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Start-and-Park Teams Earn the Right to be in the Sport

An Opinion



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April 24, 2011

By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson
































After watching last week’s race at Talladega, I have no doubt that there is a reason to keep the “start and park” teams in the sport. Regardless of what some people, like Texas Motor Speedways Eddie Gossage, say about what they do to keep their doors open, the racing at Talladega last weekend showed just why they do what they do.

“The start-and-parkers are simply stealing," Gossage said last April. "I don't blame them for finding the loophole, but they are going to steal a half a million dollars here tomorrow [in last year’s Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motorspeedway] of our money. They add nothing to the show, not one darn thing. They're stealing. I want real racers, but they're not racing."

For those who might not be familiar with teams that start and then park during a race, these are the cars owned not by the big teams like Hendrick motorsports or Roush Fenway Racing, but by Tommy Baldwin Racing or Front Row Motorsports or NEMCO Motorsports. They are run on a shoestring budget by men who race out of their own pockets, for the love of the sport, and employ men and women with the same drive. All they want to do is race. They know the odds of them winning a race are slim, but they want to be a part of the sport, and are willing to do what is needed to make that happen.

Dave Blaney has been a part of NASCAR for over a decade after an outstanding career racing World of Outlaws and Sprint cars. He has a loyal following of fans who call themselves “Blaneyacs” and has found a way to keep his foot in the door of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. This year, he has been racing for Tommy Baldwin racing, run by former Evernham Motorsports crew chief Tommy Baldwin.

Last year, Blaney finished 37th in Sprint Cup Series points after making 29 starts for three owners. This year, he has run all seven races, finishing all but two within ten laps of the total laps of the race, and only once, in Phoenix, did he end the race within the first 30 laps. Many would consider TBR to be a “start-and-park” team, but this has been a team slowly working its way to full-time status thanks to a “start-and-park” program.

At the beginning of this season, TBR released a statement that they would remain a “start-and-park” team, but intended to compete in as many complete races as sponsorship would allow.

“Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) is pleased to announce that the team will run the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet in its third year of competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS). NASCAR veteran Dave Blaney will pilot the No. 36 in all 36 events and will kick off the season with the 53rd Annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 20th. The team will complete 16 events and look to add more events through innovative partnership packages” the team released back in January. “Although TBR will attempt to qualify each week, the team will target 16 races to complete until proper funding is found to complete the remaining 20 events. Going into the season opener in Daytona, the targeted races include: two races at Daytona, Phoenix, Bristol, Martinsville, Richmond and New Hampshire, as well as events at Darlington, Infineon, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen.”

“Our plan is in place to compete in 16 events with or without sponsorship,” explained Baldwin. “We would definitely love to bring a sponsor on board to support our team in those 16 races and more. We will continue to seek more funding and add to our schedule by developing unique and customized packages for potential partners. We have put together a comprehensive package for partners looking for an economical entrance into the sport of NASCAR.”

You will notice that Talladega was not listed as one of the races they would run for the entire race. But then they found a sponsor in Golden Corral, and Blaney made a mark that not only got his name in the highlights, but got a lot of business for his sponsor.

“Going into the weekend, the No. 36 Golden Corral Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) team had one goal: finish in the top-10 and feed American families at Golden Corral locations on Monday,” reads TBR’s website. “TBR was poised to contend for the win for the majority of the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. Dave Blaney drove the No. 36 Golden Corral Chevrolet to the lead for 21 laps at six different occasions, before a race incident with four laps to go spoiled his hopes for a top-10 finish.”

I have a Golden Corral near my home in Manassas, VA, and passed by it Monday night on my way home from work. The parking lot was packed. I can’t tell whether their sponsorship of Blaney was the reason, but my guess is there were a lot of families there that night that wouldn’t have been without TBR’s advertising.

Blaney and the No. 36 team are locked into the top 35 in points right now.

Another driver who has been making a mark in a start-and-park team is David Gilliland. Gilliland drives the No. 34 Taco Bell Ford for Front Row Motorsports. Gilliland, who was noticed by many NASCAR fans when his unsponsored team won the Kentucky Nationwide race back in 2006, has been trying to make a name for himself in the Cup Series. Until this season, he had only one top-five finish, a second at Infineon back in 2008. This year, he has doubled that number, with a third place finish in Daytona, and added a ninth place last weekend in Talladega.

