Last week Rick Ware Racing announced the recruitment of Justin Haley for the 2024 season. The move will see him leave Kaulig Racing who have been with Haley for the majority of his career and gave him his Cup Series breakthrough. 2021 Cup champion and NASCAR veteran Brad Keselowski has also entered the talks to lure the 24-year-old driver with an impressive coalition in plans.

Haley’s former spotter Brett Griffin has been one of the people who were surprised at the turn of events. Speaking at the spotter’s forum of Dirty Mo Media, Door Bumper Clear, Griffin was joined by Freddie Kraft, TJ Majors, and Casey Boat in their discussion and speculations about how Haley’s move will pan out.

Brett Griffin had a hard time believing in the Haley to RWR news

The news of this switch comes at an unexpected time of the season. Griffin claimed that even his usually composed self was shocked. He started, “I will have to say, it takes a lot to surprise me around here and I opened up social media that morning, I glanced through it, and next thing, you know, I’m starting to get screenshots from my good friend Freddie Kraft.”

“My first instinct was ‘What the f**k,’ like I legitimately said to myself, ‘What the f**k, this can’t be real.’

At the end of 2022, Griffin announced that he would not be spotting full-time anymore in the Cup or Xfinity Series. He reasoned that he needed some quality time with his family and explained that, despite retracting from the full-time position, he could spot for some select races in the future for Kaulig Racing.

“So then I sat for a second, and obviously, Justin is a friend of mine, Justin is somebody I really enjoy talking to. He’s somebody I got to know as a resort to spotting for him full-time last year in the Cup Series. I just sat there for a minute and I’m thinking back to conversations that he and I had over the summertime.” 

Griffin said they haven’t been much in contact with each other after the North Wilkesboro All-Star Race in May. After a deep analysis of Haley’s move, he came to conclude that this could be possibly Rick Ware Racing’s smartest investment to date. He also acknowledged their eye for talent as they make great upgrades in terms of racing caliber.

“I’m sitting there and trying to make sense of all of it. I get off the emotional ride I was on and I go, okay what is Rick Ware thinking? And my response is this is the smartest thing they’ve ever done in their company’s existence. They’ve gone from having nothing against these guys… Josh Blicky and Cody Ware driving their cars to Ryan Newman and Cole Custer. Big upgrades.”

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Although the move shows a lot of promise and especially assuming that Rick Ware and Co will manage to amplify Haley’s skills through their alliance project, it remains to be seen what could affect this transfer, given the time left for the 2023 season.

Griffin happy at Rick Ware’s improvisation

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RWR have had blunders in their recruitments previously and sometimes that have hurt their brand. One instance of it was in 2021, when the team announced that female driver Jennifer Joe Cobb would be the first female to race in the Cup since Danica Patrick in 2018. But NASCAR didn’t allow the move to go through and forced Rick Ware to look for another driver for Talladega. Griffin mentions this incident particularly as something RWR have moved on from.

The former marketer and spotter then recollects a previous instance of him saying that the slowest cars in the tourney do not deserve to own a charter. NASCAR introduced the charter system in 2016 in their effort to franchise the sport. Considering the sport as a product of Bill France and family, the charter system is the closest NASCAR can get to being a franchise model. He then goes on to commend team owner Rick Ware for his smooth handling as he adds,

” Well guess who’s doing something about it? Rick Ware. They’re going out, they’ve hired Robbie Benton, Tommy Baldwin, they’re hiring Justin Haley. Wow. Talk about a rebrand. They dont make the PR blunders they were making and remember that whole Jennifer Joe Cobb announcement thing? And now she’s running Cup and NASCAR said ‘not so fast’. Remember they’re not doing that anymore.“

The promising coalition between Rick Ware and Roush Fenway

The alliance between RWR and RFK Racing will ensure that the system in place will undergo some changes in a positive direction. The catalysts of this move are the leaders at RFK, president Steve Newmark and co-owner Keselowski. Griffin lists Haley’s notable qualities as a driver with age on his side as he reveals details from his conversation about the project RWR is trying to build.

“He’s been sold on a bill of goods that tells him that Rick Ware Racing is going to do everything they can to make their cars better and make their cars faster. And I was a part of situations like this that came true and that didn’t come true.

“When I’m talking to Justin, he keeps reiterating to me, Steve Newmark, Brad Keselowski and Rick Ware and Robbie Benton had meetings with Justin and he believes a lot in the alliance that is gonna happen with Keselowski and Roush Fenway. So the question now becomes do we know the future?”

Speaking about the other questions that will be asked eventually considering the teams have put a lot of faith and time into the alliance, Griffin said, “The question now becomes when we’re sitting here six races into next year is Brad Keselowski, Steve Newmark, Roush Fenway really gonna do all those things they’re gonna do to help Rick Ware Racing? It takes money. It takes people.”

Hopefully, we will see a whole new driver in Haley next season with a revamp in the support and with such expertise at his side.

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