Team moves depend on UPS
By Mark Ashenfelter
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
DAVID GRIFFIN / NASCAR SCENE /
With sponsor UPS suddenly NASCAR's top free agent, at least two teams' immediate futures appear to hang in the balance.
Robert Yates Racing, which loses Jarrett's services at season's end, can't pick a replacement until it learns if UPS will remain. And if UPS opts to follow Jarrett to Michael Waltrip Racing, that operation would field three Toyotas instead of two next season.
The one certainty is that Jarrett's move, formally announced May 13, leaves owner Robert Yates facing a scenario he thought was two years off. Expecting Jarrett to finish his career with the team in 2008, RYR began grooming Stephen Leicht and Matt McCall as possible replacements this season.
While the sponsor, be it UPS, Busch Series sponsor CitiFinancial or another entity, will play a role in selecting Jarrett's replacement, Yates says a veteran could figure in the mix. The question is whether the veteran would drive the full year or split time with one or two younger drivers as Yates works toward a permanent replacement.
Team Manager Eddie D'Hondt said Bill Elliott could be the veteran if that plan is followed.
"Would it be fair for [a young guy] to run every race next year? Maybe," Yates said May 12. "I think that having a guy working with them, tutoring, mentoring them that it would be a fair situation to have a [veteran] do some percentage of it and the kids do a greater percentage of it.
"The team is really about the [owner] points. I think that would be a great deal to put the best people in the best job for that day and not put all the load for the kids to learn that quick. That would be a scenario that I would love to see. I'd like to be able to sell a sponsor on that idea. ... But I think for a sponsor that's a good choice because then you create your own billboard guy."
Waltrip said he has sponsorship secured for two cars and has talked with UPS. If the company comes aboard, he'd gladly field three teams next year. In a statement, UPS spokesperson Peggy Gardner said the company "is excited about its continuing role in NASCAR," but that its policy is not to comment about "our future plans or sponsorships."
Jarrett asserted that he's fully committed to winning races and making the Chase For The Nextel Cup with RYR this year and said the owner who hired him in 1995 understood his decision.
"It wasn't something that [Yates] wanted to let go lightly, but he also understands," Jarrett said. "We've had a great understanding over the years that if it were time for us to do something different that we would do that. I think we both agreed that this might be that time."
