August 20th, 2009 
T.C. Doesn’t it seem lately that many of the moves made by NASCAR have dollar signs attached to them in terms of the teams? Let me briefly give you a few examples: Why develop the COT? Safety and cost savings. Why only allow five over the wall in the Truck Series? Saves money. Why bring out the new Nationwide Series COT? Safety and cost savings. Why eliminate testing? Save money. Notice a trend?
If there is one thing this down economy has done to racing, is it has made the sport and its teams pour over their budgets and find ways and places to cut costs and save more money. NASCAR has made the changes I talked about above, and teams have resorted to tactics like layoffs and cutting salaries. We are also seeing a bit of a change in how crew members are hired/fired and in their compensation.
But even with all the cost saving measures, I’m going to let some of you in on a little secret. This might be shocking to know, but guess what? Teams are going to spend this money anyway…
While I will say that some teams needed a financial crisis to finally cut back and become leaner, others certainly didn’t. Many will now take the excess funds (not matter how big or small that amount might be) and find other places to spend it.
One big area where money is still being spent is R&D. Don’t think that just because teams aren’t testing at sanctioned tracks, that other testing and development isn’t happening. Teams are now just having to travel further, to places like Pikes Peak International Raceway, and all the various proving grounds to gather data. Money is also being spent on wind tunnel time and days at the seven post rigs. And engineering departments are always hard at work with computer simulations trying to find new ways to go faster.
Teams are having to be more creative then ever before in finding speed, because of the restrictions of the COT. The tolerances are much smaller then with the old car, and gains will be even smaller. But that isn’t stopping these organizations from trying to find ways to one up the competition.
I understand that NASCAR is trying to level the playing field by mandating some of these changes, but in some respects they are only making the gap bigger between the “haves” and the “nots.” I believe at some point, we all just need to realize that NASCAR is an expensive sport to participate in, and if an owner can’t afford to pay, then they shouldn’t play.
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TC – uh oh….we agree again. The more rules there are and the smaller the sweet spot, the more expensive it is to find the sweet spot and get around the rules. This stuff reminds me of the stick & ball sports having salary caps. Of course the owners are going to find creative ways to spend above the caps. You have to spend it to make it. If you cannot afford to spend it, find more $$ or find a cheaper hobby.
Amen. NASCAR still has their head in the sand. I’m just glad the COT is safe, because so far it has’nt made for good racing. The crew chiefs could tell them what rules to relax in a heartbeat to make the cars more drive-able.
Yep, the big teams are still spending the big money.
Just checking Flight Aware I have found that Concord and Statesville Regional Airports get as busy as Washington National, thanks to the NASCAR Air Force. The NAF flies everything from 6-passenger, Cessna Citation jets, up to 50-passenger, Canadair and Embraer regional jetliners. And that doesn’t include Roush-Fenway, who uses a fleet of 140-passenger, Boeing 727s out of Charlotte Douglas Int’l to shuttle their teams around.
Have wondered how cost savings is playing out regarding “no testing.” It seems like a good PR move, but one teams easily get around.
As a team member, how do you feel about going back to the rules of the 80′s, where you could test anywhere, anytime?
There’s a theory that this would be good for the sport. It would instantly divide the sport into the haves and have-nots like the 80′s, but this historically is what propels sports leagues up.
The emergence of baseball in the 1920′s and 30′s, the emergence of college football in the 1950′s, the emergence of the NFL in the 1970′s. Even tennis in the late 70′s and early 80′s had a small number of dominant players. Golf in the late 90′s to today rides the Tiger wave. And NASCAR in the 80′s and early 90′s had a small number of dominant teams and a host of cast-offs.
In each case, it draws the casual fan into the sport to follow one of the dominant teams and lifts the whole league.
And for NASCAR, this starts by relaxing testing rules. It follows the American business model, where the free market is allowed to decide who wins and who loses, and welfare rules that artificially lift bad teams go away.