another crew chief on pit road when he felt his team was wronged.
“I get really mad on Sundays,” Baldwin said of not being able to challenge for race wins yet.
“It takes a good two hours after the race to pull my racing hat off and put my business hat on and get back the focus on our goals and where we have to be financially and the things we have to be and who we have to take care of.
“I bite my tongue a lot,” he said with a smile.
“But we’re realists, we understand what we’re doing and what we’re trying to build on and that’s fine. It’s good for us because we’re doing well. We’re attracting a lot of attention on the business side. We have a lot of partners and we have a lot of people we’re talking to.
“I’m a realist I know all this takes time to do it right. We’re just methodically working trying to work our way to get better every year.”
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