NASCAR recently announced that they will be slashing the purses of the 2011 Nationwide Series races by 20%. This will have an impact on the low budget teams who are literally racing for their supper at each event, depending on purse money to continue on. It will also make start and park teams 20% less profitable.
The move apparently comes as a measure to help the tracks that host the races maintain a level of profitability or at least avoid losses. Another thing the sanctioning body is thinking about are limits on the participation of Sprint Cup drivers in the Nationwide Series. Only one non-full time Cup driver has won a race this year and the only “true” Nationwide driver to win a title of late was Martin Truex Jr in 2005. All the rest have been “moonlighting” Sprint Cup drivers.
NASCAR wants to create a separate identity for the series and make it a true feeder league for the Sprint Cup. Their thought on limiting the “big guys” from participating or at least preventing them from winning a title is to create new stars and help the series move out from directly under the Sprint Cup shadow. Due to the fact that they race nearly identical cars, on the same tracks, that is going to be a tall order.
The other potentially bad consequence would be driving the fans that pay the reduced ticket price to a Nationwide race away because they know that they’ll not see any “stars” at the event. We’re thinking that track operators would pay the extra 20% into the purse rather than lose 50% of their crowds, but that’s just us.
If NASCAR wants to make a new identity for the Nationwide series they should run different cars, on different tracks, with different motors, driven by different guys. A loony idea we know, but there may be some shot that it would work.
Source — Yahoo Sports.com — NASCAR Slashes Nationwide Purse by 20%
