September 7, 2010
By Allen Madding
For years NASCAR established a development path for up and coming drivers -- a defined career development ladder for hopefuls to progress through on their way to a promising NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. NASCAR encouraged local short track drivers to move on to a NASCAR touring series. Then the driver could set their sights on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series which originally ran short tracks exclusively, but was a good stepping stone because the hopeful driver would be familiar with the short tracks while getting accustomed to higher horsepower and similar chassis to the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series cars.
After time in the Trucks, the upcoming hopeful would move onto the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Originally the Nationwide Series ran short tracks like the Truck Series but also visited Daytona and Charlotte and a handful of other larger tracks. The Nationwide Series raised the level of competition the developing driver faced week in and week out and got the driver more time in somewhat similar equipment of the Cup Series although different, and an initial exposure to the larger tracks.
In the last few years, all of the lines between the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series have been blurred. For all intents and purposes, the Nationwide Series abandoned the short tracks that the Cup Series did not also visit, with the exception of O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. Then the NASCAR Nationwide Series increased the amount of companion events on its schedule with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Soon after the companion events increased, NASCAR imposed a ban on NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams testing on any track that hosted a Cup race. The idea behind the ban was to cut down on the expenses the teams were incurring. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams had begun such a rigorous amount of testing prior to the ban that some of the better funded teams had a separate hauler and semi that was an exact replica of the one that carried their race cars to the race weekends. And, they had a crew of six to ten whose jobs were solely testing. On top of paying salaries for testing teams, buying expensive haulers and duplicating pit equipment, there is the expense of renting a race track for a day or two of testing. The budget for a testing operation had gotten astronomical. The teams without the mega-budgets began to complain they could not compete with teams that were able to conduct so many testing events with elaborate testing operations.
Once the testing ban was implemented, several crewmembers no longer had jobs and extra equipment was suddenly for sale. The big budget race teams began to consider options for testing because it was obvious that no one could be very competitive showing up race weekend and trying to get a car’s chassis dialed in with two 45-minute practice sessions.
Some teams elected to go to racetracks that were not on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule but closely resembled tracks they where they compete. Tracks like New Smyrna in Florida, and Winchester, Indiana closely resemble Bristol, Tennessee’s short track. Greenville-Pickens, South Carolina is useful for preparing for Martinsville. Rockingham, North Carolina’s 1.5-mile track could certainly be considered helpful when preparing for many of the mid-size speedways on the schedule.
But what many teams quickly began investing in was to put their NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers in the NASCAR Nationwide Series companion events. Even though NASCAR implemented the COT chassis in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series which had different chassis adjustments and different handling characteristics than the NASCAR Nationwide chassis, the driver could see how the track changes through the miles of competion and what lines on the race track can be used to for the fastest lap times.
Suddenly instead of two or three Cup drivers dropping down to play minor league ball, there were ten. Suddenly, Cup drivers were competing for the title in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. And, because the recognition of a big NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver’s name, big corporate sponsors were willing to put corporate budget’s behind a NASCAR Nationwide team with a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver.
The drivers and teams who are committed to competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as their fulltime career whether with a long range planning of moving up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series or competing their entire career in the Nationwide ranks have been the greatest loser since this began. The fulltime NASCAR Nationwide teams now find themselves competing for sponsor dollars against NASCAR Sprint Cup teams who have dedicated teams for courting sponsors and drivers with household name recognition.
NASCAR floated a message earlier this year that they were considering putting a restriction in place to respond to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but they did not spell out anything definite. They are rumored to be mulling a restriction on how many NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers can compete in any one event and also considering banning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers from participating in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship chase.
Those are good starting ideas to consider, but also how about the purses? This past month, NASCAR announced it would cut NASCAR Nationwide Series purses by 20 percent. The rationale behind this move is to make hosting the series more appealable to the racetrack operators. The downside is that the regular fulltime NASCAR Nationwide teams have been left to eat scraps at the pay window after every event – right behind the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers typically take home the purse money for the top-10 events during the companion events. So, the NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars have been struggling to land a sponsor and struggling to survive on the purse money for positions 11 and back. Now, reduce those few dollars by another 20 percent and it really looks bleak.
