[mitchntx]

After watching a some of the coverage of the Daytona 500 this weekend and hearing a lot of discussion about the costs associated with feilding a competitive team and hearing the gnashing of teeth surrounding the dwindling sponsorships and hearing the concerns about enough cars to field a full grid and seeing Waltrip's wild tumble and seeing that tumble re-played on network after network after network ....

I began to wonder ....

Because it's all about the number of minutes a specific sponsor get's it's name on TV, when will a driver, who is an "also ran", purposely wreck his car, just get gleen a few extra minutes of sponsor coverage?

Is it cost effective to spend a $100,000 race car in order to keep a $10 million sponsor?

NAPA received tons of exposure from networks to local TV stations replaying his wreck. I would hate to see that happen on purpose, but ... it has to be there in someone's mind ...

[Rob Hood]

IROC should expand its series to six races - two superspeedway for the NASCAR boys, two road courses, and two flat 1 mile ovals for the IRL'ers. Dirt is cool, but doesn't have the media draw to make enough mainstream money. It would be neat to use the home track's most commonly used vehicle, but that would create a significant cost that the sanctioning body can't absorb right now. Ultimately, the race series should try to include an F1 driver, with perhaps one of the road course races held in conjunction with the US F1 race. Of course, scheduling conflicts abound, so that may end up as a pipe dream.