Random Thoughts

*Bill Davis Racing released a statement yesterday expressing their commitment to fielding a car in the Cup Series next year. Supposedly they are pursuing sponsorship and will be doing wind tunnel and other testing in the off-season. But I'd be surprised if BDR had a full-time Cup car next season, and part of me wonders whether they'll even have the four trucks that they say they're going to have. I don't think it's too likely that BDR is going to find sponsorship for a Cup car, and given that word (via Jayski) is that they laid-off quite a few employees involved with the Cup program last week, they may not even have the personnel for that car. Things seem somewhat up in the air with their truck program as well with the driver lineup still a question now that Johnny Benson is either retiring or racing for another team next season.

*Although it had been rumored that the Air Force was going to move from the Wood Brothers to either Roush-Fenway Racing or Yates Racing next season, they're going to end up as the sponsor for the #10 at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports. Odds are that's the car that Reed Sorenson is going to drive but that's not yet been confirmed. I suspect that GEM would love to have enough sponsorship to field four cars next season and have A.J. Allmendinger race behind the wheel of one of them. Allmendinger has been outstanding for GEM these last few races and he's gotten the best results that the #10 team has seen all season. He's also been racing much better than Sorenson and some have speculated that GEM might be regretting signing him as opposed to Allmendinger.

*Good news for Robby Gordon - Jim Beam announced today that they will continue to sponsor him next season for most of the Cup races just as they did this season, though a formal deal hasn't been signed yet. It's hard enough for Robby to not only compete but survive in Cup, but losing his primary sponsor would be deadly to his team. I suspect he will likely have a blank car for some races like he did this season but at least he'll have most raced covered since Menard's will be back on a limited basis as well. One big issue that remains to be resolved for Robby is what manufacturer he'll be aligned with next season. He's with Dodge now and receiving technical support from Penske Racing but apparently nothing is finalized for next season. Seems to me that Robby needs to get that taken care of sooner rather than later. He was able to survive a last-minute manufacturer change last season but not without problems. Things need to be smoother for him to start the season in 2009.

*Some fans continue to be furious about the merger between DEI and Ganassi Racing. Some seem to be taking it as a personal insult to themselves or Dale Earnhardt and it's hard for me to relate to that. Saying that Teresa Earnhardt might be cursed to hell for business decisions she made in relation to DEI seems completely excessive. I just can't hate someone I don't know who has no effect on my life like these people hate Teresa. A common theme with this merger and so many other things is that some believe that if Dale was still alive this merger wouldn't be happening and so many other things would be different. That they know exactly what Dale would say or do. Thing is that everyone is judging Dale based on things that happened in 2001 and earlier - there's no telling how things would have played out or how he would have reacted to certain things in 2008. Not to mention sometimes people surprise you.

*Nascar said today that Preseason Thunder will still take place in Daytona in January even though there won't be any testing there. As Dale, Jr. pointed out without the drivers being consumed by testing perhaps there will be even more events for fans. But it seems to me that part of the allure for fans is going to see the teams test in preparation for the upcoming season. In addition, Nascar has said they suspended testing to save the teams money but now they're going to make the drivers and other personnel fly down to Florida and spend money on hotel and other expenses. Why not move the event back to North Carolina where it used to be held so few of the drivers and others with the teams/sponsors have to fly to get there? In addition, fans could also visit the race shops at the same time thus generating some revenue for those teams that charge admission to their shops.