Pink Slips and Yellow Bellies
 You have no doubt heard that several NASCAR-related employees will be looking for work this week now that the season has come to a close. With the economy shrinking and less money flowing into the sport, Sprint Cup, Nationwide and truck series teams are contracting or folding completely. That means personnel will be cut and that people will be out of jobs.

The atmosphere around the garage area at Homestead last weekend was one filled with dread and the sight of many crew members scurrying around with resume in hand was a frequent one.

But there were also reports of some teams bringing people into haulers and trailers and informing them their services would no longer be needed - that is right after this final race of the year.

What a classless move.

Rather than to have the decency to finish out the year professionally, these owners and team managers decided to drop the axe right there in the garage area as the final weekend went on.

And then expected these poor souls to go out and do their job that weekend in the garage or on pit road.

We're still hearing reports that more than 1,000 people will be laid off this week in and around the Charlotte area when all the team bloodletting is done. It's a very sad situation to say the least and my heart goes out to these families, who followed their dreams to work in NASCAR and through no fault of their own are now trying to figure out what to do next.

I'm sure it's a situation the teams in this financial crunch don't relish. But at the very least, show some respect to the hard-working people who gave their time and lives to the effort.
Posted: 11/18/2008 9:26:00 AM
Comments:
It is bad times for many different businesses and job holders. Firing workers during or immediately after the race was very thoughtless. I think that NASCAR is in trouble, not just the small teams, but everybody connected to putting on races. Currently, NASCAR revenue is largely TV based. NASCAR gets money from the TV networks. The top teams get sponsorship money (tens of millions $) from businesses. If Joe and the Nascar Dads don't have the money to blow on beer, home improvements, motor oil and ED medicine team sponsorships will disappear fast. Without the sponsors, TV revenue will go away. Many years ago, NASCAR was run for fun, with just enough business to keep it going. Now it is all about the money.
Posted On: 11/26/2008 9:56:47 PM
I hear ya Pete, and I hafta say, there is no easy way to lay people off, the fact that they stayed in there and did their job says a lot for the ones being laid off. Dedicated employees! Fact is, Nascar has gotten too big. Look at RCR for an examole, 4 cars, he says over 300 employees, figures out to over 75 people to keep one car on the track. I realise they have to be competitive, and certain positions are necessary to do that, but this is rediculous, and the other competitive teams are the same way. The cost to be on top has become too high. I hope they find this out and maybe they can put some kind of a cap on expenses that way. That isn't where racing came from, and I hope it doesn't stay that way. If they want racing good again, have them go to the track, no practice, no quals, line up 1/2 the cars and race 50 laps to figure starting position, then line up the second 1/2, another 50 lap race for position on the outside. fuel em up do minor adjustments, and hit the big race of maybe 200 miles, big tracks race all the cars, small tracks race what there's room for, drop the top 35, drop the chase, the people will come.
Posted On: 11/21/2008 10:30:19 PM

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