New (Old) Kid On The Block

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As always, there will be plenty of fascinating stories in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this year, even if many of them are of the train-wreck variety, thanks to the prevailing economic conditions.

To me, though, one of the most compelling will what Mark Martin is able to accomplish at Hendrick Motorsports. Martin, of course, was supposed to retire after the 2005 season, but NASCAR’s version of Benjamin Button seems to be getting younger, not older. Even if he remains as curious and enigmatic as ever. How many former Arkansas dirt-track racers, after all, are big fans of the rapper 50 Cent?

While much has been made over the years that Martin is the greatest driver to never win a Sprint Cup title, to me that sort of misses the point. Even though he’s now 50 years old, Martin can still bring his A game. He races hard, he races clean and this year, he’ll shock some people with what he can do.

Recall that not only did he come within inches of winning the 2007 Daytona 500, but he followed that up with finishes of fifth at California and Las Vegas, 10th at Atlanta and third at Texas driving for a Ginn Racing squad that didn’t have a fraction of the resources that the Hendricks and Roushes had.

If you talk to the guys at Hendrick they are thrilled to have Martin on board for a full season in ’09. “If you can't get along with Mark Martin, you can't get along with anybody,” says team owner Rick Hendrick. “He is such a neat person, and gracious and respectful of all these other guys. He fits like a glove. He came into our trailer in Phoenix and has been sharing stuff with our guys. He is going to make us all better.”

“The amount of respect that everybody in the series has for him is really the one thing that sticks out about Mark,” adds Dale Earnhardt Jr. “Everybody likes Mark and everybody thinks a lot of him. To me he is a role model in that aspect. … He's going to be fast and he's going to be hard to beat.”

Jeff Gordon, who waged some titanic championship battles with Martin in the late ‘90s, is fired up, too. “Mark is one hot commodity, even at 50 years old,” says Gordon. “He's extremely talented, very committed, and very capable of winning races and a championship.”

Here’s the bottom line: Martin is joining a team that has a four-time Sprint Cup champion in Gordon, a three-time defending Cup champion in Jimmie Johnson and an excellent driver in Earnhardt.

If somehow Martin manages to capture a championship this year, beating those three established superstars on his own team, plus Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Greg Biffle and the rest of the power hitters in NASCAR, it would be a bigger upset than the Arizona Cardinals winning the Super Bowl.

It would also be the single best story in NASCAR since the late Alan Kulwicki’s improbable title run in 1992.

Race fans regularly ask me who my favorite driver is or who I root for. I always tell them the same thing: I don’t have a favorite driver. What I root for is a great story, a compelling, dramatic finish or an improbable outcome to a race or a championship. For sure, seeing Mark Martin win it all this year would be an epic story, one for the ages.

And believe me, it would be a story that would write itself.

What, Me Worry?

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Thursday was the final day of the Sprint Media Tour Presented by Lowe’s Motor Speedway, a four-day-and-night odyssey to visit a mess of NASCAR teams prior to Daytona.

Some last day highlights and lowlights:

• NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France delivered his annual state-of-the-sport speech. His central message: NASCAR isn’t broken and thus doesn’t need any fixing. Thus, no major rule or policy changes at the Sprint Cup level this year.

“The sport and the fans have been through a great deal of necessary change over the last 10 years,” France said. “Now we're in a period where we're letting those changes mature, and you know, the changes are working well. Things like the new car, realignment and the Chase (for the Sprint Cup) are proving to be good for the sport and good for competition.”

What say ye, race fans? Agree or disagree?

• Sprint Cup Director John Darby said 15 or so new team owners have brought cars to NASCAR’s R&D Center in Concord, N.C., for certification. Among them were Jeremy Mayfield and Joe Nemechek. Expect a lot of one-off runs at Daytona and quite a few start-and-park teams to attempt at least the first few races of the season.

NASCAR President Mike Helton, meanwhile, said he was OK with the notion that some Sprint Cup races might have fewer than 43 cars. “We’ve always said 43 is the maximum,” Helton said. “It’s become the benchmark.”

• Kevin Harvick hosted a meeting of NASCAR officials and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team owners last week at his race shop to discuss cost cuts that could include limiting crew sizes, changing pit stop procedures and even sealed engines. Expect an announcement next week on some new Truck Series policies.

