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Article on Jennifer Jo Cobb by Dustin Long -- One of my favorite NASCAR sports reporter. Long covers NASCAR for newspapers owned by Landmark.

19 March 2011
Driver refuses to start Nationwide race after she says that owner ordered her to start and park

Jennifer Jo Cobb was scheduled to start Saturday’s Nationwide race 41st but when the command to start was made, Cobb was not in the car.

UPDATE ... car owner Rick Russell's response is below all that Jennifer Jo Cobb says ........

She refused to drive it after she said team owner Rick Russell told her he wanted her to start and park just before the race began. Here's what Jennifer Jo Cobb said about the situation:

“There were rumblings all week about our team starting and parking. I have made a commitment to my sponsors, my fans and NASCAR that I’m not a start-and-park driver. I’m really serious about this. I have to work hard to prove to people that I’m serious about this. The conversation was never had with me until 10 minutes before the race started that I was to start and park.

“I had already bought … tires to run this race, so you can imagine, it was a blow both to my principles and my finances to hear this. As the owner of this team, he has the right to ask NASCAR to black flag me and said he would do so. After thinking about it … I tried to come up with a solution and there’s also rumblings around town that he was going to surprise me and take me out of the car at California (next week). We have a five-race agreement that says that I’m racing for him and that’s why I took the Nationwide points vs. the truck points.

“Because of the promises he’s made, I’ve made decisions about my career and so 10 minutes before the race he told me not only am I starting and parking to save his car for California but that he would be replacing me as a driver in California and that he was the owner of the car and there was nothing (she) could do about it.

“In that moment, I just made a decision that I don’t think I will ever regret. I just thank God He gave me the strength to just walk away because sometimes that is the best thing to do. No doubt, (Russell) found another driver to get in and get the money he wanted to start and park this race.

“I’ve already have another team owner come up to me and tell me that he’s got my back and he will help me. This isn’t a case of me being a brat and just wanting to walk off the job and leave someone high and dry. There were several promises made and broken and he really tried to back me into a corner. I weighed all the risks and consequences and decided that integrity and principle meant more.

“I have nothing bad to say in this instance other than I’ve got to do what I feel is best for my team, myself, my fans and my sponsors.’’

Asked why she thought she was told so soon before the race to start and park. This is what Cobb said:

“That it’s because he would know that I would refuse and he needed me to wheel this car to get it into the race for him.’’

Asked what she does from this point forward, Cobb said:

“You pick up the pieces. People are resilient, and nobody is more resilient then race teams. You pick up the phone and you start working with those other team owners that do understand like the one who has already approached me and told me he’s got a short-term solution for me. And then you go back to what you probably should have done to begin with, which is keep Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing out there.’’

Asked about she had purchased the tires for today’s race, Cobb explained her agreement with car owner Rick Russell:

“This is not going to go to a court of law or anything like that, so I don’t think there’s any harm in saying that we had an agreement that was working out really well that he had a car and I had some engines and I wanted to go racing. What we said was that I would buy the tires and I would provide an engine and he would keep all the earnings. If we got any sponsorship, then we would split that. That’s what we’ve been doing and it’s kept us both racing for a few weeks, although not very good racing for the past few weeks, that’s for sure. We didn’t have a good race in Vegas (32nd after failing to qualify at Daytona), and I messed up in Phoenix (31st, accident), so it has not been a great season for us together, but I hoped we could at least fulfill our agreement. All I feel he owed me was one more race.’’

UPDATE .............................

Car owner Rick Russell gives his side of what happened with Jennifer Jo Cobb before Saturday's race and what resulted.

RICK RUSSELL

(EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED)

“Five minutes before the race, she took her crew and left. We had a crew meeting here on Friday morning and I explained to everyone what our purpose was here this weekend. In Vegas we destroyed a car through Kyle Busch’s accident. We only had one car, so had to have the body completely replaced on the car except for the roof, decklid and rear bumper, so without a sponsor the total of about $16,000 about broke me to get this car together. We already had our entry in for here and California, so rather than try to roll this and lose this, we decided we’d come up here and I let everybody know we were here in a conservative mode. We would practice smart. We would qualify and we would make a few laps and then we would park the car and save it for California.

(WAS SHE A PART OF THAT CREW MEETING FRIDAY?)

“Yes. The whole crew was here.

(SHE SAID SHE ONLY FOUND OUT 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE RACE SHE WAS STARTING AND PARKING)

“They were informed Friday morning of this. Then this afternoon, the crew chief … he told me that they were getting together a pit crew and had bought tires. I said, “For what reason?’’ He said, “So we can change tires and finish the race without a DNF.’’ I said, “Who come up with this idea? The plan was, I told you Friday morning we weren’t doing that.’ I didn’t even bring my pit crew for that simple reason. So we had no pit crew. We were not going to pit. They took it on theirself to make this decision and then they wanted to make an agreement with me on pit road, and I said I’ll just have NASCAR black flag you and bring you in.

“She waited until five minutes until start time and told her crew chief and her other people that worked for her and they left. I’m sitting on pit road with a car without a driver and made myself look stupid, NASCAR look stupid, the whole bunch of us look stupid.’’

(JENNIFER SAID YOU ALSO SAID THAT YOU WERE REPLACING HER FOR THE CALIFORNIA RACE NEXT WEEK)

“I told her if she didn’t come in like I told her to, I would have NASCAR black flag her and that would bring her off the track. She said to keep her from looking bad, she would allow me to black flag her and she wouldn’t say anything about it as long as I agreed to let her drive the car in California.

(THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT WAS FOR THE FIRST FIVE RACES)

“The agreement (also) was she brought motors to the team, she brought tires to the team and she brought half the crew. She did not bring a motor to this event. She did not have a motor for this event. The motor that is in the car is the motor that I purchased in Vegas. We ran my motor in Vegas, which the contract was already breached and came up here without her motor, which was breached again. So the contract was worthless. I gave her til today to make restitution to me for using my motor and we would carry on and she said no. When the deal is you bring me a motor, you bring me a motor. If you don’t bring me a motor, you’ve breached the contract.’’

As for the Las Vegas motor issue, this is how Jennifer Jo Cobb explained that:

“A gentleman offered to rent me an engine in Las Vegas. It was someone who wanted to see me do well and so the owner of Second Chance Motorsports (Russell) took that money and put his own money with it and bought himself an engine, so we ran that last week and this week. As far as I’m concerned, this gentleman provided half of the money for the engine was doing it for me. (Russell) kind of felt like maybe I should pay him an engine rental fee but my engine was sitting right there that we went to Las Vegas ready to go.’’

Also, Rick Russell said that Tim Andrews will drive the team’s car at California next weekend.

http://hamptonroads.com/2011/03/driv...start-and-park

COMMENT:
where was NASCARSubmitted by jweisr on Sat, 03/19/2011 at 7:16 pm. would any other professional sport tolerate a team that just wants to show up collect a check and go home? The business has taken over the Sport.
What a shame.... Shame on you NASCAR
as a fan I can look out for my interests and keep my money in my pocket !
Dale is spinnin in his grave