General Motors recently declared bankruptcy and announced that it would eliminate its Nationwide and Truck Series support. Race attendance and viewership is down. Some argue that the economic downturn is affecting NASCAR fans, who tend to be blue collar workers, more than the average American.
 
And, while I doubt that the sport is in serious jeopardy right now, I think that it is certainly weakening and something needs to be done. NASCAR is currently looking at every possible option to attract fans, make the races more interesting, and save money.
 
NASCAR banned testing earlier this year to save the teams money. It also instituted double-file restarts. It’s even considering tweaking the car-of-tomorrow to make it sportier. In doing all of this, NASCAR is proving that it is prepared to take action. It is proving the old saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

And foreign automakers may be one of those “desperate measures.”

If more foreign automakers were to enter the sport, it wouldn’t be tomorrow. Toyota first started meeting with NASCAR in 2001. It debuted in the Truck series in 2004. The investment to get from concept to race truck was roughly $50 million, and to move into the Cup series was another $25 million. With the price tag that high, would an automaker want to get into the sport right now, when all automakers are struggling?
 
Probably not, considering the COT looks nothing like a street vehicle. Of course, with NASCAR working on changing the COT, that may no longer be an issue.
 
According to NASCAR rules, the cars that compete in the Sprint Cup series must be built in the U.S., and be steel-bodied passenger car production sedans. The engine must be a small-block V-8 “with a minimum of 350.000 cubic inch displacement and a maximum of 358.000 cubic inch displacement.”
 
Some foreign automakers do not make this type of engine. Toyota didn’t. They had to spend around $40 million to develop their engine. But, they were successful. Too successful, in fact. NASCAR made them tone down the technology of their engine in 2007.

But, if Toyota can do it, there’s no reason to believe that other automakers couldn’t. Honda has been long-involved in motorsports, and is a likely automaker that would want to join stock car racing. Much like Toyota, Honda doesn’t make v8s, so they would have to develop an engine essentially from scratch. But, it’s not impossible, as we’ve seen by Toyota’s ability to develop a competitive one. My guess is they would use a smaller version of the Ridgeline in the truck series, and probably the Accord in the Sprint Cup Series.
 
Nissan could also have an interest. Two of their vehicles, the Altima and the Titan truck, are manufactured in America, so they could be eligible. I would be surprised, however, if they ran the Altima instead of the Maxima in the Cup series.
 
Hyundai is a bit of a stretch for me because they don’t make trucks, and their reputation is not built on horsepower. I think they would have the biggest uphill battle because not only would they need to develop an engine, they would have to convince a team that they can create a powerful, aka competitive, vehicle.
 
I also think we could see Saturn move into NASCAR, as I wrote earlier. New owner Roger Penske could help orchestrate a move to NASCAR in the future. But, like Hyundai, Saturn does not make trucks. So both would have to enter that market before they could enter the truck series. That would be quite costly.
 
I don’t really want luxury brands like Mercedes Benz, Lexis, BMW, or Heaven-forbid, Ferrari in NASCAR. To me these brands go against what NASCAR, and its fans, stand for. Most NASCAR fans are blue collar workers. They are not the people buying these types of cars. And introducing them into the sport would go against the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” adage.

No matter what happens with foreign automakers, I’m glad to see NASCAR is exploring every possible option to keep the sport going, and to make the racing more interesting.

I’m not saying that Penske is lying, or that he is working behind the scenes to secretly bring Saturn to NASCAR. Truth be told, he probably has so much on his plate with figuring out what he actually has in Saturn that bringing the brand to NASCAR is very low on the list of priorities.
 
That does not rule out the possibility, of course.  It just rules it out in the immediate future. I think that Penske Championship Racing — and anyone fielding Dodges at this point — has to be concerned about the future of that brand.

Penske, I’m sure, has a close eye on what is going on with Dodge, and may need to rethink what type of car he fields, should Dodge continue to struggle and cut financing.

Enter Saturn.

According to NASCAR rules, the cars that compete in the series must be based in the U.S., which Saturn currently is. Penske may look to foreign manufacturers to build the cars in the future, but so long as the model they use in NASCAR is built in the U.S., it qualifies. So that should not be an issue.

