Economic Uncertainity Keeps NASCAR Fans Home and Teams Scrambling For Sponsors

With today's economic uncertainty and families struggling to get by, for the first time in a long time, NASCAR is feeling the pinch.

Recently Chip Ganassi announced that they were closing shop on Dario Franchitti's No. 40.

Due to lack of sponsorship, Franchitti never gave his sponsors enough performance to believe that their investment in that team was worth the money.

Last week came the news that Juan Pablo Montoya's No. 42 will lose its longtime sponsor Texaco Havoline after a long relationship with NASCAR.

This now leaves Chip Ganassi and company searching for new sponsors for JPM and and a new driver for the No. 41 after Reed Sorenson announced his intentions to leave Ganassi and drive for Gillett Evernham Motorsports in 2009.

Overall, the team has just three top fives and five top 10's in 2008. Performance is everything.

Toyota is another fine example in the fine line teams are walking when it comes to sponsors.

Joe Gibbs Racing changed over to Toyota in 2008 and the transition was questioned by everyone but the organization.

Now we are entering the Chase and Kyle Busch has won eight races and Denny Hamlin has won once. While he has yet to win, Tony Stewart has run strong and is securely in the Chase.

With strong support from M&M's, Fed Ex, and Home Depot as their primary sponsors and with Busch, Hamlin, and Stewart's cars continually running up front—their names and sponsors being mentioned or seen every race—these three teams are securing their sponsors for a long time to come without even knowing it.

When you cross that line, you have organizations like Michael Waltrip Racing.

They also run Toyotas, but their performance on the track is anything but consistent.

David Ruetimann, Michael Waltrip, and Michael McDowell have struggled to stay in the top 35 in points which would guarantee them a spot in the next race. 

With such a poor showing on race day, many of the team's once strong sponsors are looking for a new car to put their name on.

UPS has been rumored to be leaving Rueitmann's #44 and potentially signing with David Ragan in 2009. McDowell potentially has no sponsor for 2009, leaving MWR searching for a name to put on their cars in 2009.

For smaller teams, the economy leaves too many questions.

Yates Racing—which fields Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland—have been running many of their races without main sponsors. Even so, they have been running in the top 15 all season long and currently sitting comfortably in the top 35.

But uncertainty lies ahead for them as they have no sponsors going into 2009.

Small organizations like this are few and far between.

NASCAR is all about big business and teams like JGR, Hendrick Motor Sports, and Roush Fenway Racing that have cars consistently in the top 10, leaving teams with one or two car operations struggling to keep up with the lack of cash flow and lack of information coming from within the organization.

Coming to the track on Sunday and running well means more than ever. And if something is not working within your organization, you have to make a change.

Larry McReynolds said earlier this year at Richmond, "with the pressure to perform, there is no growing time, it's either you are there or you have to make a change."

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