Drivers, team owners, and tracks feel the sting of GM bankruptcy

As GM comes out of bankruptcy proceedings, it now has the option to cancel existing contracts, and it is doing so, to shrink itself into a small enough company to remain competitive.

Of course the NASCAR, and motor sports world are feeling the brunt of these cutbacks.

In June, according to the Sporting News, all of the Sprint Cup Chevy teams were forced to renegotiate their deals with the manufacturer. On top of that the Nationwide and Truck series teams were told their support had all but dried up.

Now comes another round of cancelled contracts that once again puts NASCAR drivers and the teams they own, operate, and work for will face similar cuts. Among those affected:

· Bowyer Dirt Motor Sports- GM has cancelled its personal services agreement with the team and it’s owner Clint Bowyer

· Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, California)- Suite Contract that include 70 tickets

· Lowe’s Motor Speedway (Charlotte, North Carolina)- Suite contract that included 66 tickets

· Daytona International Speedway- Suite Contract Suite Contract that included 77 tickets

· Dover International Speedway- Suite Contract that included 60 tickets

· RCR team #31 and driver Jeff Burton- Personal services agreement

· Richmond International Speedway- Suite Contract that included 60 tickets

· Rusty Wallace Inc.- Motor sports sponsorship agreement

• Ryan Newman Motor Sports- Sponsorship services agreement

So this is the silly season of 2009, as GM and the other car manufacturers pull back team owners in all NASCAR series scramble to find additional sources of funding and technology support.

What NASCAR fan can be assured off is as the dominoes of support continue to fall, teams will be doing whatever they can to find new sourced of funding and tech support. Already Jayski is reporting that Rusty Wallace and Kevin Harvick have formed a technical alliance to keep their Nationwide series teams running as well as they have been.

It is a pretty safe bet, that over the coming weeks we will see more of these kinds of alliances being formed.

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CheezerAll-Star

134 days ago

Score 3

I wonder the benefits the automakers see from the money they spend supporting racing. Are they really tangible? Seems that in the modern economy, most people do not purchase their car based on how the manufacturer finished in the NASCAR races.

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Steel TownDraft Pick

134 days ago

Score 2

I think some of that has to do with the fact that they no longer "Drive it on Sunday, sell it on Monday". It simply says Dodge or Toyota on the cars now instead of actually being a Dodge Charger or Toyota Corrolla. Basically the car manufacturers pay substantially more than the other sponsors without any sort of extra exposure.

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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer

134 days ago

Score 0

Not sure about now, but this Chevy dealership was the highest selling Chevy dealer in the country:

http://www2....dtchevy.com/

It's difficult to correlate car sales to success on the track, but it's also hard to correlate beer sales to beer billboards on a highway. At the very least, being in NASCAR gives brands added visibility.

People don't buy cars because their favorite driver drives the same brand, BUT they might be more apt to look at and consider buying said brand. I know when buying a new car a few years ago, I started (and stopped) with Chevrolet. Next time it will probably be an Asian or European car, but then again I'm not much of a NASCAR fan these days.

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