At Bristol this year, Carl Edwards commented on the possibility of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers being banned from competing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, “If my team couldn’t compete in the Nationwide Series, it would affect our other three teams.” That illustrates the point perfectly. Roush Fenway Racing operates three to four NASCAR Nationwide teams with various schedules during the season. Edwards is in the run for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Championship title. But Roush Fenway Racing also fields part-time schedule cars for development drivers. Because the large corporate sponsors baulk and putting the money behind the unknown up and comer, Roush Fenway Racing gets a premium for the big name NASCAR Cup Series star’s sponsorship for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and spills over some of those funds to help operate the teams for the development drivers with affiliate sponsorships.
During the Great Clips 300/Emory Healthcare 500 weekend at Atlanta, Tony “Pops” Eury, Sr. commented on the situation, “Junior likes to put younger guys in his Nationwide cars. He likes to give kids a shot. But the sponsors don’t want to sponsor someone that isn’t gonna win races and win championships.”
Over the year, JR Motorsports tried diligently to put together sponsorship packages to give some upstarts their shot in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but the potential sponsors refused to get behind them.
Fans have begun to become confused with what the NASCAR Nationwide Series is. Some refer to it as “Mini Cup” or “Minor Cup”. Saturday night at Atlanta further demonstrated what many had already recognized. There were two races going on during the Great Clips 300. One was a race between the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers in the top ten positions. The other was a race between NASCAR Nationwide Series for the 11th position. By the time the checkered flag flew, Cup drivers locked the top six finishing positions and five other top 20 positions. All told, 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers took home NASCAR Nationwide Series purse money, championship points, and consumed 11 starting positions. To be exact, of the $1,076,369 purse divided among the 43 starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Great Clips 300 at Atlanta, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers took home $260,325 – a quarter of the total purse.
Soon after the green flag flew for the start of the Great Clips 300, five race cars peeled of the banking of turns three and four and made a slow painful turn onto pit road and an even more painful turn into the garage area. All of the cars were bare of any sponsor decals. When the teams had arrived on Friday, the majority had the big Featherlite trailers and shiny semis that duplicate the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series haulers, but several where pure white or black without any sponsor decals. And two teams arrived with enclosed trailers pulled by pickup trucks. Those two teams were not allocated garage space, so they quietly worked under pop-up tents. Teams eliminated in qualifying and sent home to try another day were on shoestring budgets.
The five cars that dropped out right after the green flag flew were what some have labeled “start and parkers”. Those teams desperately want to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series but simply do not have the budget to pay for the tire bill to run the entire event and cannot afford to rebuild an engine. So, they show up, qualify and hope a sponsor will pick them up if they make the show. When no sponsor comes along side, they start the race and then drop out in the early laps to save the engine and collect last place purse money hoping to get enough attention showing up to get some sponsorship help. To save face, NASCAR does not list them out of the race do to finances. It lists them out of the race because of “vibration” or “suspension”. The “start and parkers” averaged $12,000 for their efforts.
In years past, the NASCAR Nationwide Series had its own stars like Tommy Ellis, Larry Pearson, and Jack Ingram. It had its own sponsors, and its own schedule. It was a great step on the way to the dream of driving in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
The NASCAR Nationwide Series now needs someone to carefully redefine it, to develop its own personality, and purposely design the series to help the development drivers and the regular teams to be able to compete and financially survive. NASCAR and the fans that follow the sport desperately need the NASCAR Nationwide Series to continue to be the driver development series that introduces the world to the next NASCAR superstar. If it fails to continue to be the stepping stone, development series that it historically has been, from where will the next generation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers come? If a sponsor does not want to put money behind a driver they have never heard of in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, they certainly will be hesitant to consider funding a driver they have never heard of at the expense level the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series represents.
It is good that NASCAR has acknowledged there is a problem that needs addressing. Let us all hope they make careful diligent decisions to promote the series as a development series for drivers at that level and not as the NASCAR Sprint Cup testing sessions with purse money.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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