The car is in contention to be a championship winner. It's already won races this year and was #2 in points at the time of John's crash.
As I understand it, John with a sub driver is still eligible to win the championship.
Do you realize John could be 17X after this is all said and done? Imagine IF (Just IF) he never comes back to drive, he wins the championship in his retirement year? (Holy sh!t what a story!!)
Do you think JFR would jeopardize that?
I certainly don't. It's going to be somebody than can hop in the car, and be ready to run in the 3.80's. Get in the car in Norwalk NUF, knock the rust off, then be ready to rock in Brainerd full steam ahead. It's also somebody that has driven under pressure, and has experience rolling into Pomona with a shot to win the title. The stars would have to align and all that stuff, but even if there is a chance they have to embrace it.
This is not a pull someone out of the air and stick them in situation. Some of the names I've seen people suggest across the interwebs and social media are pretty laughable to me. The balance of 24 needs to be someone ready to go, and that list is very short. 2025 is a totally different subject, but for the balance of this year they need to have recent credentials.
All strictly my opinion.
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Now, all that being said, they'll probably make me look like a fool and pull Kenji Okazaki out of retirement, or put Elmer Fudd in the seat.
![Beaming face with smiling eyes :grin: 😁](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f601.png)
But, I doubt it.