Roderick hopes to continue driving: To use baseball terminology: Casey Roderick is behind in the count, but hoping to get a pitch he can drive. Which is somewhat appropriate, given that his car at Charlotte Motor Speedway was sponsored by the West Virginia Miners, a team in collegiate summer baseball Prospect League. Roderick’s sister, Ashlee, is an account executive with the Miners, and she’s the one who convinced owners Doug and Linda Epling to take the unconventional marketing route of sponsoring a race car. Like the players who will take the field for the Miners in their season opener Tuesday in Beckley, W.Va., Roderick has dreams of making it to the big leagues some day. But having million-dollar dreams is fine and dandy, until you get socked in the face by the harsh reality of trying to do it on a two-bit budget. The SR2 Motorsports operation, like a number of mid-level Nationwide teams, just doesn’t have the money or the manpower to buy or build what it takes to consistently run up front. Roderick smiles as he talks, but perhaps not as often as you’d expect from someone who won’t turn 20 until August. But there may be a good reason for that. This could be the last race with the Miners sponsorship, and Roderick faces an uncertain future. ‘After Charlotte, it’s kind of a wait-and-see situation’ Roderick said. ‘I’ve got people working on trying to come up with more sponsorship dollars. It’s a tough thing to do, especially with this economy. You have to be smooth when you’re talking to people, because you’ve got to get them emotionally attached. But we’ll get it going. I’m not going to give up.â But he’s been in this situation before, and things have worked out. In 2008, the native of Lawrenceville, Ga., was racing Legends cars during the Summer Shootout series at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Money troubles were able to force the family operation to shut down when Bill Elliott offered him a ride in a late model car. That lasted two years, until Chase Elliott was ready to move up and Roderick couldn’t find sponsorship to keep going. Roderick then worked for James Finch, which resulted in him getting a ride with Randy Hill in the middle of 2011. Roderick finished 25th at Watkins Glen in his Nationwide debut, eventually running two more races near the end of the season. Roderick has the talent. He’s won at every level throughout his career, including a 2010 victory for Finch in the ARCA Series. What he doesn’t have is the financial banking necessary to pair that talent with top-notch equipment. The baseball team sponsorship is approximately $100,000 less than the top teams are spending each week. So, for Roderick, it’s not just a matter of doing more with less. It’s first and foremost keeping yourself in the game, and then hoping something good comes out of it.(NASCAR.com)(5-26-2012)