• Ford will be phasing in a new Sprint Cup engine in 2009, its first since 1970. “The problem this engine has – the biggest problem it has – is it has to go head-to-head with the old engine,” said team owner Jack Roush. “The old engine has continued – particularly in Robert (Yates) and Doug’s time since we put our deal together – has continued to make more power than I’d ever imagine.”

• Yates Racing co-owner Max Jones said he hopes to keep Travis Kvapil’s car running for the full season in 2009 the same way he did last year, by piecing together a lot of one-off primary sponsors. “We’re in a lot better position than we were last year,” said Jones. “We have two cars (Bobby Labonte and Paul Menard) that are fully funded and we’re pretty well rooted and people know we’re for real.”

• The Wood Brothers will run 12 races in 2009, all with Bill Elliott behind the wheel and Motorcraft sponsorship in nine of the 12.

• Last but not least, Red Bull Racing proved once again that it is the one team in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series that truly marches to the beat of its own drummer and driver Scott Speed, well, he must have his own entire percussion section in his head.

On Thursday night, the team hosted a marvelous combination media interview session and casino night to benefit Speedway Children’s Charities. Speed, as always, was a hoot. The former Formula 1 driver, you might recall, last year credited his first NASCAR Truck victory to getting his toenails manicured and painted blue.

Thursday night, he described the difference between F-1 fans and NASCAR fans by saying, “The difference is that American fans are obnoxious — they have absolutely no problem going up to you and being ridiculous to get your picture or autograph. Everywhere else in the world there is just more respect. As F-1 drivers we were more untouchable. We would get off the airplane in Tokyo and there would be people everywhere — the whole airport would be shut down, but not once would a fan go crazy or ask you for a picture. They are just kind of there.”

But Speed’s loudest comment was reserved for his teammate and came at the end of the media session, when he suddenly screamed, for no apparent reason: “BRIAN VICKERS IS A SEXY BITCH!”

Yes, indeed, it’s going to be an interesting year in NASCAR.

Gathering Speed

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Getting up to speed with the annual Sprint Media Tour Presented by Lowe’s Motor Speedway:

• Tony Stewart’s new Stewart-Haas Racing operation looks a lot more like a legitimate contender than many folks expected. Stewart, who came on board late last year as co-owner of the perpetually downtrodden Haas CNC Racing, was confident and relaxed at Wednesday’s Media Tour stop, as were co-driver Ryan Newman, crew chiefs Darian Grubb and Tony Gibson, and team manager Bobby Hutchens.

With no track time until Daytona, no one yet knows who will walk the walk instead of just talk the talk once the racing starts, but these guys had a quiet confidence about their prospects and appeared to have their act very together.

Then again, with Stewart signing a personal services agreement with Burger King — bye, bye Subway — there could be some weighty issues to discuss as the long season wears on.

• Team owner Rick Hendrick had his squad build him a two-seat Car of Tomorrow with an opening driver-side door, all the better to squeeze his 58-year-old body into the car. But Hendrick is looking a lot trimmer these days, as new kid on the team and noted fitness fanatic Mark Martin has gotten Hendrick to lose 20 pounds already, with a total goal of dropping 40.

Hendrick’s employees presented their team boss with a race car dubbed “Dusty,” a lovingly restored Chevrolet Lumina Sprint Cup car built on chassis HMS-001, the first Hendrick car built in house way back in 1989.

• In one of the more bizarre announcements of the day, Armando Fitz said he has sold his former Fitz Motorsports team to developer Arthur Shelton, who has renamed it Trail Motorsports LLC. Chase Austin was announced as the driver of the team’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series entry, with Jarit Johnson, little brother of Jimmie Johnson, slated to drive for the team in the NASCAR Camping World East Series.

No driver was announced for the team’s Nationwide entry, nor were any sponsors introduced. Sources say the team is considering renting out the ex-Petty Enterprises, ex-Robert Yates Racing shop in Mooresville, N.C.

• Motorsports Authentics, the NASCAR souvenir company, made a surprise announcement that president and CEO Mark Dyer left the company effective immediately.

