CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Rex White remembers it as if it all unfolded yesterday. It was June of 1957, less than half a season into his new deal with a factory-backed Chevrolet team, and he had already recorded a number of promising results. That was, until the future NASCAR champion arrived at the shop one day -- only to find out that he couldn't get in.

"One day we went over to the shop, and it was over," recalled White, a native of Spartanburg, S.C., who won what was then called the Grand National series in 1960. "They had locked the gates and it was done. No warning whatsoever. Just closed the doors, divvied up all the parts, and adios."

Chevrolet, along with the other manufacturers that backed cars in NASCAR, had pulled out of racing. Worried that it didn't look good to be associated with excessive speed at a time when highway fatalities were rising, the Automobile Manufacturers Association banned domestic carmakers from participating in motorsports. It was the beginning of a tumultuous time for NASCAR and its race teams, and it serves as a reminder that manufacturer support hasn't always been as ubiquitous as it appears today.

This week in South Florida, though, is another matter. With Ford sponsoring all three season-ending races at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the blue oval logo is as omnipresent as mojitos and royal palms. NASCAR's annual championship contenders press conference was held Thursday in the posh enclave of Coral Gables, where Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, and a host of past champions met the media in a hotel modeled after a Spanish palace. There will be no shortage of after-hours parties this weekend in the thumping nightclubs of South Beach.

Yet this celebratory, moneyed atmosphere masks real concerns, sparked by dire economic reports released last week by General Motors and Ford, over whether domestic car manufacturers that are bleeding money can continue to support vehicles in NASCAR. Ford, which reported losses of $2.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008, has already pulled its backing of the Craftsman Truck Series. GM, the parent company of Chevrolet, reported losses of $4.2 billion, and is running low on operating cash. It's all unsettling news to a garage area already rattled by the dearth of sponsors caused by the current economic downturn.

But as past champions will tell you, NASCAR has seen manufacturers come and go, for different reasons, at various points within the sport's 60-year history. Factory support at the level known today is a relatively young phenomenon. And many of the top race teams are already providing for themselves the kind of engineering and support that organizations once could only get from Detroit.

"Back in the '70s we depended entirely on the technologies that the factories had," said Richard Petty, a seven-time Cup Series champion. "The teams now have started hiring their own engineers and doing a lot of stuff, so the technology coming from the factory is nothing like it used to be. So we can get along without the technology from the factory."

That wasn't always the case. When the manufacturers pulled out of motorsports in 1957, the effect on race teams was crippling. Sponsorship money was much smaller, so the support being provided by manufacturers was an absolute necessity. When that support went away, teams had to rely on prize money, and whatever meager sponsorship deals they could scrape together. Today, much of what manufacturers provide race teams comes in the form of cash -- always important, especially now with so many organizations unable to find the kind of multi-million-dollar sponsors that keep race teams afloat.

"It was a tough period, there's no doubt about it, because we had become dependent upon them," two-time champion Ned Jarrett said of the manufacturers in the 1950s. "But it would mean more today. It would be a bigger devastation in my opinion today if the manufacturers had to go away than it was back then, because we were not as dependent on total sponsorship dollars. If you put a $300 sponsorship on the side of the car in those days, that was pretty good. Today, they have become so much more dependent. And the engineering data they offer today is much, much greater. We got a lot of support, but nothing compared to what they do today."

Although the level of manufacturer support has varied through the years, none of the past pullouts have been for financial reasons. Chrysler was still in the sport, albeit marginally so, when the company received a $1.2 billion loan from the U.S. government in 1979. The manufacturers in the 1950s and '60s almost played the role that crew chiefs do today, trying to push the rules to their limit. They'd sanction the construction of out-of-whack cars like Fred Lorenzen's "yellow banana" in 1966, a Ford Galaxy built by Junior Johnson, with a roofline so severely sloped that the driver often had trouble getting into the car.

In NASCAR's eyes, the manufacturers were trying to dictate the rules, and controversy often erupted. When Chrysler blew away the competition with its Hemi engine in 1964, NASCAR banned the power plant for the next season. In response, Chrysler pulled out of NASCAR, leading such famous drivers as Petty and David Pearson to compete in drag racing for a time. Others were left to fend for themselves.

"We raced on our own," said White, who was burned by another factory pullout in 1963. "We knew how to do that. We raced before they come along. I got a car and a tow truck and some parts and I continued on racing. We had to race on the money that we won like we did when the factory teams weren't around."

Even into the 1980s, manufacturer support was sporadic, with some deals taking place under the table even when the carmakers weren't officially participating in the sport. Today, the top race teams are capable of building their own car bodies and engines, and don't have to get them from a manufacturer. They buy many parts from independent vendors, or fabricate them on their own. Manufacturers provide cash, which race teams can never have enough of, and engineering support, which top organizations often now have in-house. They also provide time in wind tunnels, which can be difficult to get because the facilities are often booked for government or private use.

So what happens if a manufacturer declares bankruptcy and has to leave NASCAR, even on a temporary basis? "It's going to affect weekends like this, Ford Championship Weekend. The Chevy Rock & Roll 400. The Pontiac Excitement whatever. Those are the kinds of things it's going to affect, and of course it's going to affect people sending PR guys, people promoting the sport, advertising. It has a trickle down effect that eventually we're going to all feel," said three-time champion and current TV analyst Darrell Waltrip.

"Today it's more things like wind tunnel time. A wind tunnel is a big, big part of the success of a race team, has been over the last several years. So having the ability to go to the wind tunnel anytime you want to, that's worth millions of dollars," Waltrip said. "Car design, they have ... all kinds of technology that we didn't have, but teams have been able to get in-house more and more over a period of time because they've had the money to buy it. An engineering staff that we didn't have, but now we do.

"The role of the manufacture in this sport in making us successful is not as big as it was at one time, because we've had the money to be able to do it ourselves. But if the money starts to go away, and the manufacturers start to go away, again, it's a trickle down. It's going to cripple a lot of things."

NASCAR chairman Brian France said last weekend at Phoenix International Raceway that while manufacturers play an important role, the sport will survive should one have to pull out or pull back. But that doesn't mean the series isn't hoping for a recovery, or some sort of aid in the form of a bailout package being debated in Washington.

"It's not like racing is going to go out of business if the manufactures are not there," NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said. "These guys, if they had to, could build a car. But [the manufacturers] are important. Everybody in NASCAR should be hopeful that Congress is going to pass some sort of legislation that will assist all manufacturers, Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet, everybody, and help them get back on solid ground. It's important to this country, not just NASCAR, to make sure they get back on solid ground."

What if that doesn't happen? "The sport has always survived some way or another," Jarrett said. "I think that's because of the people in the sport. They're survivors, and they will find a way."