As sponsorship dollars dwindle, star drivers fade

CHARLOTTE, N.C. » Matt Kenseth, a future Hall of Famer, likely has two races left in his life as a famous NASCAR driver.

The final seat in the carousel of job options will be filled Wednesday when Stewart-Haas Racing is expected to announce Aric Almirola as its new driver.

Yes, a two-time Daytona 500 winner and former series champion was passed over for a driver with one victory in 242 career starts. It is yet another seat that didn’t go to Kenseth, who embarrassingly has become the odd man out in a free agency period that has focused far more on salaries and sponsorship than talent.

Kenseth, who told reporters over the weekend that he will take time off in 2018 , is hardly alone in his plight. Danica Patrick has nothing lined up for next year , same for reigning Daytona 500 winner Kurt Busch. Greg Biffle quietly went away at the end of last season, and Carl Edwards announced his retirement after coming 10 laps shy of winning the championship a year ago.

All but Patrick started in a robust economic period for NASCAR, where teams were flush with sponsor dollars and could basically hire any driver they wanted. Jack Roush was the fat cat in the early 2000s, and he’d hold gong-show style auditions for drivers to see who got paired with his newest open seat.

Kenseth, Busch, Biffle and Edwards all went on to become stars in Roush’s system while launching lucrative and lengthy careers.

But the math has changed considerably. Sponsors are paying far less for the right to advertise on a car during a NASCAR race, and they are increasingly difficult to get. In the days of exploding popularity, a top team might spend $30 million to run a race car. Most of that money came from sponsorship, and top drivers were making $10 million per year.

Now owners are running teams for half of what they did 15 years ago, and driver salaries are slowly being adjusted accordingly. If a team owner can’t get a driver that financially matches the sponsorship level, then the owner has to pay expenses out of pocket.

Brad Keselowski is widely regarded as the driver of the Miller Lite car, but Team Penske last week revealed its sponsorship program for the No. 2 car in pieces, and it only includes 11 races with Miller Lite as the primary sponsor. Discount Tire was sold the rights to be on Keselowski’s car in next year’s season-opening Daytona 500 and season finale at Homestead, as well as eight other events. The Würth Group was announced as a threerace sponsor.

Still, Penske was able to do what few others can manage right now: Put together a sponsorship package that is valuable enough for him to afford a high-priced driver.

Kenseth struck out time and again in a search that began when Joe Gibbs Racing unexpectedly told him it was bringing development driver Erik Jones in-house next season, a decision that cost the 45-year-old Kenseth a spot in the lineup.