Grassroots racing being in danger calls for alarms to be sounded all around. With many NASCAR teams banning their stars from racing outside the three premier series of the sport, the grassroots levels are suffering. Fans want to see drivers return to their roots like Christopher Bell did at Tulsa, winning the non-wing outlaw event. However, despite the recent success in Tulsa, the overall picture for lower-tier racing looks bleak.

Recently, two NASCAR veterans, the St. Louis duo of Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader, opened up about the deplorable condition of low-tier racing. Ken Schrader being a track owner for 3 decades, elaborated on what it takes to run a successful track and it always comes down to the same set of reasons.

A multitude of reasons to consider

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is not any one particular factor that decides the financial standing of racing at its grassroots level. For the cars to hit the track, it is extremely important to make sure that there are sponsors. Sponsors usually will use a portion of the car to exhibit their brand logo and this helps greatly with marketing. However, if the viewership is not that high, why would a brand take the effort and sponsor cars in these races? 

Not only that, the financial flow for this variant of racing also comes from TV broadcasting. Any channel can purchase the rights and only they will allow an extension. On the Herm and Schrader podcast, Kenny Wallace brought up the dwindling viewership at grassroots races, using Vado Speedway Park as an example of empty grandstands at a race. So Wallace posed the question to Schrader about dealing with sponsorships as Schrader owned a racetrack himself.

Ken Schrader owned Federated Autoparts Raceway I-55 in Pevely, Missouri for 30 years! In December 2024, he sold it to promoter Josh Carrol. Kenny Wallace asked Schrader, “I want you to speak to the sponsorship and the TV viewership… I want to hear it from you because you owned a racetrack for a long time. How does that event work if nobody is in the grandstands..“

Ken Schrader said on the Herm and Schrader show, “Obviously, you need X number dollars to come in. You’re gonna have a substantial amount come in through the back gate, which is the participants. I don’t know if they had entry fees out there [Vado Speedway Park] or not, but, if you got ballpark 150 cars, they’re all bringing three or four people”. 

Schrader outlined the ideal scenario of how successfully owning a racetrack would look like. “So you got a pretty substantial back gate plus the sponsorship plus the tv rights whatever they are able to sell tv for. So someone like Flo would pay them for the right to broadcast it, thinking that they’re gonna be able to sell sponsorship and have enough people to purchase it… so everything works for everyone.” While this may look simple on paper, it comes with a lot of assumptions behind it. Would broadcasters return if the track isn’t getting enough sponsors to draw more eyeballs?

The financial strain in grassroots racing arises from the constant juggling of limited sponsorship deals, inconsistent revenue from broadcasting rights, and reliance on participant contributions. The costs of handling an entire racing event have increased sharply and often the operational cost is extremely high or more than the collected money.  

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Why is sponsorship so important in NASCAR 

Irrespective of which tier you are dealing with, it is crucial to make sure that you have the right kind of sponsorship for sustenance. While races usually get money from participant entry or selling viewership rights, it is not the same for teams. For any NASCAR team to maintain even the most basic format of the team, you would need $400,000. Key expenses include, but are not confined to, drivers, engines, crew members, and tires. Even top teams can struggle to keep up.

Stewart-Haas Racing is one such example. The iconic team which has won two Cup Series championships, disbanded in 2024 after a lack of sponsorships. SHR lost big-time sponsors when Smithfield exited NASCAR entirely and Anheuser-Busch shifted to the exciting Trackhouse Racing team, instead. The Tony Stewart co-owned outfit was also set to lose Ford’s backing at the end of the season.

However, NASCAR as a sport has improved its sponsorship game over the last few years. While it continues to be a struggle for people to witness the races outside the United States, slowly it might be changing with the new broadcasting deal. Recently, NASCAR teamed up with Microsoft as their official technology partner.

In recent years, there has been a shift toward sponsorships involving smaller financial contributions paired with strategic technical alliances. Companies offer products beyond just software. They are expanding their presence in the sport by providing race teams with tools and resources to enhance their competitive performance. However, this only further increases the visibility of the premier tiers of the sport, while its grassroots seem to continuously suffer.