Kurt Busch to Leave Roush

[kingfloopy]

Roush racing just announced this today. It looks like Kurt Busch has signed a deal to drive for someone else starting in 2007. He has also asked to be released from his contract for 2006. Could he be the new driver for the #2?

J.D.

[Emfa]

Bit of a surprise there... Penske is a good ride, but based on current performance Roush would be a better place to be. Wonder what prompted the move?

[gttouring]

well penske is a Toyota Firm...so Busch would get special factory goodies-only the best so it may be a good deal. Roush is a powerhouse team though and he did win a championship with them, but being one of the newer guys, jump to where the grass looks greener it seems...
however no Toyota plans for Cup have been announced to toyota employees or media so this may be a tight secret or writing on the wall that Penske and Busch have more know about

[Alex K]

Originally Posted by Emfa

Bit of a surprise there... Penske is a good ride, but based on current performance Roush would be a better place to be. Wonder what prompted the move?

$$$

[kingfloopy]

The reason he is leaving is definitely money. Roush controls the souvenir marketing for his drivers which are a major chuck of cash. Supposedly Busch wants more of the money, plus I imagine as a champion he was able to bargain for more money with Penske compared to his Roush contract which was already in place before last year.

Also is should be noted that at this time he will still be driving for Roush next year, although that could change if a suitable replacement is found.

As for Toyota, I'm not sure that Penske will switch over from Dodge. Penske officials announced a year or so ago that they were happy with Dodge. I also read an article about Penske trying to get Chevy to stay in the IRL and using their engine. Another thing to consider is that Toyota holds the driver contracts for the truck series drivers and not the team owners. This can be seen by the both Todd Bodine and Mike Skinner getting new rides fast when their old teams failed. From what I have heard they plan on doing this in Busch and Cup also. To me this seems like a major drawback to running a Toyota.

J.D.

[Alex K]

But you also know that Penske is only team in IRL IndyCar Series tuning TRD engines home with Penske's Ilmor company. Ganassi, Cheever, Vision do not do this.

Why Penske didn't change their engine partner to Honda : He owns Honda dealerships also :!: Maybe because of the possible future Toyota deal with his team : Toyota won't own driver contracts in Nextel Cup for sure, if they sign deals with (possibly) Ganassi, Foyt and Penske teams will own contracts with their drivers. But if TRD choose lower rank teams, and financial strapped teams they might sign drivers to drive in that teams.

[kingfloopy]

Maybe Penske will side with Toyota afterall. Their contract with Dodge ends after 2006. I imagine if Penske does join Toyota they will replace Bill Davis Racing as the primary engine/chassis builder for Toyota (I doubt BDR will still exist in a couple of years anyway). I think there is a chance Ganassi may switch to Toyota also. There are lots of other smaller teams that could join up with Toyota for a full time cup effort, like Arnold Motorsports or Darrell Waltrip Racing.

Toyota hasn't impressed me with their truck series effort, they are still clearly behind Dodge and Chevy. I know they are going to put more money into NASCAR after next year, but it is hard to say if that will make a difference or not.

J.D.

[kingfloopy]

Nevermind, turns out Penske's contract with Dodge runs past 2007 according to a team press release today. If that is true and not just team misinformation to hide their true intents I don't see Dodge letting them out of their contract.

J.D.