Venturini Motorsports, a championship-winning organization in the ARCA Menards Series, has filed a lawsuit against two former employees, one of whom was former Crew Chief Frank Kimmel.
The lawsuit alleges that Kimmel, a 10-time series champion during his driving career, engaged in a scheme with fellow defendant Griffin Rider to steal the team’s secrets before their departure from the team.
“Just before terminating their employment with VMS, both defendants engaged in a scheme designed to steal VMS’ most sensitive intellectual property,” alleges the complaint.
The complaint goes on to state that Kimmel is accused of taking pictures of suspension components and setups developed by VMS “through wind tunnel and pull down machine testing for aerodynamic and handling advantages.”
Kimmel was ordered by a judge on Friday to return any and all documents and photographs he may have taken to VMS by Monday, and he is also required to submit his phone for forensic analysis.
Kimmel left VMS last month to serve as General Manager for KBR Development, a direct competitor of VMS in the ARCA Menards Series. VMS has asked the court to enter a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction and is seeking to recover damages in excess of $25,000.
SpeedwayMedia.com’s Senior Writer Briar Starr joins the show to talk the Rolex 24 results, NGOTS Playoff expansion, and the new GM Tech Center in Charlotte
Beginning in the 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series campaign, the Playoff field will be expanding from eight contenders to 10 possible contenders for the series championship.
The postseason races will remain at seven, with two drivers being eliminated after the first three races and an additional four drivers being eliminated after the next three races. The remaining four drivers will race for the title in the championship round at Phoenix.
While expanding the championship field is nothing new since the inception of the NASCAR postseason in 2004, there comes a point in time where it becomes a pointless action. Granted, NASCAR is aiming to bring excitement to all three of its national touring divisions, and the postseason has seen some exciting moments over the years. However, what’s the point in expanding the championship field when only a select few are true contenders and the rest will do nothing more than be placeholders?
Take the initial Chase for the NEXTEL Cup in 2004. It was a 10-driver field race set following the Richmond race in September, where they had 10 races to race for a championship. Of those 10, only four of them were viewed as true title contenders from the start (Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin). Those same four happened to be the ones who ultimately raced for the title at Homestead, with Busch taking home the trophy.
Meanwhile, drivers like Elliott Sadler, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, and Jeremy Mayfield all won races in the regular season but did not make much of an impact in the Chase, as they faded from contention early with Newman finishing seventh, Kenseth eighth, Sadler ninth, and Mayfield 10th in the final standings.
For that matter, there’s the current Playoff system implemented in the top-three divisions, and for posterity’s sake, take a look at the 2019 Xfinity Series Playoffs. Of the 12 drivers, only three of them were absolute title contenders (Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, and Christopher Bell). That left nine drivers, and while three of them were wild cards (Justin Allgaier went on to take the fourth slot at Miami, while Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe both hung around the top-five in points), six other drivers (Brandon Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Noah Gragson, Ryan Sieg, Justin Haley, and Michael Annett) stuck around by managing consistent runs with the occasional solitary win.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but a champion shouldn’t be decided by chance. If a driver dominates or is more consistent than anyone else in the regular season, they shouldn’t be knocked out of title contention by one bad race. If they dominate all year long and continue to post results in the postseason, then by rights, that driver should be the champion.
The 2003 Winston Cup season was actually a great season by that standard. Kenseth may have only won one race but he was more consistent than anyone else over the course of the season with 11 top-fives and 25 top-10s. He was the best driver all year long and that championship was earned.
Going back to the Xfinity Series championship fight of a year ago, the best three drivers fought for the championship, and Reddick earned his championship without question. The other drivers who made Playoff appearances worked just as hard as he did undoubtedly, but in the end, they weren’t on the level of Reddick, Custer, and Bell.
