Sprint Cup car owner Tommy Baldwin ‘exploring all my opportunities’ for team’s future

Unsure about his organization’s future, team owner Tommy Baldwin met with his employees Monday “so I can give them the options if they needed to go find a job.’’

Baldwin told NBC Sports in an exclusive interview Tuesday that “I’m exploring all my opportunities right now. I’m trying to figure everything out.’’

He hopes to have his plans solidified by some point in December. Among the options, there is one thing Baldwin said he won’t do.

“I would never shut down,’’ said Baldwin, whose team debuted in the Cup series in 2009. “Don’t use that word. The options are keep going or sell. That’s the only two options we have.’’

Baldwin admits he’s given his employees a similar message “in six out of the eight years” of the team and always made it to the next season.

But Baldwin concedes that it is becoming more difficult for a small team like Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Although Tommy Baldwin Racing has competed in NASCAR’s top series since 2009, car owner Tommy Baldwin told NBC Sports that it is become more challenging to be competitive.

“The technology has just increased,’’ Baldwin said. “Everyone has just become smarter. The race teams, with Michael Waltrip Racing shutting down (after the 2015 season) and some other things, it put a lot good people, dispersed a lot of good people to different teams. Everyone had to spend a lot more money to keep up with the Gibbs and Hendrick programs.

“It’s funny to me how everyone thinks our racing is not good. This is the most competitive that NASCAR has ever been.’’

Baldwin admits it has been a struggle at times for the team and driver Regan Smith.

“I think we’ve been competitive at times,’’ Baldwin said. “I think we’ve been really bad at times. It’s been a competitive roller coaster. This year is probably one of the best race teams that we’ve assembled, it’s been a great group of guys that have worked for TBR. There’s a lot of pluses that we have going on, but again, it’s the almighty dollar that is talking.

“If you don’t have the money to keep up with the Joneses, you’re going to be left behind. If you told me eight years ago when I first started this team I would be pretty much in the same spot as when I started, I would have told you that you were crazy. This sport has taken off so much here as far as how smart we’ve all gotten. It’s not that we don’t know how to do it, it’s just that we don’t have the money to apply the proper resources to do it.’’

Baldwin has one of the 36 charters granted to Sprint Cup teams at the beginning of this season. That adds value to his organization, ensuring that his team — or whoever purchases the charter, if that happens — would be in every Cup points race.

Baldwin’s car is 32nd in the car owner point standings, ahead of five other teams that have charters (another team below Baldwin’s leased its charter for this season).

Smith is 33rd in the driver standings. He finished a season-best third at Pocono in August. His only other top-10 finish this year has been an eighth-place result in the Daytona 500.

Tommy Baldwin Racing debuted in 2009, competing in 25 races. The team had five drivers: Michael McDowell (eight races),Scott Riggs (eight), Patrick Carpentier(four), Mike Skinner (four) and Robert Richardson (one).

The organization continued to use a variety of drivers in 2010 before Dave Blaney ran 34 races in 2011. Blaney was with the team through 2013.

Tommy Baldwin Racing expanded to two full-time cars in 2012. Danica Patrick, in partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, ran 10 races where Baldwin was listed as the car owner. Tommy Baldwin Racing ran two cars through 2014 before selling the assets of the second car (the No. 36 team) to Premium Motorsports.

Before becoming a team owner, Baldwin was a crew chief. He won five Cup races as a crew chief, including the 2001 Southern 500 and 2002 Daytona 500 withWard Burton.

Ryan Blaney misses late wreck, leaves Kansas with first top-five finish of season

KANSAS CITY, Kansas — Ryan Blaney got help from friends in earning his first top-five finish of the year.

Unfortunately, that help wasn’t voluntary.

On Lap 241 of the 267-lap Go Bowling 400, Blaney was running seventh when a three-car accident unfolded in front of him involving Denny Hamlin and Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.

Blaney, who calls Keselowski and Logano teammates through a technical alliance with Penske and Wood Brothers Racing, slipped past the wreck.

“I didn’t see who got loose, who got into who, I just saw smoke and had to bail out of there,” Blaney said. “Actually think it hurt my car a little bit.  I had to bail to the apron and it hurt the nose a little bit, which was unfortunate, but luckily we were able to get by that and move on.”

Blaney would finish fifth, his second top-five finish of his career after placing fourth at Talladega Superspeedway in 2015.

“We got some spots with that little accident, but we were up there all day,” said Blaney, who had an average running spot of 7.3 during the race at Kansas Speedway.

Blaney ran as high as second, but couldn’t close the gap on the leaders during the final 18 laps.

“The top two (Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth) were on old tires and I’m like, ‘We might be able to be all right,’” Blaney said. “But we just couldn’t get by those guys and held on.”

The top five is just the fourth for Wood Brothers Racing since 2008. Before this year, it’s last full-time season was in 2008. With support from Penske, Blaney has four top-10 finishes through the first 11 races of the season.
“That’s the most competitive we’ve been all race long in quite a while,” team co-owner Len Wood said in a press release. “Ryan did a great job, and the pit crew was spot-on.”

Blaney’s performance came about 24 hours after he learned his father, former Sprint Cup driver Dave Blaney, had been in a violent sprint car crash at Eldora Speedway.

The elder Blaney didn’t receive any major injuries and was released from the hospital Saturday.

“I knew last night he was gonna be all right,” said the rookie driver, who believed his father had arrived back home in time to watch his race. “It scared me for one second because we got done qualifying yesterday and I get back to the motorhome and I left my phone in the bus and I got all these text messages like, ‘Heard the news.  Is everything alright?’”

Ryan Blaney said he wasn’t distracted by thoughts of his father’s incident, but that he hadn’t seen video of the wreck and probably wouldn’t.

“He’s gonna be all right,” Ryan Blaney said. “He’s probably mad he’s gonna be out of sprint cars for a little bit, but that’s the only thing he’ll be upset about.”

If Dave Blaney was watching Saturday night, he definitely didn’t have anything more to be upset about.