GM budget cuts could hit all levels of racing, including NASCAR
Quote selected text Published July 16th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Nothing at GM is off-limits-including its high-profile NASCAR program - company executives warned as the automaker went public Tuesday in Detroit with its latest round of cost-cutting measures. With the auto industry in North America taking a beating, GM racing director Mark Kent said that every level of motorsports that GM supports-from the giant stock-car racing series NASCAR to the grassroots Sports Car Club of America-is being evaluated.
GM also competes in the NHRA, USAC midgets/sprints and the American Le Mans Series. “Racing is not exempt (from cuts),” Kent said last week. “We are looking at ways to be even more efficient … looking to see if they are genuinely positioned for a positive return on investment.”
Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, added: Motorsports “have not gone without scrutiny. I’m not going to get into specifics about NASCAR. But there will be modifications-changes in our marketing footprint-in this area.” GM’s NASCAR program, which has enjoyed great success and supports 12 Chevy teams, is under review, as is all of the racing GM supports, Kent said. “NASCAR, SCCA club racing-we are looking at where we need to be.” Funding a championship-winning team such as Chevy’s Hendrick Motorsports and drivers of the caliber of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. costs GM at least $30 million a year.
- Ford staying in NASCAR
- Report: Ganassi to make more job cuts
- Prodrive to have $80 million F1 budget in 2008
- Interview with Renault President Carlos Ghosn
- Manufacturers sticking with Sprint Cup
I figured they would have to do this. With laying workers off it’s
hard to justify keeping as much money in racing.
I see them dropping track support before driver support, at least in the case of nascar, they just spent how much to take smoke back so they are obviously still interested in their drivers. perhaps less commercials and less of a presence at the track, i dont see this hurting (at least the big dogs) the drivers all too much (at least in cup)
WAY TO GO GM.CUT THE SPONSORSHIP ON THE JUNKCAR AND THE OTHER TWO WILL FOLLOW.WE NEED TO GET BACK TO THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF NASCAR AND HAVE “STOCK CAR RACING”.GET BACK TO STOCK BODIES NOT THESE THINGS OF TODAY.MAYBE YOU MIGHT JUST GET MORE FANS IN THE STANDS.
This is so funny, I have been around the garage area and shops for a while now and I never got into the R&D part of the deal but to me NASCAR is a grassroots sport. heck come on 30 million a year for what? NASCAR still runs Normally Aspirated Engines producing the same HP as we always have. My God its a small block Chevy, their is only so much you can do to it. the bore and stroke has always stayed the same, the block and head casting have changed a little but we are still talking a 358 cu. in motor here. I don’t see it.
And as far as Chassis we all know the teams have a better knowledge of chassis than that of the manufactures.
so tell me, I been in racing since the late 70s and raced myself in the DIRT and in NHRA and we go to the tracks for racing and to have fun. some where down the road this thing when haywire and turned into a money thing and is out of control, the speeds have not changed in years, we are running the same laptimes we always have so why all this money being shelled out to go the same speed. we need to go to spec bodies, spec engines and run the chassis we run now and the racing would still be the same.
A Cup car cost 300,000, for 75,000 you can run the same speed and get the same race. go figure
Just look at the Cup cars and Nationwide cars, the Nationwide cars are just as fast as the cup cars, they are just shorter and lighter. why they are suppose to be stock cars. get it.
NASCAR caused this in my book.
I THINK ITS PRETTY IRONIC WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING FORD HAS SAYING THE SAME THING, YET THEY SAY THIS AFTER THEY SUPPOSEDLY GAVE GIBBS MILLIONS TO GET SMOKE OUT OF THERE, IM A HUGE SMOKE, BUT I CANT HELP THINK OF ALL THE WORKERS THAT COME TO THESE RACES TO SUPPORT SMOKE AND CHEVY, AND THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE GM IS LAYING OFF, BUT YET THEY CAN PAY MILLIONS TO GET 1 PERSON AWAY FROM A RACE TEAM. THAT MONEY COULD HAVE PROBABLY BEEN BETTER USED SOMEWHERE ELSE. I THINK ITS SUCKS PEOPLE ARE GETTING LAYED OFF THEN THEY HAVE SEE IN THE NEWS THERE COMPANY PAYS MILLIONS TO GET A DRIVER TO GET RELEASED FROM A TEAM
I think the funny thing is the only reason they manufactures are hurting right now is because of their own doing. Look at GM for example, they make a new car, and sell that same car under 3 or 4 of their Marques just in North America alone. It is nothing but a waste of money to sell the Solstice as a Pontiac and a Saturn.
