So you just won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Championship and you are on top of the world. And then you aren’t.
2018 Camping World Truck Series champion Brett Moffitt is looking for a new ride for next season. His team, Hattori Racing Enterprises, let him go following his championship win. Why you ask would they do this? Money. The team needs a driver who brings money to the team. Racers now need to have their own backing to drive a race car in many series and it’s only going to get worse.
Team owner Shige Hattori said the team faced “numerous challenges in getting to the racetrack each week” during 2018 and nearly didn’t make it to the end of the season. Imagine the struggle of not being able to afford to make races and yet your driver won the championship. The reward for his faith in you as a team was to drop him. Who would want to drive for that team?
The truck series is the least expensive of the premier NASCAR series but budgets can still come in at 3 million dollars or more. With viewership dropping across the NASCAR empire and sponsor money drying up expect more teams to drop drivers who aren’t marketable. On the flipside what happens when the racing suffers and the fans stop watching?
“No matter what, looking back, at least I can say I was the 2018 Camping World Truck Series champion with six wins on the year. I’ll forever have that, and the people who supported me will have that.” (From Fox News)
“It’s one level of success, and one checkmark on the career box, but hopefully there’s a lot more to come.” (From Fox News)
I have a hard time getting interested in any racing series right now. The lack of interesting personalities, corporate speak interviews, and bland rules that limit competition to follow the leader have taken a lot of the enjoyment out of most series. The last bastion of interesting can be found on YouTube with Southern Rock Racing, Ultra 4, and King of the Hammers. What are some other series you like to watch?