With NASCAR’s car of tomorrow, the cars share little more with their street counterparts than the decals. Thus developing a Saturn version, at least conceptually, wouldn’t be that hard. The COT’s design seems to limit the amount you can do with the nose — having that splitter — so there is a much better platform for Saturn to build off of than with the previous car. My guess is that it wouldn’t be too hard to fine tune the nose of the car to make a competitive Saturn race car.

It would be nothing like when Dodge re-entered the series in 2002. Back then, the cars had a more bullet-like shape, so hours needed to be spent in the wind tunnel working on the shape of the car. As a matter of fact, if memory serves me correctly, Dodge’s initial nose wasn’t great. It stood up a little too much, creating a lot of wind resistance. They redesigned the nose so that it was more curved, and in line with the noses of the Monte Carlo, Fusion, and the Grand Prix.

Adding in how much the rear wing specs limit the amount you can do with that end of the car, developing and building a Sprint Cup car these days probably isn’t the burden it once was. Toyota went through the Goody’s Dash series in 2000. In 2001, it won its first race in the series, and in 2003 it won its first championship.

In 2004, it entered the Camping World Truck Series, and won races in 2005. Todd Bodine won the championship in a Toyota in 2006, and Johnny Benson won the championship in a Toyota last year. And, in 2007 Toyota entered the Sprint Cup series and won for the first time 40 races later with Kyle Busch behind the wheel. So, it took Toyota seven years to get into the series and eight to be competitive.

Saturn, most likely, wouldn’t face such a long road, but it would encounter some hurdles, I’m sure. For starters, I can’t find a single Saturn v8. Their cars and SUVs only feature v6 engines, which means Saturn would need to develop a v8 to participate in the series. Most teams have complex engine departments, so this could be accomplished, but it would take time.

Saturn makes SUVs, but not trucks. So, they couldn’t use the Camping World Truck Series as a testing area/proving ground without incurring the high costs of breaking into the truck market. 

And with Saturn being in financial trouble, entering NASCAR may not be financially feasible. One thing most people have contended is that when Toyota entered the sport, they had the financing to be competitive. They could essentially throw money at the situation to help improve it. For example, Toyota had a humble beginning when it started because it was partnered with Michael Waltrip Racing, Bill Davis Racing, and Red Bull Racing. These teams were not very competitive in 2007. In 2008, Joe Gibbs Racing switched to Toyota, and that has propelled it to being a winning brand. I highly doubt Toyota could have attracted JGR without financial backing to convince them they could win with the brand.

Saturn may or may not have that. That doesn’t mean it is impossible, but they probably don’t have the money to lure a large team. Of course, Penske Championship Racing would be likely to switch to Saturns because of the obvious link. But, would violate conflict-of-interest rules, because Penske owns the brand and the race team? I don’t know. It would be interesting to see how that would play out.

Saturn could potentially cash in on Dodge’s misfortunes. If Dodge were to bow out of the sport due to bankruptcy, that would leave Richard Petty Motorsports looking for a manufacturer. But, smaller teams wouldn’t be as likely to switch to a new manufacturer if there were a bunch of Dodge COTs being sold by PCR and RPM. It would be cheaper for those micro-teams to buy the used Dodges, even if they could only use them for one year.

Again, despite Penske’s comments, I think that Saturn could come to NASCAR. Granted, a lot of things would have to happen first to make it happen. But, it could happen. Before Roger Penske bought the brand, most people would have never imagined Saturn entering NASCAR, but, the purchase is sure fueling speculation, and it is making it a distinct possibility for the future.

In GM’s most recent viability plan, Pontiac was not named as one of GM’s core brands, which are Chevy, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. The brand also wasn’t listed among those that would be killed or sold — Saturn, Saab, and Hummer.

Instead, the brand was supposed to focus on a small number of models. Now, it appears, the brand will disappear.

In 2004, the brand pulled out of NASCAR for good. In its final season, only five teams were using Pontiacs, and Ricky Craven was the only driver to win a race in a Pontiac during its final year.

At the time GM officials said that the brand was leaving NASCAR so that GM could focus its support on the Chevy racing program.