Full Throttle

It’s been exactly five days since I last posted on this subject. You kinow what they say, Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. They also say rumors are like human sexual organs: Everyone’s got them, but sometimes they shoot blanks.

You have to admit though, the rumors of a pullout of one or more of the manufacturers from NASCAR are becoming more frequent and from varied sources. This one is by way of the Auto Extremist, take it for what it’s worth:

It has come to our attention that serious discussions are taking place for the first time in the conference rooms of one domestic manufacturer in particular on a subject heretofore unthinkable in Detroit. The subject? Pulling out of NASCAR. Yes, it has been mentioned before, and I have predicted it for months now - ever since the announcement was made that Toyota would be buying its way into the France family circus - but we have confirmation that not only are the discussions taking place, they’re so far down the road that a timetable for a pullout has been created, taking into account the end dates of existing contracts with individual racing teams currently aligned with this particular manufacturer.

The fact that it has finally come to this is no real surprise. Several years ago, we pieced together evidence that each of the Detroit-based car companies were spending in the neighborhood of $140 million each, annually, on their NASCAR endeavors. That figure accounts for engineering and wind-tunnel work, direct payments to the teams, personal services contracts with the drivers, promotional programs, race sponsorships, advertising, etc., etc. In the Big Picture of things, when multinational companies are spending double that amount for the “privilege” of competing in Formula 1, that would seem like no big deal, but taking into account the factors that matter most to the Detroit car companies right now, that dollar figure is a very big deal.

Ethanol Boy, author of the article, continues on to note what I did last week. In short; It ain’t the money stupid, it’s the Car of Tomorrow.

I suggest you read the rest. As rumors go it makes sense. Of course I would think that way considering I’ve been pushing this exact scenario since the Car of Tomorrow first debuted.

Throw your guesses as to the un-named company in the comment section. My first thoughts are towards Dodge. Their contract must be fairly close to expiration, they have a large presence in many “grass roots” sections of motorsport and the Dodge Viper has already made it’s presence felt in various sports car series. It’s a small step from there to Le Mans as the article suggests.

And BTW, the fans are none to happy about the CoT either.

UPDATE: John Fernandez Director, Dodge Motorsports Operations responds to the pullout rumors: