NASCAR Running on empty?
As NASCAR makes its annual pilgrimage to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the nation's most popular racing series faces major challenges in an economic environment that seems to worsen by the day.
Last week, General Motors — which has contracts with 12 of the 22 tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule and markets its Impala brand as one of four manufacturers in the series — announced a $10 billion cost-cutting program that company officials confirmed will have an impact on GM's commitment to racing.
Just how great that impact will be remains to be seen, but with Ford and Chrysler in similar dire straits, the estimated $500 million the Detroit automakers spend annually on NASCAR is bound to shrink and conceivably could go away entirely if their bottom lines don't improve.
With the price tag on team sponsorships at $20 million or more to fully fund one car for one season, owners are scrambling to make ends meet. And promoters, whose customers are faced with paying $4 a gallon for gasoline and equally exorbitant rates for food and lodging, are finding an increasing number of empty seats at their racetracks.
NASCAR officials bristle at any suggestion the sport is in crisis but admit to a growing concern.
"Obviously, the economy is affecting everybody and every facet of our business and personal lives," NASCAR President Mike Helton said. "But we're still getting good involvement from Fortune 500 companies and all of our stakeholders. Not every seat is filled every weekend, but we're still averaging pretty good-sized crowds.
"It's not ever as bad as it seems. We've had downturns in the past. It's something we have to be mindful of, and we're always looking for ways to do things more efficiently," Helton said. "But the sport still has a lot of huge positives, enough to weather these moments." More at Indy Star