One notable Playoff field was the 2015 bunch, which included Jamie McMurray and Paul Menard. Both have won races and McMurray has won some of the crown jewel events in NASCAR, but they were just along for the ride compared to drivers like Joey Logano and Kenseth. That’s not saying their efforts weren’t good enough, but they just weren’t on the level the other teams were and their elimination in the first round was expected.
So what’s the point? Why expand the field when all that’s going to happen is a couple of guys who were just good enough to earn the ninth and 10th spots in the Playoff field are almost immediately eliminated because they weren’t on par with the other drivers in the Playoff field? If the team isn’t performing on a championship-caliber level, then they shouldn’t contend for a championship.
Some of the drivers on the bottom end of the Playoff field undoubtedly are having seasons other drivers would kill for and they shouldn’t be ashamed of that. But there’s a difference between strong and consistent and being a winner, and if they’re not making that jump then they’re not posting a championship-caliber effort. Full-stop.
Likewise, leave the championship contenders, the actual championship threats, to fight for the title without having to bother with other placeholders who aren’t really much of a threat for the title. That makes all the difference between a winner and a champion. Shouldn’t that be what the championship battle is about and rewards?
2020 Williams rookie Nicholas Latifi recently chose his racing number not only due to it’s championship history, but also as an homage to his hometown of Toronto, Ontario. He will be racing with the number six adorning the sides of his car.
Toronto is also known as “The Six,” due to it’s two area codes – 416 and 647. Also, at one point in Toronto’s history it was broken up into six areas – Old Toronto, Scarborough, East York, North York, Etobicoke and York.
Latifi, who finished second in the 2019 Formula Two points with four wins and eight podiums, becomes the first driver to use the number six since Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Formula One championship. Coincidentally, Rosberg’s career also started at Williams.
The rookie replaces Robert Kubica, who opted to leave Williams after one season. Latifi will race as teammate to George Russell, who will be in his second season with Williams.
2019 was the worst season in Williams history, as the team only scored one point throughout the season, coming at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheimring, the 11th event of the 21-race season.
For a sport whose fans can be hostile toward change, the upcoming 2020 season in NASCAR may very well be the new standard by which to measure the sport’s future. Changes have been the norm in the off-season, with everything from the Cup Series short track/road course packages being changed again to the pit stop rules changing in the XFINITY Series and the Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series.
On Wednesday, another change was announced as NASCAR stated that the XFINITY Series event on July 4 would be held on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course.
Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s managing director of racing operations and international development, was optimistic about the change as the XFINITY division will now be holding five road courses in its 2020 campaign.
“As we’ve seen in recent years, road course racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series provides some of the most thrilling action of the entire season, and we are excited to bring it to an iconic venue like Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“[Track owner] Roger [Penske], [track president] Doug [Boles], and the entire IMS team have been tremendous partners in growing the Brickyard weekend, and we’re looking forward to what promises to be a must-see event during July 4th weekend.”
The change could very well be the shot in the arm that the division needs regarding its efforts at IMS as the majority of the events held there since their first visit in 2012 have been less than stellar. NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has won four of the eight events held there, while XFINITY regulars have only won three of the events (Ty Dillon in 2014, William Byron in 2017, Justin Allgaier in 2018).
Drivers and fans alike have agreed that the division’s product at IMS has suffered compared to how it was on the O’Reilly Raceway Park venue, in which the division last visited in 2011. However, given the quality of the road racing product that the division has put together in recent years, an IMS road course event could bring added excitement to an otherwise dull affair.
Another thing to consider is that an IMS road course event could further fuel the possibility of an IndyCar/NASCAR crossover event, let alone an IndyCar/NASCAR double-header weekend in the future. Considering most of the allure at IMS comes from its history with the IndyCar Series, there is little doubt that bringing in stars from the open-wheel and sports car world would raise the event’s stock a bit.
Sports car star Jack Hawksworth almost won on the IMS road course as an IndyCar rookie in 2014, and considering how well he fared at Mid-Ohio in a Joe Gibbs Racing entry, he’d be a shoo-in for the competition. Another driver to consider would be 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud, who has won on the IMS road course three times including a dominant run in 2016 on his way to the season championship.
