The impact of the sluggish U.S. economy appears to be hitting NASCAR directly. Only 45 teams attempted to qualify for last night’s Coke Zero 400, and that has some here worried about how many teams might be lining up to run for next February’s Daytona 500.
Robby Gordon has been struggling with sponsorship issues, and things may not be getting any better. Gordon’s business relationship with George Gillett and Ray Evernham may not be going all that smoothly at the moment, and it’s unclear if Gordon will be with Dodge again next season.
Chip Ganassi’s decision to shut down one of his Cup teams so abruptly, in mid-season, releasing 70 crewmen, has raised speculation that more cuts may be looming for that Dodge operation. Gillett, who has been trying to expand his own Dodge operation, could be bidding to purchase one of Ganassi’s teams.
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Robby shoulda gone w/ Toyota and then he would have had some actual manufacturer support!
The thing is that the teams that are disappearing are junk anyhow… It’s not like JGR is folding up the tents here. Aside from all the folks behind the scenes losing jobs, who really cares that these perennial backmarkers won’t be on the track? It just makes more room for competitive teams like RCR, JGR, and Evernham to expand to 4 full time teams!
pretty soon there wont be any single car teams…running without sponsors…or sponsors wont stay if the results arent happening…i wouldnt be suprised…but there should be enough to fill the entire field everyweek..the racing will be the same…qualify will just be less dramatic without the whole top-35 freakout if there is only 43 show up ;D
I hate it for Robby, he is the way he is and that’s why he is in the situation he is in. hes a great driver and a great person to be around and is very competitive with wins in everything he has entered in. even after the 400 on Saturday he wasn’t even tired and Sunday morning we shot down to Sarasota for the offshore grand prix boat race and he got to drive the pace boat for the start.
he had the best shot of his cup career with Richard in 2004 driving for RCR, everything was fine there, everyone liked him and Richard said he has more talent than anyone he has ever seen race and Richard does not say that about most drivers and then Robby just walks in one day and says thanks but I am starting my own team. we couldn’t believe it but even with Richard saying I would like it if you stayed he still left. he blew it because no one would help him again after leaving a ride like that so now he has to live with it and hes already 40.
darrell wrote:
Maybe it would be good if we just had 36 cars in a race , no top 35 rule and great racing on the short tracks.
It’s not the economy. It’s the competition.
Look for the max team rule to disappear in a handful of years. There will be one megateam per manufacturer.
well one thing for sure is that the NAVY sponsor wont be back on the 88.
Howie Motorsports Photography wrote:
ROFL that’s hilarious
wrote:
Well i guess you have not heard that NAVY is gone.
The 35 rule is killing the sport. Sponsors who would normally sign with smaller teams as primaries are choosing to sign on as secondary sponsors on top teams. A Jeff Gordon gets as much for a quarter panel of his car as a Robby Gordon can get for the entire car, yet sponsors would rather go with the quarter panel due to the guarantee of the car being in the race. NASCAR needs to eliminate the 35 rule before it kills the sport or before someone decides that the rule creates an unfair business practice and the court gets into the action.