It’s the oldest joke in motorsports. “How do you make a small fortune in racing? You start with a large fortune.”
But guess what? It may have been humorous at one time but it’s not funny anymore.
It’s hard to find laughter after a year in NASCAR that saw the defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series team shut down because it couldn’t find the necessary sponsorship to remain in business. Team owner Barney Visser’s decision to pull the plug on Furniture Row Racing less than 12 months removed from winning the title will be remembered as one of the top stories of 2018 and for all the wrong reasons.
Just a few weeks ago a similar situation impacted Truck Series champs Hattori Racing Enterprises and title winner Brett Moffitt. The talented young driver was forced to part ways with the team because he didn’t have the funding to keep him employed behind the wheel of the No. 17 entry in 2019. Another driver does and the “good news” is Shige Hattori’s team will compete again next season albeit without the guy that brought them to the top of the mountain this year.
Discussion of the NASCAR team business model has dominated recent conversations. Last week Sports Business Journal reported the sanctioning body had hired Deloitte to “audit teams’ finances and create a common accounting platform.” The report indicated the move was at the request of the organizations as “an unprecedented step that teams have agreed to in order to help find a new competitive balance framework.”
The concept is believed to be the first move in trying to create a cost containment cap in an effort to scale back and maintain the spending that has created the need for $30 million sponsorship needs just for one car to compete in an entire Cup Series season.
As NASCAR examines a number of possible changes to the sport that will significantly impact both the immediate and long-term future, team ownership is a front burner topic. Since the beginning teams have always operated under the auspices of independent contractors, free to conduct business any way seen fit by each individual organization. But with technology and engineering leading the way, those costs have spiraled out of control to the point even reaching the pinnacle, winning the championship, does not make any team immune to the monumental sponsorship needs to operate.
But the owners council and the RTA need to do more than talk a good game. Too many times the sport’s owners have begged NASCAR to “save them from themselves” and cut costs, only to find any money saved in a particular area to be spent somewhere else. Crying with a loaf of bread under each arm has grown tiresome.
Whether it’s a spending cap, franchising or a combination of those ideas and others, it’s obvious the sport’s team ownership model cannot continue on this doomsday path.
Actions not just words are imperative.
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Motor Racing Network.
