General Motors, the nation’s largest auto manufacturer and parent company of the Chevrolet brand that’s won 32 championships in NASCAR’s premier series, is expected to file for bankruptcy protection Monday. How the ensuing restructuring may impact the carmaker’s racing interests is anyone’s guess.
But Rick Hendrick, who has won eight NASCAR titles with Chevrolet and owns a number of car dealerships, was hopeful Sunday at Dover International Speedway.
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“From what I’ve heard, and I don’t know a lot more than what you read in the media, but if they do file for bankruptcy [Monday], which all indications are that they will, it’s kind of a planned get-in, get-out situation,” Hendrick, who fields four Chevrolets on the Sprint Cup Series, said after his driver Jimmie Johnson won the Autism Speaks 400. NASCAR.com
News agencies are reporting that GM will file for bankruptcy at 8 a.m. ET Monday, and that shortly thereafter, President Barack Obama will tell the nation that the United States government is taking a 60 percent stake in GM, with the Canadian government taking 12.5 percent, the United Auto Workers healthcare trust 17.5 percent, and bondholders 10 percent.
“I’ve had no indication they’re going to cut back,” Hendrick said of GM’s NASCAR operations.
As Hendrick understands it, “there’s a plan, a get-in, get-out situation,” Hendrick said. “I’m hoping that if it happens, they’ll get in and get out [of bankruptcy] in a hurry.”
Hendrick pointed out that the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has affected all manufacturers in NASCAR, and “you see Ford and Toyota and Chrysler, everybody’s [still] here.”
That’s because they have to be. The situation has grown far graver than the old “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” line. If you want to sell American cars at all on Monday, you have to race them on Sunday. That’s the only real appeal you have left.
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The brands with which Chevrolet has to compete in the showrooms—Dodge, Ford and Toyota—are still here. So GM must stay. ESPN
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