Wanted to share with you all something from another board I belong to. Some good words about Robby and the Menards...
"Not here to toot my own horn, but I come on here every once in a while to check out the boards;There great to read, people's opinins,etc.... I was a recent casualty of the recent DEI cut-backs( I actually got mine 1 week ago) so I have a little more time on my hands these days, but just waiting for all the dust to settle before deciding to hit the shops with resume in hand, or just start looking for a 9-5....Those who work in the shops, have a little more insight then some of the media or the general public think we do....lol....Believe it or not.....When we heard the Mr.Menard was going to take his sponsership to Yates we all saw the writing on the wall....I will tell you, everybody has nothing but respect for the Menards, they were nothing but good to us, they did alot of good for alot of people....In terms of racing, their not going to a better race-team,their not going to a more well-funded race team, there just going to a team where Paul will be able to grow....The thing is, Paul was never really courted by DEI.Paul was racing over at Petree, but Mr.Menard was not seeing a return on his investment after maybe half a Bush season....They asked family friend Robby Gordon to set up a meeting with Childress to see if maybe Richard would take him in as a Bush driver with full sponsership.Richard thought about it for a day, but then decided he already had his hands full.Richard then set-up a meeting with the Menards and DEI; At the time DEI was turning Martin Truex' 24 race Bush deal into a full season after that car was was top 5 in points after 10 races....DEI decided to take in Paul mostly as a 2nd car to try and get a Bush championship for Truex....As time progressed, the Menards sponsership became a valuable source of cash for the company;Maybe even to a fault, because it maybe kept the guys on the 2nd floor from going out and attracting other sponsers....Paul never really grew as a driver at DEI, I think the young man is a hell alot more talented then the past two years have shown.The one thing the Yates gave him is that they want him;They have been courting him since last spring....So, i think you will see that young man improve as a driver, with better results.... The DEI merger with Gannasi is just a temporary band-aid to the current financial difficulty both teams find themselves in....By no mean will it last past 2 seasons....Their just going to make the most out of their pooled resources for the time being....Eventually I believe Gannasi will just outright sell to DEI, the Target sponsership is all he really has, and when that goes, so will he....DEI West(Old Ginn shop) has a 7-post, so I'm thinking they will run most of the cars out of there....And the testing ban was something teams were fully expecting....I know the Chevrolet teams already had sent people over to Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas to give the place a once over, as they will be testing heavily on the track as early as January....Keep on truckin.... "