• Speedway Motorsports Inc. founder and chairman O. Bruton Smith has urged local blackouts for NASCAR Sprint Cup races that don’t sell out. There is absolutely no likelihood of that happening. End. Of. Story.

• Nature abhors a vacuum and so, too, do NASCAR Sprint Cup fields. Among the latest drivers looking to qualify for the Daytona 500 are Kelly Bires and Mike Skinner. Kirk Shelmerdine, who won four Sprint Cup championships when he was crew chief for the late Dale Earnhardt, said he will attempt to run the full Cup schedule with Toyotas purchased from the old Bill Davis Racing team. BDR alumnus Tommy Baldwin is also hoping to run the full schedule with Scott Riggs as a driver. With the dearth of full-time teams, expect other racers to step in and field cars to fill Sprint Cup fields as the season wears on.

• Thursday will feature the Ford stop on the Media Tour, and then we presumably will get clarification on whether Yates Racing will campaign two cars or three. Right now, the team is committed to running the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing-owned entry with Bobby Labonte and sponsor Ask.com, as well as Paul Menard in the No. 98 Menard’s Ford. David Gilliland, who drove the No. 38 for the team last year, has been released, while Travis Kvapil’s No. 28 so far has only been listed with a five-race deal.

• Last and most certainly least, there were a few newly thickened heads of hair on Wednesday’s stops. TJO will name no names, but suffice to say Propecia appears to be the hot ticket in NASCAR for 2009.

Three Confirmed For DEI

Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates confirmed late Tuesday that it will campaign full-time Chevrolets for Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr. and Aric Almirola in 2009, with a fourth car entered for the Daytona 500.

No sponsor has been announced for Almirola’s No. 8 car, nor has a driver been picked for the fourth car, according to EGR President Steve Lauletta.

And Away We Go ...

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Here’s what we know for sure so far, after Day 1 of the 2009 Lowe’s Motor Speedway Media Tour:

• Gillett Evernham Motorsports is now Richard Petty Motorsports, although Richard Petty himself won’t be the man in charge. In fact, Petty said he’s glad he doesn’t have to worry about running Petty Enterprises any more.

• AJ Allmendinger will drive the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge Charger, but has no sponsorship after the first five races, no signed contract yet and no real guarantees he’ll race for the whole season..

• Verizon will pay to sponsor Penske Racing’s No. 12 NASCAR Sprint Cup car, but because Verizon can’t be a Sprint Cup sponsor — Verizon and Sprint are competitors — the No. 12 Sprint Cup car will carry Penske Racing logos, while Verizon’s colors will be on the No. 12 Penske Nationwide Series entry driven by talented rookie Justin Allgaier.

• Penske will use Dodge’s new engine everywhere except restrictor-plate tracks, while RPM, the only other full-time Dodge team, will use the old Dodge engine for all or most of the season. All Dodges, however, will get a new nose this year, which might help close the performance deficit they suffered on intermediate tracks last year.

• Tony Stewart will enter a Hendrick Motorsports No. 80 Chevrolet in the first NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona next month.

• Scott Riggs, not Dave Blaney, will drive for owner/crew chief Tommy Baldwin’s new – and still unsponsored - No. 36 Toyota team.

• On top of Speedway Motorsports Inc. Chairman O. Bruton Smith’s wish list is for Jimmie Johnson to punch someone — anyone — in an effort to liven up the 2009 season. Smith offered both himself and Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage as targets, if necessary.

• Smith still wants a Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway, but absolutely will not take one away from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, another track he owns. Where will he pull one from? He’s not saying, but speculation is Kentucky could replace the fall race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

• And while this wasn’t officially on the Media Tour, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing cut another 40 jobs on Monday. Late Tuesday, the team confirmed it will run three cars.

Confused?

You aren’t alone. It’s likely to be the wildest NASCAR season we’ve seen in quite a long, long time and the first wheel hasn’t even turned in anger yet.

Time To Change Partners

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Shotgun wedding season continued in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with the news that Bobby Labonte (a driver who lacked a team) will join Hall of Fame Racing (a team that lacked equipment, cars, a driver and employees) to run a Ford campaigned by Yates Racing (a team that lacked a sponsor).