Of course, this is all speculation. But if the XFINITY Series can make the Charlotte Roval look good on their first try, then there’s no doubt that the idea of an IMS road course race could turn a few heads and pique some interest.
NASCAR is going into the 2020 season doing everything they can to make sure that the fans and drivers are able to enjoy the on-track product. With that being said, changing the XFINITY event at IMS to a road course event is a step in the right direction in rectifying an otherwise dull event. There’s no doubt that it’ll be a good race for both fans and drivers.
One side holds a slew of individuals who are quick to decry sim racing, saying that it shouldn’t be held to the same standard that actual racing is. They’re quick to point out how absurd it is that sim drivers are getting noticed and called upon by actual individuals in the racing world to compete under their banner. Drivers and dignitaries such as Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Parker Kligerman all have sim drivers who compete for them.
This side of the debate is understandable. The NASCAR world is full of drivers who still have to scratch and claw their way to the top for even the smallest opportunity to compete in the main event. Some of those drivers don’t even get the opportunity to prove themselves. Therefore, in a sense, their frustration is almost warranted when they see competitors who don’t have to put in as much work and effort as they do get their spot in the limelight while hobnobbing with the sport’s greatest names.
On the other side of the argument, sim racers are quick to point out the actual drivers who have benefited from sim racing, such as William Byron, Josh Berry and Ty Majeski. For that matter, when Hamlin swept Pocono in 2006 he was quick to credit his time on a racing simulator and how it helped him navigate the speedway.
Ryan Newman is also someone who has benefited from sim racing before. After crashing in both Bristol events in his rookie season, Newman took to EA Sports’s NASCAR Thunder 2003, where afterward he said in a Sports Illustrated interview that the game helped him learn a few things on how to get around the track.
It’s been established that sim racing is a beneficial tool in today’s motorsports world. As for the sim competitors getting live television coverage and signing deals with the sport’s top teams, is that necessary? Do sim racers really need to be held in a higher capacity than the regional competitors looking to make a name for themselves?
From a practical standpoint, no. Sim racing cannot replace the actual, real-life experience of a live race track. It cannot make up for the senses one experiences at a track. But from a marketing standpoint? This is something that racing needs regardless of discipline, be it NASCAR or Formula One.
At this point in time, eSports is a real thing and is treated with the same legitimacy any other sport does. There’s a lot that goes along with eSports competition, and there are even strength and conditioning coaches for eSports competitors. With games like Overwatch and Fortnite bringing such competitions into the spotlight, the world can now see just how much of this is a legitimate business.
That being said, NASCAR now knows how to bring in a new crowd and get more people involved. The more sim racing gets marketed, the chances are more devout gamers may toss their hats in the ring. On top of that, the more recognizable drivers/individuals who decide to start their own eRacing teams, the better the chances are for sport, competitor, and team to spread the racing product and what they’re trying to do.
Besides, it’s a great way to crank out a racing fix when there’s no racing going on. iRacing rigs are notoriously cheaper to set up than a weekly race team, and the amount of detail that goes into the games is surprisingly life-like. There are sim racers the world over who pour hours and hours of time into their iRacing efforts, and it shows. To be fair, with the current business model in racing and how much it’d cost to actually form a team that could compete for wins, sim racing could very well be the more viable alternative.
When all is said and done, both real racing and sim racing have their individual pros and cons. Nothing can match the spectacle and glory of a real-life event, and sim racing will never be able to match that experience. But at the same time, sim racing is available year-round and is a good way to keep off the pre-/post-season doldrums. It’s all a matter of preference; that said there’s no point to argue which is better or why it is better.
NASCAR Cup Series stars Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell have been spending a busy offseason in New Zealand competing in the United Truck Parts International Midget Series. Despite going in aiming for success, however, both American drivers have seen their efforts end early. On the opening night of the event, Larson violently rolled his midget and was carried away on a stretcher. On Boxing Day, Bell suffered a similar fate but was able to walk away unhurt.
