On Monday, a thought-provoking announcement was made when nine multi-car Sprint Cup Series teams announced that they have formed a collaborative business association called the Race Team Alliance (RTA).
The press release from the RTA states that their purpose 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”. This group of nine plans plans to explore ways to make the business aspect of NASCAR better for the long-term health of the sport.
The following teams are part of the RTA: Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske. The organization has stated that they intend to open up membership to all full time NSCS teams.
Rob Kauffman, co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, has been elected the first chair of the RTA.
During his media teleconference on Tuesday, MWR driver Brian Vickers was asked about his thoughts on Kauffman’s involvement with MWR, in which Vickers says that Kauffman brings a lot to their team. Vickers shares that with with Kauffman coming from the finance side of things, he brings “a level of experience and wisdom from the business world” to MWR.
“And he’s passionate about racing, “Vickers added. “He really, really loves racing. He loves to go fast. He’s one of the few owners that still drives himself. Rob still actively races. I had the fortunate opportunity to race some with him myself in 2012 and got to spend a lot of time with him traveling around the world, running to different races.
“He’s a passionate, hungry guy on and off the racetrack. He really enjoys his cars. He’s got RK Motors, his car collection. They buy, sell, collect old cars. An amazing facility based in Charlotte. He’s put a lot into Michael Waltrip Racing. He’s done a lot of racing himself. I think that whole package makes MWR a great place. When you tell Rob the car is loose, he knows what that is. He probably was just racing the weekend before and knows exactly what that experience is like. Obviously Michael is the same way.”
Vickers was also asked for his comments on RTA and says that he has heard little details, but nothing really important.
“I just get in the car every Friday and just drive as fast as I can, pretty much do everything I can to make that process go faster,” Vickers added. “I don’t know enough, to be honest with you, about it to have any opinion. I think any of those questions are better addressed to Rob or the ownership group. But in general, you know, I have a lot of respect for the owners in this industry. If they feel there’s a need, then there’s probably a need for it, so I wish them all the best.”
Vickers added that as someone in the sport, there’s always concerns surrounding the longevity and costs and how to keep that balanced with good competition to keep the sport going for everyone involved inside and the fans that have a passion for it.
As far as whether Vickers is worried about what could happen as a result of the RTA, he says that the question can’t be answered yet as there’s not enough information there to judge on it moving forward.
“I think time will tell. We’ll see how this unfolds, how it takes shape, and try to be a constructive part of it or a constructive part to the industry,” Vickers commented. “Ultimately it’s an entertainment business. I’m a competitor. I want to win. After all the health issues I had, I came back racing because I want to win a championship. Basically my focus is anything that can help me get from here to there is really my focus. If that ends up being something that can help me get from here to a championship, then sounds great. If it can’t, then it’s a distraction.
“That’s pretty much where I’m at on kind of everything in general, is that’s where my focus is.”
This group hopefully will go a long way past what their outline says. If they don’t ban together to, along with more of the teams, to control the monolopy that NA$CAR has over them, it would be a good waste of efforts. Considering tht there are 8 tracks on the current tour that are not owned by NA$CAR, and many more available like Iowa, Rockingham, Road America, there needs to be something done about domination that the current situation is. I don’t doubt that if Bruton Smith was 30 years younger, he would snatch this situation up and run with it. And it would get rid of the insanity called plate tracks.