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StumblePublished Wednesday, June 24, 2009 | 7:46 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, June 24, 2009 | 8:08 p.m.
The financial earthquake this country has suffered continues to produce aftershocks in the sport of stock car racing. Chevrolet has reduced financial support to its Cup teams. As a result, Richard Childress Racing has had to get in line with other creditors who are owed money from bankrupt General Motors. There’s also speculation that he may have to downsize to two teams if all of the sponsors don’t return next season. In addition, the crisis at the Chrysler Corp. is forcing Richard Petty Motorsports to consider switching to another manufacturer. And there’s talk that Earnhardt Ganassi Racing may dump Chevrolet.
But in the midst of all this chaos, Tony Stewart, who leads the points standings in his first year as an owner-driver, is considering adding a third team to his operation. On Friday Stewart told SceneDaily.com: “That’s not something that I think five or six weeks ago that we would have felt comfortable saying but, I mean, I think right now we’re in a position where I think we would be very open to listening to potential sponsors and opportunities to possibly grow.”
If we were talking about any owner other than Tony Stewart, I would suggest that such an idea was the result of the owner-driver having hit his head one too many times on the roll cage. But after witnessing the impressive performance of the newly formed Stewart-Haas Racing, a performance I didn’t think was possible so soon, I’m reluctant to question the move to include a third team.
It goes without saying that the challenge of starting a team in this economic mess is difficult. But so was the challenge of starting Stewart-Haas Racing in this environment. And Tony is making that work.
There aren’t as many sponsorship dollars to go around as there were a few years ago. So if a company wants to spend money in NASCAR, it’s going to go with an organization that is proving it can produce results regardless of the challenges.
If you are a potential Na$car sponsor with 20 to 30 million dollars to invest, you've got to ask yourself if your product or company would be best served to be represented by Tony Stewart and Gene Haas...plenty to chew on right there. Oh, and which fine driver would be the spokesmodel for this enterprise?
The odds are that all of the multicar teams (except Hendrick)will be reduced to two cars next year which will allow more space in the field for start and park teams to pick up seventy grand for a few hours work.
Does any company have 20 to 30 million to spend on NASCAR?
There are plenty of companies with advertising budgets much bigger than $50M, but most of them wouldn't touch the Na$car product with a ten foot pole. And as Na$car's problems mount while TV viewership and track attendance drops, interest in advertising declines. To the credit of the fans, they are viewed as loyal, supportive customers of both Na$car and its sponsors, this fact has kept a lot of companies hanging in there through the downturn. But companies that do like the Na$car product are all facing budget cuts...either the cost to race has to come way down, or the number of associate sponsors needs to go way up (or both).
I think we'll see more multiple sponsorships in NASCAR's future. It has worked for Roush Fenway and it's working for Stewart-Haas. The problem I have with multiple sponsorships is that they can cause confusion when drawing race cars or fire suits. I actually had a discussion a few weeks ago with an editor as to whether Old Spice or Office Depot should be the top sponsor on Tony's suit.
i'm a 24 fan, but have to admit if i had to pick 1 driver in 1 race, it would be tony. great job this year tony.