PHILLIPS: Where Have All the Cup Stars Gone?

GRAND-AM

PHILLIPS: Where Have All the Cup Stars Gone?

SPEEDtv.com columnist David Phillips goes in search of the throngs of NASCAR drivers that used to race at the Rolex 24.

David Phillips | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 10, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Jimmie Johnson has been the biggest name of many Sprint Cup drivers to compete at the Rolex 24. In 2009, he was almost the only NASCAR driver to be found at the Rolex 24. (LAT)

Question: When is the Rolex Grand American Road Racing Series an official NASCAR company?
Answer: 2009 when Jimmie Johnson and Juan Pablo Montoya make-up the entire cast of full-time Sprint Cup regulars on the Rolex 24 at Daytona entry list (and the winning car receives a NASCAR-like slap on the wrist for being 12 pounds underweight).

Question: When was the Rolex Grand American Road Racing Series not an official NASCAR company?
Answer: Prior to 2009 when, in addition to Johnson and Montoya, Sprint Cup regulars Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray, Bobby and Terry Labonte, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Matt Kenseth were featured players in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Question: Where have all the Cup stars gone?
Answer: There’s no simple answer.

Certainly one explanation is the fact that some who qualified as Sprint Cup regulars in Rolex 24 at Daytonas gone-by (and who competed in this year’s Grand-Am season opener) like A.J. Allmendinger, Casey Mears and Kyle Petty don’t currently have full-time Sprint Cup rides. Similarly, Dario Franchitti no longer counts as a Sprint Cup driver now that he has returned to the IndyCar Series.

On the other hand, Sam Hornish was initially penciled-in for Penske Racing’s second Riley-Porsche, but lack of sponsorship forced the team to focus on a singleton entry piloted by the veteran partnership of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, ably supported by Ryan Briscoe.

Stewart? Suffice to say “Smoke” was working 24/7 getting his nascent Stewart/Haas Racing’s Sprint Cup program together and couldn’t spare any time away from his core “business.”

Gordon? His lone appearance at the Rolex 24 came with Wayne Taylor Racing in 2007 and was, from the start, a one-off.

Then again, a close look at the starting fields for the Rolex 24 at Daytona over the last few years reveals the numbers of Sprint Cup stars aren’t the only ones in decline. The 2006 race attracted 30 Daytona Prototypes, a figure that slipped to 29 in ‘07 and 25 in ‘08. This year’s Rolex 24 produced just 19 DPs, an entry that did not include the Finlay Racing or Riley/Matthews teams that Bobby Labonte and Johnson drove for in ‘07, respectively, and which saw Childress/Howard Racing enter one car (for Mears along with Andy Wallace, Danica Patrick and Rob Finlay) rather than the two cars it entered in ‘06 and ‘07.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist -- or even a race car engineer -- to understand the economic melt-down is at least partially to blame for that 24% decline in DP entries from ‘08 (or that other motorsports series expect to experience similar shrinkage this year). But as the trend of the last couple years has shown, the DP class has contracted or, if you prefer, stabilized after a period of rapid growth (from 6 and 17 entries at the 24 Hours in ‘03 and ‘04 to 29 and 30 in ‘05 and ‘06). The fewer available seats, the fewer that are likely to go to any given subset of drivers, particularly in an environment when the demands on that subset of drivers by the teams and sponsors associated with their “full-time” jobs is steadily increasing.

The days of NASCAR stars dropping in to star with road racing specialists like when the Labonte brothers joined Bryan Herta is a thing of the past, but why? (LAT)

It’s also worth noting the number of Sprint Cup drivers participating in the Rolex 24 has always fluctuated. The ‘05 24 Hours counted Johnson, Kenseth, Terry Labonte, McMurray, Mears, Petty and Stewart among its competitors; a year later it was left to Bobby Labonte, Petty, Stewart and Rusty Wallace to carry the Sprint Cup standard, but by ‘07 their numbers had grown to include Allmendinger, Gordon, Hornish, Johnson, Bobby Labonte and Juan Pablo Montoya.

“It’s always been a mixed bag,” observes Taylor. “In the early days of the Grand-Am I think there was a belief the presence of the NASCAR drivers would be a big thing for the fans. That didn’t really seem to be the case so, as team owners, I don’t think we make a conscious effort to scope them out or recruit them.

“In the case of Jeff (Gordon), he has a lot of commitments to his team and his sponsors. The year he drove for us (‘07) he took a long time to finalize our program. I think he wanted to be sure everyone -- himself included -- could make a total commitment to the effort, and rightly so. But it was always a one year deal.

“That said, we’d welcome him back. Most of the guys who run up front in Sprint Cup a very capable drivers in the sports car environment and, if they’re available, we’d love to have ‘em.”

I suspect Taylor is not alone in that respect.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

David Phillips has written about auto racing for a variety of outlets including Autosport, Autoweek, Motoring News, On Track, Racer and SPEEDtv.com since the mid-1980s.

In the process, Phillips' travels have taken him -- so far -- to 71 race tracks from Ascot Park and Assento Zandvoort, Zeltweg and Zolder and more airports, hotels and rent-a-cars than he cares to remember.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Phillips

SPEEDtv.com

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