While we don’t follow a whole lot of NASCAR stuff here, the story of NAPA pulling the plug on a sponsor deal years early with Michael Waltrip Racing is certainly newsworthy in the land of BangShift. We have seen many sponsors come and go over the years in racing, some quietly and some more loudly, but never have we seen one leave a team as pissed as NAPA seems to be with MWR. If you do not follow NASCAR racing than you may not have heard about the incident that precipitated this whole mess. Essentially, Waltrip team drivers kind of “rigged” the end of a race. That may be the wrong word for it, but there was some stuff done like a bizarre spin with no one around, another racer was told to slow down and then made a weird pit stop late in the race, and the result of all this was that Martin Truex who drives the NAPA sponsored car got the last spot on NASCAR’s championship “chase”. After the race, radio transmissions and other data was provided to NASCAR, who analyzed it and then levied the harshest penalty in the history of stock car racing onto Waltrip’s team. The sanctioning body fined the team $300,000 and gave the “spin and lose” driver Clint Bowyer a 50-point penalty for aiding in the manipulation of the race outcome. As bad as that was, it was the beginning of a larger problem for Waltrip…a problem some say is worth more than $16-million a year.
NAPA pretty angrily Tweeted about the incident on September 11th and hinted that changes were coming swiftly. Yesterday on Facebook the company posted this:
After thorough consideration, NAPA has made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing effective December 31, 2013. NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR. We remain supportive of the millions of NASCAR fans and will evaluate our future position in motorsports.
NAPA
So sure sponsors have bailed on teams that don’t perform up to expectations, do things that are detrimental to the image of their company, or otherwise don’t hold up their end of a bargain, but can you remember a time when a sponsor has not only left but slapped the offending team upside the head on the way out? NASCAR fans seem to actually be split on this decision, which is puzzling to us. Reading Facebook comments, lots of them are saying that they’ll never darken the door of a NAPA store again and that they now despise the company for bailing on Waltrip. Others seem to openly beg the company not the leave NASCAR as a whole and just throw their money somewhere else, and the third group sides with the company, praising them for sticking to a moral standard and not supporting a team that was essentially convicted of the worst crime you can be in racing…manipulating the outcome of an event for your own benefit. Believe it or not, the last group seems to be the minority. Can you imagine the phone lines and fax machines at NAPA today? You know that every race team worth their tires has been blasting them with calls, emails, and faxed proposals to suck up some of that purported $16-million a year that Waltrip is not going to get after this season closes. That’s how racers and money are. Like locusts descending onto a fertile field.
This isn’t the first time that Waltrip has found himself apologizing for something his team has done outside of the rules. If you remember his first season as a NAPA sponsored driver in 2007, Waltrip’s team was involved in the biggest cheating scandal at the Daytona 500 since the 1970s when fuel additives were discovered in the intake manifold. While it was never fully explained what the team was doing, they did get wailed for 100 points and a fine after that.
Lastly, Waltrip still has some presence on television as an analyst and we find it curious that he’s not been thwacked from that role yet. You’d figured that the networks wouldn’t want the side show of a guy who has been as deep into the stew as Waltrip has on their broadcasts and you’d also figure that credibility among other race teams, owners, drivers, and crew people would be totally lost if you were found to be involved in a scheme which ultimately could have screwed them out of a big purse, spot in the chase, or championship points.
The whole thing is a huge mess, but an interesting one. It highlights another in a series of decisions that have backfired on Michael Waltrip Racing over the years and with the specter of losing the biggest sponsor they have at the end of the calendar year looming large, we’ll be interested to see how his other team drivers do with their sponsors after this all shakes out. NAPA may not be the only one marching off the ranch. Stay tuned, we’re going to follow this one close!
I have read all sides of this argument and can see all of them. It seems ok for a pair of drivers from a single team to pair up and outrun the field, but not ok for what Waltrip has done. Bowyer did not wreck anyone but himself. Vickers pitted off sequence. By themselves, neither action would have been suspect, but together they are blamed for rigging the “chase”. What about the last 20 something races that have been run. If the drivers on the bubble had run better, they would not have been counting on one last race to get them in. The “chase” is the culmination of the performance of most of a season, not just one race.
Race manipulation is not new- NASCAR does it itself on nearly a weekly basis with cautions for debri on the track that no one sees. Or competition yellows. NASCAR has become the WWF on wheels to me. They play their favorites and have their own bad guys. And on any given weekend, one or more race teams can and do manipulate the outcome of the race- this is not something that just started with MWR this past weekend.
I say get rid of the false drama- get rid of the “chase”. Let the most consistently good driver win the title. (I also say the same to the NHRA about their chase.) Reward a racer for their season, not what they did in 10 races.
As for NAPA- I don’t hold it against them for leaving MWR. I am surprised they stayed so long with such a mediocre team. They are just trying to save a little face.
NASCAR needs to eliminate the “Chase” eliminate points for leading a lap and give the winner of a race 10 points more than for any other position, also 5 points for winning a pole and 5 points for leading the most laps, that will solve most of the current problems that NASCAR has created.