Despite walking away unharmed, however, Bell’s management team informed him not to compete in the remaining events, despite having won the event a year ago. The decision looks to be based on circumstance, according to Bell’s midget team owner Brian Theobald per Velocity News, as Bell and the team are looking at future opportunities to race again in New Zealand.
It’s easy to understand the decision to bring Bell back to the US following such an incident. Not only does he have a fourth Chili Bowl title to chase in just a few weeks time, but he also happens to be at the front of a promising class of NASCAR Cup rookies for the 2020 season. There’s a lot riding on Bell in terms of investments, and on the business side of things it makes sense to protect that investment.
But like Larson, Bell is from a dirt discipline, and made his bones slinging Sprint Cars at I-44 Speedway in Oklahoma. Both Larson and Bell are rarely far from a dirt track or the Sprint Car business, as both identify dirt racing as a way of life. Larson has made it clear that being able to race on dirt when he can will play a key role in contract negotiations when his contract is up.
That puts owners into the position of having to jostle a happy driver and a safe driver. Some team owners, such as Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing, understand how important it is to let their drivers race as much as possible wherever they can; Stewart is spending most of his racing time behind the wheel of a Sprint Car, which is where he also spent a lot of time during his driving career when he wasn’t in a stock car. Not to mention, Kurt Busch was also an SHR driver when he attempted the Memorial Day double in 2014, when he raced in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600.
What about Matt Crafton? The 2019 Gander Outdoor Truck Series champion went from testing modifieds in order to better himself at dirt racing since Eldora’s inclusion on the Truck Series tour, to regularly competing in his No. 88 open-wheel modified painted up to look like his ThorSport Racing F-150. He’s won at Eldora since (2017), and is a regular contender on the dirt.
Matt Crafton’s open-wheel modified. Photo by Tim Jarrold
But it all goes back to the investments that the backing organizations make and the management teams make. Many team owners aren’t keen on letting their drivers race elsewhere for fear of that driver getting hurt. It’s a reasonable affair, as that driver is supposed to be piloting their car for their team. It’s doubtful Bob Leavine would want to see Bell harmed in a crash before he took to Daytona’s high banks in his flagship No. 95 Toyota.
But racing is a dangerous sport. This goes without saying. Despite the major advances in safety over the last 60, 70 years, drivers still get hurt, and in many tragic instances, they are killed. Saying that a driver can race in discipline A but not discipline B is neglecting the fact that anything can happen at any moment, anywhere. Just because the 2010s’ didn’t see a single driver perish in NASCAR’s top touring divisions does not mean it couldn’t happen again in 2020.
So where is the line drawn? Where does a driver’s team and investors relax the reigns a bit and let them tear up a track elsewhere? Where do they tighten their reigns and tell their drivers “No more?” Does driver quality play a factor? Larson was able to convince Ganassi to turn him loose on dirt, and considering Larson is Ganassi’s best NASCAR driver since Sterling Marlin in the early 00s’, did Ganassi want to risk hindering his star driver’s on-track product? More importantly, what does it matter? Ganassi also owns an IndyCar team and an IMSA team. How is the risk any different across the disciplines?
Racers that are true at heart will race anything, anytime, anywhere, because they are at their happiest and best when they are behind the wheel. It doesn’t matter if it’s IndyCar, NASCAR, World of Outlaws, Formula One (See: Fernando Alonso’s foray from F1 into the Indianapolis 500), or even NHRA (See: NASCAR’s John Andretti and Kurt Busch). A happy driver translates into better results in some cases.
However, in others cases it’s a matter of getting too distracted (See: Kyle Busch’s 2012 results the same year he ventured into Nationwide Series ownership). It’s all a matter of balance, and while some drivers may prefer focusing on just one venue of racing, other drivers would rather be racing when they aren’t racing. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be limits, but drivers should be allowed a degree of freedom to race in other disciplines of motorsport. In the end, it’s all about the variables at play and what the team and investors are willing to concede.
