Swan Racing’s situation is currently one of the hottest topics in the world of NASCAR after a lack of sponsorship has come their way. The team expanded to two full-time entries this season with two rookies, Cole Whitt and Parker Kligerman.
On Thursday, April 17, Dave Moody reported that the racing operation released numerous employees, and some have taken jobs with other organizations. Because of this, Swan Racing will most likely not field a car in the April 26 Sprint Cup Series race at the Richmond International Raceway.
The following day, Swan Racing’s co-owner, Anthony Marlowe, took to social media and tweeted that his mission is to finding Sprint Cup Series driver and Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender, Whitt, a ride for Richmond and for the remainder of the year. With not many possibilities out there, it is looking like that Whitt could move to a third car with BK Racing. Although as of Monday morning, a source close to the situation confirmed that Whitt was still without a ride for Richmond.
With Swan Racing not doing so well financially, they should have never opened up a second full-time car beginning this season. Sadly, in today’s NASCAR world, it’s all about sponsorship and money, and not about talent. This can either help or hurt a small team like Swan Racing. A perfect example of it helping a small team is the No. 7 Tommy Baldwin Racing team, driven by Michael Annett, who now has a full season sponsorship as they are starting to have respectable results.
With Swan Racing going down under, the next team could very well be BK Racing. This small organization has been struggling to find sponsorship (other than Burger King and Dr. Pepper which are on the car due to the owners having Burger King chains), and has a past history for not keeping their drivers. Alex Bowman, who moved to the racing organization after running in all but one NASCAR Nationwide Series race last season, has had some decent runs. The second operation of BK Racing has not ran so well. The No. 83 team, which is driven by Ryan Truex, has failed to qualify for two races this season, with one of those being the Daytona 500. Truex’s best finish of the year so far has been a 30th place finish at the Martinsville Speedway.
With financial struggles hurting the NASCAR world, it puts a huge dent into the sport. This is why the Rockingham Speedway, and other small racetracks, cannot host a NASCAR event. Financial struggles also nearly caused the Iowa Speedway to shut down because of payments not being made. Hopefully this will be the last time for a long time that we hear about financial issues impacting the sport.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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