NASCAR: What’s wrong with NASCAR? Part 3 – Money and sponsorship

Join me for part three of “What’s wrong with NASCAR?” as I discuss the complications of money and sponsorship in the modern era of NASCAR.

Welcome in, NASCAR fans! Thank you for joining me for the third installment of “What’s wrong with NASCAR?”! This week, I discuss two of the burning issues in the sport, money and sponsorship. Before we get too carried away, make sure you check out the first two pieces of this series. You can find part one by clicking here and part two by clicking here.

If you’re relatively new to watching NASCAR, one thing you must know is that sponsorship is everything. Without those colorful stickers, a car doesn’t touch the racetrack.

The simplest way of explaining it is that sponsors fund everything on a team. Companies agree to pay hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to have their name on a car going 200 miles per hour on national TV. Those dollars go towards building cars, research, development and paying team employees.

In its simplest form, sponsorship equals everything.

The concept of sponsorship was bred with great intentions. Teams could focus more on building faster cars without burning holes in their own wallets. This revolutionized the sport in the early decades, but now, 70 years down the road, the very thing that elevated corporate involvement is sending the sport into a downward spiral.

In this following slides, I’ll lay out three issued related to the topics of money and sponsorship. Pay close attention, because these topics are true burning topics of the sport. Let’s get to it!