Heck an even better example would be Dodge a few years ago, the Neon was sold as a Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth. THERE IS NO NEED FOR THAT IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY.
Fisha;
that along with the unions biting the hand that feeds them and demanding pay (20+/hr) versus a non unionized company like toyota who pays 9/hr. They really are supporting American jobs there.
By the way my chevrolet Malibu was manufactured in Kansas by
GM workers getting over 20/hr before you all go on a non America. Company screamfest
well as of yesterday the HUMMER is done, GM said they wanted to sell off the division and now they are shutting down production all together. well that will hurt Robby because he is big into them.
Pontiac is going to take the fall here, it was said that GMC would go but I guess they changed their minds .
Pontiac is said to be ok
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/15/lutz-no-beat-for-the-u-s-smaller-cuvs-on-the-way-insignia-st/
“General Motor’s car czar, Bob Lutz, sat down with the little people of the blogosphere after GM’s announcement that it would be reducing white collar expenditures by 20-percent, cutting truck production and eliminating retired health care for salaried workers over 65, all in an effort to boost its liquidity by $15 billion by the end of 2009.
Maximum Bob addressed questions about GM’s entire brand portfolio, saying, “Pontiac will be nourished with products” and confirming that GM is in talks with financial institutions about HUMMER, and that, “If we could sell the brand, we’d be interested in doing that.”
Predictably, much of the conversation centered on fuel efficiency and the General’s plans to address the growing demand for miserly transport in the U.S. Lutz made it clear that “as fuel costs in the U.S. begin to resemble those in the rest of the world” it will be easier for GM to realign its products on a global scale.”
more info pertaining to GM
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/15/gm-to-cut-20-in-overall-white-collar-costs-cut-truck-productio/
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/07/job-and-brand-cuts-from-gm-on-the-horizon/
and how about Bruton Smiths empire SMI trading at 18. dollars a share when it was at 42. dollars a share 1 year ago. its gotta make you wonder.
Ganjadude wrote:
why then in that article does it say;
Chevrolet and Cadillac – brands at the core of GM’s business – are likely safe from the ax. However, Buick, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn, which haven’t fared well during the biggest U.S. sales slump in 15 years, could possibly be sold or killed completely.
Oh wow Howie that is interesting! So what about ISC? what is it trading for? I think all of the problem with these automakers comes from the fact gas is so high and no one wants those big tanks anymore. I get a SUV it will be a hybrid cause I’m tired of paying the Arabs for oil! Carter had the plan in 79 and we have no one to blame but ourselves for allowing Reagan, Bush 1 and 2 and Clinton for not going forward with it!
Howie are you going to be at IMS for the Brickyard?
actually ISC has been holding its own at around 35. a share. tell be about it I own a Yukon. I will be at the Brickyard on Tuesday
any hybrid SUV gets 1-2 mpg better mileage than its counterpart. from an environmental standpoint they are even worse than a NA engine due to the battaries (a prius is worse for the environment than a hummer over 5 years believe it or not)
on the CUV level im not so sure
You know how they say in the future all cars will just emit water as exhaust… well won’t that cause flooding.
Fisha Fisha.
In places like Australia, there is hardly any water.
And, as bmw have shown, the water amount produced is marginal
Andrew wrote:
? 9 An hour lol toyota pays a higher wage than ford or gm,the georgetown ky plant starting pay is 23.50 an hour.
Howie how come you will be there on Tuesday if I may ask. Taking pictures? I won’t be there until Friday when the track opens. I drive a Ford Focus 4 cylinder with twin overhead cams. It doesn’t do bad on gas but I do drive 35 miles round trip to work every day.
