Team Penske had a big weekend. Josef Newgarden kept his championship hopes alive and Will Power tied Al Unser for fifth all-time in IndyCar victories. The inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hours took place and it rained. It rained at Magny-Cours for three days and the World Superbike title will go to the Estoril finale. Honda is pulling out of Formula One after 2021. NASCAR had some races in Talladega and, once again, NASCAR's yellow line rule is completely meaningless, and NASCAR has no clue how to enforce it. Denny Hamlin won his seventh Cup race of the season and he is a big portion of what I want to talk about this week. Yes, I know this is a little late, but there has been a lot going on in the motorsports world. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
Presenting His Airness
It has been awhile since we have seen a big splash into team ownership in motorsports, but NASCAR received one of the most notable men on the face of the planet as a team owner last month: Michael Jordan.
The six-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, face of Nike, Gatorade and Hanes will be the majority team owner along with Denny Hamlin, and Bubba Wallace will be the driver for the nameless, sponsors-less, manufacture-less team. Those three concerns will be cleared in time.
I hesitate to say Michael Jordan is the most-known male athlete in the world, because soccer exists, but Jordan is likely in the top five globally and probably in the top one in the United States.
For the last 40 years, Jordan has been in almost every household in the United States, whether it was on the television playing for North Carolina or the Chicago Bulls, hanging on posters in bedrooms, or on the shoes and apparel worn to school, the gym and work. He is a man with great responsibility for the globalization of basketball since the 1980s. For an increasingly connected world, Jordan became the basketball icon on every continent leading billions to dream to be like Mike.
Now, Mike will be owning one of the 40 cars regularly participating in NASCAR's top division.
For tens of millions of people in the United States, they have no connection to NASCAR. It has never been in their homes. It has never been on their radar. It is not an event close to home to attend. There is no local driver to pull for or local coverage. It is a mystery sport. They might know it exists or have heard it in passing, but there is nothing there to draw them in.
Now, there is Michael Jordan.
There is going to be interest to see how Michael Jordan's team did in NASCAR. It might be a short-term spike upward, but if the team finds success, there will be those that choose to stick around. Some will be into every race. Some will only care about the big events. Others will watch once, go away, and might return if Jordan's team is regularly winning races or possibly could be going for a championship.
Success for this team will likely not come right out of the box, but for NASCAR it is important to have a younger and wealthy team owner enter the series.
Jordan is just shy of 60 and has likely made over a billion dollars. Jordan will easily become at least the second-wealthiest owner in NASCAR, likely behind only Roger Penske. Motorsports in general have been facing an aging ownership demographic over the last ten to 15 years. Penske is in his 80s. Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Richard Childress and Jack Roush are all not that far behind, and Leonard Wood is 86. There is going to be a significant shift in the balance of ownership power over the next decade, and that could decide the direction of the series.
Chip Ganassi is just north of 60 and Tony Stewart turns 50 next years, outside of those two, all the top team owners are older and new names that are currently not involved are the future of NASCAR. Team Penske, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing are all teams that likely have succession plans in place. Fenway Sports Group owns part of Roush Fenway Racing, but once Roush is out, let's wait and see where the organization that owns the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. decides to go and if it wants to stay invested in NASCAR. NASCAR is in a much different place than 2007 when Fenway Sports Group bought in.
Jordan's key partner is Denny Hamlin. Hamlin's involvement suggests he plans to be in NASCAR after his driving career is over, and that will significantly help Jordan. Many athletes have invested in NASCAR teams. Hall of Fame Racing had former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman and was not that successful before selling the team to the then-owners of the Arizona Diamondbacks after two seasons. Randy Moss dipped his toe into the Truck Series and was out after three years.
Terry Bradshaw, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, Bill Romanowski, and Jim Kelly all tried NASCAR ownership. None of them saw much success or lasted long.
Jordan and Hamlin are a different combination. Hamlin is one of the top Cup drivers today. He has a deep relationship with Fedex and Toyota and then there is Jordan, who has the deepest pocket of any man to enter NASCAR in the last 15 years, but he isn't paying for this on his own dime. He also has deep business relationships.
This is not going to be a quick fling in NASCAR for Jordan. With Hamlin's involvement, this is a long-term endeavor. Under the tutelage of Joe Gibbs, Hamlin has seen how to be a successful team owner and he has seen that it can be something he can do for 30 years after he steps away from driving. I don't think Jordan plans on being in NASCAR for the next 30 years, but he can help launch his partner Hamlin's retirement plan.
Jordan is the biggest name to enter NASCAR since Red Bull, and we saw how Red Bull turned out. The two-car organization won a few races, had some good days, but ultimately could not match the success seen in Formula One. After five seasons, Team Red Bull shut its doors.
NASCAR is difficult. The Jordan brand is not going to be enough to turn a new team into a race winner and a championship contender. There are going to be growing pains. I don't expect this team to be winning races or a top ten regular in 2021. We have to wait and see what is put around Wallace. Who will be the crew chief and engineer? How good will the pit crew be? Also, if there are limited chances to practice and test, how will these team improve? Next season could be extraordinarily difficult, as pandemic restrictions persists, and the results could be hard to come by for a new team.
A realistic goal for Wallace is to be a top twenty driver, which sounds low, but if he can be one of those drivers in the picture for the top 16 on points, that is a good start for the team. This team should have great technical support, especially considering the strong relationship Hamlin has with Toyota. Toyota should want this team to be competitive, one because Michael Jordan succeeding with Toyota is good for Toyota and, frankly, Toyota needs more competitive teams than Joe Gibbs Racing.
A playoff spot in year one is a massive ask, but we saw A.J. Allmendinger, Chris Buescher, Tony Stewart and Cole Custer all get fluky victories that turned into playoff berths. All Wallace needs is one victory and the first year of the Jordan/Hamlin organization will be an outstanding success regardless of what happens in the 35 other races.
Let's be clear, Jordan will not add three million more viewers to each race broadcast, nor will each track get 200,000 ticket requests for each race, nor will NASCAR become a global powerhouse in the sports world, but Jordan is more than just another team owner. Jordan will bring NASCAR into many homes that it has never been in before. Not all those people will become regular fans after their first exposure, but some now have someone to pull for when NASCAR was never a possible interest.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Denny Hamlin but did you know...
The #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW of Augusto Farfus, Nicky Catsburg and Connor De Phillippi won the inaugural Indianapolis 8 Hours. The #84 Bimmerworld BMW of Bill Auberlen, James Clay and Chandler Hull won in the GT4 class.
Justin Haley won the Grand National Series race from Talladega, his third victory of the season. Raphaël Lessard won the Truck race, his first career victory.
Jonathan Rea won the first two World Superbike races from Magny-Cours with Scott Redding winning the third. Andrea Locatelli and Lucas Mahias split the World Supersport races.
The #39 TRG Team SARD Toyota of Heikki Kovalainen and Yuichi Nakayama won the Super GT race from Fuji. The #56 Kondō Racing Nissan of Kiyoto Fujinami and João Paulo de Oliveira won in GT300.
Coming Up This Weekend
The Bathurst 1000 concludes the Supercars season.
Formula One returns to the Nürburgring for the first time since 2013.
MotoGP heads to Le Mans.
NASCAR ends round two in Charlotte.
IMSA's GT series will run under the lights at Charlotte.
DTM heads for its first of two rounds at Zolder.
European Le Mans has its penultimate round of 2020 at Monza.
The World Rally Championship has Rally Italia Sardegna
The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup ends in Barcelona.
The World Touring Car Cup will be in Slovakia.
