GM to NASCAR: Gravy train's over boys

The destruction of NASCAR would put a smile on my face.

It's not that I haven't enjoyed the series in the past because I have. It's just that it has become an utterly disgusting spectacle which takes up way too much space in the auto racing discussion in this country. I don't care for the corporate circle jerk. The forced red neck accents. The country music pre-race concerts. Heavy importance of "minor league" races. The racism. The sexism. The anti-union stance. The blank, robotic personalities of the drivers. Endless commercial interruptions. The sheer volume of pointless races. Oh and most fans of the sport.

 

Tell us how you really feel.

 

GM is NOT pulling out of NASCAR. At least not yet.

What they are doing is ending their track sponsorships - "Chevrolet, the official car of Daytona International Speedway!" - and cutting their racing-related advertising to the bone.

They are also looking at their entire motorsports program, which includes NASCAR, ALMS, USAC, NHRA, SCCA and other series. Support of some series might be eliminated entirely, others will be cut more or less drastically.

The last two to go will be NASCAR and the SCCA, which Detroit people believe gives them their best return on investment of all the above.

Who will be the first to pull out entirely? A strong hunch would be Chrysler LLC, which likely will end up being sold off in pieces to other companies. Chrysler sales were down 36 percent in June and no one at Cerberus saw the huge sales slump coming when they bought Chrysler last year.

What's going to be interesting to watch is what Toyota does. Its sales fell 21 percent in June and despite being cash rich, they're having real problems in the U.S., too. Toyota is closing its San Antonio Tundra plant for three months because truck sales are so bad.

 

Toyota took a hit with its truck and SUV line but is much better positioned to weather the storm because of its line of subcompacts and hybrids.

Of the three U.S. automakers, Chrysler's in deep doo-doo. I think Ford and GM will pull through by the skin of their teeth.

(Damn, shades of 1975. Except no Lee Iacocca.)

 

Maybe some good will come of this and every sporting event and venue won't have a commercial tag to it. I'm sure American Airlines could put to good use some of the millions it spends every year to put its name on the side of an arena. Same thing goes for Wachovia and several dozen other corporations. Maybe a couple of a years from now we can go back to calling it what it is, the Fiesta Bowl, without having to endure idiotic 30-yard-wide logos on our television screens.

 

and Jim Blanchard's no longer around to broker a deal for gubbermint loans.

 

Is there a reason why the SCCA doesn't get broader attention?

 

Two major reasons ...
Road racing in America is a niche sport, at best.

And the SCCA is basically club racing, where the grandstands aren't even opened for spectators. The professional road racers are in either ALMS (which is a pretty darned good series) or Grand Am, the NASCAR of road racing.

ALMS gets almost no attention stateside, even though manufacturers (GM, Porsche, Acura/Honda, Aston Martin) pour lots of $$ into it. It gets a few tape-delayed races on TV and runs several weekends as the support series for IndyCar. Grand Am gets none outside of the Daytona 24, which would get no attention if it weren't part of Speedweeks, have several Cup/IndyCar drivers in it and pushed by the NASCAR hype machine.

 

In other words, road racing gets no attention in the United States because most American racing fans are stupid.

 

I hope the sport folds.

 

I hope Mizzougrad96 folds.

 

In other words, what you seem to hate is its success. The fact that it did not allow egos and greed to lead to a spilt, allowing open-wheel to step on its collective willy in that regard. You also seem to resent its fans because it resorts to racism and sexism, which means it forms opinions not about individuals but as groups. Then you group all race fans together and say you hate them? Hmmm.