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NASCAR chairman Brian France said Sunday he’s not certain the Big Three automakers will be able to continue their involvement in NASCAR as they battle to stay viable during the current economic crisis.
Should funding of race teams suffer because of the nation’s credit crunch, France is confident NASCAR will remain a viable, healthy sport.
“These aren’t our first tough economic times, we’ve been in business 60 years,” said NASCAR’s third-generation czar. “We’ve seen the energy crisis of 1972, and 9-11 wasn’t that long ago. So we’re not going to change our business model because we’re in tough economic times, but it doesn’t mean we won’t be more aggressive and taking out costs for team owners.”
France said General Motors, Ford and Dodge “play a very important role in lots of ways with supporting teams, the branding and heritage, but we’re also not going to live or die if one manufacturer or another has a pullback or pullout. I hope it doesn’t happen. We’re working like mad to make sure it doesn’t happen, but the sport is on very solid ground that transcends one manufacturer or another.”
France said he and NASCAR president Mike Helton have met recently with executives for all four car manufacturers in the sport—General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota—to discuss the financial problems that are hurting each company.
“We want to understand carefully what they are going through and how it relates back to the [NASCAR] team owners,” France said. “We didn’t talk about a bankruptcy option. We talked about their issues and how they might get through it. They’re all in the same boat, trying to revamp their businesses to get to a better place.”
The problems have caused the auto manufacturers to reduce team support and sponsorships throughout NASCAR.
“We understand team owners are in dire straits, but the entire country is in dire straits in one form or another ... I wish we could have a safety net for everyone in our industry, but it’s not practical.”
NASCAR is continuously looking at money-saving measures - a new idea floating through the garage is the elimination of testing, which could save teams a minimum of $1 million per car. But it may not be enough to keep everyone in business, despite France’s confidence that NASCAR will be able to fill its 43-car fields next season and that the sport can weather the downturn.
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