The dies were cast
for Donleavy when sponsor Sara Lee demanded he move his racing operation from Virginia to North Carolina in
2001. He refused and Sara Lee took their sponsorship and driver Hut Stricklin to Bill Davis Racing. Teams located
outside Charlotte or surrounding towns have historically been unable to keep up
with technology and personnel. The Donleavy operation shut down in 2005 after struggling to make races for the previous
three seasons.
Junior Johnson Racing,
who won six championships with cars driven by Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip, was positioned to become one of the super
teams, yet through various circumstances, Johnson left the sport never to return. Brett Bodine bought the operation from
Johnson in 1996. However without full time sponsorship he closed the books on the team at the end of the 2003 season.
The latest casualty
is Morgan-McClure Motorsports (MMM). After competing for 25 years in NASCAR’s top series with drivers such as Rick
Wilson, Sterling Marlin, and Ernie Irvan, the owners announced that they would not be competing in the 2008 Daytona 500 unless
sponsorship could be found. MMM hopes to return sometime during the ‘08 season if they are able to secure sponsorship.
Next to fall could
be the mighty Yates Racing (YR) (Formally Robert Yates racing). Dark clouds have risen over Yates Racing since Robert Yates
turned the operation over to son Doug. They continue to search for full time sponsorship for the No. 28 and 38 cars driven
by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland, respectively. The operation is currently on life support with an affiliate relationship
to Roush/Fenway Racing. Ford continues to provide manufacturers support.
Conservative estimates
place costs for a weekend of racing Sprint Cup in the $350,000 range. For both teams Yates is coughing up nearly three quarters
of a million every week to race. The question is how long they can continue before the purse runs dry. The paint
scheme this past weekend at Texas included the banner sponsoryates.com, a testimony
to the level of desperation by the Yates teams.
Bill Davis Racing
(BDR) released Rookie of the Year campaigner Jacques Villeneuve after he failed to qualify for the Daytona race citing lack
of sponsorship and rising costs as the primary reason. (Villeneuve is still listed as the driver of the #27 BDR team
at http://www.billdavisracing.com/cs27/driver/bio)
Then there is Wood
Brothers Racing (WBR). Glen Wood and Family have been involved since the earliest days of NASCAR right along side the Petty’s
and the France’s. For fifty eight years WBR has been involved in the sport in some fashion. The list of drivers who
have piloted a Wood Brothers machine reads like a history lesson of NASCAR.
2006 StockCar Review.
