CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nascar announced a drastic overhaul of its business model on Tuesday, shifting to a franchise-like system that is intended to provide value and financial stability to team owners after decades of heavy reliance on sponsors.
The change moves away from the independent contractor model that has been used since Nascar’s inception in 1948. A car owner was responsible for all the financial obligations to race each week, depending on sponsorship to help pay the bills. When a sponsor pulled its funding, a car owner could potentially go broke and be left with nothing but racing equipment.