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March 22, 2009
Travis Kvapil Out of a Ride After Bristol
Due to a lack of sponsorship Yates Racing has no choice but to suspend operations of the #28 team after this weekend at Bristol which means that Travis Kvapil is out of a ride. Although the organization, and Roush-Fenway Racing who work with Yates are trying to find positions for the members of the #28 team elsewhere within the organization(s) it sounds like some may also lose their jobs as a result. Really an unfortunate situation for Travis, who has done a terrific job for Yates even though the cars he's been given to race often haven't been among the most competitive on the track, and also for any others who lose their jobs. However, after fielding two cars that weren't fully sponsored all of last season, Yates couldn't afford to do the same this season.
A lot of fans, particularly Travis's fans, are blaming Paul Menard and/or Bobby Labonte, but both of those drivers are in cars that are fully sponsored. Yates isn't going to get rid of Paul no matter how poor the results might be at the moment when he brought sponsorship with him and all the bills for that team are paid. Maybe part of the "blame," and I'm not really sure there's blame to be placed as much as that it's just bad circumstances, goes to Roush who are apparently responsible for helping Yates with sponsorship. Seems to me some of those companies they're talking to about buying some of the races that AFLAC wants to sell off could end up on the #28, likely for less money. Though of course odds are companies would prefer to be affiliated with Carl Edwards than Travis - Travis is a nice guy and a talented driver but he doesn't seem to have the same appeal in terms of companies believing that he's marketable as some other drivers.
What's most unfortunate for Travis is that there doesn't seem to be any open rides right now and might not be for quite some time on any level since every organization is dealing with sponsorship and financial issues mostly due to the economy.
Posted by silverdsl at March 22, 2009 03:19 PM