This is good news for Labonte, the 2000 Sprint Cup Champion but likely bad news for David Gilliland, who is expected to be the odd man out as the team probably will run just three cars — the No. 28 for Travis Kvapil, the No. 96 for Labonte and the No. 98 for Paul Menard.

It’s also bad news for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, who had hoped to sign Labonte. The fact that EGR couldn’t get that deal done, combined with the departure of former Dale Earnhardt Inc. President of Global Operations Max Siegel, are not good omens for the team. Not devastating, mind you, but not good.

The big deal to me about all these odd mergers and last-minute deals is how much it will exacerbate the gap between the haves and the have nots. Labonte is a fine driver, one with an unquestioned pedigree, but I just don’t see any way that a deal put together in mid-January will result in a championship-contending team. By the same token, I would be well and truly shocked if EGR or the GEM-Petty Enterprises produces a serious championship contender in 2009.

So the real winners in this climate of economic upheaval likely will be NASCAR’s Big Four — Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Roush Fenway Racing. They have stable personnel and sponsors and no issues with having to merge with other teams. It’s no coincidence that these are the only four teams to place cars in the Chase for the Sprint Cup last year.

Behind the Big Four, there are only two multi-car Sprint Cup teams that haven’t merged or otherwise taken on new partners this season — Penske Racing and Red Bull Racing.

I’ll have much more on this in the days and weeks ahead.

Stayin' Alive

Some odds and ends for a Tuesday:

I have read a few columns and news articles lately that have suggested the messy marriages involving Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Enterprises, as well as Dale Earnhardt Inc. with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, have been public relations nightmares.

Literally speaking, I suppose that’s true — driver, sponsor and crew chief lineups seem to change daily and one wonders if the proverbial right hand knows what the left hand is doing. In the carefully orchestrated NASCAR universe, these details do appear to be coming together on a somewhat haphazard basis.

But that totally misses the point. These marriages are happening at the last minute because the survival of the very teams is at stake and with them, hundreds and hundreds of jobs. One observer described it to me as “two swimmers who are drowning and hope that by holding on to each other they can float.”

These are shotgun marriages — think back a generation or two to what went on whenever teenagers “had to” get married — and by definition they are going to complicated and, at times, messy. As it is, a lot of jobs already have been lost. The folks at these four teams, and a whole bunch of others, are trying to save their companies and as many jobs as they can. To my mind, their respective efforts are to be lauded, not criticized because they are lacking from a P.R. standpoint. If you have 150 employees and no sponsors in January, P.R. is the least of your problems.

• Denny Hamlin said Joe Gibbs Racing will assign dedicated engineers to each of its three cars, rather than have a big engineering group oversee the team’s entire Sprint Cup operation. The reason? JGR was arguably the best team in NASCAR’s regular season last year, but tanked in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a scenario they want to avoid this year.

“The 18 (Kyle Busch), 20 (Joey Logano) and 11 (Hamlin) will each have their own individual group of engineers they're going to work with, (to) personally deal with race issues as well as the issues they want to work on for the future,” Hamlin said. “That will definitely help our race team, for sure, with the week-to-week issues that we had, mechanical failures that we had last year, which were pretty much inexcusable. Those things will hopefully be reduced this year. We won't have those issues. If we do, we're going to have a team designated to fix them right away and not wait until another issue happens.”

• Now that he has Brad Keselowski’s No. 88 NASCAR Nationwide Series JR Motorsports Chevrolet fully sponsored, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is still looking for more sponsorship for his team’s other car, the No. 5. “I think that team is slated to run about six races,” Earnhardt said. “We need to run that team about 20, 21 races at the least. That's what I'd like to do at least. Those guys need to be at the racetrack working so they can be learning. They like to race. They need to race.”

• Country music star Dierks Bentley will perform before and after the 31st annual Budweiser Shootout Feb. 7 at Daytona International Speedway. It was just two years ago when NASCAR told track operators to not book country acts for races. Guess we’ll be seeing more of guys like Dierks and less of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Def Leppard trackside this year. Suits me fine.

Nashville Cats

Hello, folks. I'm in Nashville today for the event known as Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust. Check back later today for updates from NASCAR drivers and the latest gossip.

Among the drivers on the agenda are Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Aric Almirola, David Stremme, Reed Sorenson, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Michael Waltrip, as well as Darrell Waltrip and Ray Evernham. There should be some good stuff to come as the afternoon goes on.

