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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – AUGUST 14: Team owner and Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs walks the grid prior to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 14, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – AUGUST 14: Team owner and Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs walks the grid prior to the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 14, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Recently, reports emerged that Joe Gibbs Racing had recruited Joe Graf Jr for their Xfinity Series team. However, this was a move that has not gone down well with 23XI Racing spotter Freddie Kraft. The man who works alongside Bubba Wallace raised the issue of drivers who enter the sport, backed by wealthy sponsors. According to him, Graf Jr is one such driver and believes that drivers with talent are getting overlooked.
He said in the Door Bumper Clear podcast, “This sport, right now, is based on money over talent. It is as simple as that. The money means more than the talent. If you have money, you can get in the car. We saw it this week with some of the announcements that Joe Gibbs made.”
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What else did he say about Joe Gibbs Racing?
Of course, he did insist that he was not pointing any fingers. Instead, he was just observing the current trend in the NASCAR arena. What he found was that there has been a frequency of drivers who can simply pay for a seat. All that they had to do was find a sponsor with deep enough pockets.
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 18: Team owner Joe Gibbs stands on pit road during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series 60th Annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2018 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Sarah Crabill/Getty Images)
He continued, “We used to call the Joe Gibbs third car, the All-Star car. It’s not really an All-Star car this year. I don’t want to bash anybody, but we saw Joe Graf’s going to run five races. He didn’t qualify in an RCR car somewhere. I forget where it was, one of the mile-and-a-halves. That’s just the guy. They’re taking money over talent. Trevor Bayne did an unbelievable job last year, should have won some races. Where’s he at? Why are you hearing that Joe Graf’s driving it.”
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According to Kraft, it all boils down to the lack of revenue for the teams. The moment the revenue begins to come into the teams’ hands, the dynamic will shift back in favor of talented drivers. Another prime example was Ryan Preece, who was a talented driver and proved it at the Clash. Kraft insisted that Preece could have won the race if a duel pump issue had not reared its ugly head.