We’re one month removed from the end of the 2019 NASCAR season, which means we’re enmeshed in the holiday routine race fans across the world are taking part in. This includes but is not limited to excessive eating, family visits, excessive viewings of Days of Thunder, Talladega Nights, Redline 7000, Driven, Rush, Grand Prix, et cetera, excessive podcast listening of everything from the Dale Jr. Download to Off-Track with Hinch and Rossi. So on and so forth.
But the holiday season is also a time to reminisce, and what better things for race fans to reminisce about than the first major race event they ever attended? Very few of us can remember the first race we saw on TV that got us hooked (For me it was the 1999 Exide NASCAR Select Batteries 400 at Richmond…otherwise known as Tony Stewart’s first Cup win). But we all remember that first time waiting in line to get tickets and entering the tunnel on the way to find a seat and take in our first green flag. In my case, it was the 2001 Harrah’s 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Those of us who remember the 2001 season remember the tagline networks used in reference to it: 2001: A Race Odyssey. In many ways, by the seventh race of the Winston Cup season we were facing a season’s worth of surprises: The loss of Dale Earnhardt. Three first-time winners in the first six races including Michael Waltrip and Earnhardt’s rookie replacement Kevin Harvick. Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s slump following his Daytona 500 runner-up finish.
With that said, many believed that things would turn around for Junior at Texas, given it was the site of his first Cup win the year before. He was due for a good run, as his Dale Earnhardt Inc. teammates Waltrip and Steve Park had won the first two races of the season. In qualifying, he added fuel to the fire by putting his red No. 8 Chevy on the pole for Sunday’s race.
Meanwhile, Winston Cup points leader Dale Jarrett had turned a DNF at Daytona into two poles, three top-fives, and four top-10s including a win at Darlington coming into the race weekend. He put his No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford into the third-place qualifying slot for Sunday’s event. Meanwhile Park was also coming into the weekend fourth in points, with a win, two top-fives, and four top-10s. He’d put his No. 1 Pennzoil Chevy fifth on the grid for Sunday’s race.
Starting grid for the 2001 Harrah’s 500. Photo by Joseph Shelton
When the green flag dropped, Junior immediately took charge of the event as expected, before the race was slowed for a multi-car accident on lap five that involved rookie Kurt Busch, Waltrip, rookie Ron Hornaday, Jimmy Spencer, and Buckshot Jones. From my vantage point in the infield, all I saw coming back around the track were the heavily damaged cars of Waltrip, Spencer, and Jones, while the others weren’t as heavily damaged. It wasn’t enough for them to fall out of the race, as every driver who went to the garage returned to the track.
When the race restarted Junior continued to lead before Jarrett took the point, and over the first 100 laps of the race the lead was exchanged between those two as well as Johnny Benson before outside pole-sitter Bobby Labonte took the lead for two laps. They would be the only two laps he would lead before we saw his green No. 18 Pontiac slowly putter by on the apron on lap 150 when his engine expired.
By this point Park had taken the lead on lap 142 and had a stronghold on it. In his first venture with the front he would lead the next 48 laps before Junior would retake the lead on lap 190 and would hold onto it until lap 208. Around this time a caution would come out for a backstretch tangle involving Ward Burton, rookie Casey Atwood, and Joe Nemechek. Sterling Marlin would lead a few laps under caution before the restart, when Jarrett retook the lead.
This late in the race, it was looking like it’d come down to a battle between Jarrett, Park, Junior, and Benson, as all four happened to have the strongest cars in the race. Jarrett had had some strong runs at Texas at this point, holding two runner-up finishes at the speedway (1997, ’99) heading into the weekend. Meanwhile Park was in the midst of hitting his stride in Cup racing, in only his fourth full season in the No. 1 Chevy. Junior had the provenance of TMS being this site of his first Busch Series and Cup series wins, and Benson’s No. 10 Pontiac just so happened to have Hendrick Motorsports power under the hood, which seemed to be working just fine for his MB2 Motorsports team.
