Feeling the pinch: a sputtering economy, nervous sponsors, and Winston Cup invaders have sideswiped the Busch Series

Auto Racing Digest, June-July, 2003 by Larry Woody

MIKE MCLAUGHLIN FINISHED a strong fourth in last year's NASCAR Busch Series championship standings, and after joining a new team during the offseason he felt that he was positioned to make a serious run for the title this year.

But two weeks before the season opener at Daytona, McLanghlin's team, Angela's Motorsports, announced it was "financially insolvent," and closed its doors.

McLaughlin plunged from aspiring champion to potential spectator. He scrambled to put together a patchwork deal that got him to Daytona--fans contributed to a fund to help him field a car and sympathetic Fox

ONE DAY AT A TIME McLaughlin solicits money on a race-by-race basis. Sports commentator Darrell Waltrip pitched in with a limited sponsorship--but his long-term plans and prospects are blurred. "It's been tough, but I'm not going to let it defeat me," says McLaughlin.

McLaughlin is not the only Busch driver who has been blindsided by economic woes. Tim Sauter, a promising young racer who finished 13th in last season's standings, was another victim. His former team, AP Performance Racing, was forced to cease operations.

Former AP team official Alan Pinsonneault said he had no choice: No sponsor meant no racing. "We hated to see it come to this because the team showed so much promise," says Pinsonneault. "We really wanted to keep the operation going, but we just couldn't find any willing backers. These days finding sponsorship is difficult because everyone's budget is tight. We had some pretty good leads, but in the end none of them panned out enough to keep us in business.

"It has been difficult here lately," says Clarence Brewer, owner of Brewco Motorsports. "In most years, we'd see about 10 sponsors leave the Busch Series but we'd have about 10 new sponsors come in to take their place. This year we had about the usual amount go out, but we didn't have the usual number come in."

Brewco Motorsports fields two cars. One is driven full time by two-time Busch champion David Green, and the second is shared by three drivers: Chase Montgomery, Hank Parker Jr., and Joey Clanton. Parker is another bright young Busch driver who had an impressive 2002 season, only to find himself out of a ride at the end of the year.

"This is not an ideal situation," says Montgomery, who finished a solid 10th in his Busch Series debut at Daytona and then had to sit out the next race. "But it's better than nothing. I'd rather drive in some of the races than none of the races. All you can do is hang on and hope that something develops down the road. I have a lot of faith in Clarence and I know he's working hard to find us more sponsors."

Brewer admits that he isn't sure what the future holds for the series. "I think the top 10 or so teams will be OK," he says. "But from there on down it could be pretty tough. We'll be all right if the economy turns around. If not, it's going to be a struggle for a lot of people."

Rick Houston, the author of "Second To None," a history of the Busch Series, shares Brewer's concern about the hazy horizon. "When the season began, only about 20 teams were set with solid, full-time sponsorships," says Houston. "There's a lot of anxiety. I've talked to several owners who aren't sure how long they can keep going. A lot of them are taking it race by race, trying to keep a car on the track while searching for more backing."

The economic crunch is hitting at a time when costs in the Busch Series are escalating, catching teams in a financial cross fire. A few years ago, a Busch team could run the full series for around $500,000; now some teams are spending upwards of $3 million.

Brewer denies that the second-tier division is a victim of lavish spending or of trying to live beyond its means. "It's just a fact that everything costs so much more these days," he says. "From personnel to car parts, if you're going to compete you have to spend money. I'm not sure there is any way to contain the costs. We have to keep finding sources of revenue, and those sources are getting harder to come by."

Brewer says that encroachment by Winston Cup drivers--often backed by their well-heeled Cup teams--has added to the Busch Series headaches. "It's not just the fact that they enter many of our bigger races and take away a lot of the purse money," he says. "But they also compete for sponsorships. Every sponsor who backs a Winston Cup driver's car in this series is one fewer sponsor available to the full-time Busch teams."

And it goes deeper. "Winston Cup teams have also raided our star drivers," says Brewer. "It used to be that we could develop a hot young driver and keep him around for a while. Now they're jumping from Busch to Winston Cup in just a year or two. We had Jamie McMurray racing for us last year and this year he's full-time Winston Cup. The sponsors tend to go with the talent, and it makes it difficult for us to find and keep a sponsor when we keep losing our stars."

Brewer stops short of suggesting that Winston Cup drivers shouldn't be permitted to compete in the Busch Series. "Those guys bring a lot to our series," he admits. "They attract a lot of fans, both in the stands and on TV. When a driver like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. competes in a Busch race it draws a lot of attention to the series. But in one Busch race at Las Vegas there were more than 20 Winston Cup guys entered, and that's too many. There needs to be a happy medium. I'd like to see them limited to eight or 10 at the most."