Roush Racing is hopeful National Guard will remain a sponsor beyond '06. Credit: Autostock

Roush president worried Toyota will drive up cost

Smith says discounts to sponsors more damaging than salaries

RICHMOND, Va. -- Roush Racing president Geoff Smith isn't as concerned with the reportedly large salary increases Toyota is offering to lure personnel as he is the discounts being offered to Nextel Cup sponsors.

"They're attacking price points by offering radical discounts to the sponsorship values that are out there today as a means of attracting corporate sponsors to those teams,'' Smith said before Saturday night's race at Richmond International Raceway.

BOYS WILL BE BOYS RICHMOND, Va. -- Joe Gibbs, the owner of JGR, took a break from his fulltime job as coach of the Washington Redskins to check on his race teams.  He was particularly interested in driver Denny Hamlin, who has 19 stitches in his left hand suffered during a foot race around a hauler on Wednesday at Lowe's Motor Speedway.  "When I heard about it I told him he'd better play hurt,'' Gibbs said. "It's a first for me for a driver and a hand injury, at least in a foot race. I don't worry about them getting hurt in a car.''  J.D. Gibbs also made light of the injury early Saturday when he ran into Hamlin's teammate, J.J. Yeley, throwing a football in the parking lot.  "I was, 'Just so you know. If you break your arm you are driving that racecar,'" the younger Gibbs said.  Al Shuford, the trainer for JGR brought in to monitor Hamlin, said he changed the bandage three times during the rain delay at the start of Friday night's Busch Series race.  -- David Newton, NASCAR.COM

Smith is afraid Toyota will drive up the cost of racing just as it did in the Craftsman Truck Series the past few years.

"You can see what their impact is on the sponsorship environment there,'' he said.

J.D. Gibbs, the president of Joe Gibbs Racing, hasn't heard of Toyota offering sponsorship discounts. Gibbs also admitted that his three teams wouldn't be affected because the primary sponsors are signed to long-term deals.

Roush Racing has a bigger reason for concern than most because it fields five Cup teams, more than any organization in the garage. Most of those teams have two major sponsors that split up the season the way National Guard and Subway do on Greg Biffle's car.

"I'm very comfortable with where we are for the next several years in terms of our primary sponsorships,'' Smith said.

Smith added that Toyota, which will enter Nextel Cup in 2007, has nothing to do with National Guard considering not renewing its deal on Biffle's car next season.

Smith reminded that military sponsors don't sign multi-year deals.

"They're going through their annual program review and looking at all the options that are available to them, including the option we provided them to stay,'' Smith said.

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Smith said Roush Racing has offered a deal comparable to this season in which National Guard is Biffle's primary sponsor for 22 races and an associate sponsor for the remaining 14 races.

"I believe it is equal to or greater than what their program is today in its totality,'' Smith said of Roush's offer.

Capping the Cup

Smith said 2009 remains the target date for Roush Racing to trim its Cup program by one under NASCAR's new four-team cap.

That's the first year when the primary sponsor and driver contracts for Roush's existing teams expire.

"There's not a fixed date on it, but there is a certain inevitability that comes with sponsors and drivers dropping out over a period of time,'' Smith said.

"One part of our camp doesn't want to have any expectations as long as those same sponsors and drivers are there. If it's 10 years it ought to be 10 years. I'm trying to get a balanced deal with NASCAR.''

Smith said NASCAR will want a more definitive timetable after this season.

"They've made it pretty clear that they don't want an indefinite window,'' he said.