Race Theory

We discuss the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) involvement in the early days of NASCAR and its current position in the road racing circles...primarily in IMSA and the WEC in Europe. We discuss the aspect of Jim France Jr's love of road racing and his imprint of that on the NASCAR NEXGEN current Cup Series car. The similarities between the two as well. We discuss the new LMH/LMDh platform that will debut later in January 2023 at Daytona in the Roar before the 24 and the Rolex 24-hour race. I provide the differences and similarities between the two and the platform for BOP (Balance of Performance) so the two can compete on a global scale. This means the two cars can compete in North America as well as in Europe and the famed 24 Hours of LeMans and be competitive with each other.

This episode we discuss the unsung heroes of the early days of NASCAR, Grand National, and Winston Cup racing. Their contributions to the sport, the admiration I have had for them and respect for the commitment and passion they had. We also go in-depth with personal relationships with some of these men and some of the experiences and stories that involves them. I speak about the pioneers of the sport and my opportunity to create relationships with these individuals.

Hope our listeners had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The discussion starts with new year's resolutions, and then seg ways into the testing schedules and new series in road racing with IMSA and the Rolex 24-hour race in January. We spoke about the topic of are race car drivers athletes? We discuss Toyota's new facility for the GR86 race car assembly plant and driver development program. This is a resource for all the young drivers for the Toyota brand and how the expectation of them has escalated. Elyshia discusses her health coaching as well. We also allude to our new website and platform for more access and info about Race Theory.

This is a very emotional episode. My last Daytona 500 of my career. Elyshia's mother passes away the day of the Daytona 500 and she leaves for Idaho. The 00 car crashes out of the event as well.

We have struggles throughout the year with performance. NEXGEN is looming for the 2022 NASCAR season. I am busy preparing for a complete departure from the style of race car we have been running and trying to get ahead of the curve and beginning to order two of the new cars.

In the meantime, we have fallen to one of the bottom three in the points. This leaves us with the owners wanting a meeting with NASCAR for clarification about the provision in the Charter Agreement about the possibility of our charter being revoked.

This meeting would be a turning point in the decision of the owners accepting an offer to sell the Charter and team and leave NASCAR Cup racing.

Elyshia and I discuss the 2020 NASCAR race season shutting down for six weeks and the difficulties of laying off our employees for that time. How NASCAR would work diligently with states and counties across the United States to become the first in sports to go back and conduct activities under strict CDC guidelines.

Our obstacles as teams and the changing dynamic on how we would do business throughout the entire year. The struggles for our driver who was a raw rookie with little experience and who had not even seen some of the racetrack that he would have to navigate without any practice or qualifying.

As a result of all the changes and alterations as a whole the sport of NASCAR would forever be changed. The potential introduction of a new race car which would be a complete departure from the current race car...the NEXGEN car development is pushed back, so more choices are made and plans are redirected.

We begin speaking about the 2019 race season. We overcome a major obstacle as we acquire a Charter which is the thing that everyone said we could not do! The future is bright as we now own a NASCAR Franchise! A rough start to the year with a crash at the Daytona 500. Personnel issues are facing us again which seems to be affecting the team moral and its ability to be productive. Enters a new crew chief who in the beginning looks to be a good fit. The team starts to encounter mechanical failures which goes on for weeks.

We work hard to right the ship and overcome the obstacles we are faced with to salvage the rest of the race season. The driver, crew chief, and team are at odds.

We discuss how difficult it is managing people, egos, and underhanded agendas.

The end of the year comes and the driver is released, the crew chief is released and other personnel changes occur. We find a new beginning for the team, with new hires and the culture has changed at Starcom Racing.

But what looms ahead in 2020 nobody could have predicted.

Elyshia and I discuss the 2018 NASCAR Cup series season. The sponsor VRX Simulators, and the driver Jeffrey Earnhardt. Our struggles and wrecks lead to difficulties between driver and crew chief. Sponsor runs out of money and the owners of the race team make changes. We start to turn the season around but a crew chief change is needed because of health reasons as well as the need to try and to elevate the communication between the driver and crew chief.

New crew chief, car chief, and some new chassis are implemented with some success leading into the next year.



Elyshia and I discuss the consulting capabilities that we can provide from team building, driver coaching, marketing, PR, sponsorship acquisition, as well as overcoming obstacles of potential partners or investors.

In this episode we talk about 2017 with Premium Motorsports in the Cup series as a shock specialist with the lure of driving in some races, if we could bring funding.



Elyshia goes on a quest to find sponsorship so I could drive some races. She alludes to struggles with Premium undermining her and turning away a major sponsor and further erodes our relationship with this organization and their owners.



Enters the Jersey Boys who come with sponsorship for some races with Premium Motorsports, but with interest in starting their own team after being treated so poorly by the owner of Premium.



I put the financials together and the Jersey Boys elect to go Cup racing with Elyshia and I and we depart from Premium.



We start from scratch, we need a building, people, equipment and race cars. We actually pull things together very quickly and are able to run two races in 2017 as we prepare to run a full schedule in 2018.

We discuss 2011 and my full time Nationwide Series drive. On comes a new sponsor for some races called Maxelence as nutrition base drink. Little do I know that the founder and his wife would later become my mother and father in law.

Elyshia discusses her background in nutrition and her role as a VP of Marketing for this company, and our initial meeting.

Because of the sponsoring of a NASCAR team the company acquires a distribution outlet with a major retailer GNC.

Elyshia makes a move to North Carolina and we form a relationship. We eventually get engaged and start a life together.

Discussion on the season ending races for the championships. We talk about the TransAm Series, Both TA and TA2.

We talk about NASCAR and the season ending races and the winners of the championships. This includes the Truck Series, the Xfinity Series, and the Cup Series.

We then move on from episode 10 in more story telling about my move from starting and parking to racing more again in the Nationwide Series.



We speak about age limits and how that whole dynamic has changed over the years and what I believe some reasons may be.

There are also areas where Elyshia and I speak about my own battles and my thoughts on putting things in perspective at those moments in time and trying to satisfy my own desires of continuing driving a race car.