Formation of the “Race Team Alliance”

[AMLNet49]

MWR, Ganassi, Hendrick, Childress, RPM, Gibbs, Penske, SHR and Roush have formed a business alliance. The wording is very vague, but it appears that they will collaborate on buying parts and such, and that very soon Germain Racing, Furniture Row Racing and Harry Scott Motorsports will also join, and will also participate in a shared marketing agreement.

This is rather bizarre, and NASCAR themselves isn't even sure of the purpose of this.

 

[Gwen Cole]

Well, at least Carl will have something new to say when asked about 2015. "I'm going to be staying within the business alliance, but that's it."

All kidding aside, this could be good or bad, depending on what happens. I guess we'll just have to wait.

 

[Racecarboy93]

Here comes the Union. That is all I see for this. Maybe more shared testing days, but I do not see anything besides the current state with Satellite teams and technical alliances within a manufacture.

 

[ThatOneShredder]

There was an article I found back in 2009 called "NASCAR in 2015" about how all the teams would slowly come together and form an alliance, and eventually Ford and Chevy became the only two teams, and then merged together. I've since deleted it off my computer, but I wish I had it so I could post it. It's funny because I keep seeing everything predicted in that article happen, just a lot more slowly than it predicted.

 

[K.Chuck]

JENNA FRYER (AP Auto Racing Writer)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- The top nine teams in NASCAR have for the first time formed a single entity to collaborate on initiatives and issues facing their sport.

The Race Team Alliance was announced Monday, and Michael Waltrip Racing co-owner Rob Kauffman was elected chairman.

The goals of the RTA include lowering costs for NASCAR teams and creating one voice on issues facing the teams. Kauffman insisted the RTA is not a union.

''Calling it a union would be incorrect. A union would be for employees,'' Kauffman said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. ''The right way to characterize it would be a 'business alliance.' Unions are about employees directly trying to negotiate something. The RTA is pooling together to look at things we can be doing better.

''No one is looking to start a fight or be controversial.''

The RTA currently includes Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Richard Petty Motor Sports, Roush Fenway Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing and Team Penske.

Kauffman said the top goal of the RTA, which is operating with bylaws and an executive committee, is to bring in the remaining Sprint Cup teams that are not currently members. The next most important items on the agenda, according to Kauffman, is working on cost-saving initiatives related to travel and buying power for parts, and communicating with one voice to NASCAR the team ideas on testing.

''Roger Penske's thought was 'Let's go for the low hanging fruit,''' said Kauffman, who retired at the end of 2012 from Fortress Investment Group, where he was one of three founders.

Kauffman said the RTA also will discuss health care and benefits for employees.

''One of the projects out of the chute is all of these teams get a lot of hotel rooms on a weekly basis - well, gaining a hotel partner might help with that cost and provide some flexibility,'' he said. ''When you put a lot of smart people in the room, you can come up with a lot of smart ideas. Right now, I don't think we even know how much we all spend in total on parts. Or how many employees do we all have?''

NASCAR chief communications officer Brett Jewkes said the sanctioning body had few specifics on the RTA's ''structure or purpose,'' so it would be inappropriate to comment on the group.

''NASCAR's mission, as it has always been, is to create a fair playing field where anyone can come and compete,'' Jewkes said in a statement. ''Our job is to support and strengthen all of the teams, large and small, across all of our series and we'll continue to do that. NASCAR is a unique community with hundreds of stakeholders. They all have a voice and always will.''

Kauffman several times likened the RTA to the Formula One Constructors Association, which was a group of F1 teams that formed in 2008 to give the teams a united voice in negotiations with the FIA and the Formula One Group.

FOTA's original aim was to negotiate the terms of the new Concorde Agreement, the commercial contract that governs the championship. FOTA was disbanded earlier this year.

The formation of the RTA comes as NASCAR enters next season with a new $8.2 billion television package. Teams currently get a portion of the money from the TV package, but Kauffman said renegotiating the teams' cut was not on the current agenda.

''We're going to focus on things we can do ourselves and doesn't require a lot of outside help,'' Kauffman said. ''Some of those topics are behind our control. If some of those stakeholders want to have conversations, we'd be happy to do that.

''But it's the things we can do ourselves - we don't need anyone's approval to work on our travel or optimize our buying or promoting - that we need to focus on right now.''

 

[Racecarboy93]

Well there goes my Union theory

 

[4WideRacing]

That's strange, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[dalejrgamer]

So basically CART.

 

[jacobc62]

I have a bad feeling about this.....

 

[Frigus5]

So basically CART.