Agree
All this Chase business is just a bunch of hooey. I haven’t kept up with NASCAR since the first day I saw a Toyota on the track. And now the NHRA is playing “me too” and with all their rules, I’m just about out on them too. Talk about playing to their favorites, they’re the worst.
done w/ NHRA. Countdown? really ? poor numbers, low car counts, and now, you’re gonna eliminate the last few guys who would love to come out and run but whats the point.
bah ! to all them .
NASCAR needs to stop babying their teams..do like NHRA does, go fast or go home. Where you rank in the points or if you are a champion driver should not matter, if you don’t go fast enough to quality then you should not run that race. Race day should have the FASTEST cars running.
I read this and said to myself “Self, is that an implication that teammates will help each other out? Say it aint so!!”
Then I had this brilliant light go off in my head. Had to have been as bright as a refrigerator bulb. Blinding. Anyway, the light said to me “How about no more multi car teams?”
I love Nap-car. Vroom, lap one, nice nap, vroom, race is over. Yay!
Oh, by the way, your web software just told me to slow down. SLOW DOWN? HAHAHAHAHAHA.. o dear. that’s funny. 🙂
Oh lordy, the light keeps talking. Now it’s yelling “Go Stickers Go!” … Only it sounds pretty sarcastic. The light must not care for the difficult to identify sticker cars either. It’s mumbling something about “Drivers” and “Driving Personalities” and pussification of the sport.
Indy car and F1 have been doing this for decades and have not been the last bit secretive about it. Nascar brought this on themselves and blaming MWR for taking advantage of a situation that Nascar created is hypocritical.
As for Napa bailing on MWR. Seems that most corporate sponsors are so skittish these days about their reputation of the teams they sponsor, they jump ship at the slightest cloud in the sky. IMO, Napa should work on the quality of the parts they sell instead. It all went to crap when they decided to go for the bigger profits making everything in China.
I have to say NASCAR is a shell of it’s former self, I don’t make it a day of watching the race, but if I’m not busy I will watch and try to keep up with the news.
MWR is not the first team to effect the outcome of a race for a team mate. How many times have teammates swapped 1st place so the 2nd place car could get the point for leading a lap? MWR’s problem is that they got caught, if Bowyer comes out of turn 4 hot slams the wall and cuts a tire, BINGO! we’ve got a yellow. The practice is not different from any other team, their execution was flawed.
As for NAPA pulling sponsorship, it’s a big deal mainly because NAPA has been tied to Michael since he was still racing a car, and was a big proponent when he established his own team. Then leaving is unfortunate, but expected. I’m assuming Aaron’s will be next, and MWR may be cutting a team or two as I’m sure they’ll be on at least a season’s purgatory before another major sponsor steps up.
Screw NAPA and NASCAR. Waltrip’s team played the system well and the Czars of boring racing didnt like it.
It’s the hypocrisy of the whole thing that has finally ended what little interest I still had in NASCAR. Brian France and Mike Helton have done more to dictate race finishes than MWR ever could and they have personally advocated it for years. Have you ever noticed that every time a race leader gets a 7-8 sec lead the “yellow” flag comes out for some mysterious, often non-existant “debries” ? Have you ever paid any attention to how many times the “yellow” flag comes out within seconds of “Jr” getting in the “lucky dog” spot so that he can get back on the lead lap ? I have been a position a number of times to put those questions ( and many others) to some NASCAR employees “off the record” ( and no, I am not associated w/ any type media). They say simply that “it’s in the interest of the sport. We want closer racing to keep it interesting, and we need the fan favorites to look good”. These 2 items alone have done more to influence the “chase” than any one race incident ever could.
Lessons Learned From “Spin Gate”
1. Only NASCAR is supposed to manipulate the outcome of a race.
2. Thumping MWR is merely cover for NASCAR throwing the 2013 championship “bone” to Toyota (Making the Tokyo takeover/sellout complete).
3. When you cheat (which is a primary reason for a multi-car team — See e.g. Hendrick, Gibbs), try not to make it so FREAKIN’ obvious.
4. If Brian France and his hamfisted goons can figure out your code words, you don’t really have a code.
5. The Waltrips are past their “sell by” date in NASCAR — it’s time for them to go.
6. Somebody at NAPA finally wised-up to the fact that sponsoring a traitorous ‘Yoda actually hurts their business, and this just gives them an excuse to dump a dumb contract.
7. One of the few people in NASCAR that can really challenge Brian France for the “stupid” crown is Michael Waltrip.
8. Sponsors don’t really understand the “big picture” and have the prosaic, if not naïve expectation that their teams will win by going all out all the time.
9. If you’re going to dump. . . dump like a professional . . . Not like MWR’s Vickers and Boyer (With apologies to “The Color of Money” (1986)).
