Activity in the Nationwide Series garage this weekend saw JTG Racing’s #47 car being attended to by not their own team, but the crew of MSRP Motorsports’ #90 and #91 entries. After Coleman Pressley damaged the right side of his Camry during NNS qualifying on Saturday morning, no less than three MSRP crew members were seen doing the repair work to his quarterpanels. Frontstretch was able to speak to Jodi Geschickter regarding this new arrangement, and the longtime Nationwide owner confirmed that MSRP was helping them with their Nationwide car. According to Geschickter, the lack of funding that forced the team to stop racing its #47 car also forced them to lay off their Nationwide crew. With several former members of the JTG crew now working with MSRP, and MSRP having their start-and-park efforts down to a near science, JTG has now got the best in that business working on their entry. “We told our [NNS] guys at the start of the year that we only had funding to run half the races,” said Geschickter, who gave his team the choice between spreading their races throughout the 2009 season or running the first half of the year, hoping to secure additional dollars. “We kept them up to date month-to-month regarding the funding that we had.” Said Geschickter of the team’s current effort, the plan is to keep the #47 in the top 30 in owner points, as they are confident that the team will be able to secure “enough funding to run at least half the season” come Daytona in 2010, just as the team managed to do the first half of 2009 with Michael McDowell behind the wheel. Geschickter confirmed that JTG remains committed to Coleman Pressley, who has driven a number of start-and-park races for the team in the second half of 2009, as their next development driver to put in the seat.(Frontstretch)(9-28-2009)
