Silly season puzzle coming together
With an announcement from Tommy Baldwin Racing on Tuesday that David Reutimann would be joinging the expanding organization to drive a second car and be a teammate to Dave Blaney, the pieces of silly season 2012 seem to be falling into place.
With Reutimann finding a ride at TBR and Kurt Busch recently landing at Phoenix Racing, the picture for 2012 is becoming clearer. With those recent announcements, it looks like David Ragan and Brian Vickers are the only two notable drivers still not signed to a Sprint Cup ride for the upcoming season, with the No. 43 car at Richard Petty Motorsports being the one available Cup ride since A.J. Allmendinger climbed out of that seat to replace Busch in the No. 22 car at Penske Racing.
Word began spreading around the NASCAR world before Christmas on the identity of the 2012 driver of the No. 43 car, but it wasn’t Ragan or Vickers. Instead, Aric Almirola’s name has emerged as the expected new driver at RPM.
But that doesn’t mean Vickers and Ragan will be left out in the cold, as far as rides go, when the green flag waves on 2012. Instead, as I mentioned before, the pieces are, really, falling together. If the Almirola/RPM hearsay is true, then it’s not unreasonable to believe that the word of Ragan replacing Almirola in the No. 88 Nationwide car at JR Motorsports is reasonable.
But what about Vickers? I thought you may be asking that. In unrelated NASCAR rumor mill speculation, car owner Michael Waltrip is in discussions to possibly purchase Red Bull Racing. If that’s the case, Michael Waltrip Racing could reasonably be expected to field a third car next year. Vickers has already been driving said car, so why not stay in it?
Hmmm, this crazy silly season—a silly season that has seen more participants in the game of musical chairs than other silly seasons in recent memory, may actually be finally drawing near a close. It’s about time. After all, the season begins next month.
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