Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith (here with Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory) says NASCAR needs to make some serious cuts under recent economic pressure. Icon SMI

HAMPTON, Ga. -- As Americans prepare to go to the polls to vote on Election Day, the underlying theme is "It's the economy, Stupid." That same phrase could be used to describe the plight of NASCAR.

As the U.S. economy continues to weaken, NASCAR is getting hit the hardest of any of the major sports because its business model depends on corporate sponsorship to run its teams and the series.

"It starts with NASCAR," says Bruton Smith, the Chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns tracks at Atlanta, Bristol, Charlotte and Texas, among others that host Cup races. "They have to cut expenses. All businesses today have to cut expenses. In business, we have meetings every month where we hammer away at expenses. A business has to whack on those expenses every month.

"The racing business is not a complicated business. I'm in a lot of complicated businesses but racing isn't one of them. If we do a better job with the fans and give them what they want, we will all benefit from that. It's greed, greed, greed and we've had an overdose of it in all of the economy. From hotels charging ridiculous rates and having four- or five-night minimums for race fans."

Smith called Felix Sabates the "prognosticator of the year" after he told SI.com two weeks ago that there will be eight fewer cars in the Cup garage area next year because of the economy.

"The teams have two-legged overhead." Smith said. "I told NASCAR that 2009 would be a tough year. I told them that as early as April of this year. I hope NASCAR changes the direction of some things. When you talk about the economy, you have to look at everything. If this guy has a team and has 45 employees, you don't need 45 employees, but you've got them. Maybe they only need 35.

"The first thing we look at in business is two-legged overhead. NASCAR has people that work for them that they don't even know. I'm not even sure all of them show up to work. Teams have an unbelievable number of workers. They have people hired to keep an eye on the other people. That needs to be cut back.

"NASCAR has to reduce costs. The COT is costing teams millions of dollars and that is pathetic. We could have taken the car from two years ago and made it safer. The guys in the garage area are brilliant and we need to let that brilliance go to work. And there are things the team owners need to do to cut expenses. This is stock car racing. We're not Formula One. This has been a runaway freight train for the last five or six years on expenses."

But even with changes, NASCAR officials said the competitive model of the sport would not change dramatically.

"There are always going to be a big disparity between the guys that have the most and the guys who have the least," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR's vice president of corporate communications. "What we have now is we have more cars closer to the ones with than we've ever had before."

As for the economy, Hunter believes it will sort itself out.

"You never know what a price-point is until people stop buying it," Hunter said. "Everything in this sport has escalated to where we are today -- ticket prices at the tracks, cost of participation, salaries, everything has increased. In our economy, there has always been a correction. I look at this as a correction. We are on a correction path right now."

Hunter said speedways are concentrating on added value because it's hard to reduce prices on tickets.

"Our attendance for the last couple of years has been flat, even down in a lot of instances," Hunter said. "But we'll weather it. This industry has proven it can get tough. Some of the best car owners in that garage know what a good baloney sandwich tastes like. This thing will keep going because people like to see cars race."

Teams may have to accept less money from sponsors in order to keep their cars funded. But Smith believes using some smart thinking can keep the grandstands full of spectators even in bad times.

"We have over 300 million people in this county," Smith said. "We are only after a small percentage of them. That is all we are after. If you are running one of these deals, you work harder. Give the people what they want, promote hard and they will be there. Start with a better hot dog. Make parking better. Things like that help the spectator."

Smith has always been viewed as a maverick by the NASCAR powers in Daytona Beach, dating to the early days of the sport. At times, he has considered a takeover of the industry, but has backed away from that idea and also realizes that splitting from NASCAR would not work.

Many men his age are already in the retirement home, but Smith has no time for that. And that's a great thing for the sport because many of Smith's ideas are just what NASCAR needs to endure the economic challenges that exist today.

What Would a GM-Chrysler Merger Mean?

With the American automotive industry trying to become relevant again, the news that General Motors and Chrysler are discussing a merger has led to some concern in the garage area. And while no one believes the loss of one of the circuit's four automakers would be a devastating blow, two officials that I spoke to acknowledged that it wouldn't be an easy road to travel either.

"You deal with it when it happens," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition. "We didn't always have four manufacturers; we didn't always have three. We used to just have GM and Ford. One of the things to always remember is we have drivers, crews and team owners. We make rules and regulations on the cars that are out there available to drive.

"We're not trying to be smug about it," he added, "but they are basically big sponsors. We didn't have any manufacturer participation in the late 1970s -- virtually none. Junior Johnson had a decent Chevy deal at the time and Richard Childress lived off that quite a bit. The Pettys were independent. They would run an Oldsmobile on one track and a Chevrolet Monte Carlo on another one and a Chevy Caprice on another. Kyle Petty would run a Dodge Charger. That was all out of the same stable."

Added NASCAR's Jim Hunter, "The questions to be asked would be what models? Would they pick a car? Would it be Chevrolet or Dodge or would they run both? We have no idea. In the history of this sport, manufacturers have been in and out all the time, going back to 1957 when AMA banned motorsports participation by the manufacturers. In 1964, Big Bill France banned the Chrysler Hemi engines, so it was all Fords. But I still think what wins on Sunday sells on Monday, even in a weakened economy. People relate to what they drive and what their favorite driver drives. That's a given.

"I would not like to see this with no factory participation," Hunter added, "because both the dollars and the support they give the teams help drive the economical engine. However, we have raced before with no manufacturer support before. When there is no manufacturer support, teams will pick a car that is the best car out there. Hopefully, this will eventually work its way out, as it always has. Some may make it and some won't."