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Tag: Ron Devine

  • Hot 20 – Martinsville allows us to remember a much simpler time and place

    Hot 20 – Martinsville allows us to remember a much simpler time and place

    Having a team in NASCAR is easy. Not losing your shirt and anything else that might keep your unmentionables private is a tougher task. Just ask Ron Devine of BK Racing.

    According to documents made public by ESPN, Devine’s outfit lost 11 million four years ago. $10.1 million vaporized in 2016. The next season, another $8.45 million went up in smoke. That is close to $30 million in three seasons. This is what happens when you attract few sponsors, limiting your revenue to not much more than prize money, which was not enough to cover even one of those campaigns. In total, it cost just short of $50-million for them to operate over that time period, and an $18-million dollar return does not cut it.

    We should discover this week what lies in the team’s future as it goes to court over its bankruptcy. If you were wondering why NASCAR Cup teams have gone from 43, to 40, to just 37 hitting the track last week, I think you just got closer to an answer.

    Gray Gaulding has been at the helm of the Earthwater Toyota this season. He broke in to the Top 20 at Daytona, sits 32nd in the standings after finishing 32nd at Fontana.

    If that does not attract your notice, this might. Next season, Lowe’s will no longer be sponsoring Jimmie Johnson. After seven championships over 18 seasons and 83 race wins, Lowe’s is going the way of Home Depot, Sprint, Subway, Target, and UPS. The days of a single sponsor paying the freight over an entire season are gone.

    As they head to more traditional grounds this weekend, on a track built in 1947 at Martinsville, Virginia, we can hearken back to simpler times. It is a venue about to host its 139th event in the NASCAR Strictly Stock, Grand National, Winston Cup, Nextel Cup, Sprint Cup, Monster Energy Cup series.

    I wonder if Merle Haggard ever got an answer to his question, “Are the good times really over for good?”

    Our Hot 20 include…

    1. KEVIN HARVICK – 3 WINS – 1 E.W. – 170 Pts
    After California, he took the blame and does not plan a tour bashing Larson or Putin.

    2. MARTIN TRUEX JR. – 1 WIN – 216 Pts
    Last Sunday’s movie saw the lead character nixed early, replaced with a new protagonist.

    3. AUSTIN DILLON – 1 WIN – 141 Pts
    After Daytona, has ranged between 10th and 17th on the track. Not stellar, but it seems to work.

    4. KYLE BUSCH – 207 POINTS
    Best damn driver without a win. Some still think he is the best damn driver…period.

    5. JOEY LOGANO – 197 POINTS
    Became the fourth straight Cup driver to win a Xfinity race. Just bloody wonderful.

    6. BRAD KESELOWSKI – 183 POINTS
    Whatever kind of Ford Harvick has, Brad would like one of those, too.

    7. RYAN BLANEY – 181 POINTS
    FBI Special Agent Wood, I presume.

    8. DENNY HAMLIN – 176 POINTS
    Other than being 17th at Las Vegas, he has rolled nothing but Top Tens.

    9. KYLE LARSON – 174 POINTS
    Funny, he does not look anything like Darth Vader.

    10. CLINT BOWYER – 155 POINTS
    Finished 11th at California, which is good. Was a lap down, which is not.

    11. ARIC ALMIROLA – 148 POINTS
    Does not look like Danica. Does not drive like Danica. Discuss.

    12. KURT BUSCH – 144 POINTS
    The official beer of NASCAR. Sorry…I might have got my notes confused.

    13. ERIK JONES – 132 POINTS
    His worst finish since Daytona? 11th at Atlanta. The lad is on the rise.

    14. RYAN NEWMAN – 117 POINTS
    8th…22nd…11th…11th…21st…and yet few remember he was even there. Talk about being stealth.

    15. PAUL MENARD – 115 POINTS
    Las Vegas was good. Ever since…not so much. His average finish at Martinsville? 20th.

    16. ALEX BOWMAN – 115 POINTS
    After Junior left, I guess the #88 became invisible. Maybe Newman is Bowman’s Yoda.

    17. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – 107 POINTS
    No, he is not dating Almirola. Sorry. In the words of Merle, “Mama tried to raise me better…”

    18. JIMMIE JOHNSON – 97 POINTS
    A Jimmie sighting! A Jimmie sighting! Now, if you are looking to sponsor somebody…

    19. DARRELL WALLACE JR. – 94 POINTS
    Richard Petty has a dozen grandfather clocks. I think Bubba would like a similar timepiece.

    20. WILLIAM BYRON – 91 POINTS
    This Lord Byron could write a poem about Elliott and that costly Phoenix points penalty

  • Ryan Truex’s New Cup Ride ‘Definitely a Surprise’

    Ryan Truex’s New Cup Ride ‘Definitely a Surprise’

    While Ryan Truex was thrilled about landing a full-time Cup ride in the No. 83 Toyota with BK Racing, he was also just plain taken by surprise by the opportunity that developed a month before the start of the 2014 season.

    “They had kind of been looking at bringing in younger drivers for a little while now,” Truex said. “Ron Devine (team owner) has always talked to me at the race track.”

    “They needed a driver for the off season to go test with them and luckily I was available,” Truex continued. “And it just snowballed from there to where we are now.”

    “I’m pinching myself a little bit,” Truex sad. “I don’t think it has fully set in yet.”

    “It has definitely been a surprise.”

    Prior to receiving the offer from BK Racing, Truex has been working with team Petty to trying to find funding to run some Nationwide races on a part-time basis.

    “So, this deal just came out of left field,” Truex said. “That’s usually what happens though and was a nice surprise.”

    “Everything worked, the stars all aligned and now we’ve got thirty days to get ready and the season starts.”

    Truex is stepping into the already formed 93 team, complete with crew chief Dale Ferguson, who we just recently met at the Daytona test.

    “So, I’m just basically stepping in,” Truex said. “Those guys all know each other and they know the system and how everything works.”

    “They’re just kind of plugging me in.”

    “I just met Dale a few weeks ago before the Daytona test,” Truex continued. “We seemed to get along pretty well and everybody on the team gets along really well.”

    “We gelled well and going forward I think it will be a good combination,” Truex said. “Dale knows the ins and outs of the team and the cars so it should be a pretty easy transition.”

    Truex is not only looking forward to having a full-time Cup ride but also to working with his teammate Alex Bowman, as well as competing in one of the most competitive rookie classes in recent history.

    “I think it will be good because Alex and I know each other a little bit and we’ve raced each other in Nationwide,” Truex said. “We’re both young and we’re both rookies.”

    “We’re eager to go out and do the things we need to do to be successful,” Truex continued. “We both have the same mindset.”

    “So, we should be able to feed off each other and make each other better.”

    “I think it’s the biggest rookie class since 2001,” Truex said. “The best thing about it is that everyone in it is a proven winner.”

    “And they’ve all climbed their way to the top, shown that they deserve to be there and they have done a great job in every kind of race car,” Truex continued. “I think it will be a battle until the end.”

    “There are some really heavy hitters in there, like Austin Dillon,” Truex said. “I think he will definitely be the point that we’ll all base ourselves off of.”

    “I think it will be really competitive.”

    While Truex is optimistic about the upcoming year, he is also realistic in his expectations going into the 2014 season.

    “BK Racing is still a young team in Sprint Cup,” Truex said. “They’ve gone through the growing pains and they know what they have to do to be successful.”

    “They are putting the right people and pieces in place to do it,” Truex continued. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t go out, run all the laps, stay on the lead lap and get a top-25 finish.”

    “If we do all that and don’t make any mistakes, there is no reason why we can’t do that.”

    While Truex is now experiencing the ‘high’ of a full-time Cup ride, he also has known the struggles of coming up through the ranks, from K&N East Champion to being a brand new rookie again.

    “The past few years, even just running part-time and struggling to find funding, it’s been pretty frustrating,” Truex said. “But you can’t let any negative thoughts set in.”

    “You’ve got to keep fighting for it and stay optimistic,” Truex continued. “I think it will be the same mindset this year.”

    “Every team has ups and downs and it’s the good teams and good drivers that can pull through,” Truex said. “You have to realize your mistakes and improve from them.”

    “That will be the biggest thing for me this year,” Truex continued. “You’ve got to have the right mindset and execute.”

    So, what will the youngest Truex brother think when he gets the chance to be on the sport’s biggest stage in the first race of the season, the Daytona 500?

    “That’s a good question,” Truex said. “I haven’t even thought about it.”

    “It still hasn’t set in yet that I’m running full-time,” Truex continued. “Places like Daytona and racing in the Daytona 500 with all that history and with people like Earnhardt and Petty, it’s pretty crazy.”

    “And it’s pretty crazy just to think that I’ve made it this far,” Truex said. “Driving in the Sprint Cup Series has been a goal since I started racing, and to start this next chapter with BK Racing makes it extra special.”

    “I am very excited for this opportunity.”