I'm with you Lou. The teams do help and make for a better over all performance, but... If it's all driver how do you explain the 99 car last year from when Burton got out of it to when Edwards got in it. It was like day and night. There have been other cases as well. The technology and extra testing sessions by having bigger teams obviously helps, but the Drivers do have an impact regardless.
Enough of that though, I have some thoughts for the DEI and RCR fans. I think that the two should join forces and become one corporation. If you look at the last ten years approximately. DEI and RCR were both on a charge and had consistently great stuff especially while Senior was alive. Granted it rolled over for a while after his death until all of the big changes this year. Think about it though, you had Dale wanting to win in his car so any information found by DEI was coming to RCR and obviously he wanted to get his company and boy Jr. off to a start so anything he could went back to DEI. In a way the had formed a super company. Plus count the number of cars between the two teams. If they Join you have a team comparable to Roush and Hendrix. Just food for thought.
It wasn't me who brought up that debate, however certain drivers fit better with certain teams. Call it team chemistry if you will. Carl Edwards pretty much came from nowhere... he didn't start winning until he was with Roush. Actually, coming from Carl himself, this is what he has to say:
Q: I think you should speak for yourself, there, on it being easy. I think there's a vast minority of folks that can do that. But you've really injected a lot of life into this team, because they were running in the back. Now you're running up front. Is it a chemistry thing? What's the story there?
Edwards: Must be. You look at how well Jeff Burton's doing with the 30 team. They say (chemistry) is a really big deal. And I never understood that until I got here to NASCAR and realized how many people put ... a race win does not come from the driver being extraordinary by himself. Or the crew chief.
It's a team effort. That has to be the answer. I mean, Jeff Burton goes over to the 30 team and he's awesome. They're running great. We're running well. And nothing's changed except the pairing up of individuals.
So there you go, straight from Edwards himself.
Also your DEI and RCR joining together actually does have some merit. I pretty much think of them as "cousins" of each other. They would probably benefit from each other if they did so, but I couldnt see it happening because of the control thing. Neither Richard or Teresa would allow the other to run each other's company. And I really couldnt see the two of them working together.