9-team alliance protects owners
Whether you want to call it a union or not, the Race Team Alliance formed by the most influential teams in the sport is all about power and leverage.
With a new TV contract in place and the push from NASCAR officials to tweak the engines next season, all you need to do is followthe money.
NASCAR signed a $8.2 billion, 10-year deal with NBC and Fox in 2013, an impressive number because NASCAR’s TV ratings have dropped about 47 percent since the last TV deal was negotiated in 2005.
Although teams currently get a portion of that TV money, the announcement of the nine-team alliance raised speculation that owners may be trying to put the squeeze on NASCAR for a bigger cut.
NASCAR officials are considering reducing horsepower in2015, amove that would cost owners millions of dollars because engines will have to be rebuilt.
So while the alliance can say one of its primary goals is saving a few bucks on hotel bills, there seems to be a bigger play here.
The teams are trying to use their collective power to avoid getting caught in a numbers crunch. Campaign crash: Charlie Crist and NASCAR never seemed to be a good match. The mostly conservative fan base wasn’t his target audience.
And his co-pilot, driver JoshWise, didn’t have the type of ride that seemed likely to win the Coke Zero 400.
And he has the wrecked car to prove it.
Wise got caught up in the usual Speedway shenanigans when his No. 98 Ford of PhilParsons Racing was among 26 bumper cars in one of the biggestwrecks in Daytona International Speedway history. Wise finished 23rd.
At least the Crist brand was nowhere to be found on the car — thanks to the first snafu.
Phil Parsons Racing had agreed to an in-kind sponsorship that would have placed six decals on the car, stumping for Crist in his gubernatorial push in Florida against incumbent Rick Scott. But the decals were stripped away Friday after the Republican Party of Florida protested and the ensuing controversial political yada-yada.
Despite the controversy and the crash, Crist got tons of free publicity out of the deal, so theweekendwasn’t a totalwaste for him.