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CUP: Used Cars Selling Cheap
Written by: Tom Jensen   
11/15/2007
Homestead, Fla.
 
Fancy a Nextel Cup Car of Today? It's a buyer's market... (LAT photo) MORE NASCAR PHOTOS » More Photos

Faced with scrapping a fleet of literally dozens of suddenly obsolete race cars that cost upwards of $150,000 each, team owner Chip Ganassi said he has a plan for disposing of the old-style NASCAR Nextel Cup car that will run its final race on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway: "I just did a deal with Felix Sabates," Ganassi said of his race-team co-owner and partner. "He's using them as boat anchors at Trinity Yachts."

Ganassi, obviously, was joking. But what to do with the old-style cars is a serious issue for the teams. If you figure that there are 40 teams with an average of 15 cars apiece to sell, that's 600 used – and in the context of NASCAR Nextel Cup racing useless – cars suddenly flooding the market.

The old car ran in 20 Nextel Cup races this season, while the new Car of Tomorrow was used in the other 16. But next year, in what will be called the Sprint Cup, only the COT will be used. And that means a glut of used race cars on the market as teams try to dump their old cars.

Hendrick Motorsports, for example, has a fleet of about 70 cars to get rid of. Team spokesman Jesse Essex said the squad began selling its cars earlier this season and out of the 70 will keep about a dozen historically significant cars for the team's museum, which is being refurbished.

Who are the potential buyers for ex-NASCAR Nextel Cup cars? ARCA racers, vintage racers and collectors. But relative to the available inventory, it's still a slim market of buyers, with many cars available at fire-sale prices.

Ty Norris, vice president and general manager of Michael Waltrip Racing, said his team is even trying to market used cars to sports bars and restaurants. Norris reckons most used Cup cars will sell for around $25,000, a fraction of what they cost to build.

"It's such a saturated market. We've tried everything from selling them to sports bars to sell 'em to ARCA teams to refurbishing them for the museum," said Norris. "But they're largely worthless."

Worthless, yes, but costly.
Multiple team owners who spoke with SPEEDTV.com said converting their fleets from old cars to COTs will cost $2-3 million per car. For a three-car team, that works out to $6-9 million.

"It cost us a hell of a lot of money," said Ganassi. "Every bit of $2 million, maybe $2.5 million per car."

"By the time we get done, start to finish, to where we're completely swapped over, the testing, the development and everything that we've done, with three teams, it's about an $8 million changeover," said Ray Evernham, co-owner of Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

Not every car will be sold. Team owner Richard Childress said he's giving one car to each of his three drivers, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick. Childress is also taking several cars for his museum and for use in the NASCAR East Series.

Kurt Busch has staked dibs on several Penske Racing Dodges that have sentimental value to him. They'll go into the shop at his house.

Evernham said he's going to take approximately six of his team's Dodge Chargers and use them in ARCA for driver development.

As for the others?

"I honestly don't know," said Evernham. "I know you're going to see some helluva good ARCA races."

FOLLOW CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND ON SPEED!

FRIDAY:
10:00am - NASCAR Live!
10:30am - NCTS Practice
11:30am - NASCAR Nextel Cup Practice
1:00pm - NASCAR Busch Practice
2:30pm - Go or Go Home
5:00pm - NCTS Qualifying
7:30pm - NCTS Setup
8:00pm - NASCAR Craftsman Truck

Plus, a final "Truck Chat" with Krista Voda at 3pm ET.

SATURDAY:
10:00am - NASCAR Live!
11:00am - NASCAR Nextel Cup Practice
12:00pm - NASCAR Busch Qualifying
2:00pm - NASCAR Live!

SUNDAY:
11:30am - Wind Tunnel Special Edition
12:30pm - NASCAR RaceDay
8:00pm - NASCAR Victory Lane
9:00pm - Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain