In what ways has the poor economy in the U.S. effected Nascar (financial wise)?

Question

In what ways has the poor economy in the U.S. effected Nascar (financial wise)?

Answer 1

It has affected the series a lot. You see a couple of teams entering duel sponsorship agreement, like Dale Jr with AMP and National Guard.

The attendance at the track has gone down this season because of the high price of gas. Families can't afford to drive to the speedway, buy merchandise, buy food. It affects the bottom line. Many of the tracks are allowing fans to bring in food and drinks from home just to get them in the stands, but that's not enough.

It will be interesting how the Big 3 (Chevy, Ford, Dodge) can continue under these market conditions. Can they last until the next bull run? If one of them drops the series, then it could cause a lot of problems.

Answer 2

sponsors for one, some ticket sales for 2, and I hope it gets better...less $$ makes it hard if not impossible to run a team these days

Answer 3

The small teams will disappear faster than the use of true stock cars and be replaced by ten  or less mega money teams The roots of NASCAR will be a memory It's possible NASCAR might not be able full fields in future if it does not allow franchising like other major sports

Answer 4

Less tickets being sold for one thing.

People don't have $$ for luxuries like racing when trying to buy gas for their cars and put food on the table.

Sponsors are leaving...like Home Depot.  Sure other sponsors will take their place but it is just a matter of time before sponsors will be harder and harder to find.

Answer 5

it has effected it because people like rocketman writes stupid stuff

Answer 6

big business sponsors are seeing less income so they have less to commit to nascar teams

fan attendence at events is down (people can afford to go!), consequently gate admission income and concession income is down

Answer 7

Look at the demise in recent years of the #32 Tide Chevy, the #4 (long time NASCAR Competitor) Chevy & most recently from a well financially and successful driver/team owner combination the #40 CGRWFS Dodge.

It maybe at least 2 yrs or less to see some longer term effects of the economy on NASCAR (should it not improve by then)

Answer 8

One thing that will happen is a greater gap between the "haves" and "have nots".   The power teams can still command over 20mil a year from big sponsors like Dupont,  Lowe's, etc.    Less teams may find themselves with sponsors only willing to part with 8 or 9 million for a full season.  That is significant.  Other teams will using "patchworks" of sponsors.

Daytona showed a big effect of the economy, 50,000 empty seats and 8 fewer teams attempting to qualify than attempted to in Feb.

TV viewing is up 30 % which means people are staying home to watch and not traveling.

If the economy does not turn around soon you may be seeing fields of fewer than 43 cars showing up at tracks.

The next thing to hurt them will be the slow down in purchases of NASCAR merchandise....

It will only get worse before it gets better. I predict a steep drop in attendance for next year...

Answer 9

Actually the poor economy has effected Nascar in a pretty big way. A lot of the teams are loosing their sponsers because of the poor economy. I know that one team actually stopped running one of their cars because they could not keep a sponser.

Answer 10

It is not the economy that is causing fans to miss races... If you could afford the tickets, lodging, food, and gas before what is a little more gas money! I personally will not attend a race this year because I refuse to give my money to the NASCAR "Gods"! They are killing the sport. They need to realize THEY are not "Bigger" than the sport! The drivers are what make the sport, not the officials!

Answer 11

# 40 team geting shut down. And all the good sponsors from smaller teams(CAT UPS and General Mills) are all going to RCR! come on! At this pace they are going to have to have less cars in the field. It's ether your at the top (HMS JGR Roush RCR ) or at the bottom (MWR Petty Gannasi)

Answer 12

Dario Franchitti lost his ride in the #40 car because of lack of funding. Companies aren't able to give extra money to sponsor cars any more. Actually on about 23 teams have sponsorship for the entire year next year.

Its not just the teams that are effected either. Many race fans can't afford the gas it takes to get to races. And because of higher gas prices they can't afford to to any thing out of the norm. Sad days for NASCAR.

Answer 13

I've been to 5 or 6 races since last year since the economy started to really sour. Where we park at Dover (it's some guy's front yard), it's not even a quarter as full as it was 5 years ago at my first race. Also, there are more and more empty seats at every race. Sponsors are also leaving due to the poor market. The only marginally good thing is that tv ratings have been the same or up at almost every race this year, so, people are still watching, but it's cheaper to stay home and watch on tv.

Answer 14

The King, Richard Petty, stands at the far side of the Petty Enterprises garage and watches Kyle Petty pull his long flowing locks of hair into a pony tail.  When Kyle gets his hair safely secured and hanging halfway down his back, he grabs his socket wrench and disappears back under the hood of his #45 Dodge.  

“Ain’t she beautiful,” the King remarks proudly.  ÃƒÂ¢Ã‚€ÂœI am so proud of my daughter Kyle sometimes I don’t know what to do.  With all that she’s accomplished in her career.  It’s really something special.  She’s grown into quite a woman.”

He pulls off his trademark sunglasses and wipes tears from his eyes.  Overcome by emotion he returns his sunglasses to his face, turns away to compose himself and bumps into the wall.  Trying to recover from the embarrassment, he quickly exits the garage after making a hushed remark about people always moving things around in the garage.  

It remains unclear as to why The King believes his son Kyle is actually his daughter but unnamed sources within Petty Enterprises believe that the combination of Kyle’s ponytail and the dark tint on King Richard’s sunglasses contribute to the confusion.