Q&A: Mike Accavitti (cont'd)

Q: A 30- to 35-percent cut in budget numbers has been thrown out for 2009, so can you speak in general about that, and if you can, specifically where those cuts will come? The understanding is it won't come from the competition side?

The race teams are facing challenges as we all are facing challenges -- all of us in America. It's a difficult economic time and even in our own households, bills are going up and incomes either are going down or staying the same and that puts the pressure on. It means we either have to do things a little bit differently, like leave that thermostat turned down a little bit in the winter months and wear a sweater around the house.

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We might not like it, but we're going to get used to it. And the same kind of deal applies to our NASCAR operations. The teams, in and of themselves, are going through this because all of the sponsors -- not just the manufacturers -- but all the sponsors in the sport are really having to tighten their belts, which is going to put the squeeze on the teams.

So they're going to find out ways how to get more speed and more power out of less money -- or the same amount of money -- and they're good at that, and they're going to continue that. That's what's called efficiency.

As far as we're concerned, we need to get efficient in our [spending] as well. So what we're doing, we really don't want to impact that on-track performance -- we want to improve that on-track performance -- so we're really not going to take too many funds out of the budget that was going in that direction.

But where we're going to have to get smart and where we're going to have to throttle-back is in our at-track promotions and our promotions in general around the NASCAR sport, and in the tracks that we sponsor and things of that nature.

In good economic times, they provide value -- there's no question about it. But it's an issue of 'do we have the funds available to do this?' or 'are those funds better spent on some of our other priorities that we have as a company?' So that's kind of where we're at.

We're going to dial-down, it's a little over a 30 percent reduction in our [spending]. We still think we're spending the appropriate amount to give Gillett Evernham and Penske and Petty the support that they need to win on Sunday and Saturday night and we're just going to weather this storm and get through it.

Q: When you look at the big picture, when Chip Ganassi came to you and said his organization was considering a merger with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated that would involve a manufacturer change and cutting short their deal with you, was the timing good for that given the current economic issues?

You know, I like Chip a lot and I respect Chip as a businessman and as a friend, and the timing just really did work out well. We'd made the decision internally that we were going to honor our contracts, and we did have a contract with the Ganassi folks.

So when Chip approached us and we started this discussion about the things that he needed to do with his racing team, it just all worked out in everybody's favor. And it shows you, really, and it demonstrates to me just a beautiful example of how partners work together. It all worked out for everybody and it was a win-win-win.

It was a win for us because we did get to reduce that spend, it was a win for Chip because the merger is going to help the viability of his racing team and as far as I'm concerned it's a win for the other guys because they're picking up some great drivers -- Juan Montoya is an excellent driver.

Losing him [is tough]. He's also become a personal friend and I just hate to see good drivers leave for the other manufacturers, but I understand how it works in this sport and it's a win-win-win for everyone.

Q: When you look ahead at the 2009 Sprint Cup Series, is it possible to apportion where and how manufacturer support will be delivered?

The technical support is a little bit difficult to dollarize. The parts are easy because we know how much a front clip costs or a rear clip costs or an engine block or a head and we keep track of all that stuff. We can keep track of the manufacturer support and that's really quantifiable.

Technical support is a little bit different because we have a small nucleus of race engineers headed by a guy named Dave Bailey [senior manager, Dodge Motorsports Engineering] back in Auburn Hills [Mich.] and then [Sprint Cup program manager] Howard Comstock is just a top-drawer race engineer and he's our at-track guy.

But it's just difficult to say how much time they spend with one particular team or another solving their problems. It's not like we have a bunch of lawyers back here, time-stamping when questions come out and apportioning how much support is given to which teams. So it's a little difficult for me to quantify that, and I'm not even going to try because it would be a wild guess. (Continued)