Full Throttle

Well now isn’t this interesting! NASCAR and HWSBO is calling in the Feds in its effort to track down what consitiutes a multi-car race team.

In a little-known codicil to the 2006 rules book, NASCAR executives are trying to limit car owners to four teams by precisely pinning down business relationships between various stock-car teams - like the joint engine operation run by Robert Yates and Jack Roush, the engine-and-engineering support provided by Rick Hendrick to MB2 Motorsports and Haas Racing, the engine-and-engineering support provided by Joe Gibbs to new team owners Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach.

The sport’s Daytona bosses are also trying to pin down the roles that carmakers - GM, Ford, Dodge and Toyota - are allowed, in advance of Toyota’s step up to Nextel Cup next season.

And it appears that NASCAR may want to demand access to tax records to pin down just who owns what and who pays whom how much.

The surprising new rules - apparently out since February but not in wide distribution until this week - are generating a lot of head-scratching among the few who are familiar with them. A number of key figures expressed astonishment yesterday when asked about the rules.

One team owner, who asked not to be identified, said not much had been made of the new rules - Section 3-7, paragraph F - “because we don’t think they’re legally enforceable.”

On the surface and using my “vast knowledge” (read near zero) of tax law I suspect the unidentified owner has it about right.

On the other hand car and team ownership within the ranks of the NASCAR millionaires looks like a bag of snakes. Between team “partnerships” and “affiliations” It’s hard to tell where the tail of one snake ends and the head of another begins.

As the article points out the key clause (five paras in definition) in the new NASCAR rule is “affiliated.” In essence NASCAR will use the assignment of car numbers as a way to enforce the four car per team limit imposed at the end of last year.

Enter the Tax Man; J. D. Gibbs has said it is unclear if, by that clause, NASCAR officials will attempt to enforce these rules the way the NFL does, by going straight to a team’s tax records.

About now the large NASCAR teams are scurrying around rifling through IRS.gov and their own corporate tax records looking for loopholes. I can visualize it now:

Tax Man; “Mr. Hendrick show me your records pretaining to the two MB2 teams.”
Rick; “Sorry Sir, I don’t have ther slightest idea what you’re referring to, Go Fish!

In related news, MB2 Motorsports better watch out, you and DEI may run afoul of this obscure and possibly unenforcable rule. HWSBO definition of “affiliation” may also include forming “alliances.” MB2’s minority owner Jay Frye said the two organizations would need to form an alliance within the next two months to get a start on next season.

Oh the tangled web we weave!

NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, MB2 Motor Sports, DEI, Joe Gibbs Racing, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle