Woody: NASCAR’s Nationwide Dilemma Continues
Cup drivers Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano led the Nationwide field to the green flag at Nashville Superspeedway earlier this year. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Larry Woody | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com
Ah, the Annual Rites of Summer: cookouts, swimming holes and NASCAR’s mid-season promise to do something to rescue its second-tier Nationwide Series.
We’re told that NASCAR’s serious this time. Really. Cross its heart. It’s not just kidding like it was last year. And the year before. And the year before …
As Nationwide team owner Gary Baker said around this time last season, “Every year we hear that NASCAR is going to do something to help us, but the years come and go and the situation stays the same.”
Baker, who co-owns Baker Curb Racing with Mike Curb, may be forced to park one of two Nationwide cars due to lack of sponsor. Even the team’s primary car is operating virtually race-by-race without full-season backing.
Baker has warned for years that the series is headed for trouble and now trouble has arrived.
“It’s very frustrating,” he says, “but we’ll keep going somehow.”
NASCAR implemented a program to throw a few bonus bucks into a handful of stand-alone Nationwide races as a token of its concern, but that hasn’t made a dent in the problem.
What Baker and most other Nationwide-only competitors would like to see are restrictions placed on participation by Sprint Cup full-timers who have taken over what was supposed to be the sport’s developmental division.
For over a decade Cup drivers have won virtually every Nationwide race and every Nationwide championship. A Nationwide victory by a Nationwide driver is almost unheard of nowadays.
This season’s Nationwide championship is between Cup drivers Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards.
While Cup entries in some of the smaller Nationwide races may consist of only four or five drivers, in the bigger (i.e., higher-paying) events the lineup is flooded with Cuppers.
It’s not just the prize money they siphon off; as Baker pointed out, the real damage is the loss of corporate sponsorships. Every sponsor that a Cup driver lands is one less that a Nationwide team might secure.
In fairness there’s little that NASCAR can do about the sponsor situation. Sponsors like – and often insist on — having a big-name Cup driver carrying their Nationwide decals. Sponsors are in it for the exposure, and a Cup star draws more attention. NASCAR can’t legislate that.
Likewise there’s no denying that track owners and TV producers like to see Cup drivers in their Nationwide races. They sell tickets and boost ratings.
At Nashville Superspeedway, track GM/VP Cliff Hawks makes no apology for using Cup drivers to advertise his two annual Nationwide events. His job is to attract attention and sell tickets, and the Cup stars do it best. Again, that’s out of NASCAR’s control.
Still …
The way it’s going there may not be a full-fledged Nationwide Series for much longer. Tickets, sponsorships and TV ratings will be a moot point. Baker Curb Racing is just one of a number of Nationwide-only teams in distress.
The costs of running a team continue to rise, and when more money gushes out than trickles in, that’s a fatal combination for any business — be it race team or chicken farm.
That’s NASCAR’s dilemma: keep the Nationwide Series from being smothered to death by the kudzu-creep of the Cuppers, while continuing to reap the benefits of those same drivers.
It is, as the English say, a sticky wicket.
– Larry Woody can be reached at lwoody@racintoday.com
7 Comments
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I know that these ideas won’t fly because NASCAR teams suck up $$$$$$$$ like a TV vampire slurps up blood but here goes anyway…..
Eliminate some of the the big tracks and most of the companion events and run more stand-alone events. Short track racing is where the action is anyway.
Allow Cup teams to have no more than ONE developmental team each in any Nationwide race.
Limit the number of races the Cup guys can compete in, to say maybe 5 per season. It wouldn’t bother me if the number was ZERO!
Don’t allow more than 2 Cup crew members to be pitting any car in Nationwide. Maybe one tire changer and one gas man or jack man.
Do these things and you WILL SEE Nationwide regulars (Non Cup regulars) winning events. It will save the Nationwide teams a ton of money, it will create better racing and we will get to see the up and coming stars playing on a more level playing ground.
If NASCAR wants Nationwide to put butts in seats get rid of Cup regulars and showcase the young talent we have to look forward to I’d rather see Trevor Bayne dominating each week than watch Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, or Kyle Busch win another NWide race.
Of course sponsors want Cup guys only. They win all the races. In order to keep sponsorships on an even level, the Cup guys must leave. This is something Nascar has control over. Removing them creates a situation where sponsorships only go to NW regulars, which is where the competition for sponsorships should be.
I also don’t buy the fact that Cup drivers sell tickets and improve tv ratings. Seeing some of the crowds at these races this year have been pretty pitiful. Race fans want to see the up and coming drivers develop and have stopped going to and stopped watching this series because of the Cup drivers. I’m one of them.
It scares me that Gordon, Stewart, Burton and a few others will be retiring in the near future and there are no drivers being developed in the lower series. This should alarm Nascar as well.