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EASTER! Happy Easter! Haas/Carter closes shop, what's in a number, and new aero changes.
Down and Out......... The handwriting has been on the wall for Haas/Carter Motorsports before the season began. The handwriting for Kmart's bankruptcy has been on the wall for a couple of years. It was just a matter of time. Problem is, the timing was devastating for Haas/Carter, not to mention Joe Nemechek, Todd Bodine, and dozens of term members who are now "unemployed." Bodine has a ride in the Busch Series for the remainder of the 2002 season, but the Busch Series doesn't pay like Winston Cup does. The money just isn't there. At this time, things are still kind of up in the air for Nemechek, who also fields a car in the Busch Series. The decision from Haas/Carter to finally cease operations and release employees is no surprise. Lots of folks actually wonder how they managed to hang on this long without a sponsor. When we speak of "handwriting on the wall" we may be speaking of the future of more than the Haas/Carter team. In the future, we may see corporate sponsors cease to put out millions of dollars a season to a team who has not had a win in several years, or for some teams, none at all. Why invest millions of advertising dollars on a dead horse? Let's look at this realistically. When was the last time Haas/Carter had a win? To be quite honest, I don't believe the team has ever been to victory lane. Travis Carter started out as a crew chief for Junior Johnson. I believe he started his own team somewhere around 1993. Jimmy Spencer, who won two races for Johnson in 1994, was Carter's main driver for a lot of years in the No. 23 Joe Camel sponsored Ford. When the tobacco settlement deal made the Camel sponsorship go away, Kmart came on board as primary sponsor. Carter fielded a second team with the No. 66 Kmart Ford for Darrell Waltrip at the end of his career, and when Waltrip retired Carter hired Todd Bodine to drive his second entry. If I remember right, Waltrip owned his own operation, and Carter bought it out for his second team. Spencer left last season for greener pastures at Chip Ganassi Racing, and Joe Nemechek took Spencer's place in the No. 26 Kmart Ford. Nemechek won a race last season in one of his last outings for Andy Petree Racing, but his performance in the few races he ran in 2002 was lackluster. Carl Haas came on board as a partner for the 2001 season. Regardless of his untimely bad luck, Travis says that it's all part of racing. He has been around the Winston Cup circuit for a lot of years, and he wants everyone to know that, "I'll be back."
The copyright of the article I'll Be Back in NASCAR is owned by Thomas M. Sampson. Permission to republish I'll Be Back in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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