The NASCAR world was shaken up a bit this week with the announcement that Tyler Reddick will be taking his talents to 23XI racing in 2024.
While many fans felt like this was an unprecedented event, it has happened several times in the not-too-distant past of NASCAR. The challenges that it creates for the teams can be a bit awkward with drivers from a different manufacturer the subsequent year participating in competition meetings, but the current car might minimize that impact.
Shortly after the announcement hit the airwaves, the Twitterverse erupted with discussions, postulations and overall rampant speculation about ramifications, prior occurrences and general gobbledygook. It brought back many memories of driver movement in the past and thoughts of just how truly awkward it is for a driver to be a lame duck for more than 12 months.
In 2005, Mark Martin decided he was going to quit driving for Roush Fenway Racing after 2006. Jamie McMurray was driving for Chip Ganassi Racing at the time.
McMurray agreed to drive for Roush, replacing Martin in 2006 when his contract with Ganassi expired.
As the season progressed, Kurt Busch had some difficulties off of the track that resulted in some hostilities between himself and the Roush organization. In an unprecedented move, the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion announced he would be leaving his team at the end of the season.
As that news trickled out, Roush was looking for a driver to jump into Busch’s seat in 2006. McMurray decided to leave Ganassi early to take that opportunity. Initially, Ganassi was not going to allow him to get out of the final year of his contract, but eventually acquiesced and let him move on. Busch actually was out of his ride at Roush for the last two races of the 2005 season before moving on to the Team Penske organization.
2010 saw another high-profile driver make a decision during the year to move to another team the season after the next racing season.
Kasey Kahne drove for Ray Evernham when he started in the Cup Series in 2004. Kahne won nine races during the years that Evernham was his car owner.
After the 2008 season, Richard Petty Motorsports bought out Gillette Evernham Motorsports and Kahne drove for the King.
While 2009 was a successful season for Kahne, with two more wins, the 2010 season was more of a disaster. During that season there were numerous parts failures and frustration grew on Kahne’s part until it boiled over at Charlotte Motor Speedway late in the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…