Practically every team is in bed with somebody else, assuring that the Sprint Cup garage in 2009 won't look anything like it did in 2008.
“Most folks believe that things will turn around, so they're looking for ways to just avoid shutting down completely,” said Steve Newmark, an attorney for Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, a law firm in Charlotte, NC, that represents several race teams. “The way they do that is to look for efficiencies, whether that's through a joint venture, a merger, whatever.”
The question, Newmark said, is whether these ownership changes will be permanent or temporary.
“It wouldn't surprise me if they were temporary, to weather the storm,” he said.
In the Earnhardt-Ganassi deal, DEI will continue to exist as a business that represents Earnhardt's legacy, licensing and other ventures. Ganassi Racing will exist for its IndyCar Series and Grand Am teams. Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing will be a third entity representing the NASCAR teams and will use facilities at both locations.
Neither of the operations have expressed an interest in selling their Charlotte-area shops, which leaves open the possibility that they could break into their own camps when the economy turns around. Neither side is talking publicly, but sources say Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing's ability to compete on the track will dictate the team's future as a joint operation.
With so many teams restructuring, more than 500 workers have been laid off to cut costs; personnel is the single greatest expense for teams.
“None of this really comes as a surprise,” said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of corporate communications and a veteran track promoter. “Most of these teams have been struggling for years. If your entire business model is built on sponsorship and then you don't have it, the business model will go through a correction.”
NASCAR typically keeps its distance from team-related travails, insisting they are independent contractors. The sanctioning body did institute a ban on testing race cars at any track that holds NASCAR-sanctioned races as a way to reduce costs, and Hunter said NASCAR is considering a rule that would limit the number of crew members at the track on race day, another cost-cutting measure for teams.
Ultimately, though, “the people who complain are the same people spending anything to go faster,” Hunter said. “When it comes to a team's finances and payrolls, it's not our place to get involved.”
Granted, most of the teams scrambling to survive are fighting for scraps. Until something changes, only four teams truly matter from a competitive standpoint: Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing. All twelve of the drivers in the 2008 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup came from those four operations.
They're also about the only teams that haven't experienced some level of upheaval because their cars are fully sponsored going into 2009. Each of those teams went through a modest round of layoffs, about 20 employees or fewer per team, but nothing like what the other teams experienced.