When Junior wrestled the lead from Jarrett on lap 275 and held onto it on a lap 285 restart following a caution where we saw Marlin’s No. 40 Dodge back into the turn three wall, we knew at that point a win for the DEI camp was certain, and Junior’s slump would be over. But when Elliott Sadler’s No. 21 bounced off the turn one wall and brought out a caution, on the lap 314 restart Benson stole the lead and held on tight.
But just like the ending of the 2000 Daytona 500, we saw as Benson was chased relentlessly by Jarrett. Park was close behind, while Junior’s No. 8 was shuffled back into the field. With six laps to go, the inevitable happened when Jarrett and Park finally stole past Benson, and when the checkered flag dropped Jarrett became the first repeat winner of the season. Park finished second, while Benson finished third and Busch finished fourth. Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-five.
Dave Blaney had an admirable day, meanwhile, turning a last-place starting spot to a sixth-place finish for his Bill Davis Racing Dodge. Harvick would finish seventh, and Junior would finish eighth after leading 107 laps on the day. Mark Martin would finish ninth, while Benson’s MB2 teammate would round out the top-10.
The race saw 18 lead changes among seven drivers, while the race was slowed 10 times for 44 laps. Jarrett would go on to finish fifth in points after winning two more times, while Park would be sidelined in the fall following a violent crash at Darlington. Benson would finish the season 11th in points, scoring six top-fives and 14 top-10s before scoring his only Cup win the next fall at Rockingham. Gordon would go on to win the championship later that year, while Busch would score his first Cup championship three years later.
As for Junior, 2001 would prove to be the season where he became a legend in his own right. He would win three times, starting with an emotional win at Daytona in July, and would follow it up with huge wins at Dover and Talladega before finishing eighth in the final standings, a huge improvement over his rookie season the year before.
As of this writing, only two drivers from that race are still racing full-time (Harvick, Busch).
2001 Harrah’s 500 Post-race. Photo by Joseph Shelton
Meanwhile, this race became the turning point for me as a fan. It probably helped that I was only 12, because while some of the more experienced fans/pundits would call this an average race for Texas, for me it became a watershed moment. It was everything I needed as a fan: Eventful, loud, fast. I saw drivers in person I’d never expected to encounter. I saw things in a perspective I never knew existed.
In the years since, I’ve been fortunate enough to cover multiple events at Texas thanks to the folks here at SpeedwayMedia.com, and I’ve been fortunate enough to meet several drivers and dignitaries across the world of motorsport from NASCAR to Formula One. How different would things have been had I not attended that race in April of 2001?
Would my love for NASCAR had gone the way most things do in regards to young pre-teens? I was the only NASCAR fan in my family at the time, and there’s no telling if my fandom would have intensified or not. But what I do know is that when it comes to professional sporting events, from NASCAR to Major League Baseball (Go Braves!), there’s no better way to intensify a young fan’s love for the sport. It can only grow from there.
So kudos to NASCAR and to the staff at the Texas Motor Speedway, because on April 1, 2001, they undoubtedly played a vital part in my love for motorsport. So on that note, I have to ask you a question:
As it turns out, John Hunter Nemechek’s stint as a substitute driver for Front Row Motorsports turned out to be a tryout for a possible seat in 2020, to nobody’s surprise. His performance in the last three races of 2019 was enough to net him an average finish of 23.7 (a 21st-place finish at Texas, a 27th-place at ISM Raceway, and a 23rd-place finish at Homestead), which is quite strong for a driver in his position.
