Storm clouds, if not war clouds, continue to gather on the horizon of NASCAR’s plan to limit the number of cars a team may field to no more than three.
Five-car team owner Jack Roush has been conferring with four-car owner Rick Hendrick. They agree they don’t want to downsize.
Roush has been using terminology that smacks of preparing for litigation. Hendrick, less confrontational by nature, points out that the number of owners with more than three cars is about to grow significantly.
“Rick and I have probably had more conversation [since NASCAR Chairman Brian France dropped the bombshell] than we’ve had in the last 10 years,” Roush said.
“As far as what remedies we might have, or how much we might choose to contest, we’re in the process now of reviewing some relevant case law, and some other things that are precedents in our national economy and in the sports marketing business, to understand where we stand.”
NASCAR officials declined to comment on Roush’s remarks.
“I have talked to Roush,” Hendrick confirmed. “We just talked about trying not to dismantle what we’ve worked hard to build. I have no problem with him having five and me staying at four.
“And there’s a lot of other guys at four [in the near future]. There’s going to be [Joe] Gibbs and [Richard] Childress, I guess, but [Chip] Ganassi for sure.”
Hendrick, who has always preferred friendly negotiation to a hard line, finessed the situation this way:
“I’m happy where I am, and I hope NASCAR will leave it like that.”
If NASCAR’s intent is to diffuse the consolidation of power into a few teams, it may have waited too late. The above-mentioned teams account for 26 wins in the 31 races run this year.
That’s why there’s a lot of feeling through the garages that NASCAR will back off the limitation plan.
TV money shrinking
With NBC reportedly pulling out of negotiations for renewal of the TV contract that ends after the 2006 season, NASCAR’s corporate ego may shrink back to appropriate levels.
Earlier this year NASCAR sloughed off its option with Fox that would have extended that relationship through 2008, seeking even bigger money than the original $2.8 billion pact signed with Fox, NBC and Turner in 1999.
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ABC-ESPN, which pulled out of the ’99 bidding precisely because NASCAR’s asking price was unrealistically higher than could be justified by advertising sales projections, is now deemed the front-runner to replace NBC for the second half of each season.
ESPN has been hinting all through its absence that someday NASCAR would come back to earth on the rights fees. And you can bet Fox Sports Chairman David Hill brings in memories of the huge advertising shortfalls of his early years of telecasting NASCAR.
So behind the scenes, there may be some serious discount-pricing going on.
That might not be bad. ESPN ignited NASCAR’s popularity boom in the first place, and it’s ESPN that has three channels and all those hours for ancillary programming that could take NASCAR to an even higher level of popularity.
Victories give Stewart edge
What’s this? Winning races actually matters in the championship standings?
Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson are tied in Chase for the Nextel Cup points at 5,777. But Stewart is listed as the leader due to the tiebreaker of races won this season, five to Johnson’s four. If the season ended now, Stewart would get the Cup.
Dark anniversary
Winning at Charlotte, as Johnson did last week, started his four-win tear in last year’s final six races, even through the tragedy of the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash outside Martinsville, Va. The race there Sunday marks a black anniversary. It will be one year since the plane went down on the way to Martinsville, killing all 10 aboard.
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