It’s time to create tier system for race drivers

By John Bassetti

Dave Blaney and others have become expendable in NASCAR.

This should be the Year of the Tier in NASCAR.

The upheaval that caused teams to disband, merge or surface since late last season has created the haves and the have-nots in racing.

While Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing are among those packing plenty of resources, drivers like Dave Blaney have had to pick up rides with smaller teams.

NASCAR’s paradigm is clear: a few, big teams and a bunch of little ones.

So, if Blaney and others have to be relegated to the sub-strata, maybe the time for instituting a tier system within a tier is at hand.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then tough luck should be the daddy of innovation for the sake of fairness.

Wasn’t the Chase for the Championship designed to generate interest late in the season?

After all, many NASCAR fans can relate to the ‘little guy,’ so having a similar chase for lower tier teams isn’t a bad idea to balance the bigness.

Blaney will drive for Prism Motorsports in car No. 66, but he won’t be at Daytona for the start of the 2009 season.

That role is for Terry Labonte, who will drive the 66 in the 500.

“It’s a real small start-up team, one of many that popped up over the winter,” said Blaney, who is scheduled to drive the rest of the Sprint Cup Series season.

Prism, which is owned by Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey, had some Nationwide cars last year.

“A bunch of the big teams have gone away and sponsorships are hard to come by, but it’s kind of a good time because you can get equipment cheap right now.”

He said that Michael Waltrip’s team is supplying all the No. 66 cars and preparing them.

“Hopefully, we can make a go of it. Equipment-wise we’re in pretty good shape. But it’s going to be hard to race on just a tiny amount of money, but we’ll do what we can to start and, hopefully, grow as we go.”

Window World will be No. 66’s sponsor, but it’s only committed for the Day — the Daytona 500.

“I don’t know if they’re going to do any more races after that,” Blaney said. “So we’re open after that on trying to raise money for every race.”

The upside is that smaller teams can race for a lot less money.

“It’s a different option for the sponsors,” said Blaney, who concedes: “It’s a lot cheaper than the big teams, but a smaller team is most likely not going to run as well.”

Although equipment might be adequate, having the right people and enough people will make or break a team.

“I bet some of these small teams will run really good once in awhile,” said Blaney. “It’s just going to be hard to do it every week.”

Blaney’s former crew chief with Bill Davis Racing, Tommy Baldwin, is a first-time team owner, while Joe Nemecheck has a team again. Jeremy Mayfield, too, organized a team.

“I’m not sure how much a few other guys are going to run,” said Blaney. “Some will go to Daytona, but I’m not sure they’ll continue after the 500.”

A lot of the BDR guys are helping Baldwin, whom Blaney had a chance to join.

“Tommy and I talked about it a lot, but he couldn’t quite commit to doing it and I had to go with Bill Parsons or probably lose that opportunity, so I kind of had to do it,” Dave said.

“Tommy will run good and I would love to have been a part of that but it just didn’t work out.”

Are there any BDR people on the Prism gang?

“Yeah, a couple,” Blaney said of truck driver Tim Clancey and Kevin Gaitley, who took care of tires on the CAT car.

Dave has a contract for 35 races, but he’ll have to qualify to make them.

He said the 66’s paint scheme could change from week to week if money is raised for one-race deals or it could go to the track plain with nothing on it but a 66.

“Whatever they can find is what they’ll do. That’s what all these little teams will do.”

Because NASCAR eliminated testing as a cost-cutting measure, activity will be limited to the weekends.

“We’ll still have practice at the race on Fridays and Saturdays, but middle-of-the-week testing is cut out. I’m just going to pretty much show up and drive. My schedule really hasn’t changed much.”

Testing at tracks where NASCAR doesn’t race is permissible, but Blaney said it’s not very beneficial.

“Taking some laps somewhere doesn’t help a lot. Most teams are in agreement that they’re just not going to run; if nobody tests then it’s not a disadvantage for anybody to sit home. I think everybody’s in agreement that it’s going to be good to save that money this year and just go to the races.”

Since drivers will have more time on their hands, will they sit around playing cards or video games?

Not Blaney.

Dave has his own shop in Salisbury, N.C. that is primarily for storage of race cars and some of his son’s short-track cars.

The outlook that looked bleak in November and December has brightened, but it’s not ideal.

“On one side, you’d love to be running for one of the big teams and that would be great, but, at least I’m still going to be there every week and still have a chance to race. If that’s what [small team] we’ve got, the option is go in there, do the best you can and try to grow that little team into something bigger and better.”

Dave’s Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup career has included the 93 for Amoco, the 77 for Jasper, the 07 for Jack Daniels and Cat 22.

Now it’ll be the No. 66 Camry for Prism Motorsports in a sport that has a whole new ownership structure in a year of economy and maybe a Year of the Tier.

“I think it’s going to be fun,” Blaney said. “I hope everybody survives.”

bassetti@vindy.com