As for many men planning (or whose fiancées are planning) a wedding, money is tight for Kyle Busch these days.
But Busch’s pending nuptials and bride to be are the least of his financial worries. The price of owning a truck team is making Busch seriously reconsider if he ever should have become a NASCAR truck team owner.
“She has done a good job with (the wedding budget),” Busch said of his fiancée, Samantha Sarcinella. “It’s all the truck team. They seem to not know what budgets mean.”
Running a NASCAR truck team is an expensive proposition that many have failed at. When Patriots receiver Randy Moss announced he was starting a truck team, one of the first questions asked was whether he was prepared for the financial burden. Moss replied that he had been in the NFL for more than a decade. He had plenty to spend.
Busch knew starting a truck team would take a significant capital investment, but he didn’t realize just how expensive it would be. If he had known what he knows now, Busch wouldn’t have done it.
“No,” Busch said, speaking during a break in a test at Daytona International Speedway. “No, I wouldn’t do it. Bad idea.”
In its inaugural season, Kyle Busch Motorsports has had a decent run on the track. Busch has won one of four truck races. He has taken two poles and two top-five finishes. Brian Ickler finished in the top five both times he drove for Busch, and Tayler Malsam, though having no top-fives or top-10s, is 12th in the points standings.
But things have been rockier financially.
“I was kind of misled on some things and didn’t understand the financial burden of getting started,” Busch said. “The starting costs have been way over what expectations were, so that set us back.”
Before that even happened, sponsorship became an issue early this season when Busch lost Mickosukee, which he hoped to have for the full season.
Recently contractors hired to work on a new building for the team filed a lien against KBM, saying they were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by the company, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer.
The contractors also reportedly said both the size of the building and the price tag for the construction ballooned, causing part of the dispute. An attorney representing Busch’s investments told the Observer both sides want the issue resolved in a “fair and appropriate manner.”
It’s all part of a headache Busch wishes he had avoided completely.
Harvick happy with position: May is usually a difficult month for Kevin Harvick on the racetrack.
More Top Picks Best Motion Sensor Night Lights For Seniors
That Harvick’s team has run nearly spectacularly this month makes the Richard Childress Racing driver sure his team is in for a great finish.
“We haven’t gone to our best racetracks and we’re still finishing good, running in the top five and doing the things we need to do,” Harvick said.
The way he’s racing also has changed completely. Rather than scratching and clawing his way into the Chase, Harvick is in a comfortable position, solidly in the points lead.
That means the team can think ahead rather than just about the immediate present. They don’t have to give everything they have to the chase to the Chase.
“You have to go in with something that’s better than what you have (before the Chase),” Harvick said. “… I feel like with the points where they are right now, if we can just get through another four to six weeks and be in a similar situation, we can hopefully start taking advantage of that and really push a lot of things that we wouldn’t be able to push (if we were) trying to just make the Chase.”
Mayfield suit dismissed: A federal judge dismissed Jeremy Mayfield’s lawsuit against NASCAR a year after Mayfield failed a random drug test. NASCAR said Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamines, a claim Mayfield denied.
Mayfield then sued NASCAR for the right to race, and hasn’t raced since his suspension.
Brad Keselowski enjoyed seeing Denny Hamlin embroiled in controversy with someone other than him.
During the Nationwide race at Dover, Clint Bowyer intentionally wrecked Hamlin under caution. It was retaliation for a previous wreck in which Hamlin and Bowyer tangled on a restart.
Once not long ago, it was Hamlin dishing out the intentional shots, and they were directed mostly at Keselowski. The feud between the pair peaked last November when Hamlin spun Keselowski at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“It was awesome,” Keselowski said of Bowyer and Hamlin’s incidents at Dover. “… I was rooting for controversy.”
Keselowski swore his enjoyment had nothing to do with who was involved, he just liked the emotion.
10 things we learned this week
1. Nine NASCAR drivers are scheduled to appear at Taylor’s Finish Line Festival at zMax dragway in Charlotte on Sunday. The festival will celebrate the completion of J.D. Gibbs’ son Taylor Gibbs’ chemotherapy. It will raise money for Make A Wish of Central and Western North Carolina and Levine Children’s Hospital.
2. Greg Sacks will pilot the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in the Nationwide race at Daytona International Speedway on the 25th anniversary weekend of his 1985 victory in the Pepsi Firecraker 400.
3. Nationwide driver Trevor Bayne, who injured his foot during a crash at Dover, attended a test session at DIS and said his foot felt fine.
4. Bayne needed the full use of his limbs when he had to jump out of his fiery car at DIS. Bayne smelled fuel on the backstretch, then by the time he drove onto pit road his car had burst into flames.
5. Drivers aren’t putting their guard down about the No. 48 team just because it has made a few mistakes. The Chase is when Jimmie Johnson shines, and everybody knows that.
6. The stars of the A-Team movie will serve as honorary race officials for the Coca-Cola 600.
7. Not only did Joey Logano avoid the same flying fate he experienced in Dover last year, Logano finished in the top 10 of this year’s race.
8. Kyle Busch wishes Johnson hadn’t been stymied by a penalty in Dover. He doesn’t like hearing he was handed the victory.
9. Dale Earnhardt Jr. keeps slipping in the Chase standings.
10. Red Bull Racing said Brian Vickers’ treatment for blood clots has progressed well in Charlotte, N.C. Vickers was hospitalized last weekend with the condition.