1. Will the Spire Motorsports-Rick Ware Racing trade work out?
Although it was already reported, rumored, and/or theorized that Corey LaJoie and Justin Haley would be essentially swapping seats next season, an out-and-out trade for the remainder of 2024 was a big surprise.
LaJoie is leaving Spire Motorsports after almost four seasons. At one point, his reliability and experience proved vital for the then young team. But, ultimately, he wasn’t going to get the team to that next level that they want to get to.
His move to Rick Ware Racing is a chance to prove everybody wrong on that account.
Haley leaves Ware as its best statistical driver in history, in spite of just 28 starts with the team. There has been plenty of talk recently about him being connected to Hendrick Motorsports, which this move supports as Spire is an engine customer of HMS.
His move back to Spire is a chance to go from a perpetually up-and-coming driver to a top driver for a growing team.
NASCAR teams typically don’t promote moves like this as a “trade.” It speaks volumes as to just how good of terms both drivers are leaving their previous team on.
The closest to this was in 2003, when Steve Park was released from Dale Earnhardt Incorporated at the same time Jeff Green was released from Richard Childress Racing early in the season. Both drivers took the other’s ride, with both cars being Chevrolets powered by Earnhardt Childress engines.
The move was immortalized in the legendary NASCAR Thunder 2004. To this day, even though I know Park was most famous for driving the No. 1 car, I still think of him in the No. 30 because of that game.
2. Will Ty Norris build up Kaulig Racing?
It was confirmed this week that Ty Norris would be leaving Trackhouse Racing to take a job working for Kaulig Racing.
Norris has been around the NASCAR industry for over 30 years at this point. He was a key driving force behind the rise of DEI in the early 2000’s, Michael Waltrip Racing in the early 2010’s, and now Trackhouse in the early 2020’s.
Norris’ next stop will be Kaulig Racing, a team that is at an interesting crossroads next season. It seemed to me that the team was building up with Haley in the years prior to 2023, before they suddenly dropped him for 2024 in favor of Daniel Hemric.
Next year, things will be different. The multi-driver lineup of the No. 16 will be replaced with just AJ Allmendinger, while Hemric will reportedly be replaced per The Athletic by Ty Dillon.
This team desperately needs a young, new face to try and build a foundation around while Allmendinger holds the fort down. It seems like that will be Christian Eckes, who will be piloting one of the team’s NASCAR Xfinity Series cars next year.
Norris, of course, is not immortal. His time at MWR included the infamous Spingate incident, which he was implicated in and suspended over. His time at Spire in the late 2010’s was also checkered, with Spire contracts infamously not being worth the paper they were written on. Spire was essentially a placeholder with no serious hope of active contention while he was team president.
Still, the game pieces are there for Norris to make another great team with the resources Kaulig already has. It just depends on if he’ll be able to.
3. Should NASCAR change the Damaged Vehicle Policy rules?
There has been a lot of discussion this week on potentially getting rid of or changing the Damaged Vehicle Policy (DVP) rules, following Ryan Blaney‘s somewhat controversial retirement from last week’s Cup race at Watkins Glen International.
Honestly, the DVP rule doesn’t make sense as is, because NASCAR does not schedule races around time, yet the DVP rule is based around time. What’s more is that the DVP rule has led to a number of extra cautions brought on by cars going back out and spilling debris on the racetrack at race speed.
There should be four basic bullet points to how DVP should work going forward:
- If a team receives any outside help, be it a push to the pits from the safety truck or even race marshals touching the car, that’s an automatic did-not-finish.
- If a car falls more than 5% of the total scheduled race distance down from the leader, the car is automatically done for the day. This can be because of wreck damage or, potentially, if a team is too slow.
- Teams have more general freedom when it comes to repairs, as long as the car never falls past that 5% barrier or if the field goes under red flag condition.
- If a car goes back out and NASCAR verifies a piece of debris falls off the car, not only is said car done for the day, but the team would face fines.
With these rules in place, they should cover just about any situation a team may find themselves in.
4. Who (if anyone) will NASCAR sign to replace GEICO?
Sports Business Journal reported on Friday (Sept. 20) that GEICO will no longer be part of NASCAR’s Premier Partners program.
Following 2019, NASCAR rejected a proposal by Monster Energy to remain title sponsor of the Cup Series and instead implemented a new four partner system.
These four sponsors are given prime ad space on location at each Cup race, among other benefits. The four that were announced back then are the four that still remain part of the program; GEICO is the first to leave.
Who NASCAR decides to bring in remains to be seen. GEICO leaving opens up a market of other car insurance companies that might want to throw their hats in the ring, such as Progressive or Liberty Mutual.
One that would not surprise me outside of the insurance world would be Ally. In addition to its full season sponsorship of Alex Bowman, Ally also heavily advertises as it is during NASCAR races and has sponsored a fairly high profile race at Nashville Superspeedway every year.
About the author
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
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“The move was immortalized in the legendary NASCAR Thunder 2004.”
Would you explain, please? I had that game but its been 20 years and I don’t remember anything special about their ride-swaps in game.
“If a team receives any outside help, be it a push to the pits from the safety truck or even race marshals touching the car, that’s an automatic did-not-finish.”
I disagree here. A push-back should be fine, but having to hook up and tow the car should be a DNF. Exceptions would be the gravel traps at road courses. A tow out of those should not be a DNF.