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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: NASCAR’s New World Order
If you’re a casual fan of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, the on-track product this year probably won’t seem much different up front...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted February 06, 2009   Daytona Beach, FL
Mike Helton, president of NASCAR, met with drivers and owners in a "Town Hall" setting. (Photo: Getty Images)

The late Dale Earnhardt ran his own NASCAR Sprint Cup team from a lavish, state-of-the-art $75 million shop known as the “Garage Mahal.” This year, Jeremy Mayfield will try to run his team in a few thousand square feet of free garage space donated to him by former single-car team owner Billy Stavola, who left NASCAR racing a decade ago.

Joe Nemechek once drove a Cup car for Hendrick Motorsports, a team that employs more than 500 people. Now, Nemechek’s own NEMCO Motorsports team, which like Jeremy Mayfield Motorsports is hoping to run the full Cup season, has six employees.

Welcome to NASCAR’s new world order.

If you’re a casual fan of Sprint Cup racing, the on-track product this year probably won’t seem much different up front, with the usual suspects — Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch — favored to race for the 2009 Cup title. But once you get back to about 30th place, the field likely will be unrecognizable.

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The devastating downturn in the U.S. economy and the subsequent loss of sponsor dollars meant that mid-pack teams like Bill Davis Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Hall of Fame Racing, Yates Racing and a slew of others either merged, downsized the number of cars they fielded or folded altogether.

And with only about 30 fully funded Sprint Cup cars confirmed by the end of 2008, guys like Mayfield, Nemechek, Tommy Baldwin, Phil Parsons, Derikke Cope and others suddenly figured they could make a go of it in the Sprint Cup Series. Two months ago, pundits were worrying about a full field of 43 cars for the Daytona 500. Now, it appears certain the final entry list will be between 55 and 60 cars, with a good many Davids scattered among the Goliaths.

Out of ruinous economic conditions in the sport and the highest number of job cuts in the sport’s history, new doors have opened. “I think it’s indicative of opportunities that exist,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “In an environment like we’ve got today, there’s still an opportunity there. Maybe a better opportunity than we’ve had in a few years. … If the current economic models of the race teams that are traditionally out there have to adjust themselves to the economy, that may also lower some of the barriers, or at least the perception of the barriers, for there to opportunities for other teams to become part of the sport, not unlike 25 or 30 years ago.”


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