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HardScrabble
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We don't anticipate any problems with all the sponsorship stuff. I think we're good. Once my deal became public, we probably got five or six calls for my deal. Once Christian's deal went public, we probably got another five or six calls. It's a totally different group of companies. We're pleased with that because now you've got a bunch of deals laying on the table. Not to say any of them are going to come true. Everybody wants to sponsor a Winston Cup car for $400,000.
"I don't have a clue what the money is out there for sponsorships. I read a USA TODAY article where it said some guys were getting $18-$20 million a year and some guys were racing on $6 or $7 million. Let's split the difference, so it probably takes $13 or $14 million. Can you do it on less? Yes, but you'd really have to manage your budget a lot better. Can you do it on $5 or $6 million? Not and be competitive. You're just going to be showing up. You've got to have between $12-$15 million to do it right. You would think it would be cheaper per team with multi-car teams and there are some cost savings, but not as much as you would think. You can save some money on engine stuff, and we thought tires would be cheaper, but they haven't been. Definitely not on travel. You've got three teams and travel triples, no way around it. We've got a pretty good system of building cars and maintaining cars and what we look at when we do stuff, so we don't have a lot of excess parts and stuff. That's been good for us. There is some economy for that.
"I think we're pretty close on John for next year. We gave him room to go exploring to see what he wanted to do, all the time telling him we wanted him to stay with us. I can look at it from a driver's angle and an owner's angle. From an owner's angle, I don't want you to go anywhere. He's been here a long time through a lot of bad times, so we want to keep him. From a driver's standpoint, I understand what it is to look out there and think the grass is always greener. Let me go out there and see what it's like and put my name in the hat. He's been honest about it and said he wouldn't do anything without talking to us, so that's kinda where we're at.
"We've got the names of a couple of people we'd like to go in the 44. Everything was OK, then all of a sudden you're missing a driver, missing a sponsor and now we've found a driver without a sponsor. We've put ourselves in position where we've got to work hard to make two or three things work, but you put yourself in that position. If you don't, you just sit around and get lazy. At least we're out working.
"I don't have a clue what the money is out there for sponsorships. I read a USA TODAY article where it said some guys were getting $18-$20 million a year and some guys were racing on $6 or $7 million. Let's split the difference, so it probably takes $13 or $14 million. Can you do it on less? Yes, but you'd really have to manage your budget a lot better. Can you do it on $5 or $6 million? Not and be competitive. You're just going to be showing up. You've got to have between $12-$15 million to do it right. You would think it would be cheaper per team with multi-car teams and there are some cost savings, but not as much as you would think. You can save some money on engine stuff, and we thought tires would be cheaper, but they haven't been. Definitely not on travel. You've got three teams and travel triples, no way around it. We've got a pretty good system of building cars and maintaining cars and what we look at when we do stuff, so we don't have a lot of excess parts and stuff. That's been good for us. There is some economy for that.
"I think we're pretty close on John for next year. We gave him room to go exploring to see what he wanted to do, all the time telling him we wanted him to stay with us. I can look at it from a driver's angle and an owner's angle. From an owner's angle, I don't want you to go anywhere. He's been here a long time through a lot of bad times, so we want to keep him. From a driver's standpoint, I understand what it is to look out there and think the grass is always greener. Let me go out there and see what it's like and put my name in the hat. He's been honest about it and said he wouldn't do anything without talking to us, so that's kinda where we're at.
"We've got the names of a couple of people we'd like to go in the 44. Everything was OK, then all of a sudden you're missing a driver, missing a sponsor and now we've found a driver without a sponsor. We've put ourselves in position where we've got to work hard to make two or three things work, but you put yourself in that position. If you don't, you just sit around and get lazy. At least we're out working.