Notebook: Bowyer has an offer on the table from RPM

Notebook: Bowyer has an offer on the table from RPM

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(August 26, 2011)

BRISTOL, Tenn.—Richard Petty Motorsports is waiting for an answer from Clint Bowyer.

Bowyer has an offer on the table from RPM, according to majority owner Andrew Murstein, who said Saturday during an interview on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that the organization was waiting for a response.

“We gave him an offer recently and are hoping to hear back from him,” Murstein said.

The driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet is in a contract year at Richard Childress Racing.

Murstein told Sporting News in January that Bowyer was at the top of the list of drivers he’d like to hire if RPM expanded beyond the two cars it currently fields for drivers AJ Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose.

RPM’s interest in Bowyer, however, raises serious questions about the viability of expansion in the current economic climate. Allmendinger’s sponsor, Best Buy, also is in a contract year, and with sponsorship dollars as limited as they are, can RPM afford to hire Bowyer and add a third team?

Bowyer, who has four victories and three appearances in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, hasn’t been able to come to terms with owner Richard Childress. According to sources, the driver and owner have different perceptions of Bowyer’s market value.

Edwards’ next big career move is to race less

Carl Edwards has a plan to boost his performance in the Sprint Cup Series.

It’s simple. Next year he’ll spend less time in a Nationwide Series car—a lot less time.

Though Edwards is a consummate racer, he has come to the realization that practicing, qualifying and racing cars in both series on the same weekend may adversely affect the quality of his Cup effort—and that doesn’t even speak to the weekends where races in different locations require complicated commutes.

“It does make for long days, and that’s why next year I am going to run very few Nationwide races,” said Edwards, giving an indication of just how limited his Nationwide schedule will be in 2012. “I’m going to focus on the Cup car. I remember it like it just happened, riding along in (owner) Jack (Roush’s) airplane coming back from Pike’s Peak. He said, ‘Do you think you have what it takes to run both series full time?’ and I said yes.

“He challenged me, kind of like a dare. I told him I could do it, and that was seven years ago, and we have run a ton of races. Now I feel like sometimes on Fridays and Saturdays, if I had a little extra time with my crew chief, that I could be a better Cup series driver. That’s the next step in my career. I want to focus solely on the Cup series and get the championships that I feel like we can earn if I give it enough focus.”

Edwards won the Nationwide championship in 2007. This season, with full-time Cup drivers no longer eligible for the Nationwide championship, Edwards has competed in 24 of the 25 races so far, skipping the event at Road America (Elkhart Lake, Wis.) in June to avoid a long commute from Sonoma, Calif., on the same weekend.