NASCAR feeling pinch of struggling U.S. economy

Travis Kvapil and his Yates team have advertising space to spare -- if you've got the dollars to offer this season. Cliff Welch/Icon SMI

Brother, Can You Spare a Sponsor? Teams without full-time primary sponsors in 2008 Team Driver No. 00 - Michael Waltrip Racing David Reutimann/Michael McDowell)** No. 01 - Dale Earnhardt Inc. Regan Smith No. 4 - Morgan-McClure Motorsports Mike Wallace* No. 7 - Robby Gordon Motorsports Robby Gordon** No. 10 - Gillett Evernham Motorsports Patrick Carpentier** No. 27 - Bill Davis Racing Jacques Villeneuve No. 28 - Yates Racing Travis Kvapil No. 34 - Front Row Motorsports TBD No. 38 - Yates Racing David Gilliland No. 40 - Chip Ganassi Racing Dario Franchitti** No. 49 - BAM Racing Ken Schrader No. 66 - Haas CNC Racing Scott Riggs** No. 70 - Haas CNC Racing Jeremy Mayfield * - Team Has Closed Down ** - Partial Sponsorship Announced

With several ominous reports about the economy in recent weeks, many Americans are on the lookout for a possible recession. And in the sports world, there's no one keeping a keener watch then a handful of elite NASCAR owners.

One of the most compelling stories from Daytona and the testing going on there isn't the speeds but what's painted on the sides of the cars. Obscured by the Dale Earnhardt Jr. craze and the supposed Toyota "renaissance" has been a surprising dearth of sponsorship announcements, with cars like Travis Kvapil's sporting a sponsoryates.com logo on the side of his No. 28 Ford last week -- simply because there's no other company to put there.

That's a concern, because periods of economic downturn tend to affect NASCAR teams more than most; after all, it's the multimillion-dollar advertising budgets of primary sponsors that allow this sport to run in the first place. When profits dry up in tough times, Fortune 500 companies usually slash that money, and their commitments in sports are often the first to go. Left in the lurch, teams can no longer survive simply on the purses given out for each Cup race. And before long, they're selling equipment on the auction block for pennies on the dollar.

It doesn't take much to remember the last sponsor crisis in the sport. Just months following the September 11th attacks on America, the Cup Series started 2002 amid news sponsor Kmart had declared bankruptcy -- promptly removing its financial backing from two top-tier teams on the circuit. Within two years, the Travis Carter Motorsports organization had closed up shop, joining a long list of teams that fell by the wayside due to an inability to attract sponsor support. That led to a situation in '04 in which NASCAR was doing everything it could to simply fill a 43-car field; out of the woodwork, underdog organizations would show up, qualify, then park their car after a lap just to collect a check to survive.

As we fast forward to NASCAR '08, the same types of ominous signs foreshadow another crisis could be coming. Just last week, Morgan-McClure Motorsports -- with three Daytona 500 wins and 25 years of NASCAR experience under its belt -- closed up shop, becoming the first of last season's cars to up and disappear. It's true that MMM had been struggling for several years, handicapped by its unwillingness to move their operation from Virginia south to Charlotte. But the final nail in the team's coffin was hammered in when primary sponsor State Water Heaters -- which had been signed to a three-year deal -- preferred to jump ship to Chevrolet rival Haas CNC Racing.

Why the defection? Because Haas was having trouble finding sponsors for its two-car team, stripped bare after Best Buy and Yellow Transportation left following the '07 season. Although Best Buy landed elsewhere, Yellow's plans are unclear -- should it leave the sport, it'll join Coors Light, 360 OTC, Dodge Dealers, Interstate Batteries, and M&M Mars as companies who scaled back team involvement for '08.

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