Not so much 'silly season' as it is 'stupid season'

 

Not so much 'silly season' as it is 'stupid season'
By Karah-Leigh Hancock

Brian Vickers got out of his contract early to drive for Toyota and Red Bull next year. Right after he announced he was leaving Hendricks Motorsports, Casey Mears jumped on board, announcing that he would be driving the no. 25 car next year.

Dale Jarrett has jumped ship to Michael Waltrip Racing and will drive the UPS Toyota next year, leaving Robert Yates Racing where he’s been the marquee driver for years. Shortly after, his teammate Elliott Sadler announced that he asked out of his contract early to find another ride.

Mark Martin has planned on retiring for the past year and a half, and now word has it he may be back in the no. 6 again next year.

Now Jeremy Mayfield, who has been the main driver in the rumor mill lately will not be driving the no. 19 UAW/Dodge this weekend at Watkins Glen after falling out of the Top 35 in points.

Former Champion Bill Elliott will be driving the car, using his provisional incase the car doesn’t make it on time.

Mayfield was reached today by Nascar.com to comment on the matter and he had no idea he wouldn’t be driving in New York this weekend. Evernham had not contacted him to tell him and he didn’t know if his contract was now voided. Rumor has it that Sadler could be in the no. 19 as early as this season.

Hopefully not, for Sadler’s sake anyway.

Sadler and Jarrett are making a mistake in leaving Robert Yates Racing. While Yates have been struggling this year, so has the entire Ford field. Rousch is not dominating the series like he did last year with Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, and Mark Martin being in the Chase.

Yates only real bright spot this year was Sadler winning one of the Gatorade Duels.

If Sadler moves to Evernham, he will become second to Kasey Kahne, the boy wonder of NASCAR. He needs to go to a place where he will be top dog, even if that means going to a new team or staying at Yates where he would have top bill.

Jarrett, on the other hand, has seemingly lost his mind in going to Michael Waltrip Racing. Sure, it’s Toyota and it’s a big deal, what makes Jarrett think that he will be able to race competitively with Waltrip when Waltrip can’t even give himself a good car right now to make a race.

Twice this year he hasn’t qualified for a race, the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte and All State 400 at the Brickyard this past weekend. Waltrip bought his way into the race in Charlotte, but what happens next year when he, Jarrett, and the third MWR driver doesn’t make the field? There will be more than 43 cars trying to make the race next year, many more than this year with the addition of several Toyota teams, along with other teams such as Dale Earnhardt, Inc. moving up to three teams (with the addition of Busch regular Paul Menard driving the no. 15). More on the silly stupid season