A Millionaires Pension Plan
Chris Jenkins, USA TODAY
Pension plan?: Entering his final season in Nextel Cup, Rusty Wallace is calling on NASCAR officials to establish a pension plan for drivers similar to those provided to athletes in other professional sports leagues.
“I think we’re deserving of it,” Wallace says. “Every other sport has got it. We’re the only ones who don’t.”
Wallace says he, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon brought the idea up in a meeting with NASCAR officials about five years ago, and they seemed receptive, but the issue was dropped after Earnhardt’s death in 2001.
“I think it’s ridiculous that we don’t have one,” Wallace says. “I think it needs to happen quick.”
NASCAR vice president of communications Jim Hunter says officials would look into a pension system if the “right plan” came along. But Hunter notes drivers are “independent contractors” working for teams, not for NASCAR
