MILLER'S LAP AROUND NASCAR: Next season could look very different

Thanks to the global economic climate creating fewer corporate sponsorship dollars, it’s no secret that NASCAR is taking some tough shots to the chin.

As the series speeds through the offseason and into 2009, those shots seem to be leading the sport into a season that will take on a drastically different appearance when the green flag drops at Daytona International Speedway in February.

Petty Enterprises, the team that NASCAR’s winningest driver Richard Petty drove to 200 career wins with, is the latest Sprint Cup Series team on the brink thanks to sponsorship woes. The team had hoped to race with drivers Bobby Labonte and Chad McCumbee in 2009, but it has yet to find sponsorship dollars to fund its efforts.

In a bid to keep at least Labonte, the 2000 series champion, racing in 2009, Petty is said to be in talks with the three-car Gillette Evernham Motorsports team for a possible merger. Such a move could mean that for the first time since 1969, a Petty Enterprises race team would not compete in NASCAR’s highest division.

Naturally, the woes facing American automakers Chrysler, General Motors and Ford could have lasting impacts on a sport centered around the automobile and receives heavy corporate marketing support from the Big Three. To this point, slight cuts have been made by the automakers for 2009, but all have said they see NASCAR as one of their primary marketing bases.

Race fans watching at home will also be affected in the upcoming season. NASCAR’s main broadcast partners, ESPN and FOX Sports, have held discussions concerning cost-cutting measures. The subscription-based “Hot Pass” program, featuring in-car audio and dedicated driver broadcast feeds for DirecTV customers, will not continue in 2009.

NASCAR teams have cut more than 400 staff positions since the season finale in November. It looks like the NASCAR world will be quite subdued well into 2009.

Champions Week Wraps in New York

NASCAR held its season-ending awards banquet Friday night to honor the Sprint Cup’s 10 best drivers of 2008.

Jimmie Johnson, the first consecutive winner of three championships in 30 years, received more than $7 million for his 2008 work. Unlike past years, NASCAR didn’t announce monetary figures for the other drivers, a sign of bad economic times.

In the biggest surprise of the evening, Johnson’s childhood racing hero and the last three-peat champ Cale Yarborough made his first appearance in many years at the festivities to present Johnson with his championship ring. Johnson, who had tried to contact Yarborough in the weeks since the championship, looked genuinely surprised.

“If anyone was to tie my record, I’m glad Jimmie did it,” Yarborough said. “Just skip one year, and we’ll be good.”

Championship car owner Rick Hendrick provided the most humorous line of the night but probably rubbed his former driver Kyle Busch the wrong way while trying to compliment the driver’s early season success. Busch was fired by Hendrick to make room for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2008.

“How old are you, Kyle? 19? 20? Oh, 23? You just act 18 sometimes,” quipped Hendrick. “I’m going to pay for that one later.”

Busch, seated at a table near the stage, grinned while the crowd laughed.