Young Johnny racecar driver packs up his belongings and moves to NASCarolina after signing a development deal with his dream team.

Shortly thereafter, the economy takes a dip and the sponsorship pool dries up quicker than the ink on his contract.

Johnny racecar driver moves from the limelight to no lights in sight on his promising NASCAR career.

This is a scenario too many young development drivers in NASCAR could face or already have gone through this season as the economy takes a bite out of teams' development budgets.

Josh Wise has been a development driver for Michael Waltrip Racing for more than a year and a half, but the 25-year-old is just now climbing into one of Waltrip's cars.

On Friday night, in Richmond, will be the first time the USAC champion, who drove for Tony Stewart, will pilot the No. 00 Toyota since signing his development contract in 2006.

"I was pretty much left hanging at the beginning of this season, sponsorship for the second Nationwide car was not secured, so I was left testing Cup cars for the first of the year," said Wise, once thought to be NASCAR's next biggest thing who has managed to gain valuable seat time with other operations.

Wise competed in nine Craftsman Truck Series events (career-best, sixth-place finish at Las Vegas) with Darrell Waltrip Motorsports in 2007 and has 14 ARCA starts (career-best, second-place finishes at Pocono, Gateway and DuQuoin) with Eddie Sharp Racing.

Still not behind the wheel in May of this year, Fitz Motorsports called on Wise to run its Nationwide No. 22 Dodge, a direct conflict with MWR's Toyota support.

"I asked Michael and the team and they were OK with it," Wise recalled. "It was necessary for me to get the seat time and hone my skills, they understood and helped support the Fitz program by hiring crew chief Paul Wolfe."

In 12 Nationwide Series starts this season with Fitz, Wise posted a career-best finish of fifth place at O'Reilly Raceway Park.

But, "I'm more excited about this weekend running the MWR No. 00 car than I have been the entire season," said Wise, relieved to see some light shining on his career.

Still, Wise could be bouncing back and forth from MWR and Fitz until something more concrete surfaces for the young driver.

"We'll make the best of it," said Wise, who realizes the effect the economy is having on development programs. "Every team has to be careful on how much they spend developing their drivers right now. When times are tough cutbacks are made in personnel, testing and of certainly development programs."

“

When you're out of the racecar, you'll do anything to make yourself better.

”

LANDON CASSILL

The plan is to run Wise for the remainder of the Nationwide season in MWR equipment because Waltrip knows the bright young talent could be the future of his Cup organization.

Same sentiment applies for Landon Cassill, who made an independent initiative this season to improve his development. The 19-year-old driver, who competes for seat time in the No. 5 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports with his Cup star counterparts Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and occasionally Mark Martin, understands Hendrick's high-dollar sponsors want high-profile drivers to match their investment; young up-and-comers don't always garner the network face time sponsors prefer.

Since signing with Hendrick in January 2007, Cassill has yet to run a full schedule in the Nationwide Series and still could benefit from consistent seat time.

Acknowledging that fact, Cassill accepted an offer from David Dollar to run a Truck Series race at Kansas in April. Bringing home a 13th-place finish was a boost to Cassill's confidence.

"After that I found sponsorship myself to run that truck because it made such an impact on my learning curve, I needed to be in that truck. I used a connection I had at Go Daddy.com and got engine support from Chevy. When you're out of the racecar, you'll do anything to make yourself better," said Cassill, who in six Truck starts notched one top-five and another top-10 finish.

Taking matters into your own hands and using creative sponsorship approaches is something all NASCAR teams face today and their young drivers are very much aware of that fact.

Ask Brad Coleman, the driver tapped by Hall of Fame Racing to become their next Cup star. He has been a Hall of Fame test driver for the majority of the season and left his full-time Nationwide ride to make one start with the Cup team and has since been sidelined.

And had Chip Ganassi Racing's open-wheel driver Dario Franchitti had not announced his return to the Indy Racing League from NASCAR, development driver Bryan Clauson would be without a ride.

"I think that we all understand the circumstances," Wise said. "It's a universal issue for almost everyone signed to a development program last year. You just have to fight through this low and hope it works out."

Bill Davis Racing development driver Michael Annett said young men need to come to NASCAR with eyes wide open and have a backup plan in place.

He has made five Truck Series starts this season and hopes to make a start in the Nationwide Series later this season and run full-time next season.

"We are just waiting on sponsorship," he said.

Aren't they all.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.