The Frontstretch Newsletter: November 19th, 2008
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Nov 19, 2008, 2:02:58 AM11/19/08
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THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
November 19th, 2008
Volume II, Edition CCXXIII
Today's Top News
Team Layoffs Continue -- Final Numbers Unknown
by Phil Allaway
With the 2008 season complete, the economic crisis is beginning to come down hard on race teams in the Sprint Cup Series. Already, DEI (as a result of the merger between DEI and CGRFS) and Hendrick Motorsports, in addition to JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, have announced staff layoffs in an attempt to save money.
Today, news has surfaced that Stewart-Haas Racing (formerly Haas CNC Racing), Yates Racing, Hall of Fame Racing, Petty Enterprises and the Wood Brothers have all laid off varying numbers of employees in a scramble essentially for survival. The raw numbers, as Frontstretch has them, look like this:
Layoffs
DEI -- 116 Employees
Ganassi -- 71 (from shutdown of the No. 40 team in June)
Petty -- 23
Wood Brothers -- 22
Stewart-Haas -- 16
Hendrick -- 12
Hall of Fame -- Unknown
Yates -- Unknown
Bill Davis -- Unknown, but down to bare bones staff at shop
Unemployment announcements are expected to pick up after Thanksgiving in early December, when teams come to grips with a lack of sponsorship for 2009.
Fitz Motorsports To Fold?
SceneDaily.com is reporting that Fitz Motorsports team owner Armando Fitz is seriously considering shuttering his Nationwide Series team for next season.
"I really never thought I could have a year worse than what I had in '05," Fitz said. In 2005, both of Fitz's parents died within six months of each other. "This year has been right there."
During this past season, Fitz was sued by former drivers Joel Kauffman and Mike Bliss, which resulted in seizures of team equipment for auction on both occasions.
Fitz Motorsports still reportedly owes money to certain vendors, and has discussed selling a share of the team. Of course, any potential investors in the team would have to be made aware of monies owed to individual vendors (parts, shop equipment, etc.).
On the sponsorship front, Fitz's No. 22 has backing for only 15 of the 35 scheduled races for next season. The car finished out the year with Drive For Diversity graduate Marc Davis behind the wheel; he had a best finish of just 27th, but the team collected a total of one Top 5 and three Top 10 finishes with a handful of other drivers in 2008.
Today's Featured Commentary
Full Throttle
Time To Tighten The Purse Strings
by Mike Neff
The economy in the United States, and for that matter around the world, has taken a drastic downturn during the past Sprint Cup season. The resulting struggles of teams trying to acquire sponsorship have already been well documented, and leave many a stock car mechanic nervous about their future employment. The massive layoffs that many predicted to befall the Cup garage this past Monday did not fully materialize, but just because it fell short of 1,000 doesn't mean there aren't a large number of team members who are looking for work today. From Hall of Fame Racing to Hendrick Motorsports, teams are being forced to reduce their payroll during these lean economic times. But while it is certainly painful for the people now unemployed and the persons making the decisions to let them go, it very well might be the kind of sensibility check that will make the sport better in the long run.
NASCAR has been riding high on the hog for better than 20 years, and has been immune to the most recent downturns in the economy that have caused many others to have to tighten their belts. While production jobs have been eliminated from auto manufacturers and others involved with the automotive industry over that time, the teams in the Cup garage have expanded and continued to spend extravagantly on all of the bells and whistles that may not be all that necessary to make a race car go fast. This downturn, however, is different. The big money sponsors that have been so anxious to get on the hood of Cup cars are suddenly not as numerous as they have been in the past. Teams that were able to pick and choose which company they wanted on the front of the car are now showing up, hat in hand, to try and cobble together the money that they feel they need to run a top level organization.
