June 18, 2008 - Dollars And Sense?

The only big surprise on Forbes’ list of highest-earning NASCAR drivers was that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wasn’t on top of it, like he is most other lists. If only the fans had voted.

Oh well, there’s always next year.

According to Forbes, the acquisition of Earnhardt did push Hendrick Motorsports ahead of Roush Fenway Racing as the highest-valued NASCAR team. Hendrick is valued at $335 million and Roush Fenway an estimated $313 million.

Not surprisingly, Forbes pointed out that most of the top drivers’ earnings come from licensing and endorsement deals rather than salary and race winnings. For instance, Jeff Gordon, who topped the list, made $32 million last year with $17 million coming from endorsements, royalties, etc.

Earnhardt made $31 million, including $21 million from licensing and endorsement deals. He also owns JR Motorsports, which is now in partnership with Hendrick in the Nationwide Series. But he also sees JR Motorsports as a Sprint Cup player in the future.

Ella: Harvard or Yale?

Defending Cup champ Jimmie Johnson ($23 million) was third and Tony Stewart ($19 million) fourth. Stewart made a reported $300,000 from his USAC teams last year, but that number should go up this season with a World of Outlaws entry piloted by Donny Schatz.

I’m not sure how much Stewart was paid for the, “Zippy, run for your life,” TV ad for Toyota, but it wasn’t enough.

The disheartening thing about the magazine’s reports was the growing chasm between NASCAR’s haves and have-nots. While Hendrick’s value went up — as did that of the other mega-teams in the sport — the value of Petty Enterprises and other struggling teams (that don’t have the value of the Petty name behind them) fell.

Petty Enterprises’ value was estimated at $44 million, but that was prior to last week’s announcement of a new partnership. Unfortunately, that partnership, which included controlling interest of Petty Enterprises being sold to a Boston-based investment firm, was born out of desperation.

Other teams such as Yates Racing, Bill Davis Racing, which just lost long-time sponsor Caterpillar to Richard Childress Racing, are equally as desperate.

Such are the sad economics of NASCAR these days.

 June 11, 2008 - Getting To The End

The voice of concern came from IndyCar owner Chip Ganassi — and his guy won the race.

But as Scott Dixon cruised home at 60 miles per hour, leading the remaining field Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway to a parade-lap finish under caution, Ganassi said maybe the IndyCar Series might try a green-white-checkers finish so fans wouldn’t begin filing toward the gates long before the victor gets to the winner’s circle.

He has a point. The IndyCar Series should address its rule for next season, keeping the status quo despite the fact that the past two IRL races have ended under caution.

But, for now, Brian Barnhart and his crew is right in leaving all the rules in place as they are.

There are too many rookies driving on ovals for the first time. They are still wearing their water wings out there. Even the cream of the IRL youth movement, Marco Andretti, is making the types of mistakes that are very un-Andretti like and put himself and his fellow drivers at risk.

The concern about putting together a rule change is that the cleanup after the on-track incident might take too long and those same people will head for the turnstiles anyway.

But as Ganassi said, there are some people around who are pretty smart and can figure out a way to give fans a finish they might remember, regardless of the fact that the relatively fragile IRL race cars fly apart like shattered porcelain on impact with pretty-much anything.

And that is the biggest obstacle officials face when making this rule.

The good thing is more fans apparently want something to remember. Even though attendance was down somewhat at Texas Motor Speedway, TV viewership was up, reportedly giving ESPN2 its highest-rated IRL telecast to date.

That’s more good news for a series that appears to have gained momentum since the Champ Car/IRL reunification just before the 2008 season began.

As IRL President Tony George said upon the reunification announcement, the reunification was just the beginning.

There are a lot of things to be worked out beyond that.

And one of those things just happens to be the end.

June 4, 2008 — Doing It His Way

There was Marcus Smith Wednesday on an impromptu stage at the Speedway Club’s 600 Club at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, and there were no explosions or back-flipping dogs or bold predictions.

Smith, the heir-in-waiting to Bruton Smith’s racing empire and new president and general manager of LMS, has barely been on the job for a week and has made one fairly serious executive decision following the retirement of former president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler and the running of the Coca-Cola 600.

“I decided not to cancel everyone’s four-day vacation after the 600,” Smith smiled. “There was some applause over that.”

That’s a good rule for new managers and Caesars — win over the mob any way you must.

LMS is about to turn 50, and Wheeler was such an integral part of the first 50 years, including 32 of those at its helm, it would be understandable for the younger Smith to try and make some sort of splash.

Or just blow something up. It worked for Humpy, right?

But that's Humpy and that’s Bruton Smith, whose personalities squeeze into functions like Wednesday’s luncheon with the help of a case of WD-40 and a crowbar.

Marcus Smith, though, is another kind of guy. Sitting at a table of a half-dozen reporters, Smith answered questions politely between bites of a salad, as if we were in a dress rehearsal for when he stood up in front of the room with a microphone in hand. He bade his time until he could ask us a few.

“I usually am the one asking the questions,” he said of his lunch meetings.

“How much of the reporting you do is about the business end of the sport?” “Why is that? As a fan, I’ve never been interested in contracts and how much some guy is making. Do you think fans care about all of that?”

He liked the discussion more than answering questions himself, something different from both his father, whose point of view usually comes with a sledgehammer to drive whatever point he has home.

There is pressure on the 34-year-old Marcus Smith, son of Bruton and protégé of Wheeler. He knows it, but he says all he can do is do it his way, which means leaving the circus Wheeler was so magical at creating to someone more comfortable in a top hat.

“I’m not stepping in to be the new Humpy,” he said. “I’ll be myself — it’s hard to characterize exactly what that is, but you’ll see over time.”

That’s the second big decision he’s made correctly this week.