Waltrip.....Toast!

[JRC ETD]

Down here in Mooresville our total commerce is racing Nascar....insiders say the Napa car had NOX hidden in the fuel system.....100 owner points and driver points is a death sentence, Toyota CEO has got to say we don't support cheating or the brand will get killed in the biggest arena of public opinion in Motorsports, and Toyota loses before they ever race.......Bad judgement on the Waltrip team, leaves very few options for Nascar or Toyota!......Shame on them, they had such a oppurtunity!

[JRC ETD]

Rich as you know Mark Rostvold is my neighbor at the cabin, Mark put the Nascar deal together, and also did the sale to Polaris.....The Nascar deal was self funded with the profits from the branded merchandise so the ecomomics were perfect, Chad Little's poor performance every race hurt Deere, Becker put his seal of approval on it, Lane never got the connection with the customer and Nascar and nixed it. Deere should never have moved to Ford at Rousch, still some old timers that remember Ford was once considered the enemy around Deere, Polaris deal has been spoken about before......the snowmobile cornerstone was gone when Hansen became Chairman, the exit story was based around product liability, warranty costs, and snowfall........nobody supported the snowbelt dealer needs, that voice was not represented either, Deere would have emerged the winner on dealer strength and continued product improvement, Cat would have not been able to return except on Deere's offer to buy.........very ironic that the IFS pictures suddenly appear now after all the chatter on this site for so many years!

[JRC ETD]

Thank you....the cornerstone or lone voice spoke for the passion that customers, dealers, branch people, factory people and even the race team had for the commitment it took to start snowmobiles and FORCE it through the Deere system. It was a compelling and strong strategic move for Consumer Products, but many stayed in the background, voicing some public support, but also whispering doubt about it, I witnessed this many occassions in many functional areas of the company. Reality is this is the way most cultures in company's are......many must have real skin in the game to pull it through rather than push it through. Rich, getting speed and performance, handling and clutching, machines that would stay with and exceed Polaris was a seasonal battle, the weight that was imposed on the sleds in design and by Dreyfus could not be overcome with clutches....we were always trying to catch up! Some may read this as sour grapes, but it was part of the reason why everyones work around sleds, including the customer was so challanging. The "Fire" series was a huge improvemnet and proved we were learning.....Snowfire and Sprintfire were projects that missed the target rings completly, the customer wanted a superior Indy, from a long term supplier, with the best dealer org......enough ranting, guess my knees and back are igniting my fingers! Must cut this out before the HOF!!!!!

[WinnipegStPaul9]

Guys, great discussion. Just wanted to weigh in on the NASCAR aspect. I've been a NASCAR fan since the Ned Jarrett days. In 68 or 69 my racing partner and I paid something like $40.00 each for tickets in Indianapolis to watch the Daytona 500 on a large theater screen. That really got me hooked! Being a Chevrolet dealer at the time didn't hurt either and I along with a lot of people suffered through the "We're racing on Sunday to sell on Monday" era into the "We're no longer supporting racing" era and back and forth. Sorry I digress.....Anyway I think the pressure is so great today to bring a raceable product to the track so the sponsors will continue, forces the teams to push the envelope towards cheating (or you can read "being creative"). Teams used to cheat just to see what they could get by with but today it's more economics driven. Remember the adage, "they have to be cheating cause I'm cheating and they're faster than me" As to John Deere/Roush Racing/Chad Little......I was always disappointed that Chad was chosen. Probably a nice man but not the driver I'd have wanted to pour millions into. I think the sponsorship was a worthy effort for JD, just the wrong team, driver, etc. As always, my two cents worth. Don

[400brian]

Smokey used to say: It's not cheating, we're just getting competetive!