NASCAR Wrecks - Money Talks Jarrett Walks!
Money Talks, Jarrett Walks
By Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily
Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip made it official Saturday and it looks like the 1999 series champion will finish his driving career in a Toyota Camry.
But the move and the motivation behind it has a lot of team owners worried.
One of the biggest fears team owners have when Toyota enters the sport in 2007 is the amount of money they tend to throw around in order to make them winners. And the Jarrett hiring might just prove them right.
What would make Jarrett who has fielded the No. 88 Ford with Robert Yates Racing since 1995 and won the NASCAR series title in 1999 jump ship?
Jarrett's contract with Yates Racing was up after the 2006 season and after finishing 15th or lower in the Nextel Cup standings over the last three years, the argument could be put forward that Waltrip convinced Jarrett to join one of Toyota's start-up teams next season in an effort to become competitive again.
Earlier this year Jarrett went on record saying that his last year of driving will be in 2008 and certainly he wants to go out on top of his game. Given his current lack of performance at RYR heading to Toyota might prove inspirational to Jarrett.
Certainly the 49-year old Jarrett is more than capable of winning races, Harry Gant was winning races in his 50’s, but would it be easier to try and fix what’s broken at his current team or try to win with a brand new team that’s being built from the ground up?
Or could it be that DJ’s eyes were filled with dollar signs?
Doug Yates, son of team owner Robert Yates, talked about the process that led Jarrett to leave his familiar surroundings.
"Obviously we're in the last year of our contract together and he came to us and said that he had an offer,” Yates said. “We told him that we were willing to counter that offer, so we matched it to show him that we were committed to keeping him here until his retirement. He said he would think about it and told us that he really wanted to stay here and really loved our race team and what we've built together. A little time later, though, he came back and said they made him an offer that he couldn't refuse. We told him we understood and wished him well.”
Indications prior to this past week were that Jarrett’s future after racing was coming together nicely; ESPN has talked to him about joining their broadcast team. But Jarrett said in March that a big part of the reason for his retirement has to do with his family.
"Some of it has to do with family issues,” Jarrett said at Bristol in March. “My son, Zach, will be getting ready -- if I drive through that '08 season -- he'll be finishing up grade school and getting ready to go into high school and I'd like to watch that.
"Both of my girls [Natalee and Karsyn] will be in college by then, so that's kind of what I've looked at and that has a little something to do with it.”
Certainly Jarrett’s 401K will benefit from the reported $10 million Toyota is paying him over two years. No one should blame Jarrett for trying to secure his families future; Heck for that kind of money, a few of us would miss a kid’s soccer game or two, but Toyota is reaping the benefits of this deal as well. Toyota gets a highly respected driver, a former champion who will ensure that they make very race and a driver with a huge fan following. Another gain for Toyota will most likely be Jarrett’s sponsor UPS, who is reportedly being lured to change car brands by, you guessed it, financial incentives put forth by Toyota.
All it took was for someone to translate ‘Show me the money’ from Japanese. And while no one should criticize Jarrett, the blank checks have some teams and their owners scared.
“They'll drive the price of sponsorship down and cost up; those are the two concerns,” said Roush Racing president Geoff Smith in a published report.” I have to make what I consider reasoned deduction based upon evidence that I see, that I hear, that I think is from reputable sources. We saw this go on with Dodge in the truck series and Toyota in the truck series, where owners were going out and offering sponsorship of some percentage less. We knew that went on."
The most vocal of the owners when it comes to Toyota’s freewheeling spending habits is Jack Roush.
“They are in fact raiding the garage and that's going to have an impact,” Roush said. “The teams that stay together and the really key people in the organizations that believe in what they're doing and will give the teams time to sort it out will stick together.
Toyota is going to have a problem, even if they get the people, just to build the teams and build their cars and get the result that everybody would expect them to get for the amount of money they're spending. I'm going to be one of the organizations out there trying to frustrate them, but certainly the money is a big challenge right now.”
But Toyota’s open wallet has spurred Roush to action. He’s not sitting back and waiting to see what happens.
"Well, we're certainly starting to think about what we could do to raise some more money, “Roush said.
“We're having initial discussions with our sponsors about what we think the challenges are going to be. I know there was a lot to do in the papers last week about the fact that Toyota was not spending their money on race teams and was not going to create the imbalance that would exist if one manufacturer did more than another, but they're giving their money to Michael Waltrip and to the other teams that they've got started so their fingerprints are all over what's happening.”
Roush also feels that Toyota’s bottomless coffer will upset the parity that NASCAR works so hard to maintain.
“One of the things that has made NASCAR competition so close and so interesting to all the fans is the fact that there is parity. There is parity among the driver's ability at the very top, “Roush said. “There's parity technically among the teams and there's parity among the manufacturers with regard to what they've been able to do or willing to do with supporting the teams and with bringing technology. But Toyota has a chance of breaking that parity and we'll just have to see what happens."
Whether all this expensive pre-positioning by Toyota will pay off in 2007 remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain; Toyota will try to make a big splash when they jump into the Nextel Cup series waters in 2007, they already have stirred them up and all they’ve done so far is dip their toes while sitting on the edge of the pool.
DJ Fans: Want to sound of on the Jarrett issue? Call Speed Talk Live Tuesday and get your views on the air! Call 1-888-WDW-ESPN Tuesday from 6:30PM to 7PM (EDST) (Tuesday only!) For more info : Check out Speed Talk Live.com
Greg Engle, the Editor of the Cup Scene Daily is seeking employment within the motorsports journalism industry. If you are interested, please contact him at:greg@cupscene.com
By Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily
Dale Jarrett and Michael Waltrip made it official Saturday and it looks like the 1999 series champion will finish his driving career in a Toyota Camry.
