NASCAR banks on GM backing
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- General Motors has become the second of NASCAR's four manufacturers to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but industry leaders remain confident support will continue as the automakers shore up their finances.
"I've never wanted to race anything else, and I have every confidence that we will continue to celebrate victories together for many more seasons to come," team owner Rick Hendrick said Monday, a day after Jimmie Johnson gave him his 180th win in NASCAR's top series with a victory at Dover International Speedway.
"My Plan A is Chevrolet, and my Plan B is Chevrolet, and my Plan C is Chevrolet."
GM joined Chrysler LLC, which fields Dodges in NASCAR, in Chapter 11 protection.
Chrysler filed April 30, and a judge on Sunday gave the company approval to sell most of its assets to Italy's Fiat in a move that could help it exit from court protection as early as this week.
Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota are the four participating automakers in NASCAR, and each manufacturer spends millions each season to fund its race teams. Ford and Toyota have the most financial stability, but neither automaker has escaped the global economic crisis unscathed, and both have weathered cutbacks to their racing budgets.
Chevrolet is NASCAR's most successful manufacturer, with 32 championships in the premier Cup series. But the GM budget has been stretched thin for more than a year now, and last summer the automaker announced it wasn't renewing contracts at four of the 12 tracks it sponsored.
It also moved to a year-to-year deal with Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR's flagship track.
NASCAR chairman Brian France has remained confident that racing budgets will not suffer during the Chapter 11 restructuring, and he noted during All-Star race activities two weeks ago that Dodge had conducted business as usual since its filing.
NASCAR also is tied to the auto companies through additional sponsorship deals ranging from large television advertising buys to race naming rights deals.
In a related matter, GM also said Monday that filing for bankruptcy protection will have "no impact" on its sponsorship of the 2010 Winter Olympics. GM has committed more than $60 million to the Games, mostly in the form of cars and trucks, though roughly $12 million is in cash.
"There will be no impact on our sponsorship of the Winter Games," company spokesman Stew Low said in an e-mail Monday. "We are fully committed to our support."
Low wouldn't say how much has been handed over to Olympic organizers and how much is yet to come, but he did confirm that parts of the sponsorship, including some vehicles, are not yet delivered.
Olympic organizers said they're confident GM will deliver on its sponsorship commitments.
USADA NOT LAUGHING AT PATRICK’S COMMENTS
IndyCar racer Danica Patrick insists she was joking when she said using performance-enhancing drugs would be cheating only if she got caught.
Not so funny, says the leader of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
USADA chief executive officer Travis Tygart said Patrick’s comments, printed in Monday’s edition of Sports Illustrated, were “totally irresponsible.”
“In one interview, she undercut what millions of parents try their best to teach their kids everyday in this country, that winners never cheat and cheaters never win,” Tygart said.
In an interview with Dan Patrick published in Sports Illustrated, Danica Patrick was asked, if she could take a performance-enhancing drug and not get caught, would she do it if it allowed her to win the Indianapolis 500.
“Well, then it’s not cheating, is it? If nobody finds out?” she said.
Dan Patrick responded: “So you would do it?”
Danica’s answer: “Yeah, it would be like finding a gray area. In motor sports, we work in the gray areas a lot. You’re trying to find where the holes are in the rule book.”
Danica Patrick later said her answers were a joke, and she apologized if they came across differently.
“It was a bad joke,” she said in an interview that appeared in USA Today. “There is a lot of sensitivity in our culture about (performance-enhancing drugs). With all the baseball stuff, I’ve followed it and this is a real problem. It’s a shame kids think they have to do this to get ahead. It’s very dangerous.”
Patrick’s publicist, Lewis Kay, told The Associated Press that Patrick felt she had “addressed the matter thoroughly with her comments to USA Today.”
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
