NASCAR's Trucks and Nationwide receive a double whammy
NASCAR's Trucks: Great show, but low TV ratings and low sponsorship (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net
BROOKLYN, Mich.
NASCAR's Truck and Nationwide tours received a double-hit Thursday with word that General Motors is considering major cutbacks in its factory support of both series for 2010.
That would follow cutbacks by Dodge and Ford.
NASCAR's Truck series has been under the sponsorship gun since before the season opened. The series, despite excellent races, has become too expensive and has not drawn great TV ratings.
The Truck series was initially designed by the NASCAR boss Bill France Jr. as an inexpensive entry point for car owners and sponsors and new drivers. Over the past few years, however, it has become a very expensive series, despite the decided lack of major corporate sponsorship to help Detroit's factory backing. Detroit car makers have been complaining about the increasing expense of the Truck series for several years.
The Nationwide series has had its own problems, principally because it has been dominated by Cup team owners, whose budgets far exceed the budgets of the sports' traditional Triple-A team owners. Cup teams have been flying top-named Cup driver around the country to headline the Nationwide series, which has in effect killed the 'grassroots' support of the tour.
GM officials and NASCAR executives could not be reached for comment. The sport's top GM Truck and Nationwide teams include Kevin Harvick and the Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Rick Hendrick operations.
But Ford and Dodge have both cut support for the two series, and GM's current bankruptcy has apparently led to reevaluation of how it allocates its racing budget, estimated at $100 million to $130 million annually.
The GM moves come just days after Johnny Benson, the 2008 Truck tour champion, lost his Toyota-backed ride.
And Texas Truck winner Todd Bodine says more Truck cutbacks may be coming.
The Texas Truck field had only 33 racers for the planned 36-truck field. And 10 of those 33 were apparently 'start-and-park' racers, who showed up only to try to fill the field.
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Looks like the other shoe is
Looks like the other shoe is starting to drop. My question is--if the darn truck series is becoming too expensive,then we must begin to ask: Is racing in general just inherently flawed since money always rules the day? This must be asked after we continue to see costs spiraling out of control across all the racing series. Somewhere along the line you NEED an underdog to win to keep it fresh and money issues kill that. Where are your Alan Kulwickis or Appalachia States (college football) or 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates or Buster Douglases in racing nowadays? Oh yeah,they are usually satellite teams of the big dogs.
It was to be expected that
It was to be expected that the factories would cut back on BGN and the Trucks. Both series are absurdly expensive and the novelty of racing Trucks wore off years ago. The racing in the Trucks, contrary to the hype, isn't all that good between the NASCAR-wide dearth of lead changes and the growing erosion of quality teams; only the "plate" races in the Truck Series are truly worth watching. Taking the races away from being a stand-alone series and shoehorning it into just another Winston Cup support series has further ruined the series.
Toyota's entry in the series is doing exactly what Toyota did in other series in which it has raced - priced the series potentially out of business. Frankly I doubt the series will even be racing beyond 2010.
BGN is a case study of a sanctioning body ruining its own farm system. Winston Cup regulars should never have been allowed to race BGN events because this is exactly what the result was going to be.
Over the past few years,
Over the past few years, however, it has become a very expensive series, despite the decided lack of major corporate sponsorship to help Detroit's factory backing. Detroit car makers have been complaining about the increasing expense of the Truck series for several years.
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