Team Rensi will run remaining 2008 Nationwide Series races after all
FORT WORTH, Texas – Team Rensi Motorsports will run the rest of the NASCAR Nationwide Series season after driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. put up the money for the team to compete in the final three races, team president Ronnie Russell said Thursday afternoon.
The team’s sponsorship had run out for this year, and Smithfield Foods has already indicated it would not return next year.
“He’s actually funding this out of his own pocket,” Russell said in the Texas Motor Speedway garage. “We’ve got several things going on and he’s taking the chance to where we keep racing long enough to where we can seal something up here [for next year].”
Hamilton Jr. is 15th in driver points and the team is 18th in owners points. But if the team doesn’t attempt to qualify for an event, it would lose its automatic-qualifier status for being in the top 30 in owners points and would have to start next season qualifying on speed.
“If we are able to achieve something, then it would be really important to have [that guaranteed spot],” Russell said. “We hope some people pay attention to us and we’re true to what we say – if Bobby hadn’t come forward, then we couldn’t have done this.”
Hamilton Jr. said he will spend about $380,000 in keeping the team running for the rest of the year.
“[Co-owner] Ed Rensi has spent millions and millions of his own money keeping this deal going and we didn’t want him to do that any more,” Hamilton Jr. said Friday. “We could have shut down and gave up and walked away, but it wasn’t in us. It wasn’t in me and it wasn’t in these guys.
“We got together and I told them, ‘The hell with it. I’ll pay for it.’ It keeps us there another three weeks to work on sponsorship stuff for next year. They’re talking to some decent people, some good companies with decent money.”
Having spent five season with Team Rensi from 2002-2004 and again since 2007, Hamilton Jr. said he wants to continue racing for the team.
“This is where I want to be,” Hamilton Jr. said. “I love this group. I’m comfortable with everybody here. And it’s evident. I’m paying to race. That’s how important it is to me. … I’m a racer. You can fold up shop and go away or sit here and race. If I wasn’t racing here, I’d be running a Late Model somewhere and I get more out of this than a Late Model.”
The Hamilton car will run the entire race. The team also has entered a second car for Danny O’Quinn that likely wouldn’t run the full event.
“We’re a great race team and we’re an independent deal,” Russell said. “We’ve got great employees. That’s the main thing we’re trying to do. We don’t want to break this up.
“We’ve got some ARCA situations [for sponsorship], some possible Camping World [East] situations and Nationwide.”
