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Prep Roundup
Columnists Brian Meadows Brad NormanMembersLocal Connection› Iredell County Young Athletes Association› South Iredell Athletics Association › SHS athletics › WIHS athletics › NIHS athletics › SIHS athletics › LNHS athletics Syndicate RSSAP NASCAR NASCAR Features A look at this year's schedule A look at this year's drivers Differences between stock car and open-wheel racing NASCAR Research & Development Petty Enterprises splitter testing Aerodynamic testing in Concord's wind tunnel Top 10 moments in Daytona history Site StatisticsThis page has been viewed 801238 timesPage rendered in 0.2134 seconds Total Stories: 2136 Total Comments: 34 Most Recent Entry: 08/15/2008 01:53 pm Most Recent Comment on: 04/17/2008 11:54 pm Most Recent Visitor on: 05/23/2012 01:14 am |
• Racing
2007 Sep-24
Merger mania: Teams playing follow the leadersBy Mike Mulhern DOVER, Del. - What is there to make of the merger mania in NASCAR? The wave of mergers and acquisitions washing over the sport has provoked considerable interest, and a little worry, in the stock-car racing garage. What’s going on here? And is it good or bad for the sport? The business of NASCAR, always murky, and more than a bit Machiavellian, is suddenly increasingly complicated and confusing, as well as increasingly expensive. Some veterans looking at this season’s lightning run of mergers - Jack Roush making a partnership deal with John Henry’s Fenway group, Ray Evernham making partnership deals with sportsman George Gillett and the Pettys, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Jeff Moorad and Tim Garfinkel buying the Roger Staubach-Troy Aikman team, Bobby Ginn selling the remnants of his operation to Dale Earnhardt Inc., Richard Childress buying back some of the stock he had earlier sold to investment company Chartwell, Robert and Doug Yates canceling a deal with Paul Newman and Carl Haas and then making a new partnership deal with Roush - and recall the worries NASCAR executives had when wealthy coal magnate J.D. Stacy arrived in this sport and plastered his name on the rear quarterpanels of half a dozen cars a few years ago. Throw in NASCAR’s unexpected and sudden acquiescence in the monumental legal battle against AT&T, the troubling TV scene, and the still debatable Car of Tomorrow, and maybe it’s time to take a step back and try to see the bigger picture here, if possible. Kyle Petty said the increasing consolidation of power among an ever smaller group of team owners is one of the most important stories in NASCAR today. And he kicks the media for generally ignoring it, and for focusing instead on trinket stories of no great significance. “The whole model of a NASCAR team is changing. But the media is focusing instead on Jeff Gordon’s baby’s name and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s new car number,” Petty said. “While the media is focusing on that stuff, the very underpinnings of this sport are changing. “When you get down to the consolidation of teams - Roush, Rick Hendrick, Gibbs, Childress, Chip Ganassi, Evernham, Roger Penske, DEI - you’ve only got seven or eight owners. And I could get those seven or eight guys into a room. “There is strength in numbers. With 43 teams and 43 owners, there is no strength there. With five or so owners, and only six or seven primary engine builders and only four manufacturers, there is a lot of strength there. That’s a story that hasn’t been paid attention to, a story that nobody’s written. “The consolidation of engine programs in this sport is an important but very quiet revolution. “This appears to be a sport that is migrating more to the Formula One model: strong team owners, strong sponsors, strong manufacturers.” Money complaints Those complaints were quickly squelched, publicly at least. But the TV money issues may not have gone away completely. And Petty, while not advocating any showdown, points to an increasing NASCAR weakness: “We may say we owners want more TV money. They say no. We say we won’t show up. “They’ll say, ‘We’ll just bring in our Busch teams.’ But we’ll say, ‘We won’t send our Busch cars either.’ “Half the Busch field today is owned by Cup owners. “The underpinnings of NASCAR’s strength are slowly being washed away by this tide. “NASCAR likes to say, ‘The second-strongest racing series in the country is the Busch series.’ But it’s all because these Cup owners are sending their 21 Cup drivers over. If you pull that out, that’s not a strong series. “And they’ve struggled all year to get a new sponsor for the Busch series.” For teams, NASCAR’s economics, while remarkably strong and on an upward curve, are changing quickly and in some strange ways. “If you look at this merger stuff, I’m going to pat myself on the back, because I said six to 10 months ago that I felt alliances among teams would be the way to go,” Petty said. “The question is, what do you want out of a deal: money now, money tomorrow, or money in 10 years? “You’ve been around long enough to see it - this garage is so much follow the leader, monkey see, monkey do: “‘Oh, you’ve got four teams. I’ve got to get four teams.’ “‘You’ve got an open-wheel driver. I’ve got to get an open-wheel driver.’ “My point is, who knows what’s going on? “Look at the driver-development program rage. Everyone had to get one. But just walk through this garage and show me how many drivers here came out of the driver-development program. Jack Roush had a great driver-development program that everyone praised and copied and tried to emulate. But when it came right down to it, he had to ask Mark Martin to stay another year because he didn’t have anyone to put in the car. That was just smoke. “All that stuff has come and gone, and ebbed and flowed.” Cross-promotions “What does Jack Roush get from Fenway? Nothing, initially. But now you’re seeing cross-promotions with the Red Sox, now you’re Aflac and companies that are coming to this sport because of the Red Sox and that they can now do cross-promotions with Major-League Baseball,” Petty said. “So what do you want out of a merger? Do you want somebody to come in and invest in your team and spend money today? If so, there have been some deals done that are decent deals in my mind. “I look at Fenway-Roush as a model program, because it has a ton of upside potential long-term. “When people look for investors, they do that for one of two reasons: either to save your butt from bankruptcy, or long-term potential. Anything in between, don’t take an investor; grow your team yourself. “But when I look at Yates-Roush and what they’re doing over there, I say, ‘Hmm, that’s a move of desperation. It happened so quickly.’ They first do one thing, then turn around and do something else. “So it becomes a Team Ford thing, with Roush-Fenway-Yates all playing together. “Now Richard Childress, in his original deal (with Chartwell Investments, three years ago), and let’s give him credit for being the first guy to step out and find a group of investors, got an influx of cash that allowed him to expand his business. Now that was a plus. ...” Bookmarkz |
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