At the start of 2009, the outlook for NASCAR and its teams was bleak. The economy was tanking and people were talking about the possibility of less then 43 cars showing up at California and beyond. Then a funny thing happened. Where team contraction and minimal sponsorship had created holes in entry lists, some folks saw opportunity. Guys like Tommy Baldwin, Joe Nemecheck, and Jeremy Mayfield threw together Cup teams overnight and showed up to race. But now, as the season heads for summer, the novelty for these underdog teams is starting to wear off and the realities of big time auto racing are starting to set in.
These last few weeks haven’t been kind to the little guy, and it started with Jeremy Mayfield’s banned substance suspension. Now, while he and his lawyer try and fight NASCAR over the suspension, his team is left without their leader and must try and forge on with an uncertain future and J.J. Yeley at the wheel. Missing this weekend’s Coke 600 was yet another blow for this fledgling organization.
With a mostly volunteer team and extremely limited resources, Tommy Baldwin Racing has qualified for seven of eleven races so far, including the Daytona 500. But we found out today that driver Scott Riggs will vacate the seat of the #36 Toyota following the Coke 600. The team has resorted to starting and parking in recent weeks to make ends meet, and it appears from his quotes that Riggs cannot stomach driving a start-and-park entry. With Riggs leaving, the outlook for TBR has become very bleak. With no sponsorship on the horizon, look for the #36 to be behind the wall early going forward. The team says Mike Skinner, Patrick Carpentier, and Brian Simo will share the seat.
The small Cup teams aren’t the only ones suffering though. Two of the smaller, independent Nationwide Series teams now look to be on the brink. Smith-Ganassi Racing and SK Motorsports started out the season guaranteed in the top 30 and looking to run the full season. Now a lack of sponsorship has changed those plans.
Smith-Ganassi Racing is the team co-owned by Florida businessman Eddie Smith and championship boxer Evander Holyfield. The two bought the #40 NNS team from Chip Ganassi Racing and started the season with Kenny Hendrick behind the wheel. But, after Hendrick failed to qualify for two races, the team replaced him with driver David Gilliland for Saturday night’s Carquest 300 at LMS. A 15th place finish from Gilliland and team looked to be promising, but now the #42 is missing from the entry list for this weekend’s race at Dover. We’ve been hearing for a few weeks that this team might be in trouble, and now we are hearing they have released some employees, and their future schedule is unknown.
Although still currently in the top 30 in owner points, SK Motorsports #07 team appears headed for trouble. David Green had been behind the wheel since Daytona, but he was replaced at Darlington by Patrick Carpentier. The switch to Carpentier appeared to be sponsorship driven, but whatever deal they had fell through at the last minute before Charlotte and the Canadian driver was replaced with Donny Lia. Lia was very slow all weekend, and parked the #07 Camry before the race went officially green. Carpentier is again on the entry list this weekend, but rumors abound that it will be another driver and yet another start-and-park.
With the economy still struggling to pull itself out of a deep hole, finding sponsorship for these teams has been extremely difficult. As the season wears on, expect to see more of these teams either resort to the start-and-park strategy, or close down completely. It’s a shame that things have turned out this way, but such is the reality of today’s NASCAR.
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on May 26th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Kudos to Riggs for standing up and being a real racer. Teams went YEARS with no sponsor and raced the entire race. They were called independents.
Start & parks use the no sponsor thing as a cheap excuse. Does anyone really think the sponsored, race winning 09 team really doesn’t have enough money for tires? Mike Joy looked like a boob yesterday when he said all teams were sponsored and racing, then said the 09 dropped out with vibration. Right…
on May 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am
The euphoria of Daytona Speedweeks must seem like a distant memory to these teams, especially looking head on at a Summer doldrums, cross-country back2back2back weekends and expenses.
In order to make a small fortune in racing, one must start with a large fortune.
A good deal on some chassis and engines from a defunct team in Jan is only a relatively small piece of the budget pie.
on May 26th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
this is nascars fault making the pay pretty equal from 15-43.
Limited resources usually means less competitive but in this case parking and saving equipment keeps some of these guys at the track. Its better than quitting especially if you can keep people working. I know Joe Nemechek has 5 sprint cup and 2 nationwide guys full-time, and if those families are getting fed i admire him for not giving up, and seeing a little sponsorship come his way i hope to see him on the track longer and getting better.
we outta have this conversation before daytona next year.