Maybe the explanation is as simple as what worked in 1949 does not in 2018.
Since the beginning of NASCAR, teams have always operated as independent contractors. Build a car to meet specifications, pay an entry fee, qualify and race. Everything else is up to the organization on how it operates as a business.
Unlike other pro sports, NASCAR teams are not franchises and free to spend whatever they deem necessary to function and be competitive. While the charter system adopted a few years ago provides guarantees for those Cup teams in terms of purse money and other distributed revenues, teams remain “independent.”
So when the alarming news of reigning championship team Furniture Row Racing ceasing operations at season’s end breaks, the logical reaction once the shock subsides is NASCAR has to do something. And number one on that list is to lower costs for teams so a $30 million plus budget isn’t necessary to run a 36-race points schedule.
But as they say the devil is in the details. How?
Spending limits or salary caps are relatively easily implemented in franchise-based sports like the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball or the NHL because teams are forced to open their books. Good luck trying to get the outlaw independent mentality of NASCAR team owners to follow suit.
There’s been discussion of implementing something similar in Formula One, an idea that is being met with expected resistance from the mega powerhouse organizations like Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. The upper echelon NASCAR teams such as Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Team Penske and Hendrick Motorsports could very well balk at the same idea if introduced to stock car racing.
It’s also fair to point out how teams push back at the sanctioning body when cost cutting ideas are introduced. This year’s move to a common air gun, designed to eliminate in some cases $1 million dollar development budgets on just that single piece of equipment by some, got off to a rocky start. “Malfunctions” teams were blaming on inferior guns were traced to the use of nitrogen, not recommended air to power the guns causing them to turn faster than designed and break.
The lesson there is finding a competitive edge will always outweigh costs and expenses. Which in reality makes it nearly impossible to implement a spending cap under the current model.
However when the title team announces it will dissolve less than 10 months after hoisting the championship trophy it should be beyond a wake-up call for everyone inside the sport. Business as usual will simply not cut it. Charting a course for a new business model – one in which teams can thrive and not purely survive while at the same time enticing new owners to the sport – is not an easy task by any means.
But it is a vital one.
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Motor Racing Network.
