One of the NASCAR's fan's ongoing laments is the inability of up-and-comers to get a shot at Cup. When the economy went south, the major Cup teams' stand-alone driver development programs followed suit. With the current sponsorship climate, even teams who have maintained some semblance of a driver development effort are not necessarily using it to fuel their Cup future. Case in point: Roush Fenway Racing. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the Nationwide Championship last season, but doing so did not earn him David Ragan's ride when UPS pulled back their sponsorship.
Joe Gibbs Racing is another organization that continues to use the Nationwide Series to groom talent. Brian Scott ran a full season for JGR in the No. 11 last year. Though he was only able to grab seven top tens and two top fives he still managed to end the year in eighth place thanks, in part, to NASCAR's "check-a-box" rule. Scott will run for the Nationwide Championship again this year, and JGR will also field Michael McDowell in several Nationwide events and Darrell Wallace Jr. in the K & N East Series full-time.
JGR team president, JD Gibbs insists that running these young guys is not an economic decision, "You don't do it to make money. You do it because that's where your talent is; that's where your future is."
The path used to be clear. Do a good job in Nationwide and you'd earn your shot at Cup. Gibbs says that's still the mindset at JGR, "That's kind of been our model for years, even when Tony Stewart made a jump from our Nationwide stuff to our Cup stuff. Denny came through that path. Joey Logano did. So really for us it works well, and its not just for the drivers. It's for crew chiefs, engineers, pit crew guys, crew members. So, across the board you can throw them in there, watch them, see how they react, and if they're good enough, they get the nod to come up."
Yet, those open rides seem few and far between. JGR has always been reluctant to pull the trigger on a fourth Cup car, and it's hard to see them changing that mindset in the current economic climate. Joey Logano is in a make-or-break situation this year, but if he does washout of the No. 20 it's hard to see JGR giving that high-profile ride to yet another up-and-comer. You have to think that both they and Home Depot will want more of a known quantity - the anti-Logano, if you will.
So, JGR continues to groom the Brian Scotts and Darrell Wallace Jr.'s of the world with no obvious place for either to go. If they're good, though, somebody will give them a shot even if it's not Joe Gibbs Racing. Is it worth putting resources into developing talent only to have some other team reap the rewards? JD Gibbs thinks it is, "If that's the worse case scenario, we're fine with that. If a guy is good at what he does he deserves a shot somewhere, and we hope if you're good enough you'll get a shot here. If that's not a possibility, or option, then go somewhere else and do it."
The problem remains, however. For young guys trying to break into Cup, where is that "somewhere else"?
