Less than one month ago, Leavine Family Racing announced it had sold its team and charter, ceasing operations at the end of the 2020 season. Germain Racing could be next.
On Monday night (Aug. 31), rumors surfaced on Twitter about a potential team shutdown following the conclusion of the 2020 season. Driver Ty Dillon is in a contract year while sponsor GEICO has yet to extend its partnership with the race team. GEICO has been the primary sponsor of Germain since 2009, when Max Papis competed in 15 races. In 2011, Casey Mears was the first driver to run a full season for the team.
But the current economic climate coming off the COVID-19 shutdown has resulted in questions of the team’s future.
“At this time, anything is on the table,” Germain Racing told Frontstretch in a statement. “Germain Racing does not have a signed sponsorship contract for 2021 and Bob Germain is exploring conversations for a potential sale.”
Prior to the doubleheader weekend at Dover International Speedway, Dillon gave an elaborate answer on how the current schedule of one-day shows has helped Germain Racing, who is in need of cutting costs.
“It’s saving a ton of money and helping teams like us,” Dillon said on a Zoom call with media on Aug. 21. “We won’t see the full benefit, but another two years down the road. It takes a while to catch up, but if we can show up and race on race day, or maybe do a 15-minute practice session on race day where we shake down our cars and we only have to bring one car to the racetrack and buy less tires and don’t have to [have] hotel rooms and rental cars, there’s so much expense that we save over time.
“And then you have a car that’s more common parts that’s supposed to be cheaper in general coming in 2022. You can start seeing teams like our team, get to the level that we need to be. That’s where NASCAR has to get to, or else it’s unfortunately going to continue to go the way that we’ve seen for the last couple of years to where you have teams that just can’t hang on anymore and they can’t survive in this kind of environment.”
Through 26 races this season, Dillon has a best finish of 10th in the second race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The No. 13 has an average finish of 22.4, sitting 28th in the owner’s standings.
Dustin joined the Frontstretch team at the beginning of the 2016 season. 2020 marks his sixth full-time season covering the sport that he grew up loving. His dream was to one day be a NASCAR journalist, thus why he attended Ithaca College (Class of 2018) to earn a journalism degree. Since the ripe age of four, he knew he wanted to be a storyteller.
The one day shows have to be a huge help to the teams. Even so it will be hard for those teams to hang on for two years in the hope that there will be cost savings with the cars.
And I would expect that sponsors will continue to reduce the amount that they are willing to pay, particularly to teams that have little chance to win unless it’s a fluke.
How does having to build a complete inventory of new vehicles help small teams?
Probably helps the mega teams that build cars and sell or lease them to smaller teams.