The latest silly season development has Mark Martin replacing David Reutimann in the No. 00 Toyota for 2012. Martin, now 52 years of age, is expected to compete in a limited schedule, as the car is not fully sponsored for the season. This leaves 2-time Sprint Cup winner Reutimann in a little bind.
It appears that Reutimann was notified Tuesday morning, less than a month before the season ends, that he will not be in the ride he has occupied since his rookie season of 2007. While Reutimann never set the racing world on fire, he was competitive towards the end of 2008, and most of 2009 and 2010. He made a solid bid for a Chase for the Championship spot in 2009 and 2010 and won a race in each of those two seasons. He has proven that he a solid driver, but an array of tough luck and circumstances have marred his 2011 season, a year in which some thought he could finally break into the Chase.
Reutimann has struggled, but does he really deserve to lose his ride? After all, he has been the most competitive driver at MWR by far. Does one bad season warrant this kind of treatment?
Michael Waltrip came up a colossal winner when he signed 5-time winner, 3-time championship contender Clint Bowyer with sponsor 5-Hour Energy. Along with Bowyer, he had Martin Truex Jr partnered with NAPA. While Truex may not have the stacked numbers at the Cup level, he is a marketable driver with a solid fan base.
After signing Bowyer, we had no reason to believe that Reutimann would be the odd-man out. After all, he signed a multi-year contract with MWR last summer, just days following his win at Chicagoland. His sponsor Aaron's typically sponsors the car for the majority of the season, and Reutimann has been a great spokesperson for the company, alongside Michael.
This makes the recent news that Martin is taking over the No. 00 car for the races in which it has sponsorship somewhat surprising. Is this a case of Waltrip getting a little greedy with star power after signing Bowyer, so he goes after the next big name on the market? I certainly hope not. Reutimann has been loyal to the Waltrips, as they have been to him. The two seem to have the utmost respect for each other.
This leads me to believe that the sponsor may have dictated this move. Is Aaron's ready to move on to the ageless Martin? Or is there another sponsorship deal in the works, and Aaron's moves to Bowyer for the races in which the car has a sponsorship vacancy?
Whatever the case may be, this seems to be a trend that we saw in 2007 when Martin moved to MB2 Motorsports, later Ginn Racing and DEI, therefore moving Joe Nemechek to a sponsor-troubled car.
Two years later, Martin decided to return to full-time competition, which left Casey Mears looking for a new ride. Mears struggled in a one-and-out with RCR, and is now driving for a low-budget operation.
Of course, I am not blaming Martin by any means. The other drivers must take responsibility for their performance. Martin is still a coveted driver, and he is taking full advantage of the fact that he is still in prime shape and can still compete at a high level. I just really feel for Reutimann, because out of the three drivers that lost a ride to Martin, he is the most deserving of a Cup ride. It is too bad that he now has to struggle to find a job after a six years with MWR.
His best bet may be a return to the Camping World Truck Series, where he began his relationship with the Waltrips. However, it is so late in the season, it is doubtful that he can land a competitive ride in Cup, Nationwide, or the trucks.
11 comments:
Don't forget Keselowski was supposed to go to HMS until MM decided to "stay a little longer".
Well if David has a contract for next year what happens to that? I remember last year when Hendricks hired Kane that they had to find a ride for him for this year because Martin "refused" to leave a year early because he had a contract!
BK was never "supposed to go to HMS" in cup for 2010. After his surprise win at Dega in 2009 driving for an HMS prepared ride at Phoenix Racing, and his growing success in Nationwide, he decided he was ready and deserved a full time cup ride for 2010.
The problem was that Rick wasn't going to dump Gordon, Johnson, or Dale Jr, and Martin was already signed through 2010. Initially Martin was scheduled to run full time in 2009 and a partial schedule in 2010, but after his 2009 win at Phoenix in April, Martin and Hendrick announced they would run the full schedule in 2010 instead. I would also point out that it was Rick that recruited Martin and came knocking in the first place back in 2008.
Even IF Martin had stuck to the original plan of just running a partial schedule in 2010, Brad didn't really want a partial schedule, the guy felt he deserved a full time ride, and I agreed with him.
Hendrick tried to put together a package with other teams to keep him in the HMS fold (SHR wasn't interested in expanding to 3 teams at all that year for example) but ultimately no deal could be struck.
Now to be fair, long term it was considered a given that in a couple of years BK *would* wind up as part of the HMS stable in cup. Again though, the young man decided he deserved a full time cup ride sooner rather than later after that cup win, and he wasn't sure when a spot would become available given that Martin was enjoying a resurgence, so he ultimately signed with Penske.
Given the history of the #5 team, I could argue he made a good move. lol
Martin has spent much of his career coaching and mentoring young drivers, and at the end of the day, the man had a contract to drive. He wasn't obligated to throw himself on the sword to make a space by leaving sooner than he was contracted. If expecting your employer to honor a contract is "deciding to stay a little longer" then I am afraid we will have to agree to disagree.
Carl
P.S. Joe deserved a better fate than what he got with the Ginn deal, because he put a car not locked into the top 35, into the top 35. Unfortunately, despite being a solid driver and affable person, who also helped a lotta guys over the years, he was an older driver by that point so finding sponsors was hard and Bobby Ginn was.. well I can't say what he was ;)
Just to add, and I do apologize for the length, I like David, always have. He's an old school racer who has tried to succeed based upon determination and merit, as opposed to looks, youth, and/or his ability to "market" himself. I am surprised Martin would sign up with MWR, or that MWR would kick David to the curb in this manner since he has been "the franchise" of that operation since its inception. Seriously, he's been the only one at MWR to run worth a snot.
Carl
Martin needs to just go away. Enough of the Brett Favre age. I repeat, enough!!
Martin has made his millions, and did his time. It's time for him to move on and give some one else a chance instead of being so freaking greedy!
How many wrecks has Martin caused this yr.? Jast leave!!!
From what I have been told, it was Aarron's and not MWR that hung Reutimann out to dry.
It sure seems that all the moves MWR has made the last year or two is to ensure they will be around in the future. They let Bayne go, no sponsor, Ryan is now at Gibbs, again no sponsor. They don't have the money that others have to run plain white cars all year(Roush). It's a miracle they are still around at all. Making tough decisions can't be any easier. Time will tell if these decisions will pay off.
Maybe Mr. Ken Butler got tired of him whining about not being the Aaron's spokesman.
Maybe it can be blamed on Aarons, but they were never signed up for more that 18 races. They went out shopping to get more sponsorship for David or for Clint and came up with neither. It's that hard right now - there are unsponsored cars in the Chase (twice we have seen Haas on Newman's car and I seem to remember one other).
I am very dissappointed to see David lose his ride. He isone of the few character drivers left and I think he does a great job considering MWR racing is a second tier team at best. David has been a great ambassador for all his sponsors but in this day and time there is no loyalty. It will all show its ugly head whan clint Boyer is running at the back ofthe pack next year. As for Mark Martin, you are one of the greatest, but u have made your millions and show no desire to do anything but pull over every time another car gets near you. Give it up and go home. MW managed to to keep a ride for so many years is beyond me, it certainly was not his driving talent.
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