There is no doubt that running a car in the top levels of stock car racing is a very expensive prospect, but teams are now going to be forced to work smarter, and not necessarily harder, to get their cars to the front. Teams would be well served to look at Yates Racing to see how to make a lot with a little. Yates fielded two cars for the entire Cup season, often without the benefit of sponsorship, with a staff that hovered around 70 employees for the whole year. That's right; just 70 people were putting two cars together, and sometimes running near the front of the pack with the product they were putting out there on the track. They weren't competing for wins, but they were both solidly in the Top 35 for the majority of the season.
In sharp contrast, the Wood Brothers have nearly 300 employees in their shop. They do run a Truck series team, and they helped JTG racing with their Nationwide Series cars -- but they only field one Cup car, with more than four times the number of employees that Yates had fielding two. Similarly, Hendrick Motorsports has more than 500 employees fielding their four cars in the Cup series. That's over 125 people per car, 55 more than Yates is using to field two cars. Certainly there is a price for success, and Hendrick has been the benchmark organization in the Cup series for years. But even Hendrick has not been immune, and recently announced that at least a handful of employees were let go after the end of the season.
NASCAR racing has become big business, although at this point it may have become too big for its own britches. Teams traveling on company owned jets, pit crews flying in the day of the race, drivers and crew chiefs staying in multi-million dollar motor homes at the track -- all of those things are a long way from the roots of the sport that used to see people drive their car to the speedway, race it, and then drive it home. Progress is a good thing, and prosperity is without a doubt a benefit of doing something right that people enjoy and are willing to pay for. However, the number of people willing to pay to see it, and also the number of people willing to assist in putting on the show, are now shrinking. The teams in the garage are going to be forced to adjust their ways or risk spending themselves out of the sport.
Does every team need a seven post rig? Probably not, although the new ban on testing is going to make those machines even more important. Should crew members be making six figure salaries? Maybe, maybe not. The sport of stock car racing is like all other economic entities, and it is all based on supply and demand. The people who are the best at what they do will be in demand, and that limited supply of talent can draw the biggest salaries in the sport. Unfortunately for the people who are the best at what they do, the amount of money that people are willing to pay for that talent is going to be less than it used to be. All of a sudden, the $120,000 front tire change from 2008 may very well only be able to bring home $90,000 in 2009. Of course, that is still a hell of a lot of money for 38 weekends of work a year. Not to say these men don't go through hardship. They practice every day, work out like professional athletes, and have to sacrifice time away from their families to be in the sport they love. Unfortunately, they're going to have to decide if the job is still worth it making 1/3 less than they were last year.
Still, even in today's tough economy, the people who are going to be working in NASCAR are going to be well paid to do what they do -- just not as well paid as they were. When push comes to shove, they're a select few who are doing jobs that thousands of other people would gladly sacrifice to get the chance to do for a lot less money. So, owners of Cup teams are going to have to look long and hard at all of their expenditures during the offseason, and making some tough decisions about what is really necessary to run competitively. And when it's all said and done, we very well may see 35 cars on the track some race weekends, and some people who used to work in Cup taking jobs changing tires at the local Goodyear retailer -- because the time commitment to be part of a Cup team doesn't justify the amount of money that can be made elsewhere.
Mike Neff is a Senior Writer at Frontstretch.com. You can reach him at mike...@frontstretch.com ... and don't forget to check out his weekly Power Rankings on Wednesdays and Picks N Pans column on Thursdays!
Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them Matt Taliaferro's way at matt.ta...@frontstretch.com; and if you're lucky, you'll get your name in print when he does his weekly column answering back to you – the fans that keep Frontstretch afloat. Fanning The Flames returns Thursday with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Did You Notice? ... Layoffs Still Looming, Testing Hope, And Changes At Yates
by Tom Bowles
NASCAR Stars Weigh In, For Better Or Worse, On Big Three Bailout Debate
by Tommy Thompson
Mirror Driving : 2008's Biggest Moment, 2009's Testing Nightmare, And Judging Johnson In 2050
by the Frontstretch Staff
Top Ten Things I Want To Say About The 2008 NASCAR Season
by Jeff Meyer
Frontstretch Sprint Cup Power Rankings : Top 15 After Homestead
compiled by Mike Neff
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q. These drivers have won championships in two of the three top NASCAR series. Who are they?
