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NASCAR Tight in Turn Two? It’s the Economy Stupid

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by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

October 17, 2008 10:42 am CDT 3 Comments

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There’s plenty of doom and gloom in the mainstream media about the current state of the U.S. economy. You don’t need more from a NASCAR blog and I’m not going to give you any. But NASCAR teams had money issues before the recent house-of-cards crashed on all of our heads. Race teams always have cash concerns, no matter the league.

But this time, will NASCAR go in an all new direction? Will NASCAR finally embrace the “F-word”? Full Throttle’s Marc has a great post with question suggestions for Dustin Long to ask of Mike Helton. Here’s one…

Set the record straight on any potential franchising of NASCAR teams. Is franchising in NASCAR’s future? And if so will the number of teams allowed into Cup be restricted further in the number of cars allowed? (i.e. From 4 to 3 per owner)

I’m betting that Dustin will get danced on when Mr Helton answers that one. But nobody dances the answers here. Check out my Tight in Turn Two topic this week. Then go to  NASCAR Bits and register your votes on question of the week.

According to various reports, Felix Sabates and or Chip Ganassi are predicting that NASCAR will reduce the size of starting fields in the three top series to as few as 36 cars. Do you agree?

Charlie:  No, not for the Sprint Cup Series I don’t. But I don’t know what these guys know either. I believe that the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series fields will shrink. They already have, unofficially. We posed this same question to Larry McReynolds on Tuesday’s ON PIT ROW. He agreed on the Nationwide and Truck but surprised me by saying he saw scenarios where Cup could shrink as well. I don’t see it. If anything, the attitude of Earnhardt Jr may force the Cup Series to increase its field size. Remember Junior saying that, with the cost of fielding Nationwide teams being what it is, he may as well move JR Motorsports up to the Cup level. A similar thing seems to been behind JTG Racing moving to Cup.

One of the problems early this season was teams with good sponsors having to go home after failing to qualify. Many of those sponsors have moved to teams with a better chance of making races. How will fewer teams help that?

Bruce:  I think that some of the guys on the Cup side are guessing at the situation from some stats that are floating around out there right now.

If they had to, NASCAR will probably back up their Cup side of things and it would be an interesting consolidation to see more Nationwide teams merge over to Cup, whether they are ready or not for it. If that’s a possibility. It don’t think the field will be limited, but it may be short in a race or two in 2009.

That’s what we think. What do you think? And what do you think about Bruce’s topic?

I have to wonder just how well NASCAR can fare the financial storm that not only just plowed through everyone’s wallets, but next year while we still deal with the after affects?

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Craftsman Truck Series, Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, JR Motorsports, Mike Helton, NASCAR Bidness, NASCAR Rumors, Nationwide Series, Sprint Cup Series, Stewart Haas Racing, Top 35 Rule, Turn 2 posts 

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Comments

3 Responses to “NASCAR Tight in Turn Two? It’s the Economy Stupid”

  1. User Avatar Marc on October 17th, 2008 3:15 pm

    I can see it now, Daytona 500 - 2010. (Field size has been cut to 36)

    The 500 being the sports “Stupid Bowl” the entry list follows what has been normal over the last two decades and hits the average over the course of that time.

    50 plus entries.

    How is France & Co. going to pare down that entry list from 50 plus to 36?

    I think you see my point, and if there’s any doubt it’s not a major problem consider the July Daytona date that has very large entry lists and several other events each year the approach the “Magic 50″ number.

  2. User Avatar Charlie Turner on October 17th, 2008 3:34 pm

    Like Bristol at night and Vegas. What they need to do, is 1) cut the Nationwide and Truck field size, keeping the purses the same as they are now to help the teams that do race and 2) Increase the Cup field size to 45 or 47. Keep the big sponsors on the track, not in the haulers, going home.

  3. The Tight in Turn 2 Team Looks at: Wall Street, NASCAR and Other Venues | Live NASCAR Racing on March 6th, 2009 2:21 pm

    [...] Go &#115ee what we ha&#118e to &#115ay on that i&#115&#115ue o&#118er &#79n &#80it Ro&#119. [...]

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