NASCAR 36 Drivers Have Full Sponsorship For 2012,

[Bigdaddy]

http://thegarageblog.com/garage/nascar-silly-season-is-over-only-36-drivers-have-full-sponsorship-for-2012-so-who-will-be-driving-and-where/

Only 36 Drivers Have Full Sponsorship For 2012, So Who Will Be Driving and Where?


Since the end of the season at Homestead Miami there has been a ton of shuffling going on and musical chairs is being played all over the place. Drivers have moved and changed teams, lost their rides, moved up to better ones, changed manufacturers, and this year even involved a number of moves made by crew chiefs as well.


Kurt Busch has had a year of infamy and will be dropping back to a lower funded team driving the #51 in 2012

Kasey Kahne moves from Red Bull to Hendrick Motorsports for 2012
The most obvious of the driver moves was Kasey Kahne, who we know was moving to Hendrick for 2010 for well over a year now. Rick Hendrick helped him get into the ride at Red Bull to keep him active for the final year of Mark Martin's contract driving the #5. Mark Martin will semi retire now this year and will drive a limited number of races in both Cup and Nationwide. Kahne however is moving up in the world to the best equipment in the sport. Red Bull certainly had the money to back their team yet they were unable to break into the top tier in points, and for whatever reason they have backed out of the sport and shut down their teams for good at the end of 2011.

The next most obvious move was that of Kurt Busch, who after having a well broadcast meltdown with Dr Jerry Punch at Miami homestead, all caught on camera by a fan and posted on YouTube, parted ways with Penske racing and will be running in the #51 car of Phoenix Racing. Landon Cassil was the former pilot of this machine and he will be running in Nationwide only from the way things look at the moment.


Moving into Kurt Busch's vacancy is A.J. Allmendinger taking over the #22 Penske Dodge. Having finally made it into a team with the top tier equipment, expectations are high for A.J. to do well in the 22 car. Allmendinger had done well at Richard Petty Motorsports given that RPM had not been overly competitive until he and Marcos Ambrose arrived in their stable. 2011 was a good year for Allmendinger as he earned 10 top 10′s during the regular season and came close to a wild card spot for the chase, and ending up 15th over all for the year.

Filling Allmendinger's vacated ride at RPM will be the young man that Dale Jr has been grooming over at Jr. Motorsports,  Aric Almirola.  It's a big step up for the young driver as he enters Cup racing for his first full season.  After driving for JGR, JRM and sharing a seat at DEI with Mark Martin previously his resume is rather impressive.  RPM is looking forward to some exciting racing with Almirola at the helm of the #43.


Clint Bowyer had an awesome season, but even with a win, 4 top 5′s and 16 top 10′s in 2011 it was not enough to draw sponsorship for a full season and keep him at RCR. Moving to the #15 car at Michael Waltrip Racing might be a bit of a step back equipment wise, but it will still keep him relevant in the sport. Besides, it will also bring him more TV commercial time if Michael Waltrip has anything to say about it. Keeping your face in the media will certainly help his chances in the future, although he has signed for 3 years at MWR.

David Reutimann found himself a ride early in 2012 with Tommy Baldwin Racing.  Although a step back from MWR, Reutimann is happy to have a fully funded ride to take him through the 2012 season.

"Tommy has built a really good organization from the ground up in a really short amount of time," Reutimann said in a statement. "One of the things I like about Tommy and what's refreshing about him is that he is just a racer. There are lots of things he could be doing but instead he is at the shop every day working hard to build the organization from the ground up."

Last but not least is the moves made by crew chiefs this year.  The most talked about move is that of Darian Grubb, who, after 3 seasons with Stewart Haas racing, was released after Stewart took the title and won the 2011 championship.  Grubb had been notified of this change earlier during the chace but kep his composure and worked as if no changes were coming as he spear headed Stewart's team to 5 wins during the chase.  Grubb will be moving to JGR and will be replacing Mike Ford at the helm of Denny Hamlin's #11 Toyota for 2012, hoping to repeat his success from 2011 and bring Denny Hamlin the luck he needs to finally win a championship.

Then we have Steve Addington, formerly the crew chief of Kurt Busch in the #22 car for Penske Racing.  Having worked with in the same garage as Stewart during his tenure at JGR, Addington and Stewart already have a working relationship and an understanding of how each other work, and it should be a good fit.  Also moving from JGR to SHR is Stewart's former crew chief, Greg Zipadelli.  "Zippy" will move to SHR as the director of competition and as crew chief for Danica Patrick in her 10 Cup races driving for SHR.  Having alreay worked with Stewart for his first 10 years in Cup, including a pair of championship wins in that time, Zippy is well known for being able to deal with temperamental drivers, and should be a good coach and mentor for Patrick as she transitions from open wheel to running stock cars full time in 2012.

[Blazin40s]

Wow

[Uncle Steve]

   LETS GO RACIN BOYS 

[Slick]

Boogity, boogity boogity !!!

[Boggerram87]

Sucks Bowyer Went To Waltrip....Looks Like I Needa Find A New Driver...Cant Be Reppin A Toyota Driver