Off-season changes in NASCAR begining to show similarities to other sports

People can say that they want to but NASCAR has its similarities to other sports in its off-seasons.  In pro football if a team has success, there is still changes made to them, I have been an pro football fan all of my life and have noticed that the major players are usually re-signed and then there are some unhappy team members that leave or get canned.  Racing is the same-way, no matter how you want to look at it.

There are several reasons that things happen in sports.  Injuries are one of the major reasons, losing, and money play a huge part in decisions that are made in the off-season in all sports and it will be this season.  There are some things that are going on at Roush Fenway Racing that none of us will know the whole story about, I have heard stories about people being cut loose because of Roush dropping to three cars, and people leaving because they were able to find better jobs somewhere else.  I think that what a lot of people forget is, every year that a team wins the super bowl, they usually make major cuts to their operation.  Now there is no “true” salary cap in NASCAR, yet, teams do have to put a base salary down every year to run a successful operation.

All I have heard this past week has been words of worry from fans.  However, notice that the crew chief is still there that led the team and that the driver is still there.  Jack Roush signed the two main components to a race team.  I do know that a new car chief and engineer are likely going to be put in place next season, however, both are for two different reasons I can’t say why.  One I wrote about a couple of months ago on a request by my best friend, and I wrote about Pierre Kuettel likely not coming back I would put now it is very likely and I would give it a 90 to 10 chance, that P.K. will not return, and I know that there are some guys that have parted ways with RFR because of other reasons.

However, where I think a lot of people are forgetting is the fact that changes occur and rebuilding process have to begin.  It is different for people on the outside of the sport to realize the reasons that we see changes made every year.  I mean think about this, who in their right mind would have expected Tony Stewart and Darrien Grubb to part ways after winning the title this season.   Changes in sports, including in NASCAR, are like the weather, they change everyday as people say.  I compare it to the Colts losing Manning at the beginning of this season, no one was really expecting it and they are the worst team in the book this year.  I don’t think the rebuilding process will be as bad as people are expecting,

This is just my opinion, there are a lot of guys in the organization that were expandable, meaning move from Nationwide up to Cup and can move into a tougher position.  I believe that it could take a few weeks to really notice things but Edwards and Bob Osborne know how to make things turn around.  I believe there is a confidence level between the driver and his crew chief that will help keep this team on top of its game.  But the changes being made in the off-season gives everyone a good comparison to what happens when teams win championships or are the runner ups in other sports. 

Changes happen, it is something people have to come with the understanding of.