Buy PPBV stock now. It will go up big time like Coke and Pepsi. Enough of the stock tips for now. It’s sad to see another auto giant cutting back but it was inevitable. I just hope they stick with the NASCAR and NHRA programs over any other racing programs they have. That’s only because they’re my favorite ones. I get tired of hearing about job cuts and concessions too. We can only hope things get better. Most of us believe in a better tomorrow but right now we’re stuck in today.
Erin wrote:
I always get to the track 3-4 days before the race
Nice Copy n Paste on the story.
It has been coming.
1 manufacturer series looks a whole lot more likely now.
well atleast until Honda, Nissan and friends come in
ITS FUNNY HOW ALL THESE PEOPLE TALK SMACK ABOUT FOREIGN COMPANIES BUT YET I WONDER HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE HONDA GENERATORS OR PRESSURE WASHERS OR DRIVE TOYOTAS OR NISSANS OR SUPPORT FOREIGN COMPANIES AND DONT EVEN KNOW WITH STUFF THEY USE ON THE DAILY BASES
So Howie you will be there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday too? Cool maybe we will bump into one another! I’ll be at the Chevy tent for sure those days. Can’t miss me. Moderately tall,muscular (or slightly overweight) shoulder length blonde wearing Tony Stewart hat and gear!
Andrew wrote:
Yes in places like Australia there is hardly any water and it has been like that for thousands if not millions of years. Their eco-system has adapted to that little amount of water and introducing more water via car emissions would have no different of an effect then introducing more water through “Global Warming”
And yes while one car driven by one person only produces small amounts at a time, The worlds population of drivers driving those cars everyday will produce collectively massive amounts of fresh water.
Now lets take the example to the extreme (realistic nonetheless) Trains, Trucks, Buses, Farm EQ, All Bigger engines, all going to produce more water. Once again not really a bad thing when you think in a scale of maybe 100 people, but when you think on a Global scale that little bit of water really adds up.
Now lets go one more example, Planes. Naturally the water from those planes would be caught in the clouds and return to earth in the form of rain/snow. Well ok doesn’t seem so bad on the surface of things, but lets look a little deeper. That would create more rain/snow, which while some areas could use more water, too much is also bad. Now add in the fact that the earth would already be “wetter” due to every vehicle producing water, now that rain will fall on already saturated ground and cause flooding.
Erin wrote:
well since you like Tony I guess you will stop by the Toyota manufacturer display, you cant miss it it is the biggest one there and it has Dennys car up in the air around 25 feet.just go inside and see Clint or Sherry and tell them to beep me. I wont be far. get a SMOKE tatoo while you wait.
Fisha695 wrote:
I actually lived in Australia for around 8 years (1991-2000) and water was never a major issue during those times. However in the 8 years since the water shortages are immense, with many cities expected to run out in 2010 unless an alternative is found. Im not sure what caused this, I remember in 1998 there was such a huge flood leaving my hometown of Wollongong under water for days. However a severe drought has failed to yield and such automotive solutions are needed. While many companies looked to fuel-cutting cars and new technologies, as mentioned above. GM continued to enjoy brisk sales of gas guzzling SUVs and were not prepared when the market changed beneath them like Toyota and Honda were.
You bring up some good points about water-producing vehicles in already moist areas. I don’t know what the solution is for that but in many parts of the world, a car that produces emissions of water would be much welcomed.
All I can say is ouch…but all we can do is sit back and see what happens…time will tell .
Howie will do! I’ll check it out. I don’t remember it being there last year. Do you know where it will be? Will it be back by the museum back toward turn two and the backstretch?
yeah we were there, its right on Georgetown road across from the track in the display area with Craftsman Tool and Lowes.
So it’s outside the track probably in what they call Lot 2 that is the reserved lot for all of that. Never got over there last year my seats were over in turn 2 they were very good seats but I moved them to the Pit Terrace this year. Not as hot in the sun and we can see all the action in the pits and by start-finish. Can see a lot of the festivities that we couldn’t see over in the Southeast Vista.
So GM is in trouble but they can cut a check to JGR for 5 million to bring Tony to Hass/cnc. Thats sounds like a waste of 5 million dollars.