2009 Cobo Cup News.

Please take your time picking your team this year as there are a lot of daily changes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The pick sheets were printed out this morning and already there have been some changes.

Below is some news via www.jayski.com concerning those changes.

Riggs to drive for Baldwin: Tommy Baldwin Racing announced today Scott Riggs as the driver of the #36 Toyota for the 2009 NASCAR season. Riggs, formerly with Haas CNC Racing will start his sixth season in Sprint Cup competition. The 2009 season finds the 38-year-old native of Bahama, NC, eager to embark on a new chapter of his racing career, driving for the newly formed TBR team. Tommy Baldwin, who will hold the title of both owner and crew chief, announced the formation of his new race team earlier this month. “I look forward to working with Tommy,” Riggs said. “I think we can work together to build something really strong. I feel fortunate to work with someone like Tommy who has so much experience.” Riggs, with multiple years of experience at the Cup level and time behind the wheel in NASCAR’s COT, brings credibility and marketability to the new team. TBR, located at 604 Performance Road, in Mooresville, NC, plans on competing in the 51st running of the Daytona 500 in February with plans to run a full schedule in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. “Having Scott Riggs on board is a huge stepping stone for Tommy Baldwin Racing,” Said Baldwin. “He’s a top caliber driver, and I look forward to seeing the success we can have together.” No sponsor has been named yet for the #36 Toyota.

So Riggs (not Blaney) goes to the #36.

Verizon will fully fund the #12 Sprint Cup car of Penske Racing this season but the company’s logo and name will not be allowed on the paint scheme. “The [Cup] car will be identified and branded as the Penske Dodge Charger,” said Walt Czarnecki, the executive vice president of Penske Corporation. That means David Stremme, who replaces Ryan Newman in the #12, could find himself promoting Verizon even though the name can’t be on the car, thanks to a 2004 ruling after Nextel became the top series sponsor (it was since become Sprint). That ruling allowed existing wireless communication companies with teams and tracks to keep their sponsorship, unless a team or company changed hands. Verizon took over Alltel, the long-time sponsor of the #12, on Jan. 9. Earlier, the ruling forced Richard Childress Racing to seek a replacement for Cingular Wireless on the #31 car of Jeff Burton after it merged with AT&T and kept the AT&T name. Czarnecki doesn’t believe Penske will have to find a replacement for Verizon because of the multi-year deal it signed with Alltel. “Once the business transaction occurred NASCAR was kept fully informed of what was transpiring,” he said. “NASCAR has made it very clear, even with Alltel, what their requirements were as far as branding on the cars and branding at the track. We’re working with NASCAR and the people at Verizon. I believe we’ll be able to accommodate all of those requirements.” Verizon will be on the #12 Nationwide Series entry driven by Justin Allgaier.

So Stremme is fully funded in 2009.

Hall of Fame Racing today the #96 Ask.com Ford Fusion and Bobby Labonte as the manufacturers’ wild card entry into the famed Budweiser Shootout following NASCAR’s rule change on Friday. “The #96 joined the Ford family at the right time,” said Hall of Fame Racing Co-Owner, Tom Garfinkel. “We’re pleased to get Hall of Fame and Ask.com into the Shootout and have an early chance to start working towards solid top-five and top-10 finishes this season. We are pleased to be working with Bobby Labonte and Yates Racing and look forward to seeing this combination of talent come together for the first time in the Shootout.” Labonte and the #96 will also receive Yates Racing points from the #38, piloted by David Gilliland in 2008. The transfer will put the #96 in 27th position going into the Daytona 500 in February. Yates Racing’s #98 Menards Ford Fusion will start the 2009 season in 23rd position after a points transfer from the #28. Paul Menard will drive the machine for the full 2009 season. Travis Kvapil will start the season as a fresh entry in the #28 Yates Racing Ford.

So Labonte and Menard have the owners points to get them in the field for the first 5 races of 2009.

GEM 4th team #44? looks like A.J. Allmendinger will drive the #44 Dodge for Gillett Evernham Motorsports and not the #10 Dodge, on the GEM site, it lists four Cup teams, #9, #19, #43, #44 with the driver of the #44 listed as A.J. Allmendinger, no sponsors, crew chief or crew yet listed.

So the team stays the same but the number goes from #10 to #44. Looks like Allmendinger is part time unless a sponsor is found.

Watch this team before you consider picking them.

Marty Gaunt and Mike Held have found that since they bought Triad Racing Development and Bill Davis Racing [#22 Toyota] from Bill Davis, that there is a thriving market for chassis and engines. They also have found that with the current sponsorship market, it probably isn’t the right time to go racing. And in addition, if they’re supplying race teams with chassis and engines, they avoid a conflict of interest if they don’t compete. So for the time being, the new Triad Racing Technologies group will be happy being a supplier and not a racer, even though BDR’s [#22] Sprint Cup car finished last season 31st in owners points and is locked into the first five Cup races of 2009. “We don’t need to be there [as a race team],” Held said Saturday in a phone interview. “What we feel like is we need to have the best package on the race track, and that is the package of chassis and engines that can win races for our customers.” Of course, if a $15 million sponsor comes along, Held would reconsider. Gaunt wouldn’t totally rule out the #22 team running in the season opener at Daytona, but admitted it wasn’t promising. “We’ve heard and sat down and listened to a lot of opportunities,” Gaunt said when asked about teams outside the top 35 possibly being interested in forming a partnership to get the locked-in position. “At this time, we haven’t said concrete, absolutely not. What we’re saying it’s highly unlikely that we’re going to make Daytona or have a car participate in the series next year. But things change. If an opportunity came available where it was the right business decision and the funding was there, then we’ll look at it.” The group obviously will be involved in all three NASCAR national series as a supplier. Gaunt said the company has more than 80 employees. With that pick up in business, it likely means that the new group will not compete at all in Trucks, a series where BDR was a prominent player since Toyota’s entry into the series in 2004. BDR won the 2008 Truck title with Johnny Benson.

Looks like the #22 car may not race at all in 2009. What will happen to Blaney???????????

When Dale Earnhardt Inc. merged with Chip Ganassi Racing last year, the plan was to run four cars in NASCAR’s top series. It could be down to two. Driver #1-Martin Truex Jr. said Friday night that Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing is planning to field just three cars for next month’s Daytona 500 — with him, #42-Juan Pablo Montoya and #8-Aric Almirola behind the wheels. And Almirola said he has no guarantee to drive beyond the season-opening race because of sponsorship woes. “As far as I can tell, I believe three,” Truex Jr. said at NASCAR’s preseason tour at Daytona International Speedway. “I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on. … I believe that’s it. That’s about all I’ve got there. Montoya, me and Aric.” Truex Jr. and Montoya are fully sponsored for 2009, but Almirola conceded his lack of sponsorship could be a problem this season. “Chip and Teresa [Earnhardt] have to do whatever makes financial sense to them, and hopefully for me that means run 36 races,” Almirola said. “For them, I hope that’s the case because that means that they’ll have been able to afford to do that. Now, saying that, I don’t know. I’m not privy to look at their financial statements every week or every month, so I don’t know what they’re going to be willing to do and not do without a sponsor. The moral of the story is we need a sponsor badly. We need sponsorship dollars to be able to take our #8 Earnhardt-Ganassi with Felix Sabatta’s Chevy to every single race that we can. We need sponsorship dollars.”

Looks like the #8 car and Almirola may also go to a part time schedule if sponsorship is not found. Watch this team as well before considering them.

All this new news makes a big difference as to where all the teams will fall as far as the top 35 starting positions in owners points.

Jimbo