35 Car Cup Field Next Year?

Everyone that considers themselves to be a Nascar fan should be flooding FOX and NBC with emails of thanks due to the TV contract they handed Nascar without even having to bid competitively against others. Remember that ESPN and TNT could not run away fast enough. There is some turmoil in Nascar right now but if not for the broadcast dough Nascar would be in utter chaos which is why they need to get their house in order ASAP just in case the networks show some restraint with the next deal.
 
Car count doesn't really matter. As long as the best of the best are out there every week, who cares? The field is plenty healthy as it is.

Mopardh9 said:
Maybe 3 for Daytona, but after that all bets are off.
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Just as a yuge sponsor is announced to SHR?

#4
#10
#14
#41

You can bank on that.
 
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NASCAR Apologist said:
Car count doesn't really matter. As long as the best of the best are out there every week, who cares? The field is plenty healthy as it is.


Just as a yuge sponsor is announced to SHR?

#4
#10
#14
#41

You can bank on that.
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I would be OK with 20 cars on the grid except at plate races where you need a good 40 so folks still get the wrecks they all claim they don't like and there would be enough cars to finish the race.
 
Cancel ALL plate races and just have a wrecking Derby between Stages.
 
With the sponsorship from smihfield, even with no other sponsorship you would see a minimum of 3 cars at SHR next year. No way in hell less than that.
4-jj/Busch/mobil1
10-Haas automation/mobil1
14-Smithfield/mobil1
 
I'm not going to watch a 20 car field, I can go to my local track and see that in various divisions. All you who keep making excuses for Nascar need to see the reality of the state of the sport. Sponsors are scarce, which equates to less money, less good teams, and a few great teams. The parity will not get better, just the opposite. I'd hedge a bet that we have a 34 car field for Daytona, I'd be very surprised if it is any more than this. Nascar bit off its nose to spite it's face quite awhile ago, now they are paying the price. I just heard on my local radio station that there are tickets for $35 for NHIS, hell that's cheaper than a Whelen Modified Tour race. Something is wrong with that picture.
 
Interestingly, Roger Penske, a self-made billionaire and race team owner for the past 50 years, is adding another car to his stable for 2018.

He's probably suffering from Doomsday Aversion Syndrome.
 
yep, somebody needs to tell Roger about the TV deal. Maybe our resident expert doomsday economists can fill in the blanks for the guy.
 
Greg said:
I always thought it was overhyped.
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They aren't worth much NOW. How many races lately have had more than 40 entries? Why buy a charter if there is little to no risk of missing a race? I was against the damn things in the first place. To me, they just subsidize mediocrity, and provide a barrier to new and potentially better teams joining the series. I'm much more of the NHRA philosophy. The fastest 16 race and everybody else goes home, whether you are Joe Blow or John Force. The idea that the charters would ever be worth a fraction of what most of the teams have invested in their operations was fantasy anyway. If you've ever been to a race team auction, you know it's a pennies on the dollar kind of deal. The value in a team is the contracts with sponsors, drivers, and key team members. Without them you basically have a garage sale.
 
Formerjackman said:
They aren't worth much NOW. How many races lately have had more than 40 entries? Why buy a charter if there is little to no risk of missing a race? I was against the damn things in the first place. To me, they just subsidize mediocrity, and provide a barrier to new and potentially better teams joining the series. I'm much more of the NHRA philosophy. The fastest 16 race and everybody else goes home, whether you are Joe Blow or John Force. The idea that the charters would ever be worth a fraction of what most of the teams have invested in their operations was fantasy anyway. If you've ever been to a race team auction, you know it's a pennies on the dollar kind of deal. The value in a team is the contracts with sponsors, drivers, and key team members. Without them you basically have a garage sale.
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^ I could not agree more.
 
Formerjackman said:
They aren't worth much NOW. How many races lately have had more than 40 entries? Why buy a charter if there is little to no risk of missing a race? I was against the damn things in the first place. To me, they just subsidize mediocrity, and provide a barrier to new and potentially better teams joining the series. I'm much more of the NHRA philosophy. The fastest 16 race and everybody else goes home, whether you are Joe Blow or John Force. The idea that the charters would ever be worth a fraction of what most of the teams have invested in their operations was fantasy anyway. If you've ever been to a race team auction, you know it's a pennies on the dollar kind of deal. The value in a team is the contracts with sponsors, drivers, and key team members. Without them you basically have a garage sale.
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Got that, ask DW or other drivers who tried and closed shop. Today just take a look at Petty, no shop and a trailer load of tools. The Charters were free to 36 teams and the only person I know who made a penny was Kaufman. Yes the owners got more purse money compared to a non charter team but no team is racing for that little difference. The teams race in the hope of landing 12-15 million in sponsor money.
 
