Who could blame TSR for shutting down a money pit? The team cannot support itself like the Outlaw teams do. Wing racing is where the money is at, even on a weekly level. Don't be surprised to see even more Indiana local and USAC teams bolt the wing on and head to Illinois and Ohio.
Good luck to Bryan at Indy, and hope to see him run some more wing races in 2015.
Seems pretty simple to me. One of USAC's last big money supporters doesn't see the value in supporting it anymore.
Could it be TSR just doesn't want to deal with USAC anymore?
What has happened to the midget series since TSR pulled out?
What has happened is POWRI has taken over
Originally Posted by JarrettFarms73:
Any chance this has a little to do w/ the J.Byrd Indy deal he has starting this year?
I've had a conversation with a member of the Byrd family over dinner several months back and they're huge supporters of whatever he wants to do. Especially midgets.
They had some sponsorship on the #71 Indy Race Parts WoO car, the #63 Rusty Kuntz midget, and the #7 non wing car he ran.
Per IBRacin.com, TSR is shutting down the non-wing program in its entirety. I know there are going to be some who'll say "it's just one team" but a loss is still a loss. Say what you will, but the fact is that Tony owning the team got non-wing racing mentioned in media outlets that ordinarily would never do so. Sure, USAC sprint and Silver Crown. Racing will survive this, but it is another setback.
In the inner circles of the pit area this departure has been known for a while now. It's no secret that some teams are not pleased with USAC. Unfortunately, a BIG player in USAC is puling out all together and that alone has to tell everyone something isn't right. USAC is losing one of its major teams and quit possibly one of it's most recognizable drivers. I'm not going to speculate why it happened, but it does not make USAC look very good right now. Just Saying. I hope someone downtown is paying attention, but I doubt it..
Originally Posted by openwheelfan1:
Per IBRacin.com, TSR is shutting down the non-wing program in its entirety. I know there are going to be some who'll say "it's just one team" but a loss is still a loss. Say what you will, but the fact is that Tony owning the team got non-wing racing mentioned in media outlets that ordinarily would never do so. Sure, USAC sprint and Silver Crown. Racing will survive this, but it is another setback.
Reading the IBracn site does make it sound like the entire USAC program is being shut down. One of the big debates/mysteries was how much money does Tony and Kasey get for their personal service contracts with the sponsors. Did Chevy ever actually have a line item on a budget that said "USAC sponsorship" or did they have a personal service contract with Tony and he funneled that money to the USAC team?
While it has been mentioned above by others, the way I read it is that the silver crown operation is done as well.
I think that this is just part of the 800 pound gorrilla that is surrounding Tony Stewart right now. If you/your business manager was worried about a civil suit by the Ward family, or at least defending a Civil suit by the Ward family, you would want to be as careful with your money as possible.
Finally, on the Winged side, for many years Steve ran his own program out of his own shop and was independent of the TSR main shop. However, it has been reported that this year that since he is not running the full WOO tour that the car will be ran out of the main TSR shop.
Don't look for this to be the only team and/or driver "doing other things" next year (be that running no USAC or part-time). I don't know what the solution is for USAC in general, but not addressing issues (whatever they are) isn't going to help the future. Obviously there are issues going on right now.
Didn't surprise me that Clauson departed TSR. Agree that I thought he would be in the #11 in 2015 but the Buffalo Wild Wings #82 is a good car and I can see Clauson wheeling that one in the upcoming year. Should be interesting to see if Tony's USAC team continues this year. Sure hope so. Would love to see Stockon or Leary behind the wheel. We will see!
The 82 BWW car has a hired gun in Dusty Zomer and committed to the NSL. As always subject to change given the team. If Clausen were to drive for them it would be a second car as that was the case for most of last year.
Steve will be running a program based from TSR. The cars will be J/J and Kistler under the hood. It appears to me that the equipment is most likely Tony's stuff and just relettered with 11 from 14. I beleive Steve will not own cars going foward and not sure about the future of Kraig's team.
Has anyone said there is a problem with USAC's Sprint Cars? From what I hear, more teams are joining the fray, not less. If there are issues, what are they?
It sounds like TSR lost a sponsor at the WoO level and needed to pull Chevy up to support Schatz. Clauson was looking to do something different anyway. This all seemed pretty obvious.
And I'd bet Clauson still finds a way to run a lot of USAC races, along with whatever else his little heart desires that day. More power to him.
