she’ll be running 1 ARCA race, 12 NA$CAR races, and 17 Indy car races for a total of 30 races. That’s providing she doesn’t sneak in a Rolex Series or ALMS race. Amazing how the schedule isn’t too long any more now that she’s got some mega-bucks coming in.
Then on the other hand, you’ve got Robby Gordon who’s running rally cars, Monster Trucks, Indy cars, NA$CAR, off-road racing, the Dakar rallies, possibly a Grand Am race or two, and the Prelude to the Dream which pretty much covers racing throughout 2010. About the only other driver that really comes close that I can think of off the top of my head is Ken Schrader and he‘s all over the place between racing in ARCA, the occasional NA$CAR race, dirt track racing, and just about anything else with wheels.
In an interesting coincidence, the Miccosukee tribe will be having a vote on whether or not to continue their involvement with NA$CAR on the same day that His Royal Highness will be in court in front of Judge Mullen in Charlotte. I don’t think His Majesty can use that as an excuse to have the hearing delayed so he can try to sway the Miccosukee tribes’ vote.
And just what will happen to the Shrubbery’s team if Miccosukee pulls their sponsorship? He was having a tough time trying to find sponsorship to field a truck for Johnny Benson. This means he’s going to have to make some sort of mad scramble just to have enough sponsorship for himself, much less any teammate he may have for his Truck Series operation.
One thing I had to shake my head about with the purse reduction is this comment from Pharaoh Ramses Posthole:
"Last year we launched an industry-wide effort to help the sport manage budgets in this economy," NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said Friday. "NASCAR did the right thing to work with the tracks to reduce their costs in order to manage the economic realities.
"In return, the tracks have done a great job reducing ticket prices and enhancing the fan experience. Likewise, we worked with the teams to contain costs such as elimination of testing and other steps. This is consistent with how virtually every sport and business has adjusted to the economy over the past year."
I$C only reduced the prices of 15% of their tickets. Oh yeah, that really did a good job of enhancing the fan experience. That’s why so many fans didn’t show up at the track. While NA$CAR reduced the exorbitant sanctioning fees to help the tracks out this year, we don’t know by how much. When you charge $50,000 a year to local short tracks, who are also suffering, and $400,000 for a Truck Series race, somewhere around $1 million for Busch Series sanctioning, and $1.3-$1.5 million for Cup sanctioning, you might help them out a little more by reducing the cost of the sanctioning with a major cut, say 50% in order to keep them in business, especially the local tracks since they‘re where our future drivers come from. With car counts down at the local tracks, you’d think NA$CAR would be helping them out with more than just lip service.
And how about all these other “cost saving” measures, like eliminating testing? Its cost the teams more money in either wrecked race cars, testing at tracks not on the schedule, time spent on the 7 shaker post, or in the wind tunnel. So that didn’t save them any money. The cost of the Codpiece of Tony didn’t save the teams any money. The latest figure is $220,000 a pop for the box on wheels with no engine. The twisted sister was $150,000 with engine. Then add in the $22,500 certification fee that they didn’t have with the old twisted sister car. Not to mention what the teams have to pay out for the rented, mandatory issued parts. And with the switch to the spoiler, which they should’ve kept in the first place, nobody knows what the cost is going to be per spoiler that all the teams will have to buy from the same, single source supplier. And will the new mounting system allow the teams to use the old wing mounting system or will the teams have to replace all the trunk lids for a new mounting system? Nobody knows yet.
And how about a schedule that doesn’t have the teams running from coast to coast to coast? That might save them and NA$CAR a few bucks. And while you’re at it, get somebody who actually knows something about marketing racing to handle that instead of the “marketing genius” of the Emperor of All Things NA$CAR. We’ve all seen how well that’s worked out. Humpy should be available for a reasonable price and can probably turn things around providing he doesn’t have any royal interference.
Another funny thing about this is that while the purses are being cut, NA$CAR and its’ conjoined twin are getting a 2.5% raise in their TV revenues. Is it actually NA$CAR cutting the purses or giving themselves a nice 10% raise? Especially since they own 40% of the tracks on the schedule. And based on some recently received info from a journalist I greatly respect, the downturn in the purses actually started happening last season. So think about this whole purse deal.
NA$CAR’s conjoined twin took a real beating last year: Motorsports Authentics weighs down ISC's 2009 balance sheet The majority of the losses caused by good old Motorsports Authentics. But like its conjoined twin, they’re also getting an increase in TV revenues which should help keep them afloat a little longer. Plus they still have 4 races which don’t have a sponsor on the Cup schedule. I don’t remember very many races not having a sponsor before the season started until His Highness, marketing genius extraordinaire, ass-ended the thrown. It looks like the teams may have to go back to handling their own souvenir sales if Motorsports Authentics can’t do the job and folds up like an accordion. Some of the smarter teams never used Motorsports Authentics and aren’t hurting like the ones who did.
Amazing how all of last season’s problems were because of the economy. The poor quality of the broadcast coverage, the boring races, and the vanilla drivers had nothing to do with it. The year before that it was all Dale Jr.’s fault. So, if things are equally as bad this season, which by the admission of the Emperor of All Things NA$CAR they will be, who or what will be the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong this season? Dale Jr.? JJ? Jeffy Boy? The media? The fans? I know, it’ll be me. Maybe they should have a fan vote so we can pick out who the scapegoat is. Lots of PR about fan involvement in the sport. More “listening to the fans” hype. It could be a lot of fun.
I got a slight chuckle the other night watching Greta van Susteren when she said that Jimmie Johnson wanted an ice cream, named after himself. Jimmie, it’s already out there and has been for years.
Good to see Boris Said (Who Said? Boris Said!) will be in some races this year piloting the recently sold #26 team. As Boris was driving Roush cars before, he should be pretty familiar with them. Of course, with the changeover to the spoiler, I wonder how much track time he’ll need to make the adjustment to it?
Considering that John Carter doesn’t have any
cars, a hauler, or equipment, I wonder what
Texas Terry is going to be running in the future?
Coming soon, some financial figures that’ll make
you wonder about a few things going on with the
racing under Brian’s Big Top Circus.
We finally have a name for the military relief
efforts in Haiti. It’s called Operation Unified
Response. The USS Normandy, out of Norfolk,
has joined the other vessels there and is
providing much needed help. They are using the
shipboard helicopters to move patients, transport
food and water and to transport people. The ship, which is normally used for air defense, is acting as the only air surveillance radar at sea.
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