Check back Thursday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Tuesday's Answer
Q. NASCAR Dynasties: These four ownership groups have combined to win half of the Grand National/Cup championships. Who are they?
A. Lee and Richard Petty combined to win 10 Championships for Petty Enterprises, followed by Rick Hendrick with eight and Richard Chilldress Racing and Junior Johnson with six each. These four ownership groups account for thirty of the sixty championships awarded since 1949.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: If we mess up, you get the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to tri...@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
ADVERTISEMENT
Save Big at Porter and Pittsburgh Paint Locations Nationwide!
Frontstretch.com has negotiated a special price for its readers on all paints and sundries at any corporate owned Porter Paints or Pittsburgh Paints location. Tell your sales associate to use account number TA000553 to let them know that you are a Frontstretch reader and are entitled to a 15% discount off the WHOLESALE price on any stocked item. Not valid at dealer locations.
Coming Tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top Stories by Bryan Davis Keith
-- What's Vexing Vito? by Vito Pugliese
-- Frontstretch Line of the Week
-- Trivia, links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off by Matt McLaughlin
Matt tackles the testing ban -- will it hold, can it work, and who will find a way around it -- in his final commentary column of 2008.
Fanning the Flames by Matt Taliaferro
This week, Matt answers your questions about NASCAR and all things NASCAR-centric. What did you say? He didn't answer yours? Well, maybe you didn't send it to the right address: matt.ta...@frontstretch.com. Try that email thing again, and you just may see your question in Fanning next week!
Voices From the Heartland by Jeff Meyer
Join our resident satirist Thursday as he takes on NASCAR and brings the battle to you.
Kenny Wallace Driver Diary as told to Amy Henderson
Kenny gives an end-of-season wrap up after finishing out the season in Jay Robinson's No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series.
Rick Crawford Driver Diary as told to Toni Montgomery
Rick takes a look back at 2008 and his season driving the No. 14 Circle Bar Ford in the Truck Series.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to edi...@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2008 Frontstretch.com
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
November 19th, 2008
Volume II, Edition CCXXIII
Today's Top News
Team Layoffs Continue -- Final Numbers Unknown
by Phil Allaway
With the 2008 season complete, the economic crisis is beginning to come down hard on race teams in the Sprint Cup Series. Already, DEI (as a result of the merger between DEI and CGRFS) and Hendrick Motorsports, in addition to JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series, have announced staff layoffs in an attempt to save money.
Today, news has surfaced that Stewart-Haas Racing (formerly Haas CNC Racing), Yates Racing, Hall of Fame Racing, Petty Enterprises and the Wood Brothers have all laid off varying numbers of employees in a scramble essentially for survival. The raw numbers, as Frontstretch has them, look like this:
Layoffs
DEI -- 116 Employees
Ganassi -- 71 (from shutdown of the No. 40 team in June)
Petty -- 23
Wood Brothers -- 22
Stewart-Haas -- 16
Hendrick -- 12
Hall of Fame -- Unknown
Yates -- Unknown
Bill Davis -- Unknown, but down to bare bones staff at shop
Unemployment announcements are expected to pick up after Thanksgiving in early December, when teams come to grips with a lack of sponsorship for 2009.
Fitz Motorsports To Fold?
SceneDaily.com is reporting that Fitz Motorsports team owner Armando Fitz is seriously considering shuttering his Nationwide Series team for next season.
"I really never thought I could have a year worse than what I had in '05," Fitz said. In 2005, both of Fitz's parents died within six months of each other. "This year has been right there."
During this past season, Fitz was sued by former drivers Joel Kauffman and Mike Bliss, which resulted in seizures of team equipment for auction on both occasions.
Fitz Motorsports still reportedly owes money to certain vendors, and has discussed selling a share of the team. Of course, any potential investors in the team would have to be made aware of monies owed to individual vendors (parts, shop equipment, etc.).
