I have been writing lately that NASCAR needs to consider offering franchises. My argument is largely that 43 teams a year should get a franchise and everyone else should go Busch racing. The franchised Cup teams drivers would not be allowed to go Busch Racing. That would be one way to end the Buschwacking. It also ends Cup teams having to go home.
I have argued give one year franchises to the top 35 in points from the previous season and fill the last eight slots through a qualifying school. My qualifying school would consist of Florida races leading up to Speedweeks. Races would be run at Homestead, Lakeland, the streets of St. Pete and at Daytona.
It is nice to see a serious writer has his own take on franchising.
Seven years ago, I was sitting in a hotel lobby in Richmond, Va., having breakfast when Ed Shull, who worked with Gatorade’s NASCAR sponsorship program, joined me. As usual, we launched into a broad discussion about the future of NASCAR. After that conversation, I wrote a column about how NASCAR might move toward franchising. Some of the ideas were Ed’s, some were mine and some were the product of our collective noodling over omelets and hash browns.
“One of the issues bubbling under the surface of stock-car racing ... is the question of franchises. Should NASCAR set a limit on the number of teams in the top circuits?
“There are those who dismiss the idea as being totally contrary to tradition, the idea that anybody who wants can try to make a race. But racing hasn't been like that for years. ... Without franchising, a team owner ... gets dimes to the dollar on something he has worked on for a lifetime. That's not right.”
Every word of that is still relevant today, and the basic framework of what we drew up would work even better now. Since I don’t know the ins and outs of the laws that govern such things, “franchise” might not even be the right word. But it’s one we can understand, at least in concept, so I will use it anyway.
NASCAR establishes 50 franchises for the Nextel Cup Series. That’s 50 seats at the stock-car racing grown-ups’ table. Companies – not individual owners like a car owner and his mother, uncle and lawyer – currently with more than one team competing full-time in the Cup Series each get two slots. Single-car teams get one franchise. By my count, that would fill 37 of the available slots – there are 15 full-time teams with two or more cars plus seven full-time single-car teams.
The remaining 13 slots would be sold by NASCAR via sealed bid. Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush could bid for two additional teams since the current maximum is four teams. Going forward, however, no company could own more than three franchises, and nobody now at three would be allowed to move up to four.
Each year for five years, owners pay a fee of $1 million for their first team, $2 million for a second team and $4 million for a third team. After five years, and a maximum payment of $35 million, the owner is fully vested and becomes the outright owner of his or her franchises.
When Bobby Hamilton Sr. began the search to fill his own seat of the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge three months before his passing he called upon a select number of drivers he knew could get the job done. The announcement was made at the end of last season that Hamilton Sr. tagged Ken Schrader as his replacement. However, Schrader’s Nextel Cup schedule does not permit him to compete full time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series leaving the BHR stable to find a co-driver. Referring to Hamilton Sr.’s list of drivers he had previously spoke with and the record books for all time winners in the NCTS, the management team at BHR, along with input from Fastenal and Dodge Motorsports, are proud to announce Joe Ruttman as the co-driver of the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge.
Ruttman, who is tied for seventh on the all-time NCTS race winners list, is no stranger to BHR. The Tennessee native piloted the No. 18 Dodge for the late Hamilton Sr.’s organization in 2000 and 2001. Coincidently, he gave the company its first victory at Phoenix International Raceway in 2000, the same venue Hamilton won his first Nextel Cup win in 1996. Ruttman has a total of 13 NCTS victories, including five of which came with BHR, 17 poles, 68 top five’s and 111 top-10 finishes in 168 starts.
“I can’t wait to climb into the Fastenal Dodge,” Ruttman said. “Bobby Hamilton and I had a great friendship. I am not here to fill Bobby Sr.’s seat; I don’t think anyone can do that justice as he did. But to have this opportunity to come back home to work with his organization and Dodge again is a real dream come true. All of the core people who were here the first time I raced with them are still there. I believe in the organization, the structure and the future of BHR. They have proven themselves as champions and one of the most competitive teams in the series in the past and will continue to do so. I have been using Fastenal products for years and look forward to promoting them.”
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