In the last couple of
years we have seen some of the more noted Cup drivers jump ship to follow the money train. I guess we can all think of several
reasons why drivers like Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler and even Bobby Labonte have jumped ship, but Mark
Martin?
As a dedicated Mark Martin
fan I must say that it saddened me when Jack Roush was interviewed Sunday. In carefully couched terms and in essence said
that he simply did not have or at least did not want to pay Martin the stacks and stacks of money that Bobby Ginn, the majority
owner of MB2 was prepared to give Martin to run some 20 or so races next year. In addition Ginn will let Martin pick the races
he wanted to run in. Talk of paradigm shifts were discussed – (for those of us that didn’t know what a paradigm
shift is paradigm – an example that serves as a pattern or model) Jack Roush seemed genuinely saddened by his loss of
Martin, but said that they will still remain friends. Some how I feel that the friendship will be a long range one.
Is there more to the story? I guess only time will tell.
In the mean time what is going
on in NASCAR? I think we all have good reason to realize that the France family is motivated by money. Like it is said
he who owns the company makes the rules, or something like that. The France family owns NASCAR, so in an attempt to “lessen
the cost of Cup racing” they have established a lot of rules and in an attempt to follow the rules and still make the
cars faster than the competition more and more money is needed by the teams for engineering, wind tunnel testing, engine development
and a myriad of things. As more and more money is needed the drivers want their fair share. I think that is one of the constants
of life in general… but Mark Martin? It makes me wonder just how much money Bobby Ginn has offered Martin to race for
him.
A million dollars a race…
more, less who knows – other than Ginn and Martin?
Jack Roush is considered
the owner of a real power team. They have sponsors with really deep pockets that I suspect are willing to put a lot
of money to see the cars they sponsor in victory lane or if short of that running up front where the cameras are mostly focused
during the race. So I wonder was there something other than money involved in Mark Martin moving his racing suit to MB2.
I doubt if we have heard the
last of this story!
Questions, Comments;
Email Merv
The views and opinions in this article are
that of the writer and not necessarily that of SCR
2006 StockCar Review.
