The bond between Detroit and Daytona Beach, Fla., began 60 years ago when production cars, replete with cigarette lighters and working radios, rolled off U.S. assembly lines and onto racetracks.
In 21st-century NASCAR, Camrys compete against Chevys and “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” — the adage in American showrooms that you retail what you race — is a concept outdated by the evolution of a Sprint Cup vehicle that bears little in common with its street-ready counterparts.
The identity of the country’s largest auto racing series, though, remains as tied to its ailing auto industry as to the names Earnhardt, France and Petty.
“This sport has become driver- and personality-based, but it’s still been about Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge vs. now Toyota,” says Ray Evernham, ESPN analyst and founder of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. “This sport was built on the competitiveness of the manufacturers. It’s what we race.”
As the nation’s three largest automakers fight for survival, their uncertain future threatens a longstanding connection to another American staple: NASCAR. Ford, General Motors (through its Chevrolet division) and Chrysler (Dodge) made up roughly 75% of the cars in the field in the premier Cup circuit last season, and there are many questions about how much manufacturer support — a multilayered package of cash, technical support and parts — those teams will receive in 2009.
In an offseason dotted by seemingly daily reports of crew layoffs and teams folding, merging or reducing schedules because of declining revenue, a reduction of manufacturer support would be another blow to a sport whose fortunes are tied closely to corporate support.
But it wouldn’t necessarily be a death knell.
NASCAR survived the desertion of automakers during the 1960s and ‘70s when it wasn’t nearly so flush with cash. A multibillion-dollar TV contract that started in 2001, a $70 million annual deal with title sponsor Sprint and sponsorship from more than 100 Fortune 500 companies have helped diversify teams’ revenue streams during an era of $20 million to $30 million budgets for each championship-caliber car.
NASCAR chairman Brian France, who lobbied Congress for the bailout in a letter this month, says the manufacturers are part of the sport’s heritage in a unique way. “But we won’t live or die in a pullout or pullback,” he says.
But, he says, “Financially it’s not the lifeblood anymore. It’s going to hurt if they’re not there, but we’ll adjust.”
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