Team Rensi Motorsports likely to close doors after Memphis Nationwide race
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Saturday's Kroger On Track For The Cure 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series is likely the final event for Team Rensi Motorsports, Team President Ronnie Russell said at Memphis Motorsports Park.
Sponsorship from Smithfield Foods runs out after this race, and there is no sponsorship for driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. and the No. 25 Ford for the remaining three races.
“If something doesn’t happen good for us by Monday, then, no, we will not be continuing the last three races,” Russell said. “We will not be going to Texas, Phoenix or Homestead.”
Smithfield was a 30-race deal for 2008, and Memphis was the 30th race. Russell said it was important to the team not to have any outstanding debt before closing its doors, and the team did not want to start-and-park its car over the final three races.
And if sponsorship doesn’t work out – and Russell held out slim hope for that – Team Rensi will close for good.
“We’re not going dormant when we’re not coming here,” Russell said. “We’re closing up. It’s not a dormant situation.”
Formed in 1998 by brothers Ed and Sam Rensi, the team has won five races in its time in the series and has become a stalwart among independent teams. But the economy of the series has changed, Russell said, and the current state of the U.S. economy hasn’t helped.
“We’ve been in this series for 11 years,” Russell said. “We’ve been very successful in this series. We’ve had good years and bad years. But we always felt like we could compete. It’s unfortunate now that the competing part of it is getting harder and harder. Our times that we live in right now, it’s difficult, as we all know – no matter what job you’re in.
“Our economy has affected our racing. It didn’t cause our problem we have here right now. It has affected it and influenced it and made it worse, but it didn’t cause it.”
Russell has been one of the more vocal critics of the state of the series, arguing that independent teams have too much of an uphill battle against Sprint Cup teams who race in the series. Costs have increased too much, Russell said.
“I’m not bitter at anything in particular,” Russell said. “I’m upset that we can’t continue, and maybe that’s all our fault. I do know that we’ve been honest with the media in telling everybody what we have going on. There’s a lot of people in this garage area that have failed to tell the media and NASCAR where they stand. We’re not the only ones; we’re just being vocal about it.”
Team Rensi has fielded a second car, the No. 35, in the last two races for Danny O’Quinn, who parked not long after the green in both events. Russell said he doesn’t want to do that any longer.
“Here’s our opinion on that: In one sense it is [economical], and I’ve even been doing that with the second car the last couple weeks,” Russell said. “But we’re racers, and we come here to race. If we can’t do that, then we almost look at it as, ‘Maybe it isn’t meant to be.’
“From the other side of it, it’s important for us, too, to make sure that we don’t owe a lot of money to people. What we owe our people, we want to make sure they are solvent. Whatever day was their last day, we want to make sure they got paid every penny of it. We’re not going to be like some people in this sport.”
