Richard Petty believes that today's drivers make more than enough money to take care of their own retirements. Credit: Autostock

King Richard: Drivers don't need pension plan

Petty believes today's wheelmen make enough money

CONCORD, N.C. -- During Nextel Cup Series testing last week at Daytona International Speedway, veteran driver Rusty Wallace commented that NASCAR drivers deserved a pension plan, and called on the NASCAR brass to establish one.

RUSTY ON PENSIONS Credit: Autostock "This will be my last full-time year, and it's been brought up to me three or four times. They told me about football, and those guys have a pension plan. I don't watch other sports except NASCAR. I really haven't. I haven't had time and NASCAR's comment would be you guys are independent contractors. I understand that, too, but I wish there was some type of pension plan.  "Over 21 years, I think I've been a personality and I think I've helped build this sport. I'd like to have something for it instead of all of it on me, so yeah, I'd be politicking real hard for those guys to get involved and you guys could help, too. I think we're deserving of it. Every other sport has got it. We're the only ones who don't."

Monday, during day one of the Lowe's Motor Speedway Media Tour, the topic was broached during a Q&A session at the NASCAR R&D Center.

When his turn came to speak, Richard Petty -- a retired seven-time champion who would benefit from a retirement plan -- offered a different point of view.

"Used to be I said 'What am I gonna do when I retire? A retirement deal would be great,'" Petty said. "But that was when I went 15 years before I made my first million dollars.

"Now they pay these drivers a million dollars just to walk from the bathroom to the car.

"From that standpoint, looks to me like they ought to look after themselves. If I had that much money, I know I'd protect myself, because the social security check ain't big enough to cover all this stuff."

NASCAR chairman Brian France said the sanctioning body would be willing to assist team owners in developing driver pension plans, but the dynamics involved in NASCAR competition make developing a uniform plan like those used in other sports a difficult prospect.

"Obviously, there are differences, in terms how we're structured, than many of the other leagues who might allow for such a (pension plan) - notably that they're independent contractors with independent budgets," France said.

Inside the Numbers Career on-track Cup series earnings for the drivers in positions 25-35 in the 2004 Nextel Cup standings NOTE: *- Driver was Cup series rookie in 2004 No. Driver Earnings 25. Brian Vickers* $3,044,900 26. Terry Labonte 37,809,797 27. Scott Wimmer* 3,675,880 28. Brendan Gaughan* 2,929,400 29. Scott Riggs* 3,443,350 30. Jeff Green 10,304,353 31. Ken Schrader 25,234,435 32. Ward Burton 24,023,734 33. Kyle Petty 20,602,993 34. Ricky Craven 15,209,284 35. Jimmy Spencer 19,435,097

"Some teams have their own plans they're starting, and we would be open to assisting any way we could. But you have team owner, a sponsor relationship, a track relationship, a NASCAR relationship -- there's a lot of relationships that aren't necessarily connected on any given day.

"So that would be difficult to launch what Rusty talked about, because of how fragmented that part of the business is."

Veteran Mark Martin, who faces semi-retirement following the 2005 season, agreed with France.

"There's a lot of complications in having a pension plan," Martin said. "I wouldn't expect NASCAR to pay for it, wouldn't expect the owners to pay for it. I don't know who would pay for it. So it's a very difficult situation.

"We can't compare what we do to any other kind of sports. One of the first places we can start looking at this is a $150, $200 million racetrack. It takes a lot of money to put one of these facilities together. You think you're going to the racetracks to help pay for it?

"It's a very difficult prospect we're talking about, and I think it's really a shame. It really is a shame that we don't have one, but I certainly don't know what the answer is."