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Start and Park, a smart financial decision or an insult to Nascar?
Mary Jo Buchanan- Bleacherreport.com
Most teams and drivers cannot wait until race weekend to get out there on the track, practice, qualify and race all day long on Sunday. This packed weekend of racing is indeed the business model that team owners sell to their sponsors, providing maximum exposure while that car and driver serve as a portable bill board, advertising their particular product or brand.
In this tough economy, however, there are fewer and fewer corporate partners willing or able to continue to shell out the incredibly large amount of sponsorship dollars required to support NASCAR teams with this business model, especially at the top Cup level.
The impact of this sponsor dollar pinch has been felt throughout the garage and shops, with some teams, cars and drivers simply disappearing from the scene. Others have been forced to merge and scramble just to stay alive in the sport.
With teams fading away or partnering up, the fear for NASCAR has become whether or not their fields will be full each race weekend. Already teams outside of the top 35 in owner’s points have been able to move up and into a guaranteed place in the show, simply because of this attrition in the racing ranks.
While many are bemoaning this phenomenon, saying that it signals doom and gloom for the sport, other more entrepreneurial folks have decided instead to see this glass as half full.
Several enterprising teams have even publicly announced that they are going to take advantage of this lack of cars, pull together a team, and make some money in a new way, using the start and park strategy.
So, what is start and park? It’s basically when an under-funded team decides to bring a car to the race track, qualify it into the show, run a few laps, park the car for the rest of the race, and collect the purse for coming in last or thereabouts.
Several teams and owners have been doing this for many years, such as Morgan Shepherd, Derrike Cope and Kirk Shelmerdine. They have shown up at races where the fields may not be full, or better yet have raced their way in, only to run awhile and then sit out the rest of the race, collecting whatever prize money is due them.
The start and park business model works best when times are hardest and finances tightest. The strategy is absolutely dependent on the fields not being full so that anyone who shows up can race that weekend.
Start and park teams can make the purse money by taking the track and then pulling off after just a few laps. That way they do not have the overhead of other teams with buying tires, fielding a pit crew, or even having a war wagon in the pit stall.
These teams also get all the perks of race weekend, including garage privileges, hanging out with their favorite drivers, and some of the best seats in the house for the race weekend.
Of course, there is some risk. If a start and part team does show up, there is a full field and they have to qualify their way in, they may be in trouble. Then the funds they have spent getting the car to the track, paying for hotels and food, will have all been for naught.
In a recent interview, driver and commentator Kenny Wallace acknowledged that the start and park strategy will be a popular one this season, especially in the Cup series if the fields are not full. “The start and parkers only come out during financial hard times. There’s a lot of money to be made in start and park”.
The latest issue of Car and Driver also addresses this practice. They estimate that at the Cup level, start and park entries can average upwards of $1 million in purse money just by showing up and then quickly pulling over.
So, is start and park NASCAR’s newest business model? It just may be for some.
Whether wise, “old” veterans of the sport or young up and comers to NASCAR, we will no doubt see the start and park phenomenon taking place in a more visible way in the 2009 season.
And who knows, if there is a lottery winner out there who wants the ultimate racing experience or even if there is a group that wants to pool together for the best seat in the house on race weekend, this may be just the ticket.
I’m in….how about you?!
Alex Waters- PlanetRobby.com
Currently the Cup series has 5 full time start and park teams, the 09 driven by Mike Bliss, Sterling Marlin, and Aric Almirola. Keselowski and Fellows run the whole race with this team. The 36 of Scott Riggs, Patrick Carpentier, and Mike Skinner have ran a few full races but have been parking it of late. The 66 of Dave Blaney has parked it every race except the Daytona 500 and the Coke 600. The 71 of David Gilliland has run about half of the races full and parked it the other half. And the 87 of Joe Nemechek is trying to get enough money to run the full race but just hasnt got it yet. Other Start and Park teams are the 37 of Tony Raines, 64 of Mike Wallace, and the 04 of PJ Jones.
Most teams and drivers cannot wait until race weekend to get out there on the track, practice, qualify and race all day long on Sunday. This packed weekend of racing is indeed the business model that team owners sell to their sponsors, providing maximum exposure while that car and driver serve as a portable bill board, advertising their particular product or brand.
In this tough economy, however, there are fewer and fewer corporate partners willing or able to continue to shell out the incredibly large amount of sponsorship dollars required to support NASCAR teams with this business model, especially at the top Cup level.
The impact of this sponsor dollar pinch has been felt throughout the garage and shops, with some teams, cars and drivers simply disappearing from the scene. Others have been forced to merge and scramble just to stay alive in the sport.
With teams fading away or partnering up, the fear for NASCAR has become whether or not their fields will be full each race weekend. Already teams outside of the top 35 in owner’s points have been able to move up and into a guaranteed place in the show, simply because of this attrition in the racing ranks.
While many are bemoaning this phenomenon, saying that it signals doom and gloom for the sport, other more entrepreneurial folks have decided instead to see this glass as half full.
Several enterprising teams have even publicly announced that they are going to take advantage of this lack of cars, pull together a team, and make some money in a new way, using the start and park strategy.
So, what is start and park? It’s basically when an under-funded team decides to bring a car to the race track, qualify it into the show, run a few laps, park the car for the rest of the race, and collect the purse for coming in last or thereabouts.
Several teams and owners have been doing this for many years, such as Morgan Shepherd, Derrike Cope and Kirk Shelmerdine. They have shown up at races where the fields may not be full, or better yet have raced their way in, only to run awhile and then sit out the rest of the race, collecting whatever prize money is due them.
