CONCORD, N.C. (July 7, 2014) – A group of nine multi-car teams participating in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) announced today they have formed a collaborative business association called the Race Team Alliance (RTA). The purpose of the organization is to create an open forum for the teams to explore areas of common interest and to work collaboratively on initiatives to help preserve, promote, and grow the sport of stock car racing. The organization intends to open up its membership to all full time NSCS teams in the very near future.
In providing a vehicle for the teams to work together, the organization creates for the first time a single entity to engage with stakeholders on creative ways to market and experience the power of the sport’s teams and drivers. As part of its focus, the RTA also plans to explore innovative ways to harness the combined purchasing power and scale of the teams’ operations to drive efficiencies in costs.
Rob Kauffman, co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, has been elected the first chair of the RTA.
“With the encouragement of NASCAR and the manufacturers, the teams have met in various forms and forums over the years to explore areas of common interest. This simply formalizes what was an informal group.” said Kauffman. “The key word is ‘Collaboration’. We all have vested interests in the success and popularity of stock car racing. By working together and speaking with a single voice, it should be a simpler and smoother process to work with current and potential groups involved with the sport. Whether it be looking for industry-wide travel partners or collaborating on technical issues – the idea is to work together to increase revenue, spend more efficiently, and deliver more value to our partners.”
The following teams are the executive members of the RTA: Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Hendrick Motor Sports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motor Sports, Roush Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske.
It is about time that they finally see that NA$CAR, the monolopy that it is, has such a stranglehold on this series that the team are nothing more than puppets fighting for crumbs every week.
The owners are at the mercy of “the suits” whenever the “suits” want to make a change on the cars, which seems to happen almost every year. Other years they make changes mid-year, and all these changes cost millions for the owners. They tell owners who they can and can’t have as sponsors, such as “Cingular” which was a Childress sponsors a few years back. Whom did that benefit? The “suits” of course, as Nextel had taken over.
NA$CAR has a charge for everything, registration, car-inspections, etc. They have put dozens of teams out of business due to their rules.
Bruton Smith owns 8 tracks, I think, and there are lots of others, that could entertain a cup race. It is also time to leave those horrible plate tracks that do nothing but send cars to the scrap heap. Get rid of about 1/2 of the 1 1/2 mile tracks and get more short tracks, like Iowa, and another road course like Road America.
It would take a very smart CEO to draw up another series and make it work. Sponsors would go along with it. The MAVTV channel would be a perfect fit for this new series, since they are motorsports oriented.
I sincerely hope that, behind the scenes, this alliance has more in mind than just enlarging their money-making efforts.