Moss Motorsports to Hit NASCAR Tracks Running
Randy Moss a wide receiver for the New England Patriots has formed Moss Motorsports, which intends to compete in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series.
Moss said he plans for the team to debut at some point in the second half of this season and run selected races. The partial schedule is a prelude to a full-time campaign in 2009. Sponsors and manufacturer alignments will be announced at a later date.
“We don’t have all of the details in place just yet, but I am very excited about Moss Motorsports becoming a part of NASCAR,” Moss said. “I am by nature a very competitive person, and this is an outlet for me to compete at another level.
“There are some pretty awesome challenges in building a program like this from the ground up, but I am looking forward to it,” Moss said. “That’s just another aspect of the competition–you want to find the best people available, and you’re competing with all the other teams out there. We’re starting to look at who the best people are and working on getting them to be a part of our team.”
I should say good luck and I begrudgingly will, but I’ll believe it when I see it. My first question is why make any public announcement when no manufacture or sponsorship deal has been finalized?
I also wonder, if he’s been a fan of NASCAR and sponsor of a late model program as he claims why he hasn’t become involved in Herd Motorsports operation. That program was announced back in February and still hasn’t seen any on track action to this point.
With Moss being an alumni of Marshall University and Herd being so closely aligned with the college it would seem to be a perfect fit.
On the other hand, Moss hasn’t exactly been a “close fit” in much of his NFL career and comments he made about the University’s tragic plane crash of 1997 didn’t exactly foster any love or great connection between himself and the school.
I think I’ll file this one under “work in progress,” and see what we shall see. And not make any bets associated with Moss Motorsports ever seeing the race track.
UPDATE: The Sporting News has picked up this story. (via MSNBC) Moss plans to attend one or more non-companion truck races in June, if he can schedule the appearances around NFL minicamps. The likely choices are June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway or June 28 at Memphis Motorsports Park, where he also has been asked to serve as grand marshal.
That raises another question. With mini-camps opening how is he going to devote enough time to chasing down a driver, a sponsor and a manufacturer? And if he’s not doing it, who is? Shouldn’t that be at the very least something that should have been disclosed in this initial press release?
Yep, you’re right. I remain very skeptical this will go anywhere.
Technorati Tags: Randy Moss, NCTS, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Marshall University, Moss Motorsports
This is gonna be pretty interesting to say the least. I think there’s definitely a huge upside to this, though, with the “out of the norm” fanbase that this could potentially draw to the truck series.
Silly Marc! Mini-camps are for kids. I would expect his early announcement is the first step in finding the very people you mention he has not found yet. He’s gotta start somewhere, what better way than a very public announcement?
I too find it skeptical that he’ll be on track before the season ends, but I admire his willingness to jump in.
What better way, how about via the late model team he has been sponsoring?
How about anything, he’s shown me nothing.
Put it this way, I heard the same story out of that Raiders wide receiver a few years ago, he even had spoken to Roush about it and Roush was quoted as confirming the contact.
Do you see his team on the track now?
I agree, it’s great he wants to get involved and even better if he does but if it happens I’ll be more than mildly surprised.
What is it with wide receivers and starting imaginary NASCAR teams? Tim Brown, former Falcons WR Terrence Mathis, Carolina’s Steve Smith and now Moss.
I agree it will probably never be realized, but Moss is on the board of directors for Inta Juice, which would make sense for sponsorship.
Tim Brown, that’s the Raider’s name I was trying to cull from the memory. I even had a post when Brown was talking smack about joining NASCAR but couldn’t find it when I ref’d his intentions above.
Part of me says go for it the more the merrier. The other side thinks of his past drug usage and poor work ethic and say yeah right this’ll never happen.
As far as the other platers that have shown interest, I think you can chalk it up to having more cash then they know what to do with. They see NASCAR as a cash cow and a place to “hide” their cash, but when they peak under the tent they find out it isn’t for a team owners standpoint and they back away.
I haven’t looked into this at all. I appreciate what you all are saying. Skepticism is expected, I guess. Matt Mercer wrote on this at Bench Racing today too. I’m not sure how to leave the link in this comment, but you know where to find it. Matt emailed me that his research for the post convinced him of 1) Moss’ sincerity of effort in this and 2) his business connections with the Juice company and involvement with grass roots racing ventures. He sounds like a potentially serious player to me. And announcing a planned minority owned team in advance of manufacturer commitments may be a smart move. Moss has set his team up as a free agent. Take the best deal offered.
How quickly would Moss get a truck team if he had support/backing from the Krafts?
Two words for Randy…
Ricky Craven
Two words for you Krissy…. say what?
I presume you are implying Craven should be on the Moss short list to be the driver.
Yes I am…check out his Truck record before you judge.
I saw an interview on ESPN with Moss a day or so ago and he seemed very serious and spoke intelligently about the obstacles ahead.
And the ESPN NASCAR commentator and former NBA star Brad Daughtry (Spelling??) is set to launch a truck team next year as well.
Hey, a little hip-hop, pants down around your ass uniforms, could be a good thing in the garage.
Krissy - What kind of judgment did you see in my comment?
I see none because I wrote none.