“David Gilliland once again proved his plate-racing prowess by scoring a top-10 finish at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday. He took the checkered flag in ninth -- a track-best finish for Front Row Motorsports,” announced a press release from the team this week. “The No. 34 Taco Bell Ford team started the 188-lap race in 39th, knowing they were capable of getting to the front. Gilliland instantly hooked up with the No. 14 car of Tony Stewart to work the two-car draft -- a tandem that stayed together for almost the entire race.”

Gilliland is also securely in the top-35 in points right now.

Joe Nemechek has been in NASCAR for more than 20 years. For many of those years, he was with larger teams who provided him with good equipment where he proved he could race well, and qualify even better, earning him the nickname of “Front Row Joe”. When he was dismissed from the 01 car to make room for Mark Martin three years ago, he discovered he didn’t have many options if he wanted to continue racing. He had always had his own team, NEMCO, which had put cars in Nationwide and Cup Series races. But he decided to pull the trigger after 2008 and run the Cup Series car full time as a way to not only race on Sunday, but to provide additional funding for his No. 87 Nationwide team.

“NEMCO Motorsports was founded in 1990 to start Joe Nemechek's NASCAR Busch Series racing program. It is a family operation, where Joe's family is an integral part of the operation. Today, NEMCO is fielding cars in both the NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series. To date, NEMCO Motorsports has more than 28 NASCAR wins,” states NEMCO’s home page. With NEMCO, Joe was named Rookie of the Year in 1990, won a Busch Series Championship in 1992, and has 19 wins as an owner/driver in the Busch/Nationwide Series.

But the running joke on starting a NASCAR top level team is the best way to earn a small fortune with a race team is to start with a big fortune.

Nemechek has started every race this season, but unlike the other teams I have mentioned here, he has also not finished above 39th, and hasn’t completed more than 72 laps in a single race. But even with those numbers, he has made almost $800,000 in prize money, which has allowed him to put a competitive Nationwide Series car on the track -- a car that had a chance to win last weekend in Talladega.

“The third place finish was great and a great boost for the team -- We've gotten a great amount of coverage both during the race and afterward. This includes a trip to the Media Center after the race with a whole bunch of questions, and an appearance on 'NASCAR Now' this week. And we received two contingency awards for the race: Featherlite Most Improved Driver and Mobil 1 Oil Driver of the Race,” Nemechek wrote in his blog this week. “I am just thankful that as an underfunded team, we were able to put a run like this together. My guys have been working really hard on these cars, and even though we can't afford to do testing or even simulations, we've had fast cars -- I'm just proud of my team, everyone at the shop and behind the scenes to keep all of this going on the limited budget that we have. And our fans are the best, always supportive and sending me messages showing their support. We just know that with a sponsor in place, we can step things up and be able to compete like this every week. It felt good to be running up front and battling for the win, and we want to continue that with a new sponsor on board.”

Each of these teams has a different approach to how they race and why, but all are considered to be “start-and-park”, whether that title is actually deserved or not. These teams, and the others under that classification, aren’t out to steal money as Eddie Gossage claimed last year, but to find a way to make a living in a sport they love. If we had done as Eddie and some fans called for and shut these teams down, not allowed them to race, think of the exciting finishes we would have missed out on this year. The sponsors we wouldn’t have gotten to see for the first time, and the happy smiles, and even tears, of team members and drivers as they got to prove they aren’t just out there to fill a spot on the track, but they have the fire and desire to compete and win just as much as the big names on the track with them. The only difference is, they don’t have the money and resources those big guys do, so they make the most with what they have week in and week out. And if that means some weeks they only run a handful of races to bring home a check so that down the road they can not only run the entire race, but show they have the talent and equipment to run up front and lead laps, then I say let them do it.

Every big team started as a small team. Every winning driver started out in battle worn equipment that couldn’t make the entire race. It is giving these guys a chance to show what they have that will also give them the opportunity to get the big break the Rick Hendrick’s and Jack Roush’s once had themselves.

Who are we to tell them no, when all they want to do is race?

Follow Kim on Twitter: @ksrgatorfn




You can contact Kim at.. Insider Racing News
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The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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