A Pandora's Box: How Brian Vickers Win At New Hampshire Could
Change NASCAR
7/19/13
Kevin Abraham
After
the running of the Camping World 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, there was
a surprise winner of the race; Brian Vickers.
With Vickers winning the race, he brought his MWR No. 55 team to
thirteenth in the owner’s points, with a win.
Currently this places the No. 55 team in the second wild-card spot to
qualify for the owners Chase, knocking out the No. 14 of Tony Stewart’s team. For
those who are new to NASCAR, there are two championships given out at the end
of every year, the driver’s championship, along with an owner’s
championship. This is not discussed on
the Sprint Cup side often, due to the fact that every year of Sprint Cup racing
the champion on the owner’s side is the car owner of the championship car. With the victory by Vickers at New Hampshire,
it opens the door for the No. 55 team to have a chance at being in the owners
Chase after Richmond in September. Why
is this important you may ask? We are
going to look at some scenarios that could occur if the No. 55 would make the
Owner’s Chase, along with why this win could possibly change Sprint Cup racing.
The
first scenario that could play out is that one of the teams that are outside of
the top ten would have a driver in the Chase, but the team would be competing
for thirteenth in points. Imagine a top
driver such as Tony Stewart or Kurt Busch in the drivers’ Chase, but their team
not be eligible for the owners Chase?
Would this cause there to be some issues internally with the team? I
doubt it would cause any internal turmoil, and cause that driver whose team did
not make the owners Chase to not focus on the driver’s Chase any less At the
end of the year, however, it would take
away some of the year-end bonuses for the team that was knocked out of the
Chase by the No.55. Imagine what people would say if that driver that qualified
for the Chase via wild-card and won the championship, but the team lost the
owners championship due to not making the owners chase?
By
one of the Chase drivers not having their team in the owner’s Chase would also open
the door for there to be a split champion, meaning another team other than the
championship driver walking away with the trophy. Image the story line if the
owners champion is different than the owner that has the drivers’
championship? Imagine with me for
example, Jimmie Johnson winning the drivers’ championship but the No. 55
outpointing the No 48 team in the last ten races. This would cause a different owners champion vs.
driver champion. Both would be honored
in Las Vegas, but not sure if the No 55 team would sit at the head table with
Johnson. This has happened In the Nationwide series multiple times, with having
Cup Drivers partnering with Nationwide drivers to run the full series, with the
first instance occurring in 2003, with Richard Childress No. 21 team with Kevin
Harvick and Johnny Sauter winning the Owners Championship, along with Brian
Vickers winning the drivers’ championship that year. Since then there are dedicated teams that
have multiple drivers competing for the owner’s championship, NASCAR has some
experience with how to handle this scenario.
The
final scenario is the No. 55 team falters, and does not make the owners
Chase. This would be disappointing for
the team, but between now until Richmond, the team could get publicity from
ESPN due to being eligible for the owners Chase this year. Even if the team falters, and does not make
the Chase, it still would be a win for the team due to the publicity that will
be brought to that team.
This win shows other teams that it is possible
to have multiple drivers compete for an owner’s championship in Sprint Cup, and
could cause more teams to take drivers that run well at certain track, and make
a schedule with two-four drivers over the season depending on their specialty. Something to look for now is a team looking
to run a third or fourth car with drivers than can bring sponsors for part of
the season, to combine together to run a full-time effort and run for the
owners championship. In today’s NASCAR
sponsorship, is more often tied to a driver, and with sponsors seeing that a
part-time driver still can win, seeing Vickers win might bring in the needed
sponsorship to a team looking to run multiple drivers to fund the car with a
driver that wants to drive part-time.
Vickers
might have just opened Pandora’s Box in Sprint Cup racing, similar to the one
that was opened in his Nationwide championship season
in 2003.
Two Questions for my
readers this week:
1. Will the No. 55 make
the Chase, and if so, will they influence the Owners Championship this year?
2. Will Vickers win
start the process for teams like SHR, Childress, Roush Fenway, RPM, Ganassi, among others to look to start a team with multiple
drivers to try for the owners Chase in the future?
Please share your thoughts below.
I can be found on Twitter @kevdogg329