But the move and the motivation behind it has a lot of team owners worried.
One of the biggest fears team owners have when Toyota enters the sport in 2007 is the amount of money they tend to throw around in order to make them winners. And the Jarrett hiring might just prove them right.
What would make Jarrett who has fielded the No. 88 Ford with Robert Yates Racing since 1995 and won the NASCAR series title in 1999 jump ship?
Jarrett's contract with Yates Racing was up after the 2006 season and after finishing 15th or lower in the Nextel Cup standings over the last three years, the argument could be put forward that Waltrip convinced Jarrett to join one of Toyota's start-up teams next season in an effort to become competitive again.
Earlier this year Jarrett went on record saying that his last year of driving will be in 2008 and certainly he wants to go out on top of his game. Given his current lack of performance at RYR heading to Toyota might prove inspirational to Jarrett.
Certainly the 49-year old Jarrett is more than capable of winning races, Harry Gant was winning races in his 50’s, but would it be easier to try and fix what’s broken at his current team or try to win with a brand new team that’s being built from the ground up?
Or could it be that DJ’s eyes were filled with dollar signs?
Doug Yates, son of team owner Robert Yates, talked about the process that led Jarrett to leave his familiar surroundings.
"Obviously we're in the last year of our contract together and he came to us and said that he had an offer,” Yates said. “We told him that we were willing to counter that offer, so we matched it to show him that we were committed to keeping him here until his retirement. He said he would think about it and told us that he really wanted to stay here and really loved our race team and what we've built together. A little time later, though, he came back and said they made him an offer that he couldn't refuse. We told him we understood and wished him well.”
Indications prior to this past week were that Jarrett’s future after racing was coming together nicely; ESPN has talked to him about joining their broadcast team. But Jarrett said in March that a big part of the reason for his retirement has to do with his family.
"Some of it has to do with family issues,” Jarrett said at Bristol in March. “My son, Zach, will be getting ready -- if I drive through that '08 season -- he'll be finishing up grade school and getting ready to go into high school and I'd like to watch that.
"Both of my girls [Natalee and Karsyn] will be in college by then, so that's kind of what I've looked at and that has a little something to do with it.”
Certainly Jarrett’s 401K will benefit from the reported $10 million Toyota is paying him over two years. No one should blame Jarrett for trying to secure his families future; Heck for that kind of money, a few of us would miss a kid’s soccer game or two, but Toyota is reaping the benefits of this deal as well. Toyota gets a highly respected driver, a former champion who will ensure that they make very race and a driver with a huge fan following. Another gain for Toyota will most likely be Jarrett’s sponsor UPS, who is reportedly being lured to change car brands by, you guessed it, financial incentives put forth by Toyota.
All it took was for someone to translate ‘Show me the money’ from Japanese. And while no one should criticize Jarrett, the blank checks have some teams and their owners scared.
“They'll drive the price of sponsorship down and cost up; those are the two concerns,” said Roush Racing president Geoff Smith in a published report.” I have to make what I consider reasoned deduction based upon evidence that I see, that I hear, that I think is from reputable sources. We saw this go on with Dodge in the truck series and Toyota in the truck series, where owners were going out and offering sponsorship of some percentage less. We knew that went on."
The most vocal of the owners when it comes to Toyota’s freewheeling spending habits is Jack Roush.
“They are in fact raiding the garage and that's going to have an impact,” Roush said. “The teams that stay together and the really key people in the organizations that believe in what they're doing and will give the teams time to sort it out will stick together.
Toyota is going to have a problem, even if they get the people, just to build the teams and build their cars and get the result that everybody would expect them to get for the amount of money they're spending. I'm going to be one of the organizations out there trying to frustrate them, but certainly the money is a big challenge right now.”
But Toyota’s open wallet has spurred Roush to action. He’s not sitting back and waiting to see what happens.
"Well, we're certainly starting to think about what we could do to raise some more money, “Roush said.
“We're having initial discussions with our sponsors about what we think the challenges are going to be. I know there was a lot to do in the papers last week about the fact that Toyota was not spending their money on race teams and was not going to create the imbalance that would exist if one manufacturer did more than another, but they're giving their money to Michael Waltrip and to the other teams that they've got started so their fingerprints are all over what's happening.”
Roush also feels that Toyota’s bottomless coffer will upset the parity that NASCAR works so hard to maintain.
“One of the things that has made NASCAR competition so close and so interesting to all the fans is the fact that there is parity. There is parity among the driver's ability at the very top, “Roush said. “There's parity technically among the teams and there's parity among the manufacturers with regard to what they've been able to do or willing to do with supporting the teams and with bringing technology. But Toyota has a chance of breaking that parity and we'll just have to see what happens."
Whether all this expensive pre-positioning by Toyota will pay off in 2007 remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain; Toyota will try to make a big splash when they jump into the Nextel Cup series waters in 2007, they already have stirred them up and all they’ve done so far is dip their toes while sitting on the edge of the pool.
DJ Fans: Want to sound of on the Jarrett issue? Call Speed Talk Live Tuesday and get your views on the air! Call 1-888-WDW-ESPN Tuesday from 6:30PM to 7PM (EDST) (Tuesday only!) For more info : Check out Speed Talk Live.com
Greg Engle, the Editor of the Cup Scene Daily is seeking employment within the motorsports journalism industry. If you are interested, please contact him at:greg@cupscene.com
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