Written by:
Jimmy Spencer
It’s amazing what a day with some of NASCAR’s old school racers can open your eyes to.
I spent time last week with legends Harry Gant and Cale Yarborough, who told me they don’t miss the NASCAR grind at all. The likely reason? Burnout.
Gant and Yarborough are long retired and don’t have to deal with NASCAR fatigue anymore, but the burnout factor concerns me more for the car owners of today and tomorrow, not to mention drivers and crew members. What happens if current owners like Rick Hendrick Jack Roush, Richard Childress and Joe Gibbs burn out? Or when they retire, where will their replacements come from?
The latest rumor is that Chip Ganassi somehow will merge his Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing team with Joe Gibbs Racing, possibly eliminating another owner. While a potential partnership would be great for those EGR employees and hopefully save a bunch of jobs, it’s not beneficial for the overall health of the sport.
I’d love to see a minimum of 15 or 18 owners in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series but I think that ship has sailed. Michael Waltrip is really the only new owner we’ve had in years. Sure, Tony Stewart is at the reins of a reformed and highly successful team in Stewart Haas Racing, but in reality, he assumed leadership of an existing team and didn’t add a car owner to the mix.
There aren’t many true throwback owners such as Childress left, but I’m hoping Waltrip and Stewart can step in and fill the gap. These men will be forces to be reckoned with because of their heavy involvement in their organizations and knowledge of a race car from front to rear. They’re not just figureheads in racing for a quick buck. Ray Evernham’s move to ownership also was great but he too got burned out and exited.
