NNS: No End In Sight For Non-Cup Team Struggles

Nationwide

NNS: No End In Sight For Non-Cup Team Struggles

The NASCAR Nationwide Series 2009 championship was won by Sprint Cup Driver Kyle Busch...

Lee Montgomery | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted December 28, 2009 Charlotte, NC

Veteran driver Kenny Wallace competed for Jay Robinson Racing last season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The 2010 Nationwide Series season will mark the 10th anniversary of dominance by Sprint Cup teams in NASCAR’s No. 2 series.

It’s been since 2000 that a non-Cup affiliated team won the series championship. That year, Jeff Green won the title for ppc Racing, a team that has since been swallowed by up by another organization.

Since then, Cup teams and Cup-affiliated have completely dominated the Nationwide Series. In 2009, Joe Gibbs Racing won the drivers title with Kyle Busch, and not a single independent team won a race.

JGR won 14 races, Roush Fenway Racing won 10, JR Motorsports (which has an affiliation with Hendrick Motorsports) four, Richard Childress Racing two, Kevin Harvick Inc. two (affiliated with RCR), Hendrick Motorsports one, Phoenix Racing one and JTG Daugherty Racing (affiliated with Michael Waltrip Racing) one.

The independent teams no longer see beating Cup and Cup-affiliated teams as their goal. They simply want to beat each other.

“It’s tough, especially when you’re a single-car, privateer team without official manufacturer backing – which seems to be going away – to come in here and compete with the Jack Roushs, the Richard Childress’ and the Joe Gibbs’,” RAB Racing owner Robbie Benton says.

And it’s likely only going to get worse for the non-Cup teams, Baker Curb Racing co-owner Gary Baker said. Baker Curb is close to signing a sponsorship package with a Sprint Cup driver, a necessity these days.

“The gap, frankly, has widened a little bit,” Baker says. “That’s why we know we’ve got to go get a Cup driver for one of our cars on our team because NASCAR so favors the Cup drivers in Nationwide racing.”

Baker calls it a “race-weekend advantage,” as Cup drivers have more time on the track during Cup/Nationwide combination weekends because of Sprint Cup practice time.

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Baker says. “The cards are so stacked against you, you need a multicar team, and, ideally, one of those drivers will be a Cup guy. Otherwise, you give up so much in qualifying and practice.”

Most Nationwide qualifying sessions are held the day of the race but shortly after Cup practice.

“We’re sitting there scratching our heads or our fannies, trying to figure out what the track’s doing,” Baker says. “You’ve almost got to have one Cup guy coming back, going, ‘OK here’s what the track’s doing and what changes need to be to go qualify.’”

The playing field is more level on standalone weekends, but there are only nine of those on the schedule.

Why do Cup teams enjoy such an advantage? It comes down to money. Cup teams have a bigger pool of money with which to work, partly because Cup drivers command a larger sponsorship price.

And Cup teams can often operate their Nationwide cars at a loss and absorb the cost because of their large Cup budgets. The Cup teams provide chassis and engines to their Nationwide counterparts, with many Nationwide teams getting the leftovers.

Independent Nationwide teams operate on a much smaller scale, with many fewer employees. That means smaller teams need one employee to often do two jobs.

Cup organizations that field Nationwide cars can have the same number of employees on their Nationwide teams, but those employees may not have to build chassis and engines or hang bodies – because their Cup teams do that work.

Veteran driver Kenny Wallace says there are four categories of owners in the Nationwide Series: The Cup teams, the B teams that operate on a budget slightly less than Cup teams, the C teams that operate on a budget of around $2 million and the handful of start-and-park teams.

And that caste system has gotten worse over the years, Wallace said. The explosive growth of NASCAR over the last decade has led to the disparity, Wallace said.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lee Montgomery

SceneDaily.com

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