NASCAR

Few people realize the intricacies of NASCAR and only think its rednecks driving in circles. This is not the case at all and with the present economic conditions, NASCAR is feeling the pain. Chevy, Ford, Toyota, and Dodge all field cars in NASCAR along with all Goodyear tires and Sunoco fuel. With GM struggling so much, many people are worried what would happen to the teams that are drive all Chevy cars. What makes matters worse, NASCAR recently just switched to the Car of Tomorrow (COT) last year that cost millions of dollars not only to produce for each team but also to test this car on each individual track. Being able to test cars on every track to find out what works best is critical to the driver's success during races. In previous years, teams were allowed unlimited testing. This really benefited the larger teams, such as Hendrick, Roush-Fenway, and Gibbs that all have deep pockets and big time sponsors. Smaller teams, with only a car or two could not afford to test at every track because it put such a strain on their budget with all they extra traveling and implementing new products for their cars. NASCARs answer was to impose a sort of salary cap, teams can only test their COT on certain tracks during certain times determined by NASCAR to try and level the playing field. This has helped considerably, especially for the smaller teams to stay competitive with the biggest and has led to better racing this year so far.

Another way NASCAR levels the playing field to have a prefectly competitive market is placing restrictor plates on engines for certain races. These are typically implemented for smaller race tracks to make for more interesting racing. These restrictor plates drop the top speed for each car down considerably, forcing teammates to work together that much more to have a chance to win the race.