The 2011 Truck Series season started on a high note in Daytona with 46 trucks on the entry list and an emotional win by Michael Waltrip on the 10th anniversary of his Daytona 500 win. In the weeks and months that followed, the field began to thin.
First, Randy Moss Motorsports shut down it’s second team with Tayler Malsam before the trucks reached Martinsville in April. Then Vision Aviation Racing dropped from two teams to one before completely closing down in mid-May.
Germain Racing followed up in June by shutting down Justin Lofton’s team. Lofton left for Eddie Sharp Racing, where Craig Goess had recently departed.
Randy Moss Motorsports pulled the plug in July, forming an “alliance” with Germain Racing and handing over sponsor Navistar for the remainder of the year.
Since that time Kevin Harvick Inc. has announced it will be shutting down its truck teams at the end of the season and Germain Racing has said it will scale back.
To say the least there has been a lot of change in the series this season. It’s incredible to see some of the mainstays, including RMM/David Dollar (in the sport since 1997) and KHI either unable or unwilling to continue. It has to provide some pause for those in charge.
Well paying sponsorships are few and far between, purses are pitiful and the series is comparatively expensive to run. To be fair, I think NASCAR recognizes that. One notable place they’ve been making visible changes is in the schedule.
The series has shifted away from the West Coast swings, ending it’s run at California and only going to Phoenix once a year, while adding stops closer to home at Rockingham and Iowa. We’ve also seen them incorporating or considering shorter tracks. Of course, smaller tracks means fewer trucks are necessary, which means, generally speaking, less needs to be spent on equipment.
The Truck Series has walked away from its roots in recent years – see stops at Daytona, Talladega and Pocono – and for the sake of growth has begun to push out those who supported it for so long. That said, the exit of KHI or any of these other teams is by no means a death knell to the series – great teams like Thorsport, Richard Childress Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports, among others, continue to support it. But we all need to be thoroughly considering the reasons those who exited did so.
The Truck Series continues to be popular with fans, and TV viewership is growing. Still, NASCAR needs to be making tough decisions and rectifying the problems at hand if they want the series to be anything more than a place for start-and-park teams, funded drivers and has-beens/never-weres looking for a cheaper barrier to entry. I think it’s better than that.
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