It’s obvious that FRM might not be on the level with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, or even Hendrick Motorsports. They ended the 2019 season with two top-fives and three top-10s among their three Cup Series entries. But for being a solid midpack team, they have pulled off more than one upset. It’s difficult to pick which of their two victories was more memorable – rookie Chris Buescher’s fog-shortened win at Pocono in 2016, or the organization’s first 1-2 finish at Talladega in 2013 with longtime FRM staple David Ragan leading teammate David Gilliland to the finish.
They’re a consistent team prone to the occasional strong finish, and Nemechek is a consistent driver, prone to bringing his car home in one piece and earning a strong run or two. While the NASCAR world will be focusing on the A-Lister rookies (Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell), Nemechek may very well be a dark horse when it comes to the rookie race.
Nemechek seems to understand his position as a rookie and could be the only rookie to act accordingly in the education sense. He knows he’s there to learn and earn respect. Of course, he also knows what’s expected of him should the opportunity for strong run present itself to him.
“That’s my goal,” said Nemechek regarding his expectations for 2020. “Take what the car will give us and if we can increase it by a few spots, then great, but we’re not going to go out there and try to run fifth and wreck it when we have a 10th-place car. Just something that I’ve had to learn the hard way over the past couple years, but overall the opportunity with Front Row is pretty special to put my name in the rookie class with the Big 3.”
This isn’t unlike fellow Cup driver Buescher. When Buescher ran a limited schedule for FRM in 2015, he performed on an impressive level, with zero DNFs and a best finish of 20th in six starts. Buescher went on to pilot the No. 34 entry full-time in 2016, where he scored his lone win and a Playoff appearance.
That doesn’t mean a win, Playoff appearance, or even a Rookie of the Year award is going to be a surefire thing. Nemechek’s work is going to be cut out for him, and he may come up short. But what sets him apart is that he’s aware of this as well and still knows what’s expected of him in the long run.
For what it’s worth, the FRM cars have historically performed well at Daytona and Talladega, with a win at Pocono and a couple of top-10s at Martinsville and Bristol to boot. Nemechek could very well earn a superspeedway win in the No. 38 and make the Playoffs just like his predecessor Buescher if not capitalizing off of a strong run elsewhere. But if he doesn’t, that’s fine too. He knows that the bigger picture is about learning and growing.
Whatever happens in 2020, Nemechek’s career is at a pivotal point. He’s now a NASCAR Cup Series driver. But instead of resting on his laurels, he has a chance to learn and grow in a big way. FRM could be a springboard for Nemechek to do great things in the sport, and if he continues to keep himself in check and use this opportunity to improve, there’s every reason to belief that he will accomplish those goals.
On Monday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced on Facebook that Cole Pearn, Crew Chief for the No. 19 Toyota NASCAR Cup team, will be stepping away not only from the JGR organization but from NASCAR as well. The decision was effective immediately.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision,” Pearn said. “At the end of the day, I really want to spend time with my family and actually see my kids grow up. Being on the road, you are away from home so much and miss a lot of time with your family. I don’t want to miss that time anymore.”
“I want to be there for all the things that my kids are going to experience while they are still young. I love racing and there isn’t a better place to be than Joe Gibbs Racing, but I don’t want to look back in 20 years and think about everything I missed with my wife and kids while I was gone. They are what is most important to me.
Following a brief career in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series where he made 27 starts in four years, Pearn worked for Richard Childress Racing from 2007 to 2009 as an engineer for Kevin Harvick’s team before going to Furniture Row Racing in 2010. He spent 2011 with JTG-Daugherty Racing before returning to FRR, where following the 2014 season he was promoted to Crew Chief for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 78 team. The pair earned 24 wins together and the 2017 Cup Series championship.
“I cannot say enough good things about Cole and what he has meant for my career,” said Truex. “I appreciate his hard work and dedication to our race team over the past six years going back to when he was my engineer at Furniture Row. Our friendship is what matters most to me and I’m happy that he is doing what’s best for him and his family.”
JGR will announce a Crew Chief for the No. 19 at a later date.
