Moosetang

He's a mercenary, he'll drive for anyone not Ford at this point. He'd drive for Ford if not for the earlier bad blood. He'll get someone to woo him with an overpay situation and go wherever that is. Where Bud goes is a more interesting question: while they won't stick with Petty-Yates without him, if he goes to an already-sponsored ride where do they go?

Zastava_101

Stewart Haas is looking for a 3rd driver ...

I'm sure they will take Kahne and Budweiser.

red pony

There seems to be 2 different schools of thought in the nascar community; (1) factory support is vital to success, or (2) Nascar support is vital to success. Yet Chevy and Dodge scaled back or even dropped factory support and people are leaving in haste from Dodge and jumping on the CHEVY bandwagon ! Or the TOYOTA bandwagon! These ones apply to the 2nd school where politics rule! The "Good guys" the hopeless romantics like anyone jumping on the Ford bandwagon get to fight an unfair, up-hill battle! For 4 years now, we had to endure Johnson as champion and Nascar just smiles and leaves the rules alone. But if a Ford driver like Kenseth in 2003 wins a championship, Nascar is quick to make new rules to "make it more fair to the other guys to win" or "to establish more parody in the race". 4 years of Johnson ! And if a Ford driver did that, he would be "stinking up the show"! Yeah Nascar is fair! Fair my @$$ ! They have become the biggest joke to me! It's like WWE Wrestling on 4 wheels every Sunday and is just as well orchestrated , just as fake! This year, I watched 1 race and it was in the chase, and who wins? Johnson! I did other things on Sundays this summer and when I checked who won, I was always glad I didn't waste my valueable time on Nascar! 3 hours versus 5 minutes to check the news to see who won!

Zastava_101

Amen.

Not to mention that they changed the rules back in 2005 when Roush qualified all 5 of his cars in the Chase, but they wouldn't change rules the following year when 9 out of 12 cars in the Chase were Chevys.

Or how they switched from 10 to 12 drivers in the Chase as soon as Gordon and Earnhardt missed the Chase, but they wouldn't do anything when Edwards and Biffle missed it.

I did read on Jayski that NASCAR might have a problem finding 43 cars to race on some tracks. And they're making Roush to close one of his teams.

Moosetang

If not for the fact that NASCAR is a monopoly and owns most of the tracks through the France family, a competing oval "stock car" series would have popped up sometime in the last 5 years. F1 is still bad, but at least the threat of a competing series forced them to make some changes which make them less bad. NASCAR has no such force compelling them, and so they keep getting worse.

Zastava_101

red pony

The 43 is nice looking! Gone are the days of Petty blue and red! Or at least for now! I agree with the thought of a competitive series to Nascar! For too long it has been " hot-dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet " ! If racing is a true reflection of life, Ford needs to take that #1 spot away from Chevrolet, not only on the circle track, but in peoples hearts! In my mind, that dictates a new series to get away from the mullet-heads and their attendant 40 IQ's as well as their "fair" ruling body! If those "Good 'ol boys" wanna favor the bowtie gang, so be it! Start a new "Northern American Series Car Auto Racing" (without the France family involvement) And bend the rules back to straight again just to see who REALLY should win on Sunday! It's a war of the North and the South again! Personally, I think history would repeat itself! The North would win and Ford would be shown to be far better! Just my 2 cents.