That's pretty much what I thought when I read this.

And if anything, I don't really think the sudden doom and gloom that people have is necessary. I've been reading all these postings on social networks (which I really need to stop doing) and they keep saying "ZOMG IT'S GONNA RUIN NASCAR LIKE IT DID TO AOWR".

In this case, that will more than likely not happen as I doubt these owners will go off and create their own series to rival NASCAR, like CART did to USAC and IRL did to CART.

 

[RP Motorsports]

So basically CART.

No, not at all. CART was a result of a handful of team owners disagreeing with USAC's direction and operation, and therefore attempting to either overthrow, or split from the USAC sanctioning body and form a new one. Nothing of that sort is happening here. Nobody is trying to stronghold, gang up on, or even go up against NASCAR.

Its a matter of efficiency. Its the owners/teams collaborating on matters that affect everyone the same (travel costs, parts deals, etc...) in an effort to make those things more efficient, which benefits everyone, as well as the sport's well-being. It also provides the opportunity (should they utilize it) for the teams to be more organized/efficient when it comes to feedback type discussions with NASCAR, be it competition, rules packages, protocol, etc...

It's nothing even close to the CART situation, and it's not the formation of a union either. As the articles have touched on, things like getting better travel/hotel deals, parts deals, and what not, would be very beneficial to the teams (as cutting costs is always a priority). That kind of deal is the intent here. Again, its basically all the non-competition related matters that everyone has to deal with the same, and therefore, can be more efficiently handled as a collective group. Which, in the end, benefits all parties involved - and most importantly - the sport itself.

 

[TJBartel]

I doubt this new formation could do any more harm to NASCAR than Brian France has done.
Perhaps they are trying to rescue the sport from this turd?

 

[Relly]

Well, at least Carl will have something new to say when asked about 2015. "I'm going to be staying within the business alliance, but that's it."

Until he shocks the world and goes to Xxxxxxxxtreme Motorsports that is.

In all seriousness though...I don't look at this like CART, this is the teams making it easier to communicate with each other and with NASCAR. Having one voice to speak for you streamlines things greatly, and hopefully leads to things getting done quicker.

 

[thisguy]

Absolute worst-case scenario, but here's your lockout Chase field:

https://twitter.com/bite/status/486168790334730240

In all seriousness, I can see this going really well in terms of lowering the cost or operating a NASCAR team, since they are now planning on collaborating on that kinda stuff.

 

[FloridaFan88]

Hopefully this can allow the owners to gain some more sponsor dollars. Maybe they can negotiate something to get rid of exclusivity contracts and stuff like that.

 

[evan07]

I hope this is all about cutting cost and making things easier although I could care less if the big dogs in the sport get a little more money. I want help for the small teams to grow and be more competitive. For the first time in a while we have several small teams with serious potential to grow and become something with a little help. What I don't want this to turn into is stupid F1 politics. Car owners running the show rarely has turned out good. Although this is not what the RTA appears to be about. If NASCAR determines this is not to their liking I would imagine they would do everything in their power to squash it. NASCAR has been a dictatorship since 1948 this has potential to get interesting, but let's hope not.

 

[BillyJack79]

I like the alliance in theory, but see it ending badly for them the first time they oppose NASCAR, ISC, or the France family on any issue of significance. See "Professional Drivers Association, Talladega 1969"

 

[Devin41]

See "Professional Drivers Association, Talladega 1969"

That is exactly what I thought of when I read about the RTA on Twitter...guess we'll just have to wait and see how this plays out.

 

[Markfan]

There was an article I found back in 2009 called "NASCAR in 2015" about how all the teams would slowly come together and form an alliance, and eventually Ford and Chevy became the only two teams, and then merged together. I've since deleted it off my computer, but I wish I had it so I could post it. It's funny because I keep seeing everything predicted in that article happen, just a lot more slowly than it predicted.

I remember seeing that article. It was hilarious how it said that it would be (probably the not exact order) Roush Yates Hendrick Ganassi Earnhardt Penske Gibbs Waltrip Petty Motorsports with Felix Sabates and how the only car in the 43-car field that wouldn't be a part of the team would be Robby Gordon Motorsports.

 

[FloridaFan88]

Here's some very interesting audio from team co-owner Brad Daugherty regarding the Alliance. His segment starts at the 21 minute mark.
http://cdn16.castfire.com/audio/303/2117/24348/2245192/MartyandMcGee_2014-07-08-172832-3953-0-0-0.32.mp3?cdn_id=33&uuid=306092c9082f05f9f772c889f8b5caa0&referer=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FCNab9KfjzG