The Dude
There is no one on the racin' bloggin' circuit better at The Rant than the Diecast Dude. His latest is on Casey Mears' impending defection:
At that moment you will find out if your boss is new-school or old-school. If they're new-school, they'll pull out a box from underneath their desk, hand it to you, and tell you to clean out your desk right now; please don't let the door hit your butt on the way out. If they're old-school, you'll be the one leaving in a box. Seems some employers -- well, all, really -- prefer those under their charge to either work for them or go elsewhere. Amazing at it may seem, the thought of someone drawing a paycheck from Company A who spends their days staring at the calendar, waiting for the day to arrive when they will start working for Company B where they actually want to be, doesn't go over too well at Company A. ...Only in sports, folks.
Then go on and check out the rest of his post about how Dale Jr. doesn't own the rights to his own signature. The ESPN story is here.
Unlike the Dude, I don't see Junior leaving DEI any time soon. But it's a cautionary tale about mixing family and money. Weird doings.
Comments (6)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
If he understood racing he would know that teams don't like to change drivers with big sponsorship deals mid-season. Last year was a perfect example of this as McMurray then Busch even said they would compete this season in their old rides despite having new deals.
Posted on June 16, 2006 10:27 AM
I see both sides of it. The Dude is right considering his points but there are other points to be made. Doesn't mean any of those points is wrong. It's all in the way you look at things.
Neither Brian nor Casey did their teams any favors in the morale department by announcing things so early. How can they trust their teams to give them 110% when they can't even be trusted to do the same? But, they also owed it to their current teams to not lead them on in thinking they were going to stick around.
It's a sucky situation all the way around but the drivers have as much a right to protect their futures as their owners do.
Posted on June 16, 2006 1:56 PM
I took a look at some of the numbers from McMurray and Busch last year to see how much their impending departure affected their seasons. McMurray didn't record a single top 5 finish in the last half the year with only 3 top 10 finishes. Busch was a bit better, until the Chase started and his bad luck began to snowball. Since neither Mears or Vickers match Busch talent-wise their fate will more than likely be McMurrays.
Posted on June 16, 2006 4:17 PM
I think a lot of this boils down to personalities. If Kurt Busch hadn't already lined up the Penske ride, Roush wouldn't have suspended him for Phoenix and Homestead. (Roush was mad at how the whole thing ended. Can't blame him.)
If Vickers ends up with Toyota - which I suspect a lot of owners see as Public Enemy No. 1 because it'll force their costs to go up - I think Vickers might get the boot early. If you're Rick Hendrick, why would you want someone around who's just soaking up how you do things and trying to recruit your other employees?
That said, I don't know what Hendrick's deal is with Vickers' sponsors. If GMAC is not coming back, maybe Hendrick finds a mid-season sub for Vickers no matter where he goes. Or maybe he has a development driver who needs some seat time.
Posted on June 16, 2006 4:27 PM
Hendrick expunged his development program last year after the failed Reid/Krisiloff/Feese triumvirate produced some less than stellar results. Here's a name if Vickers is released: Ricky Craven.
Posted on June 16, 2006 4:58 PM
In my view an employer - employee relationship is a two way street.
It's not unusual for an employer to cut a driver not meeting the owner's expectations in mid season. So the mentality among many employees, especially those who are in the workforce today, is that the loyalty thing works both ways.
In some ways, Vickers did Hendricks a favor by announcing his impending departure now in order for Hendricks to trump the other teams by getting Mears to say, "Pick me, I'm your guy."
Posted on June 20, 2006 8:10 PM