10. When you cross Hendrick, you should expect NASCAR to act, even if you’re running the France-favored ‘Yodas.
11. MWR apparently didn’t bring a big enough can of “Know How” to Richmond . . . .
For those who don’t know it, like others have mentioned, NA$CAR is the worst offender, every week, at manipulating their staged entertainment event. What MWR did is the same thing other teams do all the time. Time was short and they did it badly. If they determined that Bowyer did spin on purpose, I’ve read that the penalty would be held 3 laps, pulling into the pits for what ever reason is not against the rules, I think, slowing your lap time down is not against any written rule, it is done all the time. Jeffy got a big time break from the NA$CAR manipulators that very event when he got a mystery yellow just a soon as he was in the lucky dog position. How else could he get back on the lead lap from 2 laps down. Also, team Hendrick had ole 5 time have a run of bad luck for the last 4-5 events to help his team mate. What MWR did has been the normal for years and years. Those who cried the loudest are the best at it. It has become the WWE joke and glad it’s in the open for all the sheep to see. The main person to blame for the current state, Brian France, the son who got where he is by being born into a family that is or was NA$CAR, not because he has so much as a clue as to what he is doing. The term, more money than common sense is a good descriptive term to use. They are nothing more than a marking giant producing/staging an event that they manipulate to their liking for those masses that are left as entertainment, not racing. They stopped being a sanctioning body staging a safe race some time ago. NHRA is on the same path more or less. MWR aren’t the evil ones they are being make out to be, they were just doing their job, however badly that might have been. The real losers will most likely be the maybe 2 to 3 hundred employes who could be unemployed should all sponsors exit. For the record, I don’t watch them anymore for many of the reasons I’ve mentioned and for those who continue to bring up the fuel mess from years back, I have heard a whisper or two some time back that I never saw in print that it happened a second time and that is when perhaps the problem from within was found, but we all know that no one would think of planting an employee on a Toyota team to make them look really bad would happen, they are all to honest for that to happen. Just food for thought.
Ditto all…………
I pay into the NAPA’s national sponsorship pool. Hopefully they keep their money out of it from here on out. Biggest waste of cash.
hmm lots of stupid stuff behind closed doors. I really don’t know what to say other thn don’t cheat. and cheating makes us dumb. There is no ingenuity in it and people lose there ass doing it.
I had been a Nacar fan since the early 70’s when Richard Petty was winning every week. Due to the Hendrick domination with Jimmy Johnson, I quit watching about 5 years ago. When I want to see some racing, I head out to one of the local short tracks around here, and prefer dirt to asphalt. No drama, great racing and affordable too.
Not sure who made the chase or who is leading the points, but everyone knows about this scandle. The old saying that any publicity is good publicity certainly does not apply here. Nascar is boring, and way too similar to the WWF or whatever it is called today. I am not a fan of fake anything.
Concerning Napa leaving, I have never used Napa for parts. Just to be sure, I tried them last week for an O-ring, and was told no, they did not have o-rings without the counterman even looking. That was enough for me, I will never go back to them, regardless of where they spend their advertising dollars.
If you have not gone to your local short track, do yourself a favor and go!
…..think I’ll go out and rank some leaves. Ho hum…..
What about U S Nationals 2009?
This is the exact same reason why there are no more NASCAR dirt tracks in the midwest anymore
Honestly who gives a s*** nASCAR has went to s*** over the past years because everything is rigged all the cars are the same honestly what happened to rubbing is racing its just f****** stupid everybody’s afraid to actually race because of the stupid fines
Get John Force over to NAPA office as soon as possible
LOL, good one, but NAPA is already in NHRA.
Well, so far the comments are right on target, with one exception. Does anyone seriously believe that Micheal Waltrip ordered the shenanigans? He, of all people, had to know that if they got caught doing something to “the detriment of stock car racing”, they were going to get hammered, including losing sponsors. But, his name is on the doors and he signs the check, so he is ultimately responsible for his teams actions, even if he didn’t know what was in the works. If I was Micheal, there would be some crew chiefs, car chiefs and spotters trying to find the unemployment office. That’s the only way he can regain any credibility.
Yep, when something like this is exposed you have up clean house and start over. That’s what happened in F1 when Piquet crashed on purpose in Singapore so his teammate, Alonso, could win: Briatore, Renault’s team principal, was banned for life for orchestrating it.
Like thousands of others, Nascar has been something that I can say I “used to” watch. It’s gotten too political, too commercialized, and there is little chance of anyone but big money teams ever being successful. I would definitely start watching again if the cars were built from the same factory bodies (bodies in white) as their street car counterparts, the engine blocks were available to anyone through any dealership, just as it used to be. Eliminate all the ridiculous “aero” rules, wind tunnel testing and let them run like they used to! It’s always going to be a big money sport, but it’s gotten too far out of hand for me to watch. It’s gotten to be too much of a strategy game and less of a driver/pit crew game.
I agree, I USED to be a big fan, now have gone to NHRA, at least the fastest cars race, but they are going the way of cookie cars which I don’t like.
watching a nascar race is like watching an IROC race. spec this and spec that. and what about 35 locked in spots..run what u brung, or go home..
Why allow “teams” if teams can’t help each other?