Nascar is seeing less sponsorship, poorer attendance;
F1 also affected AFTER winning the Nascar Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway a week ago, American driver Carl Edwards performed his signature victory back-flip and, in a post-race TV interview, gave the obligatory thanks to his team and sponsors.
He then gazed at the grandstands, where pockets of empty seats were plain to see, and thanked the fans who had bought tickets to the race.
"I thought it was important," the driver said later of his gratitude. "You can't get around the fact that right now is tough times."
These are tough times, indeed, for Nascar and all forms of motor racing that are being pummelled by this year's economic upheaval.
High fuel prices and plunging housing values are crimping race fans' budgets, and the Wall Street credit crisis is battering corporate sponsors and the car manufacturers. Track attendance is down in the US.
Companies looking to slash costs are less willing to sponsor racing. Teams may merge
As a result, some Nascar race teams, including venerable teams such as Richard Petty's Petty Enterprises, are considering mergers to survive.
Carmaker General Motors also is considering a merger, with Dodge parent company Chrysler, in the face of slumping sales. With GM already having announced plans to shave its motor racing spending, the merger talks have raised fears of even deeper cuts.
"We're nervous like everybody else," said Nascar chairman Brian France. "We're taking every precaution we can in terms of getting costs out of our system on behalf of the team owners, on behalf of the track operators."
Just as the financial crisis had global reach, so did its ripple effect.
The international Formula One series, where teams such as Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes spend US$200 million ($297m) or more annually for what many consider the most technologically advanced race cars in the world, is feeling the pinch too.
Formula One's governing body, the FIA, is working with teams to cut what it called "unsustainable" costs, including a possible switch to standardised engines in 2010. Otherwise, it warned, Formula One could see more teams drop out, "reducing the grid to an unacceptable level".
In the drag-racing series, "the process has certainly slowed" for attracting sponsors, said National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) president Tom Compton.
But the NHRA and the IndyCar Series hope they still can garner sponsorship dollars because they are smaller series than Nascar and sponsorships aren't as costly.
He added that while drag racing has seen an attendance drop, it has been less than 10 per cent and "we feel like we're still in a pretty good place".
This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 3, 2008.