For all the news from Nashville, go to: SPEEDtv.com

Ray Evernham, who has retired from a day-to-day role with Gillett Evernham Motorsports but still has a minority ownership interest in the team, said the wretched U.S. economic conditions could mean a further separation between the top four NASCAR teams and everyone else.

“The level of competition, you know, might end up being just between three or four owners,” Evernham said Saturday in Nashville. “It wasn’t that long ago that we had 18 or 19 different winners in a season. I’m just afraid that that’s not going to continue to happen. That’s something that I think NASCAR is trying to look at. I still in my heart believe the (Car of Tomorrow) is the right thing to do to help cut costs. What got out of control or raised the costs were certainly the bidding on driver salaries and bidding on crew-member salaries.”

Evernham, one of the most astute observers of NASCAR, may be right. Last year, the top four teams in NASCAR — Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Roush Fenway Racing — combined to win 32 of 36 Sprint Cup points races.

• • •

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Saturday that he is enjoying life as a nightclub owner, having opened the popular Charlotte nightclub Whiskey River last year.

“I think I enjoy the bar the most,” Earnhardt said when asked about his far-flung business empire. “I’d always wanted to get involved in ownership of a nightclub of some sort, because I really enjoy the entertainment side of it and I enjoy the camaraderie. It’s kind of fun to be there and see the employees working and see them taking pride in what they’re doing, the meetings they have after every night, hearing everybody. … I take a lot of pride in it. I think it’s nice to see the employees and everyone working there taking the same amount of pride in it. That’s probably right now the most entertaining part for me.

Earnhardt said he plans to be at the bar tonight and next Saturday night. “Hopefully, I can raise a little hell,” he said.

• • •

NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Burney Lamar and his wife, supermodel Nikki Taylor said Saturday morning that they are expecting their first child.

The couple met during the 2006 edition of Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust festival.

• • •

Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates driver Aric Almirola confirmed that his team has no sponsorship for its No. 8 car for 2009, but the plan is still to run the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

“I talked with (team co-owners) Teresa (Earnhardt) and Chip (Ganassi) both and we’re committed to running the full season, so they say, come hell or high water, we’re going to race,” said Almirola. “And I’m excited about that, too, because it’s going to be the first opportunity for me to race every single weekend and get in a groove. So I’m excited about that, and I’m really looking forward to working with the guys on my team. I’ve got Doug Randolph coming over to be my crew chief and … a good majority of the guys from the No. 15 group last year.”

Almirola said the team is in no hurry to find a driver for its No. 41 car, which has sponsorship from Target. “That’s the thing that’s quite unique about this year,” Almirola said. “The owners are really in the catbird seat right now. There’s drivers out there begging for work. It’s not like you have to hurry up and hire somebody. There’s drivers out there, and you don’t even have to worry about it if you’re an owner.”

Deal Or No Deal?

Earlier today, about nine hours before Richard Petty and Gillett Evernham Motorsports announced they had agreed to join forces, I talked with a buddy of mine at what I would call a B-level squad — not a championship team, but a solid, competitive team capable of running in the top 20 consistently and the top five or 10 occasionally.

I asked him if his team had settled on drivers, sponsors or even the number of cars it would run in 2009. The answer was no. “We’re trying to get everything nailed down,” he told me. “Until then, we want to fly under the radar. We aren’t doing any interviews or talking to anyone.” The same could easily be said about half a dozen other Cup teams, including some decent ones.

The bottom line here? Practice for the Bud Shootout at Daytona begins four weeks from Friday and there are an awful lot of teams with big sponsor/driver/crew chief holes to fill. Those teams include the Petty-GEM union, Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Yates Racing, Hall of Fame Racing, Triad Racing Technologies, Tommy Baldwin Racing and others.

Never has a NASCAR season begun with such uncertainty, almost all of which is due to the perfect storm of the insanely escalating costs of running a Sprint Cup team and the near collapse of the U.S. economy.

The hard times have made for some strange bedfellows in NASCAR, and I will be very, very interested to see how some of these shotgun marriages work out. I honestly can’t imagine Teresa Earnhardt and Chip Ganassi, for example, staying together for as much time as, say, Brittney Spears and K-Fed, but these are desperate times and desperate times require desperate measures. Maybe they can make it work.

