Note to Brian France
To: Brian France, CEO NASCAR (aka “HE who shall be obeyed”)
From: Full Throttle
Subj: Re: Multi-Car Team Scheme
Sir:
While I understand the motive behind your scheme, “level playing field, etc,” I ask you to visualize this scenario, what happens when all “is level?” In fact let’s take your scheme to it’s ultimate end, 14 three car teams (for a 42 car starting field or 15 for a 45 count field). All is equal, Roush, 3 teams, Hendrick, 3 teams. Woods Bros, Ganassi, even Cal Wells, 3 teams one and all. They’re all camping happy, and racin’ equal! Let’s call this NASCAR Parity World.
Parity World is a place of equal testing, equal data collection, equal eveything. Except! What happens then. Where will an advantage be gained? How does one go about winning the NEXTEL Cup Championship in NASCAR’s Parity World?Dumb luck? Wait for the next “levigated” track and hope a tire doesn’t explode? Not very realistic.
The most obvious and likely source of an advantage is money, still. Nothing changes only where the cash is spent, how it’s spent and why. The corporate suits that previously spent lavishly on 5 car teams still do so on the same scale but in a different and convoluted way. Corporate money normally follows competence and management excellence and prior success. Give the advantage to, you guessed it, Roush and Hendrick and possibly a couple others. But where will they spend it?
Remember, everything is equal in Parity World the only concievable place to gain a competitive advantage would be on hiring the best personnel available. (Edit: I should have added cheating. Gotta have more cheating when all else is equal in NASCAR Parity World.)
A bidding war will start over the best drivers, crew chiefs, jackman. The best tire carriers, fab shop employees and team hauler drivers will reap the rewards of cash flush owners attempting to gain on the competition.
But how does NASCAR and it’s fans gain in your Parity World Mr. France? What is gained after the best talent migrates to the largest paycheck? Do you really want a NASCAR version of the New York Yankees? Sure they don’t win every year, and neither will one of your new three car teams. Ask any MLB fan, or NFL fan, what has happened to the ticket prices of box seats in the last decade and a half. Will you state for the record no ticket price increases will result from owners demands for increased purses to cover salary costs? I doubt it.
And the biggest question of all is, what will NASCAR, ISC and HE, who shall be obeyed do when the first driver pulls an NFL style holdout - while still under contract - because driver “X” has a larger contract than himself.
Actually I have one more question. Just what were you thinking and how much crack was smoked to arrive at the concept of NASCAR Parity World?
Not so Sincerely Marc
Editor at Large Full Throttle
NASCAR, NEXTEL Cup, Auto Racing, Sports
So you really don’t like the whole idea, hunh, Marc?
I think you’re right about the money aspect. There will still be the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.
The one thing that grates on me more than anything is teammates handing off the lead to another teammate to get the 5-bonus points. I think a restructuring of the points is in order. No bonus points for leading a lap.
Limit testing for an entire organization, not per team. As has been discussed.
To dimantle a team like Roush or Hendrick is wrong from the standpoint that they are working within the current rules. But, on the otherhand, I would hate to see the NASCAR of the future consist of Roush’s 20 drivers vs. Hendricks 20 drivers with Morgan Sheperd IV and a handful of dreamers still trying to make the field.
Not like the idea? Gee where’d ya get that idea?
Frankly I think it’s crap to penalize those that have worked to get where they are for 20 years, only to have “HE, who shall be obeyed” take it away on a whim. And that whim is not to correct a wrong, but to react to bad press as a result of 5 Roushketeers in the Chase and Dale Jr. and J. Gordon not being in it.
I might, might feel different if NASCAR ever had a level playing field but France is attempting to produce something that has never been there. A NASCAR based on the Socialist model will never work, never.
And all that aside, NASCAR would have to hire more financial snoops than the IRS has on it’s payroll to enforce the 3 car team rule.
It’s boneheaded, unmanagable, and thankfully will never happen due to the legalities of it.
And you can bet your last sponsor dollar that Roush will find a way to maximize dollars with only three cars. How about five or six top sponsors sharing space on the cars over the course of the season? As a sponsor I’d rather have a half season on Mark Martin’s hood than a full season in some also ran’s car.
It will not steer sponsor dollars to other teams.
Exactly George. You see a small example of that now on many cars. Kurt Busch is one that alternates between sponsors. That is partly due to not getting one sponsor to foot the entire bill, but under France’s plan that will become the norm not the exception.
Those with big pockets will still have big pockets and will lavish the cash were it brings the best return. And if anyone thinks that return comes from a 3 car Robbie Gordon team or a trio of mismanaged Ganassi cars they are delusional.