(Nascar Roundup)

Nascar team owner says Start & Park can benefit his team by helping fund his primary team...

With sponsorship hard to find during these economic times, many wonder if 2010 will have 43 teams attempt every race. The answer will be YES, and expect even more. Expect some of the low-budget teams to pull out second cars, almost specificially to start and park. Teams can qualify a back up car or bring a 3rd car to qualify simply to get in on speed and collect money from the purse. A few teams are already planning this strategy for 2010. According to one team owner who's looking at every angle to fund his primary team, "I think next year you'll see more start & parks, but with the purpose to add dollars to the organization and the primary car. You saw a few teams like the #7 and #71 enter 2nd cars a few races to help off set costs. When we put the pen to the paper, we see $3 million dollars sitting on the table. We can use the 2nd car to try set ups and bounce information off of which is a benefit, but if we can get both in the show then we now have guaranteed atleast $6 million. With $6 million we can really race with the other teams in addition to what our sponsors give us. It's not pretty, but it's what we're faced with today. Our main goal is to keep everyone on our team and provide them a paycheck for their families, survive these time and then hopefully reap the reward later. When you look at the top 10 teams this year, most of them had more than 1 primary sponsor, that speaks volumes for the rest of us. If they have 3, then we need about 9. Trying to find 9 companies is asking way too much from our marketing team. It's easier for us to bring a 3rd car, skeleton crew, and hire a driver to make the race on speed. There's alot of hungry drivers available right now. The biggest obstacle for us, not being locked in the Top 35 next season. If we we're locked in the Top 35 it would be a no-brainer, but having two cars that have to make the show on speed means everything we're trying to do as a benefit can quickly become a defecit if they both fail to qualify. At this point, the benefit outweighs the risk though."

(Footnote: The Daytona 500 pays an average around $265,000 for last place, and Indy pays $142,000 for last place, the two biggest pay out races)