We saw it start with Red Bull racing. Then Roush joned up with Fenway, Evernham with Gillette, and DEI with Ginn Enterprises. This was a sport that was spawned from the working class, and grew with the hard work of families like the Pettys and the Woods. Everyone looked out for each other and took care of each other.
Now we are seeing drivers like Marlin out of the job. Even though he was not leading laps each weekend, and hasn't won a race in years, he still had a following and a fan base. This is a trend that we will continue to see as more and more coorporate owners come in. Other sports have unions that protect the players from greedy owners, but NASCAR drivers can't join a union.
Does anyone see something good that can come from the "fat cats" comming on board?
2007-09-17 08:39:06 · 5 answers · asked by Crazy Ant 5 in Sports ➔ Auto Racing ➔ NASCAR
Really the first corporate owner ship could be the somewhat success of Carl Kiekhaefer in '55 and '56.He had corporate sponsor ship with Mercury Boat Motors and Chrysler.
Then between '77 and '83 J.D.Stacy used his cooperate influence in his ownership of multiple teams.
NASCAR saw what happened with the corporate ownership and the influence in the sport and managed to redirect and eventually eliminate the influence.
But with the importance of the sponsor dollar today the corporate influence is coming in again and is taking a new approach in spreading out to multiple teams.However some of the corporations that gain the title of "official sponsor of NASCAR" gets too much power and can have the reverse effect and lose sponsorship dollars.
2007-09-17 16:21:11 · answer #1 · answered by blakree 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interestingly, this was a topic on Tradin' Paint this week. In fact this edition of Tradin' Paint was pretty "deep" into corporate ownerships, the possibility of NASCAR going international, etc. Kyle Petty's take on it is that we are going to see more and more mergers but not necessarily totally new people coming in as owners. He talked a lot about the one and two car teams and what he sees as the future for those teams, Petty Enterprises included although they did not get into the GEM/Petty merger. I found it very interesting.
I was also interested in the comments about the sport going "international". Some of what was said is that with a season of 36 races, it would be hard to take equipment, personnel, and try to do races in Europe or Asia because of the immense travel time. An "international" circuit might mean a reduction to 24 or so races because it would take a week over and a week back from those places. But most agreed that expanding to Mexico and Canada would likely not be as difficult on scheduling.
2007-09-17 08:56:12 · answer #2 · answered by Sally B 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The "fatcats" have been on board for a long time my friend.
I mean it's like with any major sport today if you aren't winning, ever, you are not going to have a job. Even if you do have a fan base. As a human being that is sad but it's the way of life in our society.
2007-09-17 08:46:48 · answer #3 · answered by Busymom21 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I agree with you 100% and I don't see anything good coming out of this in the long haul. NASCAR is starting to resemble CART in quite a few ways and you see what happened to that series.
2007-09-17 08:51:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I see nothing good. All this has lots to do with Toyota and the 200 million plus they spent this year and the billion dollars they will spend for a championship.
2007-09-17 08:54:34 · answer #5 · answered by beth 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