Tag: Hendrick Motorsports
Nascar’s Most Valuable Teams
Posted Mar 25, 2010, under NASCAR News and Opinion
forbes.com
Hendrick Motorsports continues to dominate, but Stewart-Haas Racing is coming up fast.
When you think of danger at the track, oil slicks, fires and five-car pile-ups come to mind. But for the past couple of years Nascar teams have faced an even bigger risk: sponsors pulling out.
Nascar teams live and die by their sponsorship dollars–they typically represent 70% of team revenues. So when Jack Daniel’s pulled the plug on its sponsorship deal after last year, Casey Mears lost his ride and Richard Childress Racing was forced to park the No. 7 car and become a three-car team.
They weren’t alone. Amid declining audiences at the track and on television, and the worst economic downturn in a generation or two, the value of Nascar teams declined for a second straight year as sponsors like Ask.com and Jim Beam walked away from the sport. The average value of the top 10 teams is $143 million, down 3% from last year.
The average team generated $92 million in revenue last year, a drop of 4%. Teams were hurt by a 19% decline in Nascar licensing revenue. Total retail sales of licensed merchandise were $1.63 billion in 2009 compared to $2 billion the prior year, according to License Global magazine. The economic downturn and a saturated licensing market helped spur the decline. Another factor was the near bankruptcy of leading Nascar merchandise company Motorsports Authentics.
Despite the revenue drop, the average operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the top teams was flat at $7 million. Teams have trimmed budgets by reducing head count, tracking inventory more closely and cutting travel budgets. One area that has not yet been affected is driver salaries–but those cuts will come once contracts start to expire.
What’s The Deal With Jr?
Posted Mar 16, 2010, under NASCAR News and Opinion
Gus Haynes
nascarfrontpage.com
Lost in the firestorm of the flip heard around the world are – in my opinion – unanswered questions about one of my favorite drivers; Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Before we begin let it be known I’m a big fan. Not because of his dad, nope. But because of what I saw early on in his late model days and most importantly what he accomplished in the then Busch series. He had no fear and could win with good or bad equipment. It was a race for second place almost every weekend and at first his Cup efforts looked to follow suit.
Now having said that, what happened?
First thing that comes to mind is losing his dad. Traumatic enough without having to witness it.
What else?
Crashing in the ROLEX race and surviving a terrifying fire?
We could stop there as those events would most certainly affect all of us. But let’s keep digging.
Less is more: Three cars instead of four now the model for Sprint Cup success
Posted Feb 25, 2010, under NASCAR News and Opinion
By Jeff Owens
The magic number for Sprint Cup teams used to be four.
That was the number of cars multicar organizations were trying to reach, the overwhelming belief being that four cars and four teams were the ideal number for an operation to maximize its efforts and reach the pinnacle of success.
Hendrick Motorsports, the measuring stick for Sprint Cup teams, has four teams. Roush Fenway Racing had four, and then expanded to five before it was forced to drop one this year to meet NASCAR’s team-cap rule.
But that number might be on the cusp of changing.
Three might be the new magic number, especially with Richard Childress Racing on the verge of blowing the four-team theory out of the water.
HMS concerned about axle problem
Posted Feb 23, 2010, under NASCAR News and Opinion
By David Newton
ESPN.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There is some concern at Hendrick Motorsports that the broken axle that left Dale Earnhardt Jr. with a 32nd-place finish on Sunday at Auto Club Speedway could be a more widespread problem.
Earnhardt’s crew chief, Lance McGrew, said the axle of race winner Jimmie Johnson was about six laps from breaking and that issues were discovered on other HMS cars during Saturday’s final practice.
“Oh, absolutely,” McGrew told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “I’m sweating this weekend along with Atlanta, which is historically really bad on axles. To say there’s not a stir about it would be an understatement.”
McGrew said so far no explanation has been found for the extreme wear. He said the problem first surfaced during Saturday’s final practice when the left rear axle on Mark Martin’s car, which shares a shop with the Earnhardts, looked “really bad.”
He said all four HMS teams replaced the axles before the race.
“Ours wore out and [Johnson] barely finished the race,” McGrew said. “There’s no smoking gun, which is aggravating for us. But we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
