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Dateline: August 20, 2001

Last week Richard Childress Racing announced that long-time sponsor Lowes would not be returning next season and would be replaced by Cingular Wireless and there was much speculation that this was the end of the line for Skinner as well. The long anticipated news came today, Mike Skinner will be released from the Richard Childress Racing number 31 team as of the end of this season.

Childress and Skinner have been friends for many years, but there was little doubt that if Mike didn't improve dramatically this season that his ride was in trouble. Mike Skinner has been with RCR for five years and although he won two exhibition races in Japan and one of the Twin 125s in Daytona this year he has still never won a NASCAR Winston Cup points race.

Now What?

Note: What follows is pure speculation.

So now the "Silly Season" is in full swing and many of the best rumors are centered on the Childress operation. Who will get the driving duties for Mike Skinner's old ride? What exactly is going to happen to the 3 car? Where will Mike go for 2002?

The 31 team is a quality ride and would be a great step up for most of the drivers on the circuit. However, much like NFL teams draft to their weakness Childress has a real clear need in his stable of drivers. He needs a proven veteran to anchor his young and relatively inexperienced lineup of Kevin Harvick and Jeff Green.

Earlier this season there was speculation that Matt Kenseth might be headed for RCR but those rumors were quickly shot down. I believe that another Roush driver might be a better fit for the third RCR slot. I don't think that Mark Martin would ever leave Roush Racing, but I do think that Jeff Burton might be open to a change of scenery. This would give Childress a proven veteran and give a frustrated Burton a new look for 2002. So the Childress stable would look like this: Harvick in the #3 car, Green in the #30 and Jeff Burton in the #31.

This would leave open a top quality ride at Roush Racing just in time for Greg Biffle. It was announced earlier this season that Biffle would be in a Roush car for the 2002 season, if Burton were to move on this would conveniently leave a seat open.

The remaining question is "Where will Skinner go?" The sad truth here is that there are no other top rides expected to open up for 2002. At the moment Mike Skinner is on the outside looking in and while he will probably have his pick of the open seats, he's not going to find a ride that is as good as the one he lost.

The 2002 scramble is on. How much of this speculation is accurate? Only time will tell.