Will the lack of manufacturer support kill of the Truck Series? Getty Images/ John Sommers II
In a word, no, the Truck series will be around for many years to come as the folks who run NASCAR absolutely love this series. However to keep this series viable it must return to its roots, it must once again become a low cost alternative for new teams, drivers, and sponsor to get use to the world of NASCAR.
This is one of those rare occasions that NASCAR fans should really applaud the executives in charge of NASCAR; they are attempting to be extremely proactive in trying to rein in the cots associated with operating a truck series team.
Over the years NASCAR has implemented many cost saving rules to the Truck series:
• Limiting the sets of tires each team gets per race weekend
• Limiting the number of crew members the teams may bring to the track
• Limiting the number of over the wall crew persons
• Forcing teams to seal engines so they may be used more than once
Now most of these rules and procedures have helped the race teams stay profitable, however there are some ugly facts we must now consider. Roush Fenway Racing is operating the #6 truck at a loss this year due to the withdrawal of Ford’s factory support for this series. Dodge and Chevy have also withdrawn their support leaving Toyota the only manufacturer giving truck series teams and monetary support.
Back to the #6 team, the only reason RFR ran this team in 2009 was because they had a sponsorship agreement with Conway Freight. So they operate the team at a loss, get some quality seat time for young Colin Braun, and look to leave the series in 2010.
The truck series, while it TV ratings remain strong, can ill afford to lose one of its elite teams. In fact the #6 RFR truck is the last truck operated by one of the super team of NASCAR’s Super Teams.
The Truck series use to be virtually littered with entries from all of NASCAR super teams, RCR, Hendrick Motor Sports, and Petty Enterprises. Now it is a series with far too many unsponsored race trucks, a defending champion who has lost his ride, and a schedule that is a drain on the racing budget that makes racing the Truck series a pretty poor investment.
With the loss of manufacturer support for this series, many of these teams will lose money in 2009. While NASCAR has done a good job trying to control costs, there are some costs that are beyond its control. The cost of transporting trucks to the different venues is something NASCAR can only control through chancing around the Truck series schedule. Before NASCAR gets to that point, there may be a better step to take.
Since selling trucks is an important facet to the car manufactures, and the Truck series is the epitome of the old NASCAR saying, ”Win on Sunday buy on Monday,” The manufactures have come up with a plan of their own.
The car manufacturers seem to think they can work together to supply a spec engine to Truck, and Nationwide series teams at a cost of 600k per season. This kind of spec engine program is currently in use in the Camping World East/West regional racing series, to help curb costs.
From the financial side a program like this makes a lot of sense, Johnny Benson won only 754,405 dollars in 2008. If his engine costs were contained to just 600k, it is very likely that along with his sponsorship program his team would have made a profit in 2008.
As it stands his championship team was sold off, and he competed in just a handful of 2009 races before the lack of sponsorship forced his new owners to shut his program down.
While helping the teams to contain costs should now be NASCAR’s top priority they so far seem unwilling to implement a program like this for the Truck series.
Comments
Did you see the grandstands at Memphis yesterday. I'm wondering if there were even 1,000 seats sold. I'm sure the heat had a lot to do with that but, like the Cup series, we've seen a huge attendance drop this year due to the economy. But, I'm not so sure that fan interest in the trucks isn't falling off because the series has frankly become a little boring lately. I know that when the trucks first came on the scene and raced at places like Manzanita, Portland and South Boston, I thought it was the most exciting series in NASCAR. Now they're racing mostly on the same tracks that the Cup and Nationwide series race only without the star power. As foggymtn pointed out, most of the top guns in the series now are guys who used to be in Cup or Nationwide but are are on the downside of their careers. Foggy, I think you forgot that Kyle Busch, Harvick and Carl Edwards also got their starts in the trucks but for the most part you're point is valid. They need to return to their roots.
There is a truck series? LOL. Seriously,the trucks are A)on SPEED which I along with many many other households dont get in our cable package so I havent seen a truck race in years and B)to agree with a previous poster,they seem to race on the larger tracks and no longer the exciting bullrings of the past where the racing was better and C) this is truly the retirement series for washed up CUP drivers. This series either needs to change back to what it was or it just needs to go away. I'd prefer this series to that crap Nationwide/Busch joke of a seriesw personally. Oh,and to the topic at hand,I would be surprised if the Trucks are still running in 2011.
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