Nascar team values flatlined as the series struggles, but its leaders aim to shift into a higher gear
Heading into the 2020 season, it’s more of the same for Nascar’s team owners. The top eight teams are now worth an average of $149 million. The most valuable team is once again Hendrick Motorsports, worth $315 million, a 3% dip from 2018. Five of the top eight teams have lost value in the last two years; Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske and Front Row Motorsports were the only three able to gain ground.
But after skidding for years, Nascar is finally driving in the direction of the skid. In fact, a combination of new management and consolidation appear to have provided much-needed stability, which just might help turn the series back in the right direction.... [+]“If you look back a year ago, I think that the industry was coming together under new leadership . . . [and] had a belief in itself and a hope that it was going to work,” says Nascar president Steve Phelps.
Phelps took over as series president in September 2018, a few months after Jim France was named CEO, and he immediately set out to stop the slide in its tracks. So far, so good: Overall race viewership was flat last season after falling 35% over the three prior years, thanks largely to Nascar’s introduction of rules changes intended to deliver more exciting races . AndAnother boost came from the acquisition of International Speedway Corp.
Next up: building back sponsorship investment. Motorsports simply stall out without corporate partners, and Nascar has spent years watching the well dry up. In 2017, it replaced its Sprint title sponsorship with one from Monster Energy at less than half the value. The same year, Target, a motorsports sponsor for almost three decades, deserted Nascar for Major League Soccer. Today, few of the series’ 36 chartered cars can command a season-long primary sponsorship.
The silver lining is that, with a little bit more effort, top teams are still able to cobble together what they need. Just this week, Hendrick Motorsports extended its NAPA deal and locked up Axalta through 2027, a rare long-term agreement; the team has sold out its 2020 inventory. And Nascar has shifted gears at the series level, dropping the title sponsorship altogether and—Coca-Cola, Xfinity, Busch and Geico—to “premier” status.
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