New York has no shortage of economic indicators
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
December 4, 2008
03:36 PM EST
NEW YORK -- The house of worship across the street from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the nerve center for NASCAR's Champions Week, says it all. A poster outside of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal, a dazzling Byzantine edifice off Park Avenue, shows a stock trader holding his head after what can only be another volatile day in the financial markets. "A church for these times," the caption reads. And goodness, what times these are.
This is a very different city from the one that NASCAR last visited a scant three months ago, when the trees were still leafy and the birds were still chirping and the markets had yet to begin their dizzying dive. The Manhattan that Kyle Busch toured as the championship points leader on Chase media day, the Wednesday before the playoff opener at New Hampshire International Speedway, had yet to be wracked by the ongoing financial meltdown. The Manhattan that Jimmie Johnson is touring this week as three-time champion shows visible scars of that upheaval.
There are the snippets of conversation picked up just walking down the street, men in suits smoking cigarettes talking about buyouts and layoffs and who might end up where. There's the great deal of public consternation over Citigroup, a bank which last week received $20 billion in government aid, sponsoring the name of the New York Mets' new ballpark. There are the buildings with new names and new owners, like the former Lehman Brothers headquarters in Times Square, its video screens now displaying the blue and white colors of Barclays. There are the tickers, omnipresent in the financial district, scrolling with numbers that rise and fall with the unpredictability of a car going airborne at Talladega Superspeedway.
Even the year-end celebration that is Champions Week seems -- by design or coincidence, it's hard to tell -- a little more subdued. There's no "Victory Lap," the parade of show cars that's traversed Midtown in each of the last four years. Ford and Chevrolet, part of a U.S. auto industry on the verge of bankruptcy, have canceled engagements that typically coincide with the awards banquet. NASCAR's public relations department didn't bring quite as many people up from Daytona Beach. The light pole banners around Manhattan aren't touting Champions Week, but the upcoming Heisman Trophy presentation. And while sponsors like Ford and Aflac are hosting events and fan festivals, the industry doesn't seem to be taking as large a bite out of the Big Apple as it usually attempts to do.
"It almost feels, with what's going on in the world, that we need to shrink it a little bit," said now eight-time champion car owner Rick Hendrick. "The way everything's going, people are hurting, it's widespread with the economy. It's almost like it's hard to have a party in the midst of so much uncertainty. You want to celebrate, but I think throttling back a little is not a bad idea."
Perception, though, can be deceiving. The Victory Lap, a galvanizing event that commandeered an estimated 100,00 pairs of eyeballs last year, meant more expense for teams, who had to truck a show car up to New York. It cost almost $1 million to put on last year, and likely would have cost more this year. Yet it also led to complaints from locals, and NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the idea to table it was made last December, long before the current financial crunch. Same goes for the move of the annual champion's lunch, from 21 Club -- the kind of place where diners are served by waiters in white dinner jackets -- to Foley's, an Irish bar in the shadow of the Empire State Building. Chalk that one up to the NASCAR mantra: back to basics.
"I think it would be a leap to make any connection to the economy in this case," Poston said. "Next year may be different. I think that's where you're going to see any effects, if we see them, because now we're on a different budget cycle and people and making their decisions from today."
To Johnson, who's being whisked from one event or awards ceremony to the next, the week appears no different. Still, the struggling economy is never very far away, as evidenced by the reigning champion's first visit Wednesday morning -- the New York Stock Exchange, to ring the opening bell. He's been there twice before, but never with the market down more than 30 percent for the year. "Who are we bailing out now?" one trader says as the Johnson party wanders through the trading floor, crowded and strewn with scraps of paper even 10 minutes before the session begins. The place is cramped, crowded, and dominated by numbers, either those shouted by traders or blinking on computer monitors too many to count.
But Johnson, who still keeps a secondary residence in New York, has his moments. "Should I shoot myself in the leg or something?" he quips, referring to the plight of beleaguered New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress, when presented with a memento by NYSE chairman Duncan Niederauer. He hits the button sparking the opening bell not at 9:30, but 9:29 and 48 seconds. "Got to play off the 48, of course," he says, referring to his car number. Traders press forward for an autograph or just a glimpse of the driver. A security guard laments the demise of the planned NASCAR track on Staten Island, doomed by a political firestorm. "A lot of people wanted that," he says, voicing an opinion not often heard in the city. "It would have brought in a lot of revenue."
Of course, as soon as the index opened, it went down again, a stark reminder of why some sponsors have cut back their involvement in this year's NASCAR banquet. Hendrick considered doing the same, but ultimately decided his championship team had worked too hard to be short-changed. There is, though, one benefit -- hotels, eager for scarce tourism dollars, are more willing to cut deals on room rates. "It's nice to feel wanted," Hendrick said. And how does he usually feel coming to New York? "Like a pimple on a buzzard," the car owner joked.
That's the kind of sentiment that leads some to believe the banquet should be moved to a more NASCAR-friendly locale, rather than shoehorned into a city that even in good financial years barely stops to notice. Bruton Smith, owner of the race track conglomerate Speedway Motorsports Inc., wants the event in Las Vegas, where he also happens to have a track. Hendrick has an idea, too. "You know what I think would be really cool? To do it in Charlotte after the Hall of Fame is finished," he said. "The city would roll out the lights. It would be the thing."
NASCAR, which moved its banquet from Daytona Beach to New York in 1981 as part of an attempt to attract more sponsors and become more nationally recognized, has heard it all before. "We've been here 27 years, and this is one of the things that is part of our heritage," Poston said. "It is part of our tradition, just like racing at Daytona and Talladega and Charlotte, it's part of the tradition. Doing banquet week and coming to New York is part of that tradition."
And recession or no recession, that tradition will continue in 2009. "I don't see any reason," Poston said, "why we wouldn't be here next year."
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. _________________ my 'coonass cat will eat your hunting dog.
Back to where it should be? Let's get back to run whatca brung, and hope you brung enough. NASCAR has become too coperate and too unwatchable. The money they threw at teams is a big part of the reason the sport is where it is.
I changed shifts mid-season to pick up a Sunday afternoon. I Tivo'ed all the races I missed and didn't watch a damn one. I did, however, watch the re-runs of old races on ESPN Classic as they had them on.
If the big three back out, Brian France may not make as much money. Burt Smith might have to actually go back to work, some teams will fold or down size, but I am cool with that. Heck, they can even take the race nearest to me (Kansas City) away and shorten the season.
If it means races that actually mean something and are watchable, then so be it. The Big 3 were never the reason for stock car racing and stock car racing never needed the approval from them to put a good race on.
NASCAR was one of the best marketing tools the big 3 had. They had no reason getting involved with the engineering, technical assistance and most of all, funding of teams.
It'd be nice to see local guys be able to run races now and again. It'd be nice to see a 43 car field be 1/2 filled with people you have not heard of (yet.) If the Big 3 go, guys are still going to tinker in thier garage, still try and make thier cars go faster, and still want to prove it to each other.
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