Will the Loss of Five NASCAR Teams Lead to Opportunity or More Start and Parks?
Red Bull racings number 4 car driven by Kasey Kahne and the number 83 car driven by Brian Vickers is not scheduled to return next year as that team is closing its doors and shutting down. The Iconic number 6 car driven by David Ragan will not be on track next year or will run limited amounts of races. The same goes for the 33 currently driven by Clint Bowyer. It is also expected that on Friday Michael Waltrip Racing will announce that the 00 driven by David Reutimann will run a partial schedule with Mark Martin and Michael Waltrip. That is 5 cars that are within the top 35 in points and guaranteed a starting position that may not be back or will be back on a limited schedule. Running a limited schedule may make them fall out of the top 35 in points.
A new car, the 15 by Michael Waltrip Racing, to be driven by Clint Bowyer will be added. It would be expected that this car would get the owners points from the 00. That means only 4 top cars would be gone.
A look at what this could mean for NASCAR next year can be seen by looking at the Current Owners Points. If these cars simply ceased to exist right now, the #71, #7, #21, and #37 would now be in the top 35 and guaranteed a starting position at Daytona in February. This would be a big opportunity for all four of these teams.
In reality I would expect the points from all four would be either sold to other teams or used to get into the Daytona 500. Then, through attrition these lower teams would get into the top 35 after the 5th race of the season. Either way this is a great opportunity for these teams.
This might make it easier for these teams to get sponsorship so they could actually race instead of starting the race and parking. Starting and Parking is where a driver starts the race only to park and get last place money. The #87 driven by Joe Nemechek is not too far away in points but has been Starting and Parking for many of the races. Maybe he could get sponsorship to race. This would be good for our sport.
The only problem is the economic issues keeping the good teams from getting funding might also impact these lower teams. This might actually increase the number of Start and Park cars. Either way these lower teams will have a lot of focus on them the first 5 races of next season as they fight it out for these extra 4 top 35 spots.
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The problem is, in addition to the struggling economy, the cost. Its hard for companies to justify to the stockholders the incredible price of sponsorship in a sport that has plateaued. And with the prolifiration of social media, which is much less expensive, even harder to justify.
Lastly, I feel that the time will come when, because of the Chase, and the lack of exposure to non Chase participants, sponsors will not sign up for the entire season, but just retain an option in case the team qualifies for the Chase.
Someone asked where the points for these four teams will go so I will begin the speculation.
#6 Team points – Used to get the #21 Car and Trevor Bayne or get a part time RFR car into the Daytona 500
#4 teams points – Sold to MWR and used to get the 15 Car into the Daytona 500 or sold with the team.
#83 Team Points – Sold with the team.
#33 teams points – Sold to some other team or simply let go.
Right now the #71 TRG Ford would benefit from any cars unused points as it is currently 36th in points and would move up to 35th.