You now have Petty Enterprises releasing its driver, laying off large number of employees, selling majority interest in the team, talking merger AND FINALLY…........we’re now hearing talk that the team may simply cease operations.

Nice job Brian France and all the NASCAR power mongers who took a wonderful sport, betrayed the fan base, tampered with a proven formula, failed to control spiraling costs and ruined a true American sporting institution.

As I said months ago, the racial inequalities won’t bring down NASCAR. That was swept under the carpet….. NASCAR is ruining NASCAR toying with their brand and the “good ole’ boys” trying to flex outside of the box. NASCAR is a regional thing. Always has been and always will be. Even though you race in Chicago etc. that doesn’t mean your overhaul your brand.

Hopefully it’s not to late. The TV numbers and fan support was way way down again this year.

Tough times for the racer families that built the sport. The Wood Brothers and the Petty’s are all but gone from the sport. DEI will be a museum in 2 years and names such as Penske and Ganassi will soon have to make a choice between open wheel racing and Nascar.

Billion $$ Brian has really marked his name in history as the guy who may have ruined a great sport.

I didn’t realize this was the case, but it makes sense. Sponsors are suffering on the bottome line. They will spend less. That will directly affect sports driven by sponsor money. NASCAR is probably more in this postition than any sport around. It’s a real shame with Petty,as “The King” was a pioneer in the sport. As for Penske choosing, my guess is open wheel racing. That’s where he became famous. Also, that’s where his teams win championships.

Another aspect is the choices race goers will have to make. As for me, if UNC had gone to Fla or Tenn, I wasn’t going to buy a plane ticket and go. Race fans have to travel all over the map to see the events. obviously, some of those folks will have to make tough choices.

UNC really hit on the bigger underlying problem is that you have 50 + teams competing to make 42 race slots each week.  Are there 42 major corporations that can shell out upwards of 20 million or more to be a full time sponsor of a team. I think not.  Sponsorship dollars are in short supply and that is killing the sport more than anything.  Well that and the fact that ticket prices are rediculous and the races start at godawful times.

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/news/story?id=3780335