Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | 3:54 p.m.
Forget the housing crisis. What about the sponsorship crisis in NASCAR? General Mills announced it would leave Petty Enterprises for a new, fourth team at Richard Childress Racing next season. I hope this isn’t the beginning of the end for Petty.
There are several NASCAR teams looking for sponsorship and the current economic climate could be making that search more difficult. It’s disturbing to see teams that have been the foundation of the sport facing the possibility of having to stand on the street corner holding a “Will Drive For Food” sign.
The No. 28 car of Yates Racing is looking for sponsorship and Bill Davis Racing suspended operations of the unsponsored No. 27 car. Michael Waltrip needs a sponsor for the No. 00 car and Dario Franchitti and David Gilliland only have temporary sponsorship. Unfortunately these teams don’t have the famous Petty name behind them to lure corporate backing.
I’m hoping Petty Enterprises will get an financial infusion if a deal to partner with a New York-based financial group goes through. Let’s face it, NASCAR without the Pettys would be like Chevy without the bowtie or Ford without the blue oval.
Hopefully none of these teams will have to resort to stealing a sway bar and holding it for ransom.
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