NASCAR has always been about creativity, innovation, and finding ways to gain an advantage over others. any and all possible advantages over the competition. What that looks like can vary significantly. In today’s age, with so much advanced technology at the Cup Series teams’ disposal, there are exponentially more tools in the toolbox.
One of those tools and its related processes was interestingly revealed by The Athletic in an April 30 article on charter negotiations when describing how teams have different approaches to spending money, and it’s unsurprisingly related to the size of their budgets.
“An example of where speed and spending differences can emerge: Although teams buy parts from the same supplier, many will buy more than necessary and scan them for small disparities,” the article stated. “Then they will use the best ones in a race and sit on the rest.”
NASCAR Teams Take Extreme Measures to Gain Advantage
Jeff Gluck, who co-authored the story with fellow motorsports writer Jordan Bianchi, offered greater depth about the spending measures of some teams during an appearance on the “Beating and Banging” YouTube channel.
“I had no idea about that at all,” Gluck said when asked if he had heard about the practices. “And during the course of the reporting for this, somebody mentioned that and I was like — ‘What?’ I couldn’t believe that, right? But it kind of makes sense because if they have these scanner technologies, they can look for little deficiencies in the parts.
“And, I was told that, like you said, they’ll buy 10 of something, and they might use two of them, and the rest maybe they’ll sell to a smaller team or they’ll just sit on them and never use them. So, it’s crazy, right?”
NASCAR Has Proposed a Fix in the Past
There couldn’t be a better example of the haves and the have-nots.
Interestingly, Gluck said one potential solution NASCAR has brought up in the past has been the possibility of incorporating a cost cap, or putting a limit on how much the teams can spend, which is similar to what is done in F1.
“And part of that is why NASCAR is like, ‘Well, why don’t we give you guys a cost cap then? You know you always say you’re spending too much money and spend less money and you need more money.’
“Well, you know, Jim France, especially, I think believes that whatever team, whatever money the teams get, they’re going to spend. And so when they’re telling him we want more money, he’s like, ‘Well, look at the kind of stuff that you guys do.’ So I think because of that NASCAR would really like, and I think some of the teams are in favor of the cost cap, too.”
While a cap sounds like a possible fix to that particular issue, the veteran journalist said not everyone agrees.
“In general, the teams are saying no because that’s a way for you guys to not have to give us as much money and keep that down, keep our share down. So, you know, they don’t want that, right? At least for now, but think that’s all part of the negotiation.”
A negotiation, which if it works out, will eventually include concessions from both sides. Whether or not that includes teams agreeing to limit the amount of money they can spend is still very much up in the air but based on the way things are done currently, it’s something that will have to be addressed at some point in the future.
