Monday, February 27, 2012

2011 Successful NASCAR Team Changes

NASCAR is one of the most important components of the race niche in the sports world. The reason for this is that it highlights more than 100 races every year. These races take place in three main circuits, such as Sprint Cup, Craftsman Truck, and Nationwide. Another great thing that you must know about NASCAR is the fact that it features some truly popular teams and drivers, including Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.


NASCAR: What You Must Know about It

We cannot talk about NASCAR without referring to stock car racing. As you might already know, stock car racing actually relates to the competition between the cars, which use standard bodies instead of specific designed exteriors. This type of racing registered an essential rise in popularity during the 90’s. But even after so many years, NASCAR remains one of the most popular televised sports events especially in the U.S. However, it is essential to know that it has been characterized by some important team changes. From all of them, the most successful ones were registered in 2011. These great changes underlined the phenomenal growth that NACAR has been showing for so many long.


The 10 Most Important Team Changes

As you already know, last year was marked by a few essential team changes. The most important ones highlight the followings:

  1. The very first change that took place was done by the Penske Racing team, which replaced Kurt Busch and the team with Brad Keselowski and the team number 12. In addition to this change, Kurt Busch moved to the Shell/Pennzoil car.

  2. Hendrick Motorsports made another important change. The team rearanged things so that Steve Letarte, Alan Gustafson, and L. McGrew are now with Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin. Jeff Gordon's new crew chief became Alan Gustafson, Lance McGrew switched to Mark Martin, and Dale got paired up with Steve Letarte.

  3. The third essential change took place in January 2011, when Lance Fenton and Bob Leavine announced the formation of a new racing team, which came under the name of Leavine Fenton Racing. David Starr was chosen to drive for the rest of the season.

  4. The month of February witnessed another team formation. At that time, Frank Stoddard formed a new team, which is known as FAS Lane Racing.

  5. In March 2011, David Stremme confirmed his return in the racing world with another team, namely Inception Motorsports. He returned to the Cup Series, driving the Chevrolet with number 30 for the rest of the season.

  6. Another great change relates to Sinica Motorsports, which also joined the Cup Series. It ran the Chevrolet with number 93 for the last three races of the season. This team had two different drivers, namely Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott. Additionally, Sinica Motorsports has already announced that Grant Enfinger is going to drive for this team in 2012.

  7. Additionally, Paul Menard left from Richard Petty Morotorsports and joined Richard Childress Racing. Paul Menard left with a contract, which will expire in 2013.

  8. Kasey Kahne also changed his team – which used to be Richard Petty Motorsports – with Red Bull Racing.

  9. Marcos Ambrose left from JTG Daugherty Racing to replace Kahn and drive for the Richard Petty Motorsports team.

  10. Bobby Labonte left his team to replace Ambrose. He drove for JTG Daugherty Racing until the end of the season.

As you are able to see, the aforementioned drivers and teams performed a few significant team changes in 2011. For this year, many professionals estimate some other essential changes, which will definitely make everything even more exciting than it already is.


More on NASCAR and Team Changes

Although a person, who does not know too many things about NASCAR, might consider that different changes can easily unbalance the structure of a racing team, they actually revitalize this magnificent sport. A truly great thing is that in most cases, the team changes are benefic especially because they come along with specific advantages, which mainly relate to the capabilities of different drivers.


Obviously, these changes can help specific teams – that usually get mediocre results – to obtain more points than before. The reason for this is that these changes allow different teams to get some better drivers than they used to have. And this is one of the reasons why the teams complete different strategies based on the changes that will take place within particular periods. Based on all these facts, we can state that the team changes are definitely some very important elements for NASCAR and its history.


The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on NASCAR Race Mom are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of NRM.

David Veibl, occasional guest blogger and sport enthusiast, now writes for AthlonSports. Athlon's digital properties include AthlonSports.com which provides coverage for NASCAR news and college sports of every kind. @DavidVeibl

No comments: