Daily NASCAR

We are hearing today that Randy Moss Motorsports has shut down its #81 Camping World Truck Series team effective immediately due to lack of funding.  The team, which has been running with David Starr this season, had only partial sponsorship to begin the season.  We are also hearing that several employees have been laid off, including crew chief Doug Wolcott.

There have been a ton of rumors floating around about RMM in the last several weeks, many of them mentioning a possible merger or sale of the team.    Mike Skinner’s #5 truck has full sponsorship for the season from International Trucks, Monaco Coaches, Exide, and PC Miler but Starr only had a partial deal with Zachry.

Through 16 races this season, Starr is ninth in CWTS points with 6 top tens and has an average finish of 13.2.   We’ll keep you posted if we hear any more.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR

It wasn’t as dramatic as historic, but Kyle Busch completed an unprecedented sweep of three NASCAR races at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday night, holding off David Reutimann and Jamie McMurray for his third victory in four days at the half-mile track in Tennessee.

His No. 18 Doublemint Toyota led a resounding 283 of 500 laps for a convincing win Saturday that makes the 25-year old the first driver in NASCAR history to win all three national touring events in the same weekend. It was his fifth try at the historic achievement.

Busch won NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series race Wednesday at BMS, then added a win in the Nationwide Series race Friday courtesy of a controversial bump-and-go in the closing laps with Nationwide points leader Brad Keselowski.

“What a weekend,” Busch radioed his Joe Gibbs Racing team as he took the checkered flag in what seemed the ultimate understatement.

The win was his third of the season and vaulted him five positions — to third place — in the Sprint Cup standings with two races remaining to set the Chase for the Sprint Cup 12-driver playoff run.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: NASCAR Tracks, Nationwide Series, NASCAR

Gateway International Raceway, located outside St. Louis, has informed NASCAR it will not seek Nationwide or Camping World Truck Series dates for 2011, and its parent company, Dover Motorsports Inc., even raised the possibility of selling the facility.

“We deeply appreciate all the support we have had from the racing community over the years. …. ” Dover Motorsports inc. president Dennis McGlynn said in a statement issued late Wednesday. “However, economics dictate that we evaluate all of our options for this facility, including its possible sale.”

Gateway currently hosts a truck series race and two Nationwide Series events, including one on Oct. 23 featuring IndyCar driver Danica Patrick. The 1.25-mile oval has hosted Nationwide Series races since 1997 and was part of a massive westward expansion by NASCAR as it started racing in places like St. Louis, Ontario, Calif., Fort Worth, and Kansas in the late 1990s.

“This was a difficult decision in light of the many years of earnest and continued efforts on everyone’s part to
develop a viable market for these events in one of our nation’s greatest cities,” Gateway vice president and GM Terry Harmeson said.

“We remain committed to fulfill the balance of our 2010 schedule . … We also plan to explore various ways to change the economics at Gateway both from the revenue and expense side.”

The news comes just a few days after NASCAR chairman Brian France told reporters that the sanctioning body is in the final stages of setting the 2011 schedules and promising “impactful” changes to it.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR

After starting his career sweeping floors at Hendrick Motorsports during a college internship 14 years ago, Marshall Carlson moved up the ranks to become president and chief operating officer (COO) of the 13-time NASCAR championship Hendrick organization, which fields cars for Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Carlson, 37, was promoted Tuesday during the organization’s quarterly employee meeting. The position has remained open for the past six years. It was previously held by the late John Hendrick, brother of team owner Rick Hendrick (pictured at right). John Hendrick was killed along with nine other people — including John’s twin daughters, Rick Hendrick’s son Ricky, and other Hendrick Motorsports executives — in an airplane crash near Martinsville, Va., on October 24, 2004.

“Hendrick Motorsports is a family and it’s been one of the great privileges of my life to work with these amazing people,” said Carlson, who has helped guide the company to four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships since he assumed the role of executive vice president and general manager in January, 2005.

After his college internship in the chassis department, Carlson worked as an engineer on the team’s Camping World Truck Series team that won a title in 1997. He’s worked in the company’s marketing and sponsorship department and oversaw more than $200 million in real estate projects working with Hendrick Automotive Group, one of the largest auto dealership conglomerates in the country before taking his most recent position.

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Over the last several seasons, the Camping World Truck Series has been dominated by the old guard.  Names like Ron Hornaday, Johnny Benson, Todd Bodine, Ted Musgrave, and Bobby Hamilton have been inscribed on the championship trophy at years end.  This season however, the landscape of the Truck Series may be changing.

I want to start off by giving you an interesting stat.  Through the first ten races of the 2010 season, Ron Hornaday is winless.  It’s the longest opening stretch of races he’s ever gone in his CWTS career without winning a race.  For Hornaday and KHI, that’s a very big deal.  While Hornaday still sits third in the points standings, this winless streak appears to have taken its first victim.  Jayski is reporting that crew chief Doug George has left KHI.  Harvick expects the #33 Chevy to be competing for wins every week, so this move doesn’t come as a shock.  No word yet on who might replace George.

The other moderate surprise this season has been the struggles of Mike Skinner.  After winning three races in 2009, Skinner currently sits sixth in the standings and his best finish was fourth at Texas.  On top of that, he hasn’t been a real threat to win in any race this season.  I say moderate with Skinner, because on some level his performance isn’t surprising.  His #5 Randy Moss Motorsports team has been in disarray since it lost crew chief Eric Phillipsto Kyle Busch Motorsports before the season started.

So who has been winning races while Hornaday and Skinner struggle?  Besides at least one win by Todd Bodine, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch, the story of 2010 has been the new faces.  Aric Almirola, Timothy Peters, Austin Dillon, and Johnny Sauter have all scored at least one victory, and any of these guys could legitimately challenge for the championship.

Starting last weekend at Iowa Speedway, the Truck Series now starts into a summer stretch of races that will go nine straight weeks.  With only ten races currently in the books, a lot can and will change over the next nine weekends.  While you can never count the veterans out, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Truck Series had a first time champion in 2010.

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