No Room for Error

Times are tough for NASCAR teams all the way around -- owners, drivers, crewmen and sponsors -- and those new to the Sprint Cup tour, such as promising rookie Regan Smith, have it rougher than usual. No matter how talented they are or how fast they're learning, it might not be fast enough to keep sponsors happy.

It's a corollary to the rich-get-richer theory -- those without a big name or a couple of splashy races to boast about might be about to fall through the cracks and vanish. Look at car owner Rick Hendrick, for example. He just hired Mark Martin, a legend who will soon turn 50, instead of a young and coming development driver. He could well afford to, because he has title contenders Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. already on his roster.

During the 14 years or so since NASCAR racing hit mainstream America, one of the good things about its marketing success was that it opened doors for new drivers, including men such as Tony Stewart, who once was -- hard as it might be to recall -- iffy in this branch of racing.

Lately, there have been drivers such as Smith, and veterans from other series, such as Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti and Patrick Carpentier. NASCAR team owners have been able, willing, even eager to put them in top-flight equipment. And sponsors weren't that hard to sell on the game plan.

Now though there is increasing worry that that dynamic might be about to change, because of the unsettled economy and uncertain corporate sponsors.

Sponsors don't have the luxury right now to take many marketing chances. They want to go with what's proven. And even that -- if the now questionable Joe Gibbs-Home Depot sponsorship, for example, is suddenly as fragile as it appears -- might not be a given.

Franchitti, despite his stellar Indy-car credentials, wasn't attractive enough to potential sponsors, so owner Chip Ganassi had to shut down that team, laying off 71 people.

Even racing giant General Motors is moving its NASCAR money to focus on what provides the best return on investment. That means dropping track-owner programs like pace cars and putting that money to work at, say, bankrolling Tony Stewart's new venture.

If drivers like Regan Smith get lost in the shuffle, that's bad. He is a good kid who has been doing his best to learn the trade. Although he's up against more high-profile racers in the battle for NASCAR's rookie-of-the-year award, Smith is atop those standings at the season's midpoint.

Smith is 24, but he has been in NASCAR since his first Truck run six years ago. And he narrowly escaped last season's Bobby Ginn disaster, when that owner failed and shuffled his remaining assets, including Smith, over to DEI.

Now with rumors swirling around Dale Earnhardt Inc. and all of its drivers, with Mark Martin leaving, with Martin Truex Jr. trying to leave, with Paul Menard's future still up in the air, and with all the other driver moves in the garage, Smith realizes he is just a pawn in the game.

"I don't know what it will or won't unleash," Smith says of the current shuffle, highlighted by Tony Stewart's split from owner Joe Gibbs. "I would tend to think it's going to unleash quite a bit of stuff. But this time of year, this always happens. It seems right at about Chicago every year is when all this stuff starts getting announced and pieces to the puzzle start falling into place. "

What it all might mean for Smith is uncertain, even though he's running better, qualifying better and leading the rookie standings.

"We're not happy, still," Smith said. "Until we're finishing top-10 each week, we don't feel we're doing what we want to be doing. But we're making gains on it … and that's all part of being a rookie."

Franchitti still shocked

At least Smith still has a Cup ride, which is more than Franchitti has. And Franchitti isn't taking his team's shake-up very well.

"It was such a big shock that it happened," he said. ""I and 70 people lost their jobs … so a lot of people are upset right now.

"Everybody's having challenges getting sponsorship right now. There are probably two or three teams looking good -- and a lot of other teams struggling. I understand that if there's no money there is no money. And the timing of these things are never good….

"I had so much luck last year in Indy-car that I really felt at times I couldn't do any wrong. Luck has a way of balancing out.

"But it's particularly frustrating because we really felt that we were getting hold of it. The team struggled at the start of the year, and I struggled learning the ropes. But since I came back from my broken ankle (at Talladega in April), I really felt we were running as well if not better, compared to my teammates, at certainly Pocono, Michigan and Loudon.

"Obviously we didn't qualify at Sonoma, but at those other three races I felt we made a lot of progress.

"But, in keeping with what's happened this season, if it could go wrong it did go wrong. We've been taken out twice and blown an engine. But we're running top-15 every week, some cases top-10 … apart from Sonoma. So I really feel we're getting there.

"It gives me hope that -- given the right chances and the right equipment -- we can do this. I hope we get that chance."

After all Franchitti gave up a very strong Indy-car career to make the leap to NASCAR. Does he have second thoughts now?

"I was thinking about that the other day," he said. "When I made the decision to leave Indy-car, it was because I felt I had run my course. I didn't feel I was going to have that -- I don't know the right word, determination maybe, to get back in the car again this year.

"I really felt it was time to do something else. Had I not come to NASCAR I would have done something else…."

Franchitti says that now, everything else is up to car owner Ganassi.

"We're starting to look around, starting to talk, but really nothing is going to happen until I speak to Chip and see what his plan is for the future … and see if it's something I'm interested in," Franchitti said. "Then I can make a decision…."

Carpentier making strides

And then there's Patrick Carpentier, whose dogged determination as a rookie has been striking. At 36 and on racing's sidelines for a while, he's under the gun to make it work quickly in a decidedly different form of the sport.

Maybe it's not working that well, really, but he has been like a pit bull, refusing to let go.

"There are ups and downs: It's very tough to switch from open-wheel," Carpentier said. "It's been really good at times … and really bad at other times."

At least Carpentier and team owners Ray Evernham and George Gillett Jr. have solid sponsorship.

In addition to having to learn a new form of racing, Carpentier is having to learn to drive NASCAR's winged stocker, which few teams in the garage -- even halfway through the season -- have a handle on.

For Carpentier, each race is a major learning experience. "At Charlotte we struggled both weeks … now we think we know why -- it was a geometry thing on the car that wasn't right," he says. "At some races we've been really good. At Darlington we ran really well; we just had a mechanical issue. I think we're going to be OK."

Carpentier has been watching Juan Pablo Montoya closely. "I knew it was hard," he said. "I watched Juan Pablo last year -- and I raced against him (in Indy-cars) -- and said ‘Whoa, man. This NASCAR thing is pretty hard.

"When you look at it on TV, they're going 20 or 30 mph slower than we do in Indy-cars, and it doesn't look that hard. You forget they have half the tire, more power, more weight, and no downforce….

"To do one lap quick, qualifying, we seem to have the hang of that. But to do quick laps for 100 laps on the same set of tires, that's what it's all about. That's the hardest part to learn.

"People have no idea how hard it is in Cup."

■ Mike Mulhern can be reached at mmulhern@wsjournal.com.