“The Ugly Side of NASCAR” – Kenny Wallace Deciphers the Controversy Behind Drivers Quitting NASCAR

Sponsorships play a huge role in deciding the future of a stock car driver with his team. With a race team sponsorship, the drivers gain exposure and opportunities like none other. Besides the drivers, it also enables the companies to get their brand messages heard. In a high-value sport like NASCAR, various companies invest hefty chunks of money for the drivers.

We are here to talk about NASCAR. Indeed, it is a sport and the fans have their favorite athletes. However, we often forget that this sport is also the day job for these athletes. They earn their livelihood through this sport.

Veteran racer spills the truth behind NASCAR’s “ugly side”

The money that the NASCAR drivers earn by driving stock cars is directly proportionate to the value that they bring back to the companies that are sponsoring them. And when they fail, the companies just defenestrate them. And this is where the bitter truth of NASCAR lies. In a recent episode of The Kenny Wallace Show, veteran NASCAR ex-driver and former FOX reporter Kenny Wallace revealed why NASCAR drivers quit racing so early in their careers.

Since the SRX series unfolded, fans have seen their retired favorite drivers return behind the wheels of the high-horsepower beasts and race to their hearts’ fullest. Names like Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer have come back on the drivers’ list. But why in SRX and not in NASCAR?

Clint Bowyer went up against Kyle Busch at the Motor Mile Speedway and gave him a run for his money. So why can’t the same happen in NASCAR? Kenny Wallace said, “I’m here to tell you the ugly side of NASCAR.”

As the fans listened on, the 60-year-old said, “Here’s what happens. Clint Bowyer gets the racing. Has one bad year. Bobby Labonte has one, two bad years; suddenly, the sponsor calls up and goes, Hey! What’s wrong with our driver? Now, I’m not picking a driver out. Well, you know he’s 39 years old now.”

“So what? Dale Earnhardt senior, Rusty Wallace race till they was fifty, and they won the very last year they were racing,” he added.

This is what pains Kenny Wallace about NASCAR. The Sponsors just do not give the drivers a chance to make a comeback. In a game, you win some and you lose some. If they judge a driver based on a single bad year and chuck them out of sponsorships, it certainly does not warrant the prowess of that individual. After all, not all days are the same for anyone.

Wallace continued, “Sponsor calls up, Car owner, crew-chief…it’s like a bunch of little old ladies. Well, our driver’s 39 now, he has lost it. He doesn’t have it. He is getting lazy.”

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And suddenly the sponsor decides to revoke their sponsorship from the driver. Without a sponsorship, the drivers do not have any future with the team because everyone will look at their respective revenues. The result?

“Then all of a sudden you just plant a seed,” said Wallace.

Even Rowdy was left without a sponsor prior to the 2022 season

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One of the most conspicuous sponsors in the arena of NASCAR, M&M Mars, declared that they would lift their sponsorship for Rowdy in 2022. Hence, a 15-year-long sponsorship came to an end. With the #18 Joe Gibbs Racing car, M&M had witnessed their driver achieving great heights in his racing career.

According to Sports Business Journal, Joe Gibbs Racing president Dave Alpern said that the brand “wants to try some new things – and no matter how big a brand is, they have a finite budget, so when you want to try something new, it has to come from somewhere else.”

However, Kyle Busch talked to NASCAR Writer Toby Christie last year about what he felt was the reason behind this sudden revoking of the sponsorship.

The Former Richard Childress Racing driver said, “…apparently they’ve got other irons in the fire, maybe other sponsors for other drivers.”

Someone else asked, “Do you think…that they would rather get high on the cheap than pay a champion what he’s worth?”

“Fair assessment,” said Kyle Busch, nodding his head.

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