Wednesday, February 9th 'What If' Question

Scott Speed made a few headlines earlier this week but it wasn't that he'll have a ride in the Sprint Cup Series this season. Speed and wife Amanda announced via Twitter that they're going to be new parents this year.

While that's the happy news, Speed will be unemployed after losing his ride at Red Bull Racing. It came from a result of musical cars that sees Kasey Kahne come to Red Bull for one season before heading to Hendrick Motorsports. Speed was released from his contract and is currently in a lawsuit with Red Bull over his termination.

The argument can be made that Speed was never given time to fully develop, he was thrown to the wolves very early on with little stock car experience. As a result he's finished 35th and 30th in Cup Series points, with a best career finish of 5th at Talladega in 2009 and only has two top 10s to his name. It was also during that season that Speed battled the 'bubble,' the top 35 in points and failed to qualify for the Texas spring race.

Speed can say though, that he has led laps in the Daytona 500. Last season, he stayed out on older tires and held off the field for about 12 laps, impressing many. It just wasn't enough to carry over into a season worth of success to see Red Bull keep him around. Something that was quite a shock considering Speed is a Red Bull child.

He came from open-wheel where he drove Red Bull machines starting in 2002. But once he left that world and came to NASCAR it was straight to the Sprint Cup Series after only running a full-season in ARCA (he won four races), and he could have won the championship. He did run 16 Truck races and won at Dover in 2008 and has run just a handful of Nationwide Series events.

But ...

What if Scott Speed drove Trucks or Nationwide full-time before entering Cup Series, would he be out of a ride today? #NASCAR

@Talon64: The extra experience would've helped him have a better rookie season and progress at a faster race. So yes.

@dougthethird: yes he would. He raced for two full years and only showed marginal improvement. The real question is, w/o Kahne would he be?

@cruetten: no. also, it's sad that he was dumped after only two years. teams dump drivers too quickly IMO...except for David Ragan

@TJIngerson: Ya, he would..Red Bull sucks when it comes to handling the talent, and do much worse on the F1 side

@chuckallen2: I don't believe he would. He ran well in trucks, and won a race. He tried to move up too fast, with an impatient team.

@Racergirl83: I dont know, but in a way I feel he got cheated anyway out of a ride for this year.