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Bubba to drive the 43 in 2018


blksn8k2

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As expected, Darrell (Bubba) Wallace Jr will be the driver for the #43 RPM car next year.

 

Interesting that Petty has not yet announced whether or not they will stick with Ford. It wouldn't surprise me to see RPM move to another manufacturer since their partnership with Roush has not been very impressive.

 

There also seems to be an expectation that RPM will again have a partnership with another team and it very well could continue to be Roush, especially considering that Bubba is a former Roush driver.

 

I would be a little surprised if Petty moved to Toyota since they seem to be focused on JGR who is already partnered with Furniture Row. However, now that Eric Jones is moving back to JGR and Furniture row has said they will not be running the 77 car next year I guess that might leave the door open for JGR to also partner with the single car RPM team.

 

So that leaves GM as the only other option. I suppose Hendrick could support another team with Chevy engines after they lost the four car SHR team to Ford power for 2017. I don't know if Ganassi gets more than just engines from Hendrick but even if they do there should still plenty of capacity to supply engines and chassis to a single car team like RPM.

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From what I've heard & read, it sounds like RPM will affiliate themselves with RCR and use ECR engines. To me, that would be a lateral move to go from Roush to RCR. It's not like RCR has done much better than Roush in the past few years. If I were them, I would be trying to work out a deal like the Wood Brothers have with Penske and keep using the Roush-Yates engines. At least until Dodge comes back or new OEM comes into NASCAR.

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No matter what decisions are made, the outcome will be reviewed and opinionated by motor mouth Earnhardt Jr. He's been the progressive mouth piece in NASCAR news...including immigration, national anthem kneeling, or questioning established rules on recent races.....the guy is a self proclaimed expert. His retirement will keep him off the track but the mouth will keep running.

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No matter what decisions are made, the outcome will be reviewed and opinionated by motor mouth Earnhardt Jr. He's been the progressive mouth piece in NASCAR news...including immigration, national anthem kneeling, or questioning established rules on recent races.....the guy is a self proclaimed expert. His retirement will keep him off the track but the mouth will keep running.

Why does that matter and why do you care?
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Why does that matter and why do you care?

Because he is using his position of popularity to represent NASCAR fans, despite their diminishing numbers. Many fans, like myself, would prefer if he kept his political views to himself. He knows whatever comes out of his mouth usually gets published. Face the facts, he's living off of his dad's tradition, unlike others who actually earned it. My opinion.

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  • 1 month later...

 

IMO that one is a bit of a yahner. Yeh Ford lost RPM to Chevy but they gained another team at Penske and probably did that with a fair amount of help (money) from the Menard family. The 27 car is gone from RCR (Chevy) but they essentially replaced it with the 43 who has yet to announce any major sponsorship.

 

I think Ford actually came out ahead in all that if for no other reason than they got the Menard's sponsorship from RCR on Blaney's new #12 car at Penske while losing nothing from the 43 and I have no doubt Menard's will also be paying a lot of the bills on Paul's new ride in the #21 for the Wood Brothers. As a matter of fact, they actually kept the 43's sponsor when Smithfield went with Almirola to SHR and the 10 car which is probably a big part of why Petty left Ford.

 

Bottom line - Ford kept one major sponsor and gained another while Chevy lost one and gained a bunch of dead weight.

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I think Ford should be running a Mustang body as well. Ive never understood why they have been running sedan bodies.

 

It's gone back and forth as long as there has been a NASCAR. Sedans were the only thing that existed when the sport got it's start in the late 40s and early 50s. Throughout most of the 60s and into the early 90s everyone ran 2-door coupes like the T-Bird and Monte Carlo. The Taurus was the beginning of the latest sedan era.

 

That happened when Ford dropped the T-Bird in the late 90s and no longer had any large coupe body to use. The Taurus was actually the most aerodynamic body on the circuit at the time so everyone else copied the shape and that eventually morphed into the twisted sister bodies before NASCAR introduced the boring winged COT (Car Of Tomorrow) in an attempt to rein in the outrageous looking "stock cars". The COT resulted in boring cars that all looked pretty much the same except for the headlight and taillight decals, and in my opinion, was the biggest reason for NASCAR's declining popularity.

 

Eventually all the manufacturers are forced to follow whichever make has the most influence (cubic dollars) with NASCAR. For the past few decades that has mostly been GM but Toyota seems to be in control right now. As long as Toyota continues to use the Camry you might not see the Mustang in Cup.

 

The latest rumor is that NASCAR will soon be going to composite bodies which means they will have better control of the shapes since the bodies will no longer be hammered out of sheet metal. That will take away most of the teams' ability to massage the shapes. Ford might be waiting to see where that goes before committing to a new body.

 

Oh, and there is also the never ending speculation about Dodge's return. Current rumor has RCR switching to Dodge in another year or two. Kinda makes some sense now that Petty is in the house and Childress still has an engine shop.

 

Bubba could soon be in a Dodge...

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You know guys I had some hope for high level motorsports with the way IMSA and the FIA have aligned and brought in a great cross section of makes and vehicle types into their various classes.

 

I realize that's a tough job, BUT! I hate how they constantly administer the BOP.

 

In my opinion the rules should be set at the beginning of the year and then you gotta play the hand you're dealt.

 

The Ford GT was almost completely neutered. It looked silly to me almost with one of the most swoopy and advanced vehicles in the class rendered to a mid pack car at best.

 

It's weird though how some makes like GM are allowed to dominate their class and no action is taken. Witness the "Cadillacs" in DP. Those cars flat outran everybody, everywhere and to my knowledge no rules adjustments.

 

In NASCAR I've seen rules actions taken during Daytona Speedweek to slow Fords down but when Hendrick was dominating with Gordon and Johnson it was all good.......for decades.

 

The problem with all this is you are seeing fake racing much like the fake news on TV.

 

You are not seeing pure technical prowess succeeding or maybe failing and then trying harder to succeed. You are seeing manipulation to provide a "show" for a perceived audience.

 

I'm not sure what to make of all this but I'm certainly not the only one to have noticed the disparity.

 

I actually lost interest in IMSA when I saw the Ford GT putting around completely toothless when in actuality the 3.5 EB is actually capable of producing over 1000hp reliably.

 

It's like socialism. The goal seems to be to lower everyone to the lowest common denominator.

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It's no different than any other professional "sport". Money rules.

This is the bottom line.

 

If you want to see racing go to your local oval and watch people race who follow a given set of parameters and then roll the dice and hope for the best, just as you suggested. Better yet, buy a cheap car, bike, etc, and race yourself, because its a heck of a lot more fun than watching.

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