Uncertainty Hangs Over Several Cup Teams Following GM Cuts
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Childress Says All Teams Backed By
GM Will Have To Make Adjustments |
NASCAR team Owner Richard Childress Friday said in the wake of GM cutting its Sprint Cup Series budget, all teams backed by the automaker will “have to make adjustments,” according to David Scott of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Childress “wouldn’t say how deep GM’s cuts would be or what their nature might be.” Childress: “I don’t really know what’s going to happen.” He added that he “didn’t know if there would be any layoffs" at Richard Childress Racing, or if the "spillover would affect its two Nationwide Series teams." Meanwhile, Stewart-Haas Racing co-Owner/driver Tony Stewart said, “We’ll make it through the year for sure. A lot of people don’t have jobs, and we’ve only had our budget cut” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 6/20). NASCAR team Owner Rick Hendrick said, “We’ve been trying to cover our bases for about a year. Everybody is having to make adjustments, but it’s not going to change the way we race or how we show up on the race track. I’ve been telling our guys the only way I could see GM surviving long-term was to go into bankruptcy. I’ve been saying that for over a year, so we’ve been kind of expecting it” (AP, 6/21). ESPN’s Angelique Chengelis said teams are "not saying how substantive" the cuts will be financially, but there "will be some of that, probably 20-30% cuts in their budgets.” Chengelis said the teams have noted “they will reevaluate their budgets, they will go back and look at the numbers. They feel confident they are set through this season” ("NASCAR Now," ESPN2, 6/21). Meanwhile, the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER's Scott wrote it was “not a good PR week for General Motors,” as the circuit yesterday was at Infineon Raceway for the Sprint Cup Toyota/SaveMart 350, and the top three starters drove Toyotas (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 6/21).
MARKETING DRIVE: GM last week said that it will “maintain an ad budget" between $40-50M a month while in bankruptcy proceedings -- "much less than in years past, but about the same as in the months leading up to its June 1 bankruptcy filing.” GM said that it “has ads in production that could appear in July.” The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Suzanne Vranica notes that the marketing effort “would be largely online and would include storylines about the ‘New GM.’” The automaker said that “most of its ad spending will be focused on GM vehicle brands, including Chevrolet and Buick, which are handled by Interpublic Group’s Campbell-Ewald and Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett, respectively.” The company added that the ads “could feature GM employees” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/22).
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