NASCAR has become a big business
By JIM PEDLEY
The Kansas City Star
INDIANAPOLIS | In addition to being a vice president for NASCAR, Jim Hunter is one of the series’ top unofficial historians.
As rain fell Friday afternoon on Indianapolis Motor Speedway, washing out practice for Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Hunter pondered the merger madness that befell NASCAR this week.
Back in the day, he said, “the sport was made of independent-minded people. They wanted to make it on their own. Alan Kulwicki, you know?”
Hunter, NASCAR’s vice president for corporate communications, took a couple of breaths.
“Not possible anymore,” he said.
Certainly, not happening anymore.
The week started with news that Dale Earnhardt Inc. had swallowed up Ginn Racing. Then, on Friday afternoon, it was announced that Robert Yates Racing was merging with Champ Car team Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.
The news of those two mergers capped a year in which the top-tier Roush Racing team took on partnership with the Fenway Sports Group to become Roush Fenway Racing and in which Evernham Motorsports has entered into talks to take on billionaire businessman George Gillette as an investing partner.
The week’s news comes two years after the Wood Brothers merged with ST Motorsports to become Wood Brothers/JTG Racing and six years after Felix Sabates’ SABCO team took on Chip Ganassi as a major partner to become Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.
Fifteen years ago, Kulwicki won the Nextel Cup champion as a totally independent owner and driver. Not even the staunchest supporters of the Car of Tomorrow’s mission to even the playing field between big and small teams are holding their breaths waiting for the next Kulwicki.
“The face of this sport constantly changes,” owner-driver Kyle Petty said Friday when asked about mergers and partnerships. “Rockingham has closed and we’re going to Kansas City. Now, it is changing internally. I think everybody is going to have to do it.”
The reasons for the changing internal face, as Petty called it, vary.
The DEI-Ginn merger was about expansion. As a result of the deal, DEI becomes a four-car team in Nextel Cup and acquires real estate needed for growth of the team.
The Yates deal with the Champ Car group was made to acquire technology. The engines produced by Yates and Roush (another collaboration) are among the most powerful in Cup. But the Yates cars have lagged behind.
In joining forces with Newman/Haas/Lanigan, Yates gets help from one of the most engineering-savvy racing operations in North America. For decades, the Champ Car team has used technology and equipment that has only recently come into vogue in NASCAR
“We want to share everything we have with Robert Yates and some of the technologies we have used over the last 25 years,” co-owner Mike Lanigan said. “Everything will be available. Technology and people.”
The bottom line to the mergers and alliances that are taking shape in NASCAR these days is, of course, the bottom line. Money.
The need for it has been growing a lot faster than the sport’s television ratings. There are no bargain basements when it comes to buying speed in the age of NASCAR’s escalating dependence on engineering.
“We have capital and we’re moving ahead,” team owner Ray Evernham said, “But, overall, racing costs more for everybody. We’re still looking for more. Some of these teams (merging) are in trouble. We’re not. But when you have to go up against Hendrick (Motorsports), you just can’t go it alone.”
Evernham says that the recent trend toward more and more technology and engineering is not necessarily bad for the sport.
He said it is, however, important for NASCAR to manage the growth in those areas. He said NASCAR must keep an eye on costs and things like the raiding of crews.
Hunter said NASCAR is very aware of costs. He said the Car of Tomorrow will help. He points out that driver Kevin Harvick has used the exact same car in every one of the Car of Tomorrow races this year.
But, Hunter said. “A lot of the money is going to hiring people. There isn’t much we can do about that.”
Petty said that people who mourn what is going on in the sport these days regarding the mergers and partnering miss the point.
“This is not a sport anymore,” Petty said. “It’s a business. It is only a sport on Sundays. The other six days of the week, it’s a business.”
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