On the sponsorship front, Fitz's No. 22 has backing for only 15 of the 35 scheduled races for next season. The car finished out the year with Drive For Diversity graduate Marc Davis behind the wheel; he had a best finish of just 27th, but the team collected a total of one Top 5 and three Top 10 finishes with a handful of other drivers in 2008.
Today's Featured Commentary
Full Throttle
Time To Tighten The Purse Strings
by Mike Neff
The economy in the United States, and for that matter around the world, has taken a drastic downturn during the past Sprint Cup season. The resulting struggles of teams trying to acquire sponsorship have already been well documented, and leave many a stock car mechanic nervous about their future employment. The massive layoffs that many predicted to befall the Cup garage this past Monday did not fully materialize, but just because it fell short of 1,000 doesn't mean there aren't a large number of team members who are looking for work today. From Hall of Fame Racing to Hendrick Motorsports, teams are being forced to reduce their payroll during these lean economic times. But while it is certainly painful for the people now unemployed and the persons making the decisions to let them go, it very well might be the kind of sensibility check that will make the sport better in the long run.
NASCAR has been riding high on the hog for better than 20 years, and has been immune to the most recent downturns in the economy that have caused many others to have to tighten their belts. While production jobs have been eliminated from auto manufacturers and others involved with the automotive industry over that time, the teams in the Cup garage have expanded and continued to spend extravagantly on all of the bells and whistles that may not be all that necessary to make a race car go fast. This downturn, however, is different. The big money sponsors that have been so anxious to get on the hood of Cup cars are suddenly not as numerous as they have been in the past. Teams that were able to pick and choose which company they wanted on the front of the car are now showing up, hat in hand, to try and cobble together the money that they feel they need to run a top level organization.
There is no doubt that running a car in the top levels of stock car racing is a very expensive prospect, but teams are now going to be forced to work smarter, and not necessarily harder, to get their cars to the front. Teams would be well served to look at Yates Racing to see how to make a lot with a little. Yates fielded two cars for the entire Cup season, often without the benefit of sponsorship, with a staff that hovered around 70 employees for the whole year. That's right; just 70 people were putting two cars together, and sometimes running near the front of the pack with the product they were putting out there on the track. They weren't competing for wins, but they were both solidly in the Top 35 for the majority of the season.
In sharp contrast, the Wood Brothers have nearly 300 employees in their shop. They do run a Truck series team, and they helped JTG racing with their Nationwide Series cars -- but they only field one Cup car, with more than four times the number of employees that Yates had fielding two. Similarly, Hendrick Motorsports has more than 500 employees fielding their four cars in the Cup series. That's over 125 people per car, 55 more than Yates is using to field two cars. Certainly there is a price for success, and Hendrick has been the benchmark organization in the Cup series for years. But even Hendrick has not been immune, and recently announced that at least a handful of employees were let go after the end of the season.
NASCAR racing has become big business, although at this point it may have become too big for its own britches. Teams traveling on company owned jets, pit crews flying in the day of the race, drivers and crew chiefs staying in multi-million dollar motor homes at the track -- all of those things are a long way from the roots of the sport that used to see people drive their car to the speedway, race it, and then drive it home. Progress is a good thing, and prosperity is without a doubt a benefit of doing something right that people enjoy and are willing to pay for. However, the number of people willing to pay to see it, and also the number of people willing to assist in putting on the show, are now shrinking. The teams in the garage are going to be forced to adjust their ways or risk spending themselves out of the sport.
Does every team need a seven post rig? Probably not, although the new ban on testing is going to make those machines even more important. Should crew members be making six figure salaries? Maybe, maybe not. The sport of stock car racing is like all other economic entities, and it is all based on supply and demand. The people who are the best at what they do will be in demand, and that limited supply of talent can draw the biggest salaries in the sport. Unfortunately for the people who are the best at what they do, the amount of money that people are willing to pay for that talent is going to be less than it used to be. All of a sudden, the $120,000 front tire change from 2008 may very well only be able to bring home $90,000 in 2009. Of course, that is still a hell of a lot of money for 38 weekends of work a year. Not to say these men don't go through hardship. They practice every day, work out like professional athletes, and have to sacrifice time away from their families to be in the sport they love. Unfortunately, they're going to have to decide if the job is still worth it making 1/3 less than they were last year.
