General Motors Cuts Funding to Nationwide, Truck Series; Is Cup Next?

(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

The well-known slogan between car manufacturers and racing is "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday."  With this weekend's NASCAR event in Michigan—in the shadows of the Motor City—usually this slogan would hold true.  

However, in today's economy, this idea is not as sound.

Now, the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series have felt the brunt of the results due to the bankruptcy of General Motors. Friday, GM announced that it was cutting the funding to both series'.  Powerful teams such as Richard Childress Racing, Kevin Harvick Inc. and JR Motorsports confirm that they had lost factory support, but will still race despite the loss in funding.

With this loss, are we getting close to seeing financial backing being pulled from the Sprint Cup Series?

Such an incident has happened before, though not on such a large scale. In 2002, Dodge pulled it's support to Bill Davis Racing, who was fielding a single car operation to Ward Burton.

If factory support is cut for the Sprint Cup Series, the end results could be catastrophic. Financial backing from sponsors can only go so far, and race winnings can only last for so long. Some teams already struggle to get a car to the race track each week, so loss of factory support could prevent them from even getting a car in the hauler.

Teams understand that General Motors is in a tough spot right now, and are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Richard Childress, who fields four Sprint Cup teams and one in the Nationwide Series, says he still plans on running General Motors products.

"They've been good to us for many, many, many years. We've had a great partnership, and we've just got to see what comes out of it," Childress said.

The Truck Series seems to be the one that is hurting the most. Toyota is now the only manufacturer that continues to financially back teams. Ford and Dodge pulled out last season after seeing a turn-down in the domestic car market.

With Dodge having already cut back on some support, as noted with Richard Petty Motorsports laying off employees, is GM the next to cut back on the Sprint Cup Series? If so, what does this mean for NASCAR as a whole?

It is no longer "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" for the car manufacturers. Now, it quite possibly could be "Win on Sunday, Survive on Monday."

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