Race Team Alliance Chair Rob Kauffman yesterday said that the rest of NASCAR's "full-time teams should soon be added" to the nine teams that formed the organization, according to the AP. Kauffman, who also is the co-Owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, this weekend met with other team owners and "says they are on board." Kauffman: "The stuff on the RTA side is actually going quite well. We're just focused on doing what we said we were going to do. Get organized, get things done and try and be productive. Don't expect a lot of PR and excitement" (AP, 7/27). ESPN analyst Brad Daugherty, who is a co-Owner of JTG Daugherty Racing, said the team has had "conversations with the powers that be with the RTA ... and we’ve been invited to be a part, as well as every other full-time race team." He added, "We're looking at it, trying to figure what the landscape is going to look like going forward, what their mission statement is and the bylaws and those types of things. Trying to figure out if it's going to be better for us to be a part. It’s going to be a collaborative effort to get the business leaders who are on the ownership side together, to create better processes so we can all save money and put money back into the sport” ("NASCAR Countdown," ESPN, 7/27).
INSIDE PERSPECTIVE: ESPN’s Andy Petree noted he has been "involved in the initial discussions with the teams about forming" the RTA and said it "became pretty clear through those discussions that it's never been more challenging than it is right now for these teams to operate and to do it without losing money." Petree: "Most of these teams have been losing money for six or seven years. ... These teams have figured out now that a lot of the problems they have are common to all of the teams. It makes sense to bring them together, start cooperating a little bit and start trying to solve some of these problems together and see if we can’t strengthen the sport that we love." He added, "They’re just at a stress point right now. It's a time that we need to see our sport grow, so to do that I think this alliance makes a lot of sense. These guys can start working together and cooperating with each other because they have the same common goal. They want to race each other on Sundays. When they're off the track, they can help each other to make sure they're around and that they’re healthy." ESPN's Rusty Wallace: "You go to the garage area and you talk to these owners, all they're talking about how much money it costs. ... Right now the sponsors are hard to get. The dollars that are coming in, there’s more going out. There's been a lot of rumblings that they want to do something about it. They're in a situation where they need to do something. They need NASCAR to help them some way, and I think these guys will work it out” (“NASCAR Countdown,” ESPN, 7/27).