The good news is, it appears Richard Petty is hanging around for a while longer. But the devil is in the details and with all the craziness in the sport right now, we well might not know all the details until Daytona. Or longer. So until then, I’ll let you know what I know when I know it. But take everything with a grain of salt today because a lot will change in the days and weeks ahead.

Some Good News

IN THE MONEY — We all know the economy is wretched right now and NASCAR is certainly not immune. On Wednesday, however, there was a little bit of good news on two fronts. First, Talladega Superspeedway announced that it is cutting ticket prices from $70 or $75 to $40 on more than 20,000 seats in its Gadsden and Lincoln grandstands for both the April 26 Aaron’s 499 and the Nov.1 AMP Energy 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

Now let’s not kid ourselves: If Talladega could still sell out at $75 a ticket, the track wouldn’t have slashed prices. But in these times, you have to applaud anything that saves race fans money. For far too long, race fans have been an underappreciated treasure and it’s high time that the hard-working men and women who support this sport get a break, so I’m glad to see Talladega slash prices. Look for lots of tracks to be offering deals this year in an attempt to woo back fans.

Good news No. 2 came in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, where it was announced Wednesday that GoDaddy.com will be the primary sponsor of Brad Keselowski’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in 18 races next season, which along with Unilever (11 races) and Delphi (six races), fills up Keselowski’s hood and quarter-panels for all 35 NNS races. This young man is definitely fun to watch race and it’s encouraging to see GoDaddy.com step up to the plate. The Internet company also will sponsor Keselowski in seven Sprint Cup races in the No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and be an associate sponsor of Mark Martin’s No. 5.

ROAD TRIP — On Saturday morning, I’m heading to Nashville for the Sprint Sound & Speed Presented by SunTrust Fan Festival at Municipal Auditorium.

There will be a ton of current and former NASCAR personalities there, including Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kyle Petty, Darrell and Michael Waltrip, Ray Evernham, Reed Sorensen, David Stremme, Ernie Irvan, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., Brad Keselowski and Burney Lamar.

On the music side, artists already announced for the Saturday Festival include Jason Michael Carroll, Richie McDonald, Josh Turner, members of Diamond Rio and Rick Huckaby. Also scheduled to appear are Dierks Bentley, Randy Houser, Kate and Kacey, Josh Osborne, Charlie Louvin and Connie Smith.

This is a great event that benefits the Victory Junction Gang Camp and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. There are way too many details to list here, but do yourself a favor and check out the website at www.soundandspeed.org for all the details.

And I’ll be sure and bring back some good gossip from Nashville.

Baldwin: Genius or Madman?

What kind of madman starts his own unsponsored Sprint Cup team a month before the season starts, in the middle of a global economic meltdown and without a driver, sponsor or car number?

Say hello to Tommy Baldwin, lifelong racer and — perhaps — somebody who is a whole smarter than most of us are giving him credit for.

Baldwin, who cut his teeth with his late father on the short tracks of New York and New England, knows the racing game better than most. His plan is to keep costs at a bare minimum — no fancy shop, no luxury items, no high-dollar driver or crew chief. Make sure costs are low, low, low. It’s a sound strategy on several levels.

With so many teams now out of business or drastically scaled back, Baldwin’s fledgling squad stands a good chance of actually making races, instead of piling up a lot of costly DNQs. And NASCAR Sprint Cup races actually pay pretty well these days: Last year, Kenny Wallace earned a cool $256,735 for his last-place finish in the Daytona 500, while Sam Hornish Jr. pocketed $125,539 by coming home 43rd at California the following week. By my unofficial research, the least amount of money any driver earned in a single Sprint Cup race last year was the $60,373 “Mad Max” Papis took in at Watkins Glen International.

Do the math: If Baldwin’s car can make every race and average $100,000 each time out, the team will pocket $3.6 million. Add a few sponsor dollars in there, and as long as Baldwin’s driver doesn’t crash too often or blow too many engines, the team can make it.

Will they win races? Of course not. But if they can stick around for one season and build something, they could be here a long time. It’s a formula that’s worked for Robby Gordon and it could work for Baldwin, too.