Rumors About Toys

[Cheryl]

This has been on Jayski for a couple of days, but not really sure Mike Mulhern is a credible source.  Still, it's quite interesting.  Everyone said they'd come to a racing series "clean up" and then leave.  Apparently in this case, they feel that they did enough to promote their trucks and from what I've seen, they've never had much true interest in the Busch Series.

"Toyota to leave Nationwide and Truck Series? UPDATE: Toyota appears ready to withdraw its financial support of NASCAR Truck and Nationwide teams, though continuing engineering support, in the wake of General Motors' decision to join Ford and Chrysler in withdrawing all but engineering support for those two NASCAR tours. There has been no specific comment on that yet from Toyota executives.(MikeMulhern.net)(6-22-2009)
UPDATE: Word in the Infineon Raceway garage over the week was that Toyota has decided to follow its three corporate rivals and pull all but engineering and technical support and parts supplies from the two NASCAR tours. Lee White, head of Toyota' racing development operations: "Toyota and TRD have been in the process for over a year, of adapting our series support for the Truck/Nationwide programs to be appropriate to the value of each series. Our process in the future will not be determined by other manufacturer's actions but by the value delivered by each series. At this point there is no plan to change our involvement for the remainder of this season. As always we will re evaluate each series over the winter and could make appropriate adjustments."(MikeMulhern.net)(6-22-2009)"

Cheryl

[old hot rodder]

I suppose that the issue is the ultimate survival of the series without manufacturer support. Do you folks think the series, particularly the trucks, could survive?  Roush has already said that they will not run a truck next year. I'd love to see it as a more amatuer series, but who knows?

Dick

[Lou]

I suppose that the issue is the ultimate survival of the series without manufacturer support. Do you folks think the series, particularly the trucks, could survive?

I personally think that the trucks won't survive and it burns my butt. I think their demise has more to do with the gradual abandonment of short tracks where they made their mark, in favor of companion events at bigger tracks.

I believe that the Busch Series will suffer more from the potential switch to the COT for that series. NASCAR could not have tried to make this major of a change at a worse economic time. It will kill a lot of small teams off and we'll be left with a series which is nothing more than a clone of the Winston Cup Series. Nobody will pay for or come to two identical races.

Lou

[Cheryl]

Some interesting speculation from Lee Spencer of Fox Sports about changes coming to the truck series.  Like Lou, I think they'd have a better future if they went back to more short tracks and standalone dates.

What's going on with the Truck Series?
"This is a very delicate subject for NASCAR, which has gained notoriety with the number of start and parks increasing while attendance levels dwindle.

However, despite reports from independent blogger Mike Mulhern, NASCAR Vice President of Communications Jim Hunter says emphatically that there is no validity to a story circulating that the series will shut down.

"There's no truth to it whatsoever," Hunter said. "It's total B.S. The demise of the truck series is the figment of one person's imagination. (Mulhern) has a history of fabricating false stories and this is another example of it.

"We're very aware that (the Camping World Truck Series) is affected the hardest during this economic recession. We're currently looking at options. We've never given up on a series and we're not going to start now."

That said, NASCAR is looking at options to reduce costs such as decreasing the schedule, increasing the number of single-day dates and bringing back the half-time pit stops that could eliminate the traveling crews to five or six members.

One possible solution that is off the table is the use of crate engines. NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton said they are not a viable option because "they're not durable to last much beyond one race" which would raise costs, not lower them. Pemberton feels the sanctioning body has made "good gains with new rules and regulations" and the series "still makes sense."

Cheryl

[old hot rodder]

Although I do not really watch the N'Wide series races very much, when I do tune in, it appears that ticket sales, with the possible exception of a couple of stand alone sites like Kentucky, have been down. I think you are right, Lou. Who wants to go see a clone race? Until they get rid of the "whackers", I could care less.

And yes, the trucks should emphasize the short tracks, absolutely. One of the best ever was at IRP, for instance.