Saturday, March 19, 2011

Why Jennifer Jo Cobb decided to opt out of Saturday's Nationwide race

      Before Saturday's Scotts 300 began at Bristol Motor Speedway, driver Jennifer Jo Cobb elected to get out of her car rather than "start and park" it, as her team owner asked her to do.

   Following her decision to not participate in the race, Cobb released the following statement explaining her actions:

   "It feels like such a 'Jerry Maguire' moment. There were rumblings all week about us start and parking this race. I have a commitment to my sponsors, my fans, NASCAR that I won't start and park. I'm very serious about my career and my performance, and I've worked hard to prove it to everyone. The conversation was never had with me until 10 minutes before the race that I was to start and park. I had already bought tires for the race, so you can imagine that this was a blow to my principles and my finances to get this news.

   "As the owner of 2nd Chance, he has the right to ask NASCAR to black flag me and said he would do that if I didn't comply. There were also rumors that he was going to surprise me and take me out of the car at California. We have a five race agreement that says I am racing for him, which is why I decided to collect Nationwide Series points and not Camping World Truck Series points.

   "Because of those promises, I made decisions accordingly for my career. So after thinking about it for a few minutes, which there weren't many, I made a decision to walk away. I thank God for giving me the strength to do that. Sometimes that is the best thing to do. I just felt like I owed it to my fans and my sponsors that I'm seeking and to NASCAR that if I say, 'I'm here to race,' that I go out and race."

3 comments:

  1. It's amazing that it took a lady to say no to this crap of start and park. Joe Nemechek and Phil Parsons and his crowd would NEVER do that, because they are NASCAR's version of panhandlers. They are a disgrace to NASCAR!!

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  2. Jennifer obviously doesn't want to admit that the team had no choice but to start and park - the resources are not there to actually race and quitting on the team won't make her career go better.

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  3. Its easy to sit behind a computer and run someone's business better than them. If you have all the answers TRY IT for your self. Sometimes when your the owner and you have many people that depend on you making the tough decision not a favorable one but a tough one.

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