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The nation’s economic crash is affecting NASCAR, but the organization is trying to keep costs down for teams and fans, said Brian France, the organization’s chief executive.
Speaking on a number of economic issues, France said one cost-cutting option being considered is less on-track testing by racing teams, rather than reducing the number of events or shortening races.
“Eliminating the last 50 laps of a race doesn’t result in much savings,” he said. “It’s all of the other things, (like) getting there or testing (that keep costs up).”
France also said NASCAR recognizes race fans are also under a “tremendous amount of financial pressure,” and not just as their lives relate to the sport.
While France said that Nascar would survive if a manufacturer left the series, the racing league is trying to keep them in place until 2010, when a change in union benefit funding will ease some of the financial strain on U.S. automakers.
“The sport is on very, very solid ground that transcends one manufacturer or another,” said the 46-year-old grandson of Nascar founder Bill France Sr. “We’re not also going to live or die if one manufacturer or another manufacturer has a pullback or a pullout. I hope it doesn’t happen.?We’re working like mad to make sure it doesn’t.”
Nascar race teams are considering mergers and layoffs as the credit crunch puts the brakes on consumer and corporate spending, cutting the number of sponsors willing to spend as much as US$25 million to back a single car.
General Motors Corp., which puts more than US$100 million annually into Nascar, may see its stock drop to zero in a year, Deutsche Bank AG said in a report.
France said he’s “very happy with the three principles we set out — which were safety, cost containment and competition” for the new car. However, by most accounts only the safety aspect of the COT’s goals has been achieved. No competitor has been seriously injured since the new car was introduced last year — even after some bone-jarring crashes — but the competition, particularly on intermediate tracks is mediocre at best. On top of that, the costs of research, testing and fabrication have skyrocketed.
France added he was proud that the sanctioning body “didn’t cave to pressure” when owner and manufacturers advocated for changes in May after teams struggled to get a handle on the car.
“That would have done two things,” France said. “It would have cost the teams a lot more money because we would have in theory moved the rules around, right? And made them chase something else. That costs money every time we do that.”
But if France is serious when he says “back to the basics” racing means “back to the focus on what happens on the track” he needs to concentrate on “The Show.” With the exception of Dover, the Chase hasn’t been all that. Just ask ABC, who opted to run the banal “America’s Funniest Videos” over the final 35 laps of NASCAR’s ninth playoff race because of time constraints.
“We didn’t like it, that was not what we had anticipated but we have talked to them repeatedly in the last couple days,” France said. “There were lots of circumstances that we have to consider. They have their own issues they had to manage around. Unfortunately we got the short end of that.”
France, however, says the interests of NASCAR and its television partners are “in line” and that a rare early afternoon storm and a late accident that forced two red-flag stoppages couldn’t be helped.
America’s Funniest Home Videos aired between 7:30-8 p.m. in the Eastern and Central time zones. The race had a rating for 4.6 in the 7-7:30 p.m. spot before the broadcast was moved.
“They did not like the idea of having to pull out of ABC and operate the way they did Sunday,” France said. “It is imperative we work closely together with them for scheduling.”
