Rea White: Final race marks final outing with current team for some drivers
Team owner Chip Ganassi (left) and driver Martin Truex Jr. will compete in their final NASCAR Sprint Cup race together this weekend.
// David Griffin, NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
This weekend is more than just the end of the season for a slate of drivers. It's also the end of their run with their current team.
In recent weeks, several drivers have announced plans for next season, plans that involve moving on to a new organization. For some, all that is known for certain at this point is that they are moving on in general; no future plans have been announced as of yet.
Regardless of the circumstances, it could be a difficult weekend for some of these men who are preparing for their final races with their current teams.
Earnhardt Ganassi Racing's Martin Truex Jr. is leaving the only organization he has ever really known in NASCAR racing. He competed in what is now the Nationwide Series with Chance 2 Motorsports, a team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Dale Earnhardt Jr. He won two series titles there and then moved into the Cup fold.
He remained with DEI when teammate and his former co-boss Earnhardt Jr. moved on. He remained with DEI when it merged with Chip Ganassi Racing to spawn the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing organization the team has competed as this season.
Truex made what is now the Chase For The Sprint Cup in 2007, finishing a career-best 11th in the standings, and he has one career win there. He has 36 top-10 finishes, 13 of them top-fives. Now, he's preparing to move to Michael Waltrip Racing and join with crew chief Pat Tryson in 2010. That makes this his final race with the organization he has been tied to in one form or another since 2003.
Tryson, too, is obviously leaving his current team. He'll work with Penske Racing's Kurt Busch this weekend as the two try to finish as high in the standings as possible and then move on to Truex's new group.
Meanwhile, Richard Petty Motorsports' Reed Sorenson and Roush Fenway Racing's Jamie McMurray are also making their final starts with their current teams.
Sorenson has not announced plans for next season, but his team is going away as part of the planned merger between RPM and Yates Racing. Earlier this week, the driver thanked his team. "I did the best I could and tried to represent the number and company in a way that would make Mr. Petty and our sponsors proud," he said. This was Sorenson's lone season with the team after driving for Ganassi the previous three years.
And McMurray is returning to the place where it all started. He'll be back with team owner Chip Ganassi, with whom he won in his second career Cup start and where he competed from 2002 through 2005 before making the move to Roush Fenway.
With that team scaling back to four Cup operations instead of five next season, McMurray was looking for a ride. He'll replace Truex in the No. 1.
You wonder just what might be going through the minds of these young men this weekend. Obviously, they want to end the season on as high a note as possible. But just how much would a win mean to anyone in this group?
Obviously, it would be an emotional experience. So while most observers will keep a close eye on the championship race, these men also bear watching this weekend as they prepare to work with their familiar teams for the final time.
