Teams contracting, searching for sponsors, big names like Brian Vickers with out a ride. What is the state of the sport that we all love? Well, after a week in Charlotte on the Media Tour, one might think everything is coming up roses.
Stop after stop, new sponsors being announced. Teams bragging about being stronger than ever when it comes to staffing and teams.
But a glimpse into the reality of the sport can still be found at Roush Fenway Racing. One of the tops teams in the garage area contracted from four teams to three. This is the same Roush team that was the reason for NASCAR's limit on team ownership. It wasn't too long ago that they had five fully funded teams.
Not only that, but in his Nationwide stable Jack Roush has the defending series champ and the defending Daytona 500 champion, and the team cant seem to find a full season of funding for them either.
"We're out there winning, we're out there running strong," said defensding Nationwide ChampRicky Stenhouse, Jr."So you wonder what it takes to get that sponsorship."
"I have seen improvement in the sponsorship interest," said Roush. "So I'm hopeful that we will be able to put together some number of races for the 6 car this year and have a full set of sponsorship for 2013. And hopefully we will be able to off set the shortage of sponsorship we have in Nationwide."
In his state of the sport address on Thursday, NASCAR chairman Brian France acknowledged that, the sport has hit some rough times. But he said he also sees improvement. And he doesn't anticipate having any trouble filling his races.
"The economy will do that," said France. "I don't anticipate short fields. Bit obviously, a very difficult economy that's lasts so long has had an affect."
In the meantime, there are drivers, especially you less established drivers like Stenhouse, left in a little bit of a limbo.
"We feel like from the performance side of it we feel like we are doing everything we need to do," he said. "But we are as a company, we're just missing it somewhere."
