Earlier this week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. provided a candid team owner’s perspective of the forthcoming change to the Car of Tomorrow (COT) in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. When asked about his future Sprint Cup plans with JR Motorsports, he said:
“I used to say no way, no way. But it’s almost as expensive to run in the Nationwide Series. And they’re going to bring a COT in and we won’t be able to race in the Nationwide Series with the COT probably. That’ll just be too expensive to switch all that over.”
“…And the COT program is going to be too expensive for me to justify creating a whole new program with COT stuff, so I’d just as soon go into the Cup Series or get out of the Nationwide Series altogether.”
Dale Jr.’s statements raise an alarming concern on the viability of the Nationwide Series. Let’s be honest – if the Nationwide Series business model doesn’t work for JR/Hendrick Motorsports – why then, would anyone think it would work for someone else? I have a hard time envisioning any other team being able to justify the capital expenditure required to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with the COT. The pending arrival of the COT to the Nationwide Series couldn’t be at a worst economic time. Even teams such as Richard Childress Racing (RCR) are struggling to find new sponsors; and in retrospect, recently announced that the former Championship #21 team would be reducing its schedule in 2008 for the Nationwide Series due to a lack of sponsorship.
It’s undisputed that the COT provides enhanced safety for the drivers – which are undeniably priceless. However, compensation for improved safety should be at the forefront of NASCAR’s economic model and NASCAR should provide assistance for the teams’ through financial allowances to ensure that drivers and crew members are safe; while at the same time, enabling team owners’ to survive. It’s unfortunate that team owners must bear 100% of the financial burden of safety while NASCAR corporate continues to retain the vast majority of revenues and profits – continuing to drain many of the teams’ livelihoods – and perhaps even to the sport’s future longevity.
If I was still an owner of my NASCAR team (Bang! Racing), I would organize the Nationwide Series Team Owners to take a stand and demand financial assistance from NASCAR to adopt the COT in 2009. If Dale Jr. can’t afford to- who in the world can?