An Auto Bailout NASCAR Can't Do Without
A Government Bailout Of The Big-3 May Be Essential To Auto-Racing
Dec 21, 2008
The world of NASCAR auto-racing, the drivers and the sport's executives who together with lucrative sponsorships from U.S. automakers, retailers and even the U.S. Army, have presided over and reaped the benefits of the increased popularity of events like the Nextel Cup series. And while this lucrative and unprecedented growth has gone on relatively unabated in the sport for about the last fifteen years, NASCAR recently got a big scare in regards to the U.S. Senate's decision not to bailout the Big-3 automakers. So it is no wonder that these same interested parties have been watching intently to see what if anything the Bush administration was going to do in regards to intervention on behalf of the U.S. automotive industry. It seems that hundreds of thousands in television viewers, multi-million dollar television contracts, lucrative merchandising contracts, thousands in fan attendance and the overall increase of American's interest in auto-racing has now reached into the billions of dollars range. As a consequence U.S. auto-racing has become an ever-growing and dynamic sporting event, so those who have the most to loose if anything should threaten their industry really start to take notice. And to think this multi-billion dollar industry grew into a financial juggernaut from a formerly minor sport which in the past had been regulated to the proverbial sporting back of the bus, often paired with the likes of professional wrestling, while still other observers asked, "is this really even a sport?"
NASCAR Needed The Big-3 Bailed Out
In addition to Chrysler, Ford and General Motors being a major part of the 60-year history of NASCAR, they really are important to both the fan base and the atmosphere of rivalry that racing executives and their rock star popular drivers have created and even cultivated as a major part of the auto-racing experience. In addition, many of the products, technology and engineering expertise that support the U.S. auto-racing industry has allowed for a more efficient product to be put on NASCAR race tracks as well as placed on local neighborhood showroom floors. Since 1948, NASCAR has had a long and rich history, with its cars being transformed from dirt road-going and lumbering stock cars, into sleek technologically advanced ultimate driving machines that are seen on ultra-modern speedways the likes of the Brickyard in Indiana and at the Daytona 500 in Florida. Not to mention that the U.S. automotive industry also is the place where the majority of NASCAR's fan base comes from. For example, the many millions of jobs that the American auto industry supports also indirectly supports auto-racing through businesses that sponsor events and cars to the hundreds of thousands of families and individuals who attend NASCAR events, watch them on television, and purchase auto-racing gifts, novelties and collectibles.
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