NASCAR President Mike Helton and Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash met with a variety of owners, general managers, crew chiefs and drivers in a town hall style meeting for the sports second-tier series on Monday. Sources that attended the meeting at the Technical Center in Concord, N.C., called the exchange of ideas between league officials and competitors productive. Although teams were offered the most recent version of the NNS schedule — that included 34 of 35 races locked in for 2011 — the focus appeared on cost cutting measures. Considering the sanctioning body informed competitors the plan to decrease purses by roughly 20 percent next season due to declining attendance, discussions on ways to save money could not have come at a better time. While teams at the front of the garage — the Penske Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing operations — find balance with the resources from the Sprint Cup Series, the independents are struggling to get by. And even though Sprint Cup drivers bring sponsors and fans to the sport, independent Nationwide teams point to the advantage the Cup drivers have with the additional track time they enjoy running both practices prior to qualifying and racing. There is also the desire for NNS specific teams to have a full-time Nationwide champion to further draw attention to the sport. Several changes to the truck series, such as limiting the number of competitors on the road, have been discussed as possibilities for the NNS(Fox Sports)(8-17-2010)
