Ron Hornaday's team went most of 2006 without a sponsor, while several other trucks are funded by their teams. Credit: Autostock

Pockets not always deep for funding truck teams

Driver list short for test sessions likely product of rising costs

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Brendan Gaughan's five words said it best when discussing the current state of the Craftsman Truck Series:

"It is a difficult time."

	RYAN SMITHSON •   E-mail Ryan •   Opinion archive

Only about 30 trucks showed up to test here at Daytona for next month's season opener, and only a few of those trucks appear to be self-sufficient.

Translation: Not many of the owners seem to have the $4 million necessary to run the schedule -- much less for the championship -- without dipping into their own pockets.

The good thing, most of the owners are willing to do that. Owners that also field Nextel Cup teams get a large return on their investment: They develop drivers that are potentially worth tens of millions of dollars, and these teams provide a low(er)-pressure training ground for drivers, pit crews, mechanics and engineers.

The bad thing is the costs of running the teams are increasing in much of the same way it is on the Nextel Cup side, albeit on a smaller scale.

Gaughan himself faces the necessity of going out and hiring three engineers for his small truck team, and engineers don't work for $13 an hour. No wonder teams are struggling to make ends meet. Some are flat-out disappearing, and there doesn't seem to be much outrage when they send their final press releases.

David Starr finished fourth in the points last year and found himself without a job after his team, Red Horse Racing, couldn't find a sponsor willing to back him.

Starr seemingly ran well enough to diffuse some expenses by taking care of his equipment, but his top-five points finish netted the team less than $400,000 in purses for the entire season. That is well short of the $20,000 price tag per race it costs to run a team, and Starr said the organization went well over $1.5 million in the hole.

STARR(TING) OVER David Starr was without a full-time gig heading into '07 until Circle Bar Racing called.  •   Complete story, click here

Think about it. A normal starting field is 36 trucks, and if the Craftsman Truck Series elected to hold its season opener today, it would be several trucks short of a full field.

Of course, the season opener next month probably won't be a short field. Short fields are hardly the problem -- heck, the Nextel Cup Series flourished despite short fields just a couple of seasons ago.

For years, the Craftsman Truck Series has continued to benefit from a handful of people who are not scared to turn a large fortune into a small one.

The list is staggering, and without these deep-pocketed owners, I wonder if the Craftsman Truck Series could even exist.

Duke Thorson, who made millions in the highway paving business, opts to run two trucks.

Bob Germain, whose group owns about a billion car dealerships, runs two trucks.

Tom Mitchell, a Texas millionaire, owns two trucks.

Kevin Harvick fields two trucks without splashy sponsorship, putting him in the same boat as Bill Davis and Jack Roush, except they field three apiece.

You get the idea.

The theme of the Craftsman Truck Series seems to be great racing, great fans, great machines and great people. It is an accurate assessment, for sure, and the smaller team structure creates an environment where the drivers are able to relate with the team members on a personal level, and vice versa.

	Brendan Gaughan changed manufacturers for 2007 because of support. Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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But the sponsors have been slow to pick up the tab.

What will happen when the owners that support the series stop doing so? Do we even need to ask that question? What happens if the manufacturers start balking at subsidizing some of these teams?

The weird thing is the series has never been better at preparing drivers and crew members for the pressures of the Nextel Cup Series. With the Busch Series merely serving as a Saturday Nextel Cup practice session, the Truck Series is NASCAR's only national series where a guy like Chase Miller or Chad McCumbee has any chance of getting noticed.

Here's another eye-opener: Dodge arrived at preseason testing with only two trucks. This is the same manufacturer that everyone feared just a few seasons ago.

Dodge didn't have a huge presence in the Truck Series last year, either -- they were represented by Bobby Hamilton, Gaughan, Evernham Motorsports and Woodard Racing.

Woodard, which is still hunting for money, didn't show up at this year's test. Evernham had some fabulous equipment, but driver Erin Crocker lacked experience, which eventually cost them a sponsor. Gaughan switched to Chevrolet after Dodge made him an offer he could refuse. That leaves BHR as the flagship team, with its two trucks.

The Craftsman Truck Series' shorter races and unique body styles will always produce a good show, but NASCAR must come up with ways to protect the owners who support it.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.