Even NASCAR has its crises...

I recently read Chapter 3 of the textbook for our class, Crisis Management in the New Strategy Landscape by William Crandell, John Parnell, and John Spillan, along with the 2010 Season Preview (for NASCAR), powered by Racing Milestones. Chapter 3 deals with potential causes for an organization to have a crisis and mentions political/legal causes, economic causes, social causes and technological causes (Crandell 43). With the current economic recession and bailout plans, even NASCAR is feeling the pressure to cut back.

In an article by Deb Williams in the 2010 Season Preview, co-owner for the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team, Felix Sabates was quoted saying, "If any own tells you they're not worried, they're lying because we're all worried to death" (2010 35).

Because of the bailouts in the automotive industry and bankruptcies, many team mergers and continued layoffs are occurring. In addition, NASCAR is restructuring many of its policies to help deal with troubled economic times. By racing certain brands, like Joe Gibbs using Toