Two years ago, spirits could not have been higher at Andy Petree Racing. The team employed more than 100 people who built engines and cars that were competitive in NASCAR’s top series. It was part of a research and development alliance that also included Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc [RAD]. It placed its two cars in victory lane within the span of one season, despite an operating budget nearly half of those of larger Winston Cup teams. Despite winning a pair of Winston Cup races, team owner Andy Petree has lost both his primary car sponsors over the past two years. He has one-race deal that will allow him to compete in the Daytona 500, but his operation’s future is uncertain beyond that. Petree’s efforts to find sponsors to replace the ones he lost have proven futile. Now, the shop employs only about 30 people. The team has signed a one-race deal with the Monaco motor coach company so it can compete in next week’s Daytona 500. Beyond that, when Andy Petree Racing will return to the track is unclear. Those two, breakthrough victories in the 2001 season now seem like a distant memory. “We never foresaw this at all,” said Steve Barkdoll, the team’s executive vice president and general manager. “We keep asking ourselves, how did we get into this position? It’s just a tough market out there right now.” Petree is without a sponsor despite a track record that includes two race wins, 53 top-10 finishes, and over $16 million in winnings in six years as a car owner. NASCAR operates a New York office with a primary purpose of helping its teams secure sponsorship. The office recently arranged a meeting between Andy Petree Racing and a potential sponsor, helping the team built its presentation and offering data on how other companies have been able to build their business through sponsorship. NASCAR representatives even attended the meeting “to help back up their sport,” Barkdoll said. Some teams are able to recover quickly when a sponsor leaves. Others aren’t. Either way, it makes for an unsettling time for Winston Cup car owners, whose budgets run into the tens of millions of dollars and who need corporate sponsorship to survive. A few lower-tier operations, like Donlavey Racing and Melling Racing — both fixtures in the sport for decades — have had to shut down because of a lack of sponsorship. But the past two years have proven that even teams capable of winning poles and races are not immune from sponsorship difficulties. “So many companies were go-go-go,” said Lake Speed Jr., team manager for Melling Racing, which suspended operations in December after being without a primary sponsor for the full 2002 season. “Once they saw the economy slowing down later in 2001, that ended, and it’s never come back. Before that, people wanted to spend more than the next guy. It was escalating. If one guy spent $8 (million), it was, ‘What can I get for 10?’ After 9-11, it was, ‘How cheap can I get it?’ There’s no safety net in NASCAR, nothing to protect a team owner,” Melling’s Speed said. “Any kind of (corporate) scandal, any kind of freak deal, it could affect anybody. On the business side, you’ve got to work twice as hard for every dollar as you did before. Other teams have had to scramble. Maybe they’re not to the point where we are, but nobody is safe.” The teams most directly affected by the sponsorship drought of the past few years are hoping to make comebacks. Melling, Speed said, is “riding out the storm” until economic conditions improve. Andy Petree Racing has received some help from Petty Enterprises, which has supplied a driver for the Daytona 500 (Christian Fittipaldi) as well as some sponsorship leads. The Petree shop is also hoping for better days ahead. “We won’t be running a full season this year,” Barkdoll said. “But we’re very optimistic that we’re going to put something together, and be back in 2004 with a full Winston Cup program.”(MUCH more to this story at the Charleston Post and Courier )(2-9-2003)
