Home >  Sports >  Auto Racing

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

By Chris Dolack, Special to the Post-Gazette

When the economy struggles, as it has recently, one of the most affected sports is auto racing. It depends on money from sponsors and advertisers to survive.

On Feb. 5, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which has been the title sponsor of the Winston Cup Series since 1971, announced that despite a five-year deal worked out in July, it has contacted NASCAR about finding another company to become the title sponsor beginning next season. This follows the announcement two weeks ago that ConocoPhillips, owner of the 76 gasoline brand, will not return after this season as the series' fuel provider.

A number of teams, too, have struggled to gain enough sponsorship income to field cars, especially in the Busch Series. This threatens NASCAR's ability to put its expected 43 cars on the grid at each venue.

So how does Fox Chapel's Chip Ganassi maintain a three-car team in the Winston Cup Series and a two-car team in the Indy Racing League's top-level IndyCar Series? He constantly caters to his sponsors and his teams win.

"The mix of people that it takes to make a race team might be changing," he said. "These sponsors are requiring more results. They need results and they need them now. They can't afford to wait around a couple of years or five years so that's what we try to do. You have to give them honest measurable results, too, not just your car going around the racetrack. The days of your car going around the racetrack and some CEO sitting up in the stands pointing at it are long gone.

"It takes the same amount of people to change an engine as it did 10 years ago, that number hasn't increased on a race team. But your sponsor services has grown dramatically."