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Will ailing automakers exit NASCAR?
(Orlando Sentinel, The (FL) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Racing executives with the four auto manufacturers involved with NASCAR _ Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota _ have voiced their support for the sport, which probably totals well over $75 million a year.
After the downright disastrous sales figures released Tuesday, you have to wonder: How much longer?
"Racing is the core of Dodge's DNA," Mike Accavitti, director of the Dodge Brand and SRT Global Marketing, and the head of Dodge's racing program, said in November. "Dodge has a racing heritage that spans many different nameplates and models, and the Charger is the cornerstone of that heritage."
Tuesday, Dodge announced that June 2008 sales had dropped 30 percent from June 2007. Sales of the Charger, the car Dodge races in NASCAR, dropped 28 percent. Sales of the Avenger, which Dodge raced some last year, fell 49 percent. Sales of the Dodge Ram pickup, which Dodge races in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, fell 48 percent.
By no means is Dodge alone. Sales of the Impala, the car Chevrolet races in NASCAR, dropped 53.5 percent last month, compared with June 2007. The Silverado, which Chevy races in the truck series, fell 23.7 percent.
While the Fusion, the car Ford races in NASCAR, held its own last month in sales, Ford sales in general fell 28.7 percent. Sales of the F-Series, the truck Ford races in the truck series, dropped 40.5 percent from June 2007.
Even Toyota wasn't immune. Company sales fell more than 20 percent, and while the Camry remains a healthy seller, Toyota executives long have maintained that they are in NASCAR not to sell Camrys, but to get feel-good exposure to help them sell the Tundra pickup, which Toyota races in the truck series. So how's the Tundra doing? Down 34.4 percent.
Still, Toyota _ flush with cash and extremely profitable _ seems the least likely to bail out on NASCAR, given the investment the company has made in the past year alone, which has helped launch Camry driver Kyle Busch to the top of the Sprint Cup points with five wins.
Chevrolet has pulled back in other racing series to the point where it is likely to stick around, too: Earlier this year, John Middlebrook, vice president of global sales and marketing for GM, told The New York Times: "Obviously, the last racing we would drop would be NASCAR right now, 'cause it's still got the best return for us." Of course, at that time the Impala was on, or close to, the top-10 best-seller list. And with Chevrolet having won only four points races this year, it's obvious that they won't come close to last year's success. Of course, by this time last year, Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson had won eight races together. This year, Johnson has the pair's lone victory, at Phoenix.
As for Ford, the company is undeniably looking for ways to save money, but it would be tough for the Blue Oval to leave NASCAR altogether. Ford won just seven races in 2007, but at the NASCAR Sprint Cup media tour earlier this year, Edsel Ford II _ Henry Ford's great-grandson and a longtime racing enthusiast _ showed up to guarantee the company's commitment to NASCAR. "There's been a lot of talk in the media in the past year, much of it negative. People have wanted to write us off, to say we couldn't compete in the marketplace or on the racetrack. I'm here to tell you one thing today: Don't underestimate our resolve."
No one is underestimating Ford's resolve, only its wallet. It also does not seem to be a good sign that savvy Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing since 1997 and by far the manufacturers' senior representative in NASCAR, is retiring at the end of this month. Plus, Ford has won only three points races of the 17 run so far this year _ with all the wins by one driver, Carl Edwards _ so they'll have to improve just to match last year's miserable season.
Which leaves Dodge, the manufacturer most often mentioned as the most likely to bail from NASCAR. The company is barely there in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the Nationwide Series. Ryan Newman's victory at the Daytona 500, two wins by Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch's lucky win last weekend gives Dodge four points-race victories, but this has been a pretty grim year for a few Dodge teams, particularly Ganassi. Looking at a 36 percent total drop in sales for Chrysler LLC last month from June 2007 _ by far, the largest of the domestic automakers _ I'd hate to be the guy trying to persuade the board of directors to spend more on racing to get the brand in victory lane more often.
All this is, of course, of great interest to NASCAR, and you can bet they'll do what they can to keep the manufacturers happy. But with gas at $4 a gallon, NASCAR has its own battle to fill seats in the grandstands.
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(Steven Cole Smith is automotive editor of the Orlando Sentinel. He can be reached at scsmith@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5699.)
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(c) 2008, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).
Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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Copyright ? 2008 The Orlando Sentinel
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