June 8, 2009
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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After months of speculation and concern, General Motors finally declared bankruptcy. The move did not come as a surprise, as it has been expected for quite some time, but it leaves many in NASCAR wondering what will happen next.
The answer is simply, no one knows. General Motors will receive more than $30 billion in aid from the U.S. government, and it will also receive money from the government of Canada. However, the most frightening aspect of General Motors bankruptcy filing is that the company is expected to emerge with the federal government being the majority stockholder.
What if the new administration decides that General Motors doesn’t need to spend the money that it does in NASCAR? Where will that leave the teams that compete under the Chevrolet banner? Out in the cold more than likely, but NASCAR officials and team owners remain optimistic.
“I've got a lot of faith in GM, and especially Chevrolet,” car owner Rick Hendrick said in a David Caraviello article on nascar.com. “I've been with them for a long, long time. Our business is good, the products are good. And this economic downturn we've had has hurt everybody.”
However, losing its GM sponsorship would not hurt Hendrick Motorsports as much as it would a smaller team. The Hendrick organization already builds it own engines, they just use Chevrolet parts. It would be like losing a sponsor for Hendrick, something that could easily be replaced given the recent success of the organization.
Traditionally, the manufacturers in NASCAR spend millions each year to provide support for their race teams, but so far when one of them files for bankruptcy, that funding dries up.
Chrysler, a company that competes in NASCAR under its Dodge brand and is currently amid Chapter 11 Reorganization, is not making any payments to its NASCAR teams, most notably, Penske Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports.
“They've stopped everything,” Richard Petty was quoted as saying in a report on nascar.com. “They went into bankruptcy, and they're sort of in a floating stage right now. They're trying to see where they come out of this at. If they've got new people running the show, are they still going to continue to back everything exactly like they are, or whatever?”
The uncertainty of the situation has a lot of people on edge. Losing a manufacturer would most likely force the smaller teams to shut down. However, NASCAR has attempted to remedy this situation with the Car of Tomorrow, by creating a set template car that each team has to use.
When automakers provide financial support for their race teams, all they are paying for is the right to have their emblems on the front of the cars.
Since the advent of the Car of Tomorrow, the manufacturers that compete in NASCAR have become nothing more than glorified sponsors. Gone are the days when Richard Petty took his Dodge to the track and raced it against a Ford or a Chevrolet.
NASCAR is an acronym that stands for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. There is nothing stock about the Car of Tomorrow. How many “stock” cars come off the assembly lines with rear wings? Maybe NASCAR should consider changing its name.
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