The start and park business model works best when times are hardest and finances tightest. The strategy is absolutely dependent on the fields not being full so that anyone who shows up can race that weekend.
Start and park teams can make the purse money by taking the track and then pulling off after just a few laps. That way they do not have the overhead of other teams with buying tires, fielding a pit crew, or even having a war wagon in the pit stall.
These teams also get all the perks of race weekend, including garage privileges, hanging out with their favorite drivers, and some of the best seats in the house for the race weekend.
Of course, there is some risk. If a start and part team does show up, there is a full field and they have to qualify their way in, they may be in trouble. Then the funds they have spent getting the car to the track, paying for hotels and food, will have all been for naught.
In a recent interview, driver and commentator Kenny Wallace acknowledged that the start and park strategy will be a popular one this season, especially in the Cup series if the fields are not full. “The start and parkers only come out during financial hard times. There’s a lot of money to be made in start and park”.
The latest issue of Car and Driver also addresses this practice. They estimate that at the Cup level, start and park entries can average upwards of $1 million in purse money just by showing up and then quickly pulling over.
So, is start and park NASCAR’s newest business model? It just may be for some.
Whether wise, “old” veterans of the sport or young up and comers to NASCAR, we will no doubt see the start and park phenomenon taking place in a more visible way in the 2009 season.
And who knows, if there is a lottery winner out there who wants the ultimate racing experience or even if there is a group that wants to pool together for the best seat in the house on race weekend, this may be just the ticket.
I’m in….how about you?!
Alex Waters- PlanetRobby.com
Currently the Cup series has 5 full time start and park teams, the 09 driven by Mike Bliss, Sterling Marlin, and Aric Almirola. Keselowski and Fellows run the whole race with this team. The 36 of Scott Riggs, Patrick Carpentier, and Mike Skinner have ran a few full races but have been parking it of late. The 66 of Dave Blaney has parked it every race except the Daytona 500 and the Coke 600. The 71 of David Gilliland has run about half of the races full and parked it the other half. And the 87 of Joe Nemechek is trying to get enough money to run the full race but just hasnt got it yet. Other Start and Park teams are the 37 of Tony Raines, 64 of Mike Wallace, and the 04 of PJ Jones.
Views: 56
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by GasOnRobby on
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I agree, what is the big deal. Don't forget that in addition to ADD the public thinks they are entitled to everything under the sun.
It is a business and folks want to make money.
Here is an idea: time trials, heat races, B-Main, and the feature. If you can't make it through your heat race or the B-Main then you deserve to go home.
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Permalink Reply by C2B on
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If you can't beat the start and parks, you can't race. It is pretty simple, if people don't want to see them, they should try to out qualify them. Maybe Robby should look more closely into the start and park for a 2nd team. He would get more data from practice. How do you think Hendrick does so well? He doesn't have start and parks, but he gets data from 6-7 cars during practice. If Robby runs 100 laps of practice and Hendrick's cars run the same, Hendrick has more than a race under his belt before qualifying at some places. That is why you see him in victory lane.
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Permalink Reply by JoCo on
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Everyone saying NASCAR can stop this--they really can't. Who is NASCAR to say a Team A is a "Start-and-Park" but Team B is not? Look at Michigan who finished 43rd, Bobby Labonte...is he a start-and-parker? Of course not. As long as these guys have (or fabricate) mechanical issues in their cars then NASCAR has no right to deem one more worthy of racing than the other.
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Permalink Reply by R. ALDRIDGE on
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Yes they can, if the prize money splits are wider than cost of tires, etc. as previously discussed here.
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Well then those "Start-and-Park" teams would actually race...my point was that as the status quo is, NASCAR cannot and will not "stop" these teams from doing that.
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So some of the crew multi-tasks or they never do full pits? It's not up to NASCAR to decide. It's the teams' prerogative to buy tires or not, to field a crew or not, to have a "transmission failure" or not.
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Permalink Reply by Trooper Blue on
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From Brad Keselowski's website:
Finch probably was best known for an infamous incident in February 2004 during the final Cup race at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C.
NASCAR's premier series started the season several fully funded teams short of a 43-car field in Cup, so Finch entered Joe Ruttman. The team was black-flagged by NASCAR for starting the race without a pit crew, and Ruttman parked his Dodge after being scored for completing one lap by NASCAR. He earned $54,196 for last — more than tripling the $16,150 that Johnny Benson Jr. had won for Finch by finishing ninth in the Busch Series race a day earlier.
Sunday, Finch laughed off the memory of Rockingham and made no apologies for his "start-and park" approach.
" They didn't have enough cars (so) I said, 'Let's get a Cup car and try and get the purse money," he said. "We went and got us a better motor for a Busch car," Finch said. "It's not like we were robbing NASCAR. We were just trying to help out."
In addition, I believe that the 64 was parked at Pocono this month for not having a pit crew.
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Permalink Reply by Alex on
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I personally see the start and park fustrating but i am understanding of the times. I dont know any team that honestly just wants to run 15 laps and then park it and finish 43rd. I could see how some people dont like the start and park because if they beat teams that would of run the full race then teams that park it. For instance the 51 team is actually not a start and park team but they probably wont make the race and one of the start and park teams will.
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Permalink Reply by rick on
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If the 51 is not a start and park team then I sure hope he makes the field and competes hard.
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Permalink Reply by natron008 on
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Wasn't PJs #04 a start-and-park? I didn't hear anyone complaining about him.
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