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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
ROBERTS: Racing To Riches
With the ever-escalating cost of operating a successful Cup team, there aren’t too many financially-strapped owners out there anymore...
John Roberts  |  Posted August 19, 2009   Charlotte, NC
John Roberts is the host of NASCAR RaceDay, NASCAR Victory Lane and NASCAR Smarts on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)
With the ever-escalating cost of operating a successful NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, there aren’t too many financially-strapped owners out there anymore.

But did these wealthy car owners start out as paupers fielding race cars, or did they have a nice stockpile of cash in the beginning that they put into racing?

Felix Sebates, reliable to a fault for a good soundbite, put it best when he said, “Want to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a big fortune.”

In other words, the Average Joe with an average salary and bank account can’t start a Cup team and expect to have any semblance of success. Let’s face it - it takes coin and lots of it to race in NASCAR’s top series and those who own race teams basically fall into two categories - racers who got rich by practicing their craft, and rich guys who had money to burn and wanted a piece of the action. If you put the two side-by-side, the competitive advantage goes to the racers.

Roughly 31 years ago, Rick Hendrick opened his first Chevrolet dealership and in 1969, Richard Childress competed in his first race as a “substitute” driver at Talledega Superspeedway in a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro. Little did the American racing public know it was glimpsing the making of two legendary team owners.

Back then there were no million-dollar motor coaches and certainly no multi-million dollar Gulfstream jets to make the owners’ jobs easier and more convenient. There weren’t multiple $15-$20 million sponsorships to help defray the overhead. But there was something more valuable in these men - a burning desire to compete on the racetrack and to succeed in business.

Believe it or not, there was a make-or-break time for Hendrick when Geoffrey Bodine’s race win actually saved the team from going belly up. For Childress, the turning point toward off-the-charts success was his decision to sign a raw, young talent by the name of Dale Earnhardt who had already won a championship. That hiring set the groundwork for a legendary combination.

When it comes to rich guys who opted to go racing, it’s hard to argue with the success of Felix Sebates, a highly successful and immensely wealthy businessman who entered the NASCAR world in the late 1980s. And although not nearly enough, Felix is still around today via his part ownership in Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Many NASCAR fans remember the name Alex Meshkin, a millionaire by the age of 19 and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner by 24. With mega-bucks backing his effort, he landed two of the sport’s best in drivers Travis Kvapil and Mike Skinner. Bang Racing lived up to its moniker, roaring into NASCAR with a bang but exiting with a resounding but empty thud. Give Meshkin credit for trying but his Internet business model just didn’t match that of the race team.

Remember Bobby Ginn? He, too, came in with a bang. The CEO of Ginn Resorts, his purchase of MB2 Motorsports from Nelson Bowers painted him as a knight in shining armor. Many jobs were temporarily saved and Mark Martin’s career revived.

Although it’s a bit unclear exactly what derailed that endeavor, that effort ended with a lot of hard feelings and more lost jobs. Bobby Ginn is still listed as the owner of RCR’s No. 33 Chevrolet, but that strange fact and how it came to fruition at the beginning of the season is a story for another day.

Money or not, you must tip your hat to these men for attempting the dream of Cup ownership. What went awry probably can be attributed to the complexities of racing at the highest level and the necessary constant search for sponsorship.

Like it or not, we are shifting into a new era of ownership that Charles Darwin knew well - the survival of the fittest. In today’s marketplace, it appears the fittest are those racers who became rich guys. And before too long, five or six of them will own all the entries in any given Sprint Cup race. But they will have earned it.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

John Roberts is the host of NASCAR RaceDay, NASCAR Victory Lane and Tradin’ Paint on SPEED. He also hosts and reports from the garage on NASCAR Live and Go or Go Home and has been part of the FOX family since 2001. Roberts graduated from James Madison University and jokingly still considers himself a prospect for a top-rated college basketball team, namely the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.
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