iNSIDE SCOOP: Be Careful, RTA

As someone who lived through the more than 30 years of not-so-civil war between Indy Car owners and sanctioning bodies, the announcement of the Race Team Alliance in NASCAR has me more than a bit concerned.

Back in 1978, a group of car owners that included Roger Penske decided that the United States Auto Club was not paying enough attention to the commercial side of the sport and formed Championship Auto Racing Teams. The list of owners was everyone who was anyone then: Penske, Carl Haas (former NASCAR team owner), Dan Gurney, Jim Hall, etc. They controlled most of the big sponsors, had the name drivers and nearly all the leverage.

The list of teams/owners in the RTA are Rick Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Gene Haas/Tony Stewart, Jack Roush, etc. Again, all of the biggest names, sponsors and leverage are represented.

Spooky, ain't it?

There are differences, of course, and they're not small differences. First, USAC was a race-day organization. They flew in, ran the race, paid the purse and went home. There wasn't a huge marketing arm, unlike NASCAR. TV money was minimal, by today's standards, and T-shirts were still sold off the back of the trailers in the garage area.

Penske and Haas and company decided they had the moxie to go get TV and sponsor money and the revenue share would switch around to their side of the ledger. I'm paraphrasing here, as it's been 31 years, but that's the gist. 

The RTA was formed, as posted, as a collaborative effort with NASCAR, to help the sport grow and prosper.

"We all have vested interests in the success and popularity of stock car racing, said the group's chairman, Rob Kauffman, of Michael Waltrip 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.”

That sounds pretty good on its face, and in fact, I don't think this is a CART reprise. I think it could be, eventually, depending on who is in charge, and that's what scares me.

NASCAR is in the place it's in, atop North American motorsports,  partly by dint of the warfare between CART and USAC, and in later days, CART and the Indy Racing League. NASCAR has much more nimble minds at the helm, and they have been in the business of promoting themselves and their sport for a lot of years. It's a multi-billion-dollar game now, as opposed to what racing was when CART was formed.

Indy cars used to be NASCAR, at least in the manner in which the sport was preceived. Back then, NASCAR was regional for the most part, and national around Daytona beginning in 1979, when CBS first televised the 500 live, flag-to-flag.

The times have changed, haven't they?   

The RTA may well be just what Kauffman said it is: a collaborative effort by the teams to work with NASCAR to improve and upgrade the sport in many different areas. I don't think that NASCAR, after 60-plus years of benevolent dictatorship, will allow a coup to happen, and I don't think that's the first thing on the RTA's mind, either.

The thing to remember is that Hendrick, Roush and Childress won't be around forever, and those up-and-coming team owners might very well have a different opinion. Brian France won't be around forever, either, and who takes over when Brian steps down in the future is just as important.

We'll take the RTA as intended for now, and keep a close eye on what happens from here.