France hopes automakers stick with NASCAR

NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said Friday that he is cognizant that Detroit’s Big Three automakers are suffering critical financial problems, but he’s hopeful they will continue to support NASCAR next year and beyond, despite dire circumstances. The news coming out of Detroit in recent weeks has been beyond dismal: General Motors stock has lost nearly 75% of its value in the last nine months and is trading at a 54-year low. Ford Motor Co. stock has fallen nearly 50% in just the last three months, and auto analysts have been predicting that Chrysler LLC will either file bankruptcy or divide the company and sell it piecemeal. According to a report, GM is pulling the plug on its 12 NASCAR track sponsorships, including Daytona International Speedway. That would be the first step of a reduction in Big Three spending in NASCAR. It likely will get worse before it gets better. Some of the more dire predictions among industry websites are that one or more of the Big Three could abandon NASCAR entirely, or perhaps the Nationwide or Craftsman Truck Series. Friday at Daytona, France acknowledged that the automakers are going through tough circumstances. “Well, look, they’re going through a very difficult time and I’m not going to read into all of their issues because they would be better to speak to those," France said during his annual midseason media press conference. “They have repeatedly told us that their longstanding positions in NASCAR work well. And they’ve got to market their products, whatever their products are going to be. This is a place where they come and get to actually be part of the sport in a way that’s so unique and so different than any other sport." Still, France acknowledged that NASCAR could well be affected by the chaos in Detroit. “Obviously, with their challenges come reviews and everything else, and we’ll have to see how that goes," France told reporters. “It would be … we’ll just have to see. Those are the kind of decisions that they’ll need to make. Wish they were more healthy. Think that they will be at some point." SPEEDTV.com