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| Not affiliated with Domino Sugar |
Nascar experts always say that, when it comes to driver and sponsor movement for the following season, they're "waiting for the first domino to fall". Well, a whole bunch of them have fallen this week, and before the next one does, here's a quick recap:
--Brian Vickers has officially been hired to drive the #55 car for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2014 & 2015. Vickers and Waltrip unveiled next year's paint scheme at the Nascar Hall of Fame, thus keeping MWR's streak of being the first to release paint schemes intact.
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| What's on his hat? Its either a REALLY cheap San Antonio Spurs logo or a uterus. |
--Aaron's has decided to stay with the 55 team, expanding their sponsorship to the entire season. So if you're keeping track at home, that means that Brian Vickers and Martin Truex (with Napa) are both fully sponsored, while Clint Bowyer--arguably their most-talented driver--is only sponsored for about 2/3rds of the schedule. I guess that even the commercial makers think that Clint's in too many commercials.
--These moves free two older drivers for next season--Michael Waltrip and Mark Martin. Waltrip has not announced if he will continue to run a partial schedule in 2014, but if he doesn't, be prepared for the most overwrought retirement speech in sports history. Martin, meanwhile, has already announced his retirement in 2005.
--In mostly-unrelated news, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and possibly Leo Jackson has (un)officially announced that Juan Pablo Montoya will not return to the team in 2014. Juan Pablo has yet to say where he will be pissing people off next season.
--Who will step into the 42 car? Rumors abound, but the most-prominent one has Kyle Larson stepping into the ride. Because anytime you can hire a driver with zero Nationwide Series wins, you do that.