Still, even in today's tough economy, the people who are going to be working in NASCAR are going to be well paid to do what they do -- just not as well paid as they were. When push comes to shove, they're a select few who are doing jobs that thousands of other people would gladly sacrifice to get the chance to do for a lot less money. So, owners of Cup teams are going to have to look long and hard at all of their expenditures during the offseason, and making some tough decisions about what is really necessary to run competitively. And when it's all said and done, we very well may see 35 cars on the track some race weekends, and some people who used to work in Cup taking jobs changing tires at the local Goodyear retailer -- because the time commitment to be part of a Cup team doesn't justify the amount of money that can be made elsewhere.
Mike Neff is a Senior Writer at Frontstretch.com. You can reach him at mike...@frontstretch.com ... and don't forget to check out his weekly Power Rankings on Wednesdays and Picks N Pans column on Thursdays!
Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them Matt Taliaferro's way at matt.ta...@frontstretch.com; and if you're lucky, you'll get your name in print when he does his weekly column answering back to you – the fans that keep Frontstretch afloat. Fanning The Flames returns Thursday with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!
TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
Did You Notice? ... Layoffs Still Looming, Testing Hope, And Changes At Yates
by Tom Bowles
NASCAR Stars Weigh In, For Better Or Worse, On Big Three Bailout Debate
by Tommy Thompson
Mirror Driving : 2008's Biggest Moment, 2009's Testing Nightmare, And Judging Johnson In 2050
by the Frontstretch Staff
Top Ten Things I Want To Say About The 2008 NASCAR Season
by Jeff Meyer
Frontstretch Sprint Cup Power Rankings : Top 15 After Homestead
compiled by Mike Neff
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q. These drivers have won championships in two of the three top NASCAR series. Who are they?
Check back Thursday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Tuesday's Answer
Q. NASCAR Dynasties: These four ownership groups have combined to win half of the Grand National/Cup championships. Who are they?
A. Lee and Richard Petty combined to win 10 Championships for Petty Enterprises, followed by Rick Hendrick with eight and Richard Chilldress Racing and Junior Johnson with six each. These four ownership groups account for thirty of the sixty championships awarded since 1949.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: If we mess up, you get the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to tri...@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
ADVERTISEMENT
Save Big at Porter and Pittsburgh Paint Locations Nationwide!
Frontstretch.com has negotiated a special price for its readers on all paints and sundries at any corporate owned Porter Paints or Pittsburgh Paints location. Tell your sales associate to use account number TA000553 to let them know that you are a Frontstretch reader and are entitled to a 15% discount off the WHOLESALE price on any stocked item. Not valid at dealer locations.
Coming Tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top Stories by Bryan Davis Keith
-- What's Vexing Vito? by Vito Pugliese
-- Frontstretch Line of the Week
-- Trivia, links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Matt McLaughlin Mouths Off by Matt McLaughlin
Matt tackles the testing ban -- will it hold, can it work, and who will find a way around it -- in his final commentary column of 2008.
Fanning the Flames by Matt Taliaferro
This week, Matt answers your questions about NASCAR and all things NASCAR-centric. What did you say? He didn't answer yours? Well, maybe you didn't send it to the right address: matt.ta...@frontstretch.com. Try that email thing again, and you just may see your question in Fanning next week!
Voices From the Heartland by Jeff Meyer
Join our resident satirist Thursday as he takes on NASCAR and brings the battle to you.
Kenny Wallace Driver Diary as told to Amy Henderson
Kenny gives an end-of-season wrap up after finishing out the season in Jay Robinson's No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series.
Rick Crawford Driver Diary as told to Toni Montgomery
Rick takes a look back at 2008 and his season driving the No. 14 Circle Bar Ford in the Truck Series.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to edi...@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2008 Frontstretch.com
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