Getting into NASCAR racing more costly than ever

This sudden trend of team owners trying to sign up wealthy, nonracing business partners seems to be taking stock-car racing into dangerous waters. It flies in the face of Brian France's push toward making the sport more accessible to potential new owners. It also holds the potential for upsetting the balance of power on several fronts, possibly even in Daytona.

Teams owners such as Jack Roush, Ray Evernham, Robert Yates and even Richard Petty might find it necessary to sign with rich, outside-the-racetrack business partners, to keep making a go of it in an increasingly expensive sport. But the France family has always preferred dealing with owners who are racers – such as Junior Johnson, Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske, Richard Childress – and who understand how the family likes the game played, how to go along to get along.

Outsiders? Well, think George Steinbrenner. And sweat.

The Frances should be worried about wealthy, business-savvy outsiders jumping in, because it appears to show that NASCAR's current run of cost-cutting rules might not be working, at least not in the way intended. More at Winston Salem Journal