Lacking sponsorship, Travis Kvapil only solid for five races at Yates Racing

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Travis Kvapil's Yates Racing team is still seeking sponsorship to run the full NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

LaDon George
NASCAR Scene

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CONCORD, N.C. – Yates Racing is committed to running the first five NASCAR Sprint Cup races with Travis Kvapil, with any races of the season beyond that still to be determined, team general manager Max Jones said Thursday.

For Kvapil, it’s déjà vu as he was in a similar position a year ago but ended up running a full Cup schedule in the No. 28 car.

“A year ago we didn’t really have a great idea of what we were going to do,” Kvapil said Thursday during the Sprint Media Tour. “It is five for sure [this year]. At least I’m getting an opportunity to go out there and try to run up front, try to compete and get some recognition.

“It’s kind of a bummer how it all played out. I completely understand how and why it all fell into place. But as a race-car driver and what we did with Yates Racing and the [No.] 28 team throughout 2008, I’m kind of bummed out we’re in the same spot we were a year ago.”

Jones said he hopes that sponsorship can be found, much like the team did last year when it ran an unsponsored car in several races and had several occasional primary sponsors.

“If we don’t take the 28 out and we leave it at home and leave Travis at home, nobody is going to know it’s there and we’re never going to be able to put something together,” Jones said. “It’s not a lot different than what we did last year in taking two white cars [to Daytona] and everybody saw what happened there. We were able to keep working really hard and put things together.”

While optimistic that recent talks with potential sponsors will come through, Jones said the team doesn’t intend to run the team unsponsored the entire year.

“In this economy, we won’t dilute a program by running it a whole year if we can’t [get a sponsor],” Jones said.

Kvapil’s crew chief will be Ben Leslie, who will also continue in his position as Ford Racing’s NASCAR field manager.

“[Leslie] has been part of our Ford family and he knows where we’re at and what we’re doing,” Jones said. “It was a natural for him to step in and bring him up to speed. We felt in a short period of time, he’d be the first guy to step in and be able to fill that role really well.”

Todd Parrott was going to be Kvapil’s crew chief, but he – and his entire team – is going to work with Bobby Labonte, whose Hall of Fame Racing team will be operated by Yates Racing in a deal announced last week.

Kvapil will have no points to fall back on in getting into the first five races. His points from 2008, when he finished 23rd in the driver standings, went to Paul Menard, who brought sponsorship to the team.

“There’s an easy way around that – we’ll just go down there and win the pole [at Daytona],” Kvapil said. “There obviously are no guarantees, but we have a great speedway program. We proved that at Talladega last fall by winning the pole.”

Labonte got the points from David Gilliland, who was 27th in points but as of now doesn’t have a ride.

“It was a very hard decision when it came to the drivers,” Jones said. “I’d love to be running David, too. Both of them improved a lot over the year. … It’s no slight on David at all.

“I hope to be able to do something with David this year.”

Kvapil could be in a similar boat as Gilliland in just a couple of months. He hasn’t tried to get any other Nationwide or Truck rides in case the Cup deal didn’t come through.

“All winter long throughout the offseason, I was just working really hard with the marketing guys, making calls and doing everything I can to try and get some money out of the team and help secure sponsorship,” Kvapil said. “I put a lot of effort into that. Right now, I just want to run that 28 car.”

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1 response to "Lacking sponsorship, Travis Kvapil only solid for five races at Yates Racing".

1

Jerry Mills said:
Feb 6, 2009 at 4:44 PM
it is a bummer loosing points from 08 but the "28" is still and hopefully always be the flag ship at Yates Racing. good luck with that "28" in 09 Travis.
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