Many times in this column I have written that NASCAR Winston Cup racing has become a playground for the rich. My opinion, nor the facts, have changed for the 2003 season.
Relatively speaking, Cup has not reached the level of CART or Formula 1, but the costs continue to increase well beyond the cost-of-living increases we all hope for in our individual budgets.
The rising cost is nothing new in modern sports history because we all have seen the outrageous salary and benefit arguments in Major League Baseball, the NFL, and NBA. For that matter, during the past 15 months we have witnessed outrageous financial misdeeds and behavior at Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, and Wall Street in general.
Winston Cup is now moving into a new realm. Sponsorships costing $15 million-plus are fast becoming the norm, as well as teams that field three to five cars. There is big money at stake nowadays. But this phenomenon isn't limited to the Winston Cup Series-or for that matter just NASCAR.
The Busch Grand National Series is fast becoming overpriced as well. If the 2002 season, with its reduced fields and shaky sponsorship outlook, wasn't a wake-up call for NASCAR, then nothing will register on its radar screen. The "we are in an economic downturn" argument can only be taken so far.
The dollars needed to run up-front and win races and a Busch Series championship approaches the level of what Winston Cup budgets were less than 10 years ago. When I last looked, most real estate prices, cars, and groceries haven't increased by 300 percent in 10 years. But the cost to race has increased by nearly that much in a decade.
What about the local level? Have rising costs affected grassroots racing? You bet they have. In every weekly racing division, the cost to put a race car on the track has risen significantly, and the cost to win races and win championships has risen exponentially.
Costs for Late Model racers have risen dramatically. The price for a set of tires is $400 to $500. And racers who want to win usually have to spring for a new set every week. That's high for a typical $1,000 payday to win. Some tracks pay more, up to $1,500, but most hover around a grand. The asking price for a new Late Model from one of three major manufacturers is $8,000 to $12,000. Engines for the beasts can run $8,000 and up.
Under the NASCAR banner, the Weekly Racing Series is structured so a weekly track champion competes for a regional title with the chance to pocket over $40,000 and the national championship title worth about $160,000.
Just like Winston Cup and Busch Grand National, local teams cannot survive without sponsorship. Dodge sponsors the Weekly Racing Series and helped distribute more than $1.7 million in point-fund awards at the division's banquet in Nashville last year. That's not small change and certainly not attainable without sponsors.
A Late Model team can spend more than $200,000 to win a national championship. Compare that to the price of a first-class Winston Cup sponsorship in 1984 at about $800,000 to $900,000. The price for Cup sponsorship has risen about 10 to 15 times since. The last time I checked, my house hasn't appreciated by 10 times since 1984.