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StumblePublished Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | 3:54 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:14 p.m.
Forget the housing crisis. What about the sponsorship crisis in NASCAR? General Mills announced it would leave Petty Enterprises for a new, fourth team at Richard Childress Racing next season. I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end for Petty.
There are several NASCAR teams looking for sponsorship and the current economic climate could be making that search more difficult. It’s disturbing to see teams that have been the foundation of the sport facing the possibility of having to stand on the street corner holding a “Will Drive For Food” sign.
The No. 28 car of Yates Racing is looking for sponsorship and Bill Davis Racing suspended operations of the unsponsored No. 27 car. Michael Waltrip needs a sponsor for the No. 00 car and Dario Franchitti and David Gilliland only have temporary sponsorship. Unfortunately these teams don’t have the famous Petty name behind them to lure corporate backing.
I’m hoping Petty Enterprises will get an financial infusion if a deal to partner with a New York-based financial group goes through. Let’s face it, NASCAR without the Pettys would be like Chevy without the bowtie or Ford without the blue oval.
Hopefully none of these teams will have to resort to stealing a sway bar and holding it for ransom.
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Since I saw my first NASCAR race (on TV in 1979, as many of us older non south-east codgers did), I was a Richard Petty fan. But ... Richard's last win was in 1984, 28 years ago! Kyle's last win was in 1995, during the few years in his career when he driving for Felix Sabates, and when he was reasonably successful. It is now 13 years since any Petty won a race! I think Adam would have been better than his father, but that we will never know.
Richard is an icon and always will be, but will that bring in the many millions needed to survive today? Petty, Wood Brothers, Yates, and other old-timers may have paved the way, but I am not so sure that they are not becoming expendable, it's ugly, but, it's business in the 21st century.
We'll let MWR handle all the cheating, they are getting very good at it, other than the minor fact that they keep getting caught!!
Used to be that NASCAR competition was influenced more by the auto manufacturer's engineering and financial support. Then corporate sponsorship dollars arrived with television which created the Petty, Allison, Childress and other NASCAR dynasties to the expense of less successful teams. New era, same rules; money talks and losers walk...and the France family empire keeps right on growing.
You're right, money talks and losers walk. You know the situation has become a bit extreme when team owners like Childress feel they must have four teams just to remain competitive. I'd love to see a single-car team show the multi-car teams a thing or two. But I doubt that will happen.