NASCAR CEO Brian France said Friday afternoon there was “some interest” from automakers not currently involved with NASCAR about joining the sport.
Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota are currently the three factory-backed manufacturers in NASCAR. Some lower-funded teams in the Xfinity and Truck Series run Dodges, but the Daimler-Chrysler brand hasn’t been in NASCAR since 2012.
France mentioned the thought of a new car maker on SIrius XM. Here’s what he said via NASCAR.com.
“There is some interest by a couple of different manufacturers, and we would be open to that in the right conditions. A lot of the car companies are understandably looking at the terrific job that Toyota has done by partnering with NASCAR and the success and all the things that come along with that. They’ve been an incredible success story for a car manufacturer looking to come into a sport that’s very difficult to come in, compete and win every weekend.
“But there’s interest and this is obviously the biggest opportunity in auto racing in North America and we would probably say the world, so it’s always on some attention span one way or the other.”
We aren’t too optimistic there will be a new manufacturer in NASCAR anytime soon. Here’s why:
• NASCAR has a tendency to oversell things. If there was legitimate interest, we have to think France would be talking up the possibility more than he is. And that interest goes for both parties. The phrase “open to that in the right conditions,” has a tendency to mean “it’s a longshot.”
• With the Sprint Cup Series field at 40 cars and the new charter system in place, there’s not much room for a new automaker. Any new company would have to join up with an existing team or purchase a charter(s) from a current team.
And that existing team would need to be a pretty good one. No manufacturer would want to join forces with a team thats at the back of the pack. Can you see anyone making a change, especially now that Stewart-Haas is moving to Ford in 2017? We certainly can’t.
• While Toyota has dominated the Truck Series since it came into the sport, big success in the Cup Series took a while. Sure, Toyota won races, but Kyle Busch‘s Brickyard 400 win, Sprint Cup title and Denny Hamlin‘s Daytona 500 win were all firsts for the manufacturer after nine years at NASCAR’s top level.
There shouldn’t be a standard for immediate success in the Cup Series by any means. But would a manufacturer want to wait nine years or more for a big payoff on its very expensive investment? We’re not so sure.
We’ve been wrong before and we’re going to be wrong again; so NASCAR could come out and announce a new manufacturer in September. But we’d be incredibly surprised if that happened. Either in September 2016, 2017 or even 2018. The sport seems set with the three car makers it has right now and with most of the success being gobbled up more and more by a select few teams, it doesn’t seem like it’d make business sense for Honda, Nissan or anyone else to make the move to NASCAR.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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