Formerjackman said:
They aren't worth much NOW. How many races lately have had more than 40 entries? Why buy a charter if there is little to no risk of missing a race? I was against the damn things in the first place. To me, they just subsidize mediocrity, and provide a barrier to new and potentially better teams joining the series. I'm much more of the NHRA philosophy. The fastest 16 race and everybody else goes home, whether you are Joe Blow or John Force. The idea that the charters would ever be worth a fraction of what most of the teams have invested in their operations was fantasy anyway. If you've ever been to a race team auction, you know it's a pennies on the dollar kind of deal. The value in a team is the contracts with sponsors, drivers, and key team members. Without them you basically have a garage sale.
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They're worth whatever someone who wants one is willing to pay.

There's no way to know exactly what the future holds. Major league sports franchises are far more valuable now than they were 20 years ago. In the meantime, holders of these pieces of paper earn a lot more from week to week than those who don't have one. They exist precisely because of your observation that race team auction results do not reflect the actual value of an organization's assets.
 
The thing is, if you show up and race every week for long enough, you're probably going to get one anyway. Some day they MIGHT have some value again, but we are a LONG way from that. I guess if you could buy one for on the cheap, go ahead.
 
Speaking of selling high with regard to charters, Barney Visser revealed that they already have a contract to sell the 77 team charter.

If a sponsor miraculously materialized at the last moment, they could get their hands on another Charter cheap at the end of the season, and go ahead and race next year. ;)
 
Formerjackman said:
The thing is, if you show up and race every week for long enough, you're probably going to get one anyway. Some day they MIGHT have some value again, but we are a LONG way from that. I guess if you could buy one for on the cheap, go ahead.
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You're going to get one if you agree to lease or buy one ... there's no other way. NASCAR doesn't control this aspect of the business.

The Wood Brothers leased last year because the prize money difference extrapolated over the full season was greater than the leasing cost. For 2018 they'll have to buy one or lease from a different holder.

I don't get the angst. There were 36 guaranteed starting spots for years before the owners flexed their muscle over this issue.
 
And all the guaranteed starting spots got us was a bunch of garbage teams going through the motions and collecting the loot. Much like the Cleveland Browns, why try too hard to get better when you can make almost as much money just phoning it in?
 
aunty dive said:
Interestingly, Roger Penske, a self-made billionaire and race team owner for the past 50 years, is adding another car to his stable for 2018.

He's probably suffering from Doomsday Aversion Syndrome.
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Interestingly, Gene Haas, a self-made billionaire and race team owner for the past 25 years, is deleting another car to his stable for 2018.

He's probably suffering from Doomsday Aversion Syndrome.
 
Formerjackman said:
The thing is, if you show up and race every week for long enough, you're probably going to get one anyway. Some day they MIGHT have some value again, but we are a LONG way from that. I guess if you could buy one for on the cheap, go ahead.
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The charters are not even owned by the teams as they were awarded for the length of the TV contract unless there was some revision made. Some of the apologists will point to fuzzy potential future events that could cause them to be of some value but I don't think they really believe it.
 
The way I read the deal you are correct, AND if you finish in the bottom three of the chartered teams for three years in a row, NASCAR can yank the charter and I presume give it to somebody else. I just think the charters are something to make people think they were doing something, and they really didn't.
 
36 Car field wouldn't bother me at all. You drop off 4 stragglers from the pack.

When I go to Daytona I don't watch the stragglers running around at the tail end of the big pack or in their small little packs that sometimes form. For those of you who have never been to Daytona -- you hear the loud roar of the main pack, then you see these little packs come by with more of a whimper than a roar.

But then you get the stragglers who lose pace and they are in their own sad little world circling the track.
 
It is the Bell Curve.

For a 36 car field -- as long as the cars being culled are on the crappy side of the Bell Curve, then the racing quality isn't being harmed, and is probably being improved with less junk starting the race.

The parade/warm up laps may not look as vast and colorful, but once the Green Flag is waved most fans will be focusing on the front to middle pack going by -- before they focus back on the leaders and Turn 1.
 
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Skoalbandit33 said:
If Gene was committed to 4 cars next year why not just sign Kurt Busch to a deal to drive one if his 4 cars? Also the age of your article has even expired for use as a bird cage liner. Watch and learn!
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Well for one thing, if you out and out tell people you are running the car sponsor or no sponsor, you just lowered the value of that sponsorship. I think Gene's playing the game, but my money is on the 41 being on the track next year.
 
Formerjackman said:
yeah, I just read an old story where Baldwin was saying it would allow him to plan for the future and build his team.. Who was one of the first to bail?
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The point seems lost on you. He sold the paper for 7 figures. He paid nothing for it.
 
Skoalbandit33 said:
If Gene was committed to 4 cars next year why not just sign Kurt Busch to a deal to drive one if his 4 cars? Also the age of your article has even expired for use as a bird cage liner. Watch and learn!
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From you? Not possible.

The article is far more current than anything you've got. He's forcing Busch to take a pay cut. Haas will run 4 cars. Bookmark that.
 
Formerjackman said:
Well for one thing, if you out and out tell people you are running the car sponsor or no sponsor, you just lowered the value of that sponsorship. I think Gene's playing the game, but my money is on the 41 being on the track next year.
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He already said he is running 4 cars so that cat is already out of the bag. I get the feeling Gene has not received the memo on what sponsorships are currently worth which is why he has so much inventory available.
 
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