Nationwide Commentary: Cobb Story Has Holes if You Read Between the Lines

By now, everyone has an opinion on Jennifer Jo Cobb parting ways with 2nd Chance Racing after the team ordered her to start-and-park during the Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
Most commentaries are backing Cobb, praising her competitive spirit and unwillingness to become yet another eye sore to NASCAR’s top ladder series.
While it’s difficult to entirely fault Cobb, I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate on this one and speculate that the Kansas City native manipulated her fans, NASCAR and the media to her desired affect. But first, here’s a brief time line for those who missed Saturday’s race:
During pre-race warm-ups, the no. 79 Ford Mustang, entered with Cobb, was still in the garage with no driver in sight.
Cobb alleges that team owner Rick Russell waited until ten-minutes before the race to announce that he wanted her to start-and-park his car. Cobb, who supplied the team with her crew and race engine, took the crew and left the track, leaving Russell scrambling to find a replacement driver in Chris Lawson.
Lawson jumped in, drove four cautious laps and parked the car. The team was credited with 41st place.
Rusell insists that the team was notified during a team meeting on Friday morning.
While I support Cobb’s decision and generally loathe the start-and-park problem that plagues NASCAR’s top brands, Saturday may have been the culmination of an impressive PR-play by an ambitious Cobb to grab headlines away from her also-struggling contemporaries.
Let’s assume for a moment that Cobb knew of the decision to park the car on Friday morning. Angry that her competition contract with Russell had been broken, Cobb called Russell’s bluff, purchased her weekend tire set and concocted a plan that may ultimately see her come out the big winner following Saturday’s ‘he-said-she-said’ war of words.
With fan support and the media firmly entrenched with Cobb, Saturday has given her a considerable leg up on her top-35 rivals. Cobb even grabbed the Nationwide spotlight away from Danica Patrick, who suffered from a late DNF and finished 33rd.
Cobb comes out of this smelling like a bed of roses while Rick Russell looks like the ultimate villain.
Cobb had to understand that by wrecking Russell’s car last week in Las Vegas, a cash-strapped 2nd Chance Racing could do nothing but start and park. The benefit for Cobb would be logging additional laps at Bristol and cashing her check.
While most are suggesting that Russell is taking advantage of Cobb, consider for a second the thought that Cobb manipulated a disadvantaged Russell to propel her own notoriety.
I believe that Cobb was well-aware of the start-and-park decision on Friday morning and made a public spectacle to fuel her future endeavors.
Cobb has already claimed to have spoken to several teams following the incident, willing to offer rides in the coming weeks. Premeditated or not, Cobb had a lot to gain in this scenario.
At age 37, Cobb is fully aware that her window of opportunity is slamming shut if she plans on making a significant gain from the status quo.
If the act was not premeditated, then I’d offer an equal ‘good for you.’ Start-and-parks are a terrible eye-sore and standing against them is a positive move for a fringe player in the sport.
Details on the incident are still scarce and we may never know the absolute truth.
But let’s not buy into the story of the potential damsel in distress just yet.