As it appears we are on the eve of a franchising agreement between the Race Team Alliance and NASCAR nobody wants to ask a very simple question, why is Rob Kauffman negotiating the deal? With all of the great owners in NASCAR, why is Kauffman the one directing traffic?
When I chose a surgeon to operate on my shoulder three years ago I looked for an experienced doctor with lots of references of how his patients have recovered. For some reason the RTA decided to pick a surgeon who’s operated once and performed it on the wrong arm. Kauffman’s only NASCAR experience is buying into Michael Waltrip Racing in 2007 and driving a fully sponsored multi-car team directly into the ground.
While being involved with MWR Kauffman was a “gentleman racer”. That means he paid for a seat to drive in sports car series. There is nothing wrong with that, but it also explains why he has no problem shrinking the field of Sprint Cup races down to 40, costing three drivers and teams paychecks every week. He has no idea of how hard those crew members, drivers and support personnel worked to make it to the Cup level and he is ready to just destroy their dreams. He bought into an already established Sprint Cup team, without having to go through of any of the start up pain.
Kauffman built his fortune as an investor and was a founding member Fortress Investment Group. Their prime revenue generators were hedge funds, debt securities and real-estate investments. All having absolutely nothing related to the operation of a NASCAR team. The investment principals and quick profits involving liquid hedge funds is completely the opposite of the long term vision that is required to own a NASCAR team. His own words were that he was more involved in day-to-day operations with the more money he put into MWR. Yet this is the man negotiating the development of 5 year franchises for existing NASCAR owners.
With the announcement of franchising expected before the season, as NASCAR fans you have to be concerned what the result will be. There have been no leaks or reports of anything related to on track competition. Everything becoming public is about helping the owners retain value on their investments. Nothing makes you think a smaller 40 car field is going to get better than the owners have no reason to improve. When Tommy Baldwin built his team he started as a start and park team, but he had to make the races. Then he made races, gained exposure and has built a multi-car team that races every week now. If all he had to do was unload to make the race do you think his performance would be as strong?
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If I was an owner I would want someone like Barney Visser from Furniture Row Racing representing my group. He built a team, started in Nationwide Series, made mistakes, cut back then recovered, hired the right drivers and crew members and made the chase in 2013 and 2015. Looking back in Kauffan’s history there is nothing like that there. He wrote a check stuck his chest out and bought his seat on the pit box. Not the person I want designing the future of NASCAR.