Roush Fenway Racing had to pull the plug on it's No. 60 program that season because of a lack of sponsorship funding after the fifth race of the season at Auto Club Speedway when Bayne finished 14th. Luckily for Bayne he had a part-time gig with the Wood Brothers team at the time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series to run the No. 21 Ford that season in 16 races.
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| Bayne had to compete part-time in 2012 In the Wood Brothers No. 21 |
Roush Fenway Racing's going through this once again with Wallace. They were able to stretch the amount of races a little further than they were with Bayne and make it to the 12th race of the season, but it is still something that has fans wondering about the posture of the marketing crew at RFR right now. I have read numerous remarks from fans about Roush asking too much money for a sponsorship, however, I believe that was back in the day when Geoff Smith was the president of the organization. I believe that the company has since learned to take what they are able to get for sponsors to go on their cars.
Just like with Bayne, Wallace lucked up and there was an open seat in the upper ranks of the NASCAR world. Richard Petty Motorsports decided that they would give him a chance to go forth and debut this coming weekend at Pocono Raceway. This season Globe Life and Leidos stepped up to sponsor Wallace in several races but it just wasn't enough to keep the train going on the right track.
Back in 2012, Roush was in a similar situation as they are in this year. Their MENCS teams were not fully funded and the could not fund two competitive NASCAR Xfinity programs. Steve Newmark, at the time knew that it was not a reflection on the driver, but how the team was that season. In 2013, Matt Kenseth moved on to Joe Gibbs racing allowing Ricky Stenhouse to go full-time in the No. 17 Cup car, which put Trevor Bayne in a car that had major funding by Cargill. Eventually he would pick up a major deal with AdvoCare that would become his leading sponsor in Cup.
This year, you are seeing the samething. So far in 2017 on the Cup level, Trevor Bayne has had three races with cars that were unsponsored, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., has had one event so far. Whenever you see Roush Performance or Ford EcoBoost on one of these cars, it is what we considered back in the day to be a 401K sponsorship, meaning the money was coming from the company and it's employees.
You might question the move by Roush but the importance is to get their Cup program back into full speed. So the funding that they were putting into the 6 Xfinity program will likely go into the MENCS for the rest of the year.
1 comment:
I had started to be a big Trevor Bayne fan before his 2011 win in Daytona and remember all too well when he had to drop out of the then Nationwide Series for lack of sponsorship. I couldn't understand how that could happen to someone in the top 5 in the points. I looked forward to the few races he ran in the 21 Wood Bros. car and here I am still cheering on my favorite Cup driver and sharing his triumph's and challenges both on and off the track.
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