After Controversially Letting Go of Kyle Busch, JGR President Bashes NASCAR’s Mentality as Financial Feud Blows Up

The whole Kyle Busch fiasco left a two-time cup series champion without a seat for 2023. Fortunately, he found a place for himself in Richard Childress Racing for the next year, leaving JGR after 15 long years. But he was forced to take his leave after his sponsor, Mars Inc. announced his departure. Fascinatingly enough, this whole saga brought a new, darker side of NASCAR to light.

A side that you wouldn’t expect from a business.

It’s no surprise that motorsports rely on sponsorship money to ensure their cars make it to races. But what is actually a surprise is the fact that NASCAR teams specifically rely on sponsor money to pay for 60-80 percent of all expenses. That explains why a team as big as Joe Gibbs Racing had to let one of the best drivers in the entire sport go because his primary sponsor departed the sport.

Naturally, with so much dependence on sponsors, teams asked for change and NASCAR had some solutions for the matter. But, it wasn’t exactly the ideal thing too. Now, the teams asked for a higher share of TV Revenue, which they delivered but not how the teams would have liked.

Unfortunately, the revenue NASCAR gave only increased marginally. On the other hand, they made the next-gen car to cut costs.

Read More: Amidst Bitter Feud, Signing Kyle Busch Would’ve Lost Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Team $47.1 Billion Worth Sponsor

Teams were not happy with this move, though.

“I don’t know of another sports league — or business, for that matter — who came to prosperity through cutting,” Alpern said. “ That’s a fact. They don’t go together.”

“You get to a solution by investing in your content,” Polk said. “We are the content — the teams, the drivers, the cars. That’s what people are paying for — to see us. You don’t make the sport better by trying to cheapen the content.”

It’s not the cheaper costs the teams want, but more profits. Moreover, the next-gen car cost cut is not exactly making a big difference, either.

If the Next-Gen car helped teams cut costs, why did JGR let Kyle Busch go?

The Next-Gen car came with a lot of promises. But so far it only seems to have delivered concussions to the drivers.

Of course, with single-source components compulsory to all cars, with only a maximum of 7 cars per team, you’d expect some serious cost-cutting. However, it seems to have been a farce, according to Toyota Racing CRO, David Wilson, at least.

WATCH THIS STORY: Kyle Busch Trash Talks His 7-Year-Old Son After His Prophecy Came Untrue

Wilson said, “The notion that 2022 will bring savings is false, this car undoubtedly will need to be massaged, it won’t be perfect coming out of the gates, nothing ever is”

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, “So there is an investment up front, but by nature of the standardization of most of the car, there will be significant savings in the long term.”

But do you think the next-gen car will really account for serious cost-cutting later? Let us know in the comments.