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The Most Valuable Teams In Nascar

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The Most Valuable Teams In NASCAR

Jack Gage

forbes.com

spacer_white.gifspacer_white.gif There's a widening gulf in NASCAR between stock car racing's biggest, most valuable teams and those hoping to hang on for just one more race. Since our first NASCAR valuation package two years ago, values have rocketed skyward, up 65% on average, to $119 million, thanks to a rash of investment in a sport whose radical growth over the past decade appears to be sputtering.

In the past year, billionaire investors like George Gillett, the owner of the NHL's Montreal Canadians and English soccer club Liverpool, and Fortress Investment Group (nyse: FIG - news - people ) President Rob Kaufman purchased stakes in teams (Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Michael Waltrip Racing, respectively) after seeing value in NASCAR.

They aren't alone. Stock car racing is also seeing interest from within--mergers of middling teams are yielding ready-made contenders as teams begin to realize the new efficiencies of operating, say, two cars from one expanded shop rather than separately. Example: Ginn Racing teaming with Dale Earnhardt Inc. prior to this season.

Specifically, though, consolidation has put a spotlight on the growing divide between NASCAR's rich and poor. For 2008, the difference between NASCAR's most valuable team and its 15th grew to $307 million, up from $270 million last year, and just $195 million in 2006. That despite a slight decline in values from 2007.

One headwind facing smaller teams: NASCAR's eight-year, $4.48 billion TV deal, which began in 2007, is a 40% improvement, on average, over its previous deal. Catch: It is backloaded and won't pay teams more than they received in 2006 until 2012. For teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing, which operate nine race cars between them, more entries on Sundays mean better odds of cashing in.

We estimate Hendrick Motorsports became NASCAR's most valuable team this year, up 13% to $335 million. Dropping to second is Roush Fenway Racing, which fell 1% in value to $313 million. The value of the third-place team, Joe Gibbs Racing, increased 7% to $184 million.

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Worse odds on the track have made it tougher for one- and two-car teams like 10-time Cup Series champion Petty Enterprises, whose protracted and very public search for capital came to an end recently with the announcement it would sell a controlling interest in the team to private equity firm Boston Ventures. We estimate that Petty's two-car operation, which hasn't won a Cup Series race in nearly a decade, fell 9% in value to $44 million this year.

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For the Pettys of the NASCAR world, the proof is in the pudding: Whereas nine of NASCAR's top 10 cars in 1998 were operated by teams with fewer than three cars, that number shrank to just four out of 10 by 2003 . Last season had just one among the best 10.

This year, the highest-ranked car owned by a one or two-car team sits at 12th.

In fact, the six most valuable teams (out of 24 total) have thus far accounted for 22 of 54 cars to qualify for a race this year. That

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Absolutely amazing figures, in the the entire motorsport (business) only the big F1 manufacturer teams are bigger that the big NASCAR teams like HMS or RFR.

A 150 million F1 budget cap would make NASCAR the most expensive/big budget form of motorsport.

Luckily F1 teams will still find ways to burn 300 to 500 million legally or not. Shame it won't be on stuff like active suspensions, active differentials, hydrogen fuel cells, Li-Ion batteries, electric engines, compressed air engines and Co.

Oh well with idiots in charge and legions of idiot "driver skill" fans behind then F1 got what it deserved.

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Now you know why I hate NASCAR. Stock car racing should cost you $50,000/year, not 100s of millions. If you pay me 100s of millions, though, I might watch NASCAR. Maybe.

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Let me see:

- 3 - 4 cars officially, more unofficially (Robert Yates is the RFR B Team), plus Cup Lit and/or trucks cars

- titanium alloys and/or special plastics from F1 or sportcar/endurance prototypes used for pushrod carburated engines

- F1 CFD software - CFD computers, windtunnels, simulators to produce downforce, sideforce and lower drag,

- trips to Europe to visit/observe F1 facilities

- money for engineers from Europe/Britain witch have previously worked in F1 and/or CART Indycar and/or sportcar-endurance racing

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Let me see:

- 3 - 4 cars officially, more unofficially (Robert Yates is the RFR B Team), plus Cup Lit and/or trucks cars

- titanium alloys and/or special plastics from F1 or sportcar/endurance prototypes used for pushrod carburated engines

- F1 CFD software - CFD computers, windtunnels, simulators to produce downforce, sideforce and lower drag,

- trips to Europe to visit/observe F1 facilities

- money for engineers from Europe/Britain witch have previously worked in F1 and/or CART Indycar and/or sportcar-endurance racing

Oh OK.

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Now you know why I hate NASCAR. Stock car racing should cost you $50,000/year, not 100s of millions. If you pay me 100s of millions, though, I might watch NASCAR. Maybe.

If you spend 50000 to get a 800 prize what's the point ?!

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If you spend 50000 to get a 800 prize what's the point ?!

Well, it's called fun. The purse would be much more than $800, cuz no local short track spends that much, except maybe in their first year if they have to buy a truck and trailer. And, it's all relative. If you spend $300mil and only get a $150,000 prize, what's the point? Exactly. Money comes from sponsors, not from racing. Sponsors would just pay less than they do now, and have a lot less influence.

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