Every sponsor wants their cars to perform well. The reason is very simple; it gets them the return on the investment that they make in the NASCAR teams. However, NASCAR is an extremely unpredictable sport and several factors need to work in perfect harmony for a team to stay up front and even win races. On that note, how lenient are the sponsors? Are there any performance clauses in the contracts that are sanctioned between them and the teams that they fund?
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In a Joe Gibbs Racing video, team president Dave Alpern explained that while there are no such performance clauses in the contracts between the teams and the sponsors, there could be a few in the manufacturer contracts.
“It’s not uncommon, particularly for the manufacturer agreements, whether you’re a Toyota, Chevy or Ford, many of those have performance clauses in them that may give you incentives based on what round of the playoffs you make it to or in particular of the championship,” explained Alpern. “Which is similar to the way some of our contracts with drivers (and) crew chiefs also include similar incentive bonuses if they reach certain milestones in the season.”
NASCAR’s Charter system has brought a significant change to the driver contracts
To understand this change, it’s necessary to know how race payouts were made earlier. The money that was given out to the teams was based solely on where they finished in the race. However, now a fixed amount goes to the charter teams based on their performance over the past three years and the non-charter teams get 35 percent of what the charter teams receive.
However, the catch here is that a charter team can lose its charter if they are one of the bottom three teams on owner points for three consecutive years. While NASCAR doesn’t need to take the charter away, the clause is that they can. This will also happen if a charter team becomes financially insolvent and fails to show up for any race.
The charter will then be offered to the current teams and if a team obtains the charter, the money in exchange for it will go directly to the season-ending points fund.
