Nascar....

[smileyman]

Originally Posted by ducati_atx

does the 25-30M a year the big three spend not count as commercial sponsorship? Not to mention all the parts/tech/etc they contribute.

Really it is a drop in the bucket...That 30 large is spread out among that manufacturers teams, so to each team it is a matter of contingency or picking up an add'l sponsor. You would be suprised how little the manufacturers contribute financially. Technically they contribute alot of engineering, wind tunnel time, ect, but Teams run on sponsorships primarily.

Without the technical contributions and attributes (which NASCAR has tried hard to limit or at least make equitable among manu's) the teams will just get on with R&D in house making them tighten their own budgets, seek more sponsor capitol, perhaps down size teams, which we re seeing already. But that is more of an economic threat caused by sponsors tightening up rather than just manufacturers.

Besides their teams employ hundreds and it is a business, so they are going to race something! Even if it is last years tech.