NOTEBOOK: Most of the quiet is dreary

            The holidays are complete and testing at Daytona International Speedway is just ahead, but for now the balance of power in NASCAR has really budged only slightly.

            One small team, Tommy Baldwin’s, has added David Reutimann to the roster, though Baldwin will need some sponsorship to pull off a two-car team involving Reutimann and Dave Blaney. Another small team, Germain, switched Casey Mears’ Sprint Cup entry from Toyota to Ford.

            The general tone of most recent announcements has been, “A driver we got. A sponsor we need.” Or, in most cases, several.

            As long as many of the sport’s struggling teams are on shaky financial footing, the likely result is the trend of the entire century to date. Big teams get bigger and smaller teams get smaller. The difference between rich and poor broadens.

            Hmm. Sound familiar?

            Same deal – Trevor Bayne, last year’s Daytona 500 winner, will be back in the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 for what figures to be another limited schedule. Another rising star of the Roush Fenway camp, Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr., is going to compete in the 500 in the No. 6 vacated by David Ragan because it lacks sponsorship to continue as a full-time entity.

            At present, Jack Roush has no plans for the No. 6 unless sponsorship materializes, which in turn means his team contracts from four to three teams, those of Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle.

            Inklings – Jay Frye, general manager of defunct Red Bull Racing, has joined Hendrick Motorsports as a consultant. … Kevin Buckler is shutting down his TRG Motorsports Cup operation, which employed Rookie of the Year Andy Lally last year. … Rusty Wallace Inc. is calling the shutdown of his Nationwide Series operation “a temporary hiatus.” RWI’s general manager, Larry Carter, has also accepted a new job at Hendrick Motorsports.

Monte Dutton; 704-869-1841; twitter.com/montedutton