A few weeks ago I figured David Stremme could do anything and still remain a part of the #26 team owned by Bill Jenkins. After all making the field wasn’t even a given for the team and yet they still ran out there to the track. Turns out it’s Jenkins who isn’t paying his drivers and apparently is doing very little to make the team better.
Stremme has left the team with the primarily reason being financial compensation. “We always had to do more with less, but in the last month and a half, ownership hasn’t really wanted to make things better. Bill Jenkins has not been willing to make the correct decisions, and it has affected the performance of the team. We’ve barely been making it to track the last few weeks. At Pocono, we didn’t even know if we were going to have tires to race on. “I went to Bill and said `If things aren’t going to change, I don’t think I want to stay involved.’ We discussed a timeline for him to find another driver and agreed that we would look at things again after Bristol. But he immediately started calling around trying to replace me. He apparently wanted to find someone else right now, and that’s fine. It’s his choice…. There are obligations to both me and the team that have not been met, and that was a big part of my decision to leave. I don’t want to be involved with something like that. I dealt with (Jenkins) with respect, and was straightforward with him at all times. I didn’t get that in return.”
Those comments were much in line with what Boris Said spoke of earlier this week. “There’s no real polite way to say this, but Bill Jenkins owes me a bunch of money.”
There haven’t been any mention of who or if the team will attempt to run at Michigan this weekend. Currently the entry list for Michigan has TBA listed for both the #26 and the #13 cars. Casey Mears who will take over the #13 car later this year is listed as the driver for the #36 Tommy Baldwin ride.
Stremme should have known it would come to this. After all look at the photo. He’s still wearing his Penske helmet.
