Now that Germain Racing has announced that Ty Dillon will pilot their No. 13 Geico Chevy for 2017, the next question in the NASCAR Silly Season puzzle to be answered is just where will Casey Mears land for 2017?
One has to look at what has happened over the last few months in NASCAR to aid in coming up with a good possibility. Secondly, you must familiarized yourself with the new rules regarding the charters and the rules about leasing out your charter. One of the key subtle rules about charter leasing states “that you can only lease out your charter once every five years”. Circle Sport Racing leased out their charter to Leavine Family Racing this year, and also did a quasi-temporary merger of their operations, combining their efforts for 2016 with Michael McDowell as their driver for the majority of the races. Therefore, Circle Sport will have to operate their charter for the next four years or forfeit it back to NASCAR.
Just in the last 30-45 days Tommy Baldwin Racing announced that they have transferred their charter, either sold it or leased it the terms are not yet totally clear, to Leavine Family Racing. That transfer will now allow LFR to separate their operation from Circle Sport Racing, and be guaranteed a starting spot in all 36 races in 2017. Likewise, the “divorce” between Circle Sport and Leavine Family Racing will also allow Circle Sport to retreat back into its own identity for 2017.
However, there is one very important feature missing, Circle Sport is minus a driver at this point! With this today’s announcement of Ty Dillon taking over as the new driver for Germain Racing’s No. 13 Geico Chevy, Casey Mears is now among the unemployed! It seems logical to me that Joe Falk, owner of Circle Sport Racing, would be interested in hiring a veteran, journeyman driver like Casey Mears for 2017.
Stay tuned race fans to see if this prognostication comes to fruition!
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
