Honda started its involvement in Formula One car racing in 1964.
Now, it says, it is pulling out due to a
worsening global economy.
This, of course, leads to all sorts of conversations about the future of auto companies and suppliers who are central to Indy Car and NASCAR racing. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler
are all big backers of NASCAR.
Some NASCAR drivers are calling on fans to contact their Congress members and urge them to push through the bailout plan. This is a move to not just save the carmakers but maybe save racing as fans know it.
Fox News says:
General Motors is cutting back on sponsorships; Sears dropped its 13-year running title sponsorship deal for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series; and AAA and the Army have left altogether.
In an attempt to cut costs across the board the sport recently banned off-season testing, in which teams use official NASCAR racetracks to test or tweak vehicles or for practice. It's expected to save each team $1 million, but it has also cost about 1,000 garage workers their jobs.
Venues, teams and the sport itself are competing against each other for the same sponsorships. Lower profile racing teams worry they won't have the funds to enter next season; higher profile teams are merging to share resources.
In a later part of the story, Fox adds:
Dr. Larry DeGaris, president of Sponsorship Research & Strategy, who has conducted national sports scholarship surveys, said Chevy and Ford have had great success marketing to the NASCAR demographic and will likely maintain some level of reduced sponsorship. (Chrysler's NASCAR campaigns have shown less traction.)
The sport's fan base comprises somewhere between 40 million and 70 million people, depending on one's definition of a fan, and is strongest in smaller markets in middle-of-the-country states, near the American automobile manufacturers and the plants of their foreign competitors Toyota and Honda.
The racing issue was the main subject of conversation at the gym Friday morning, where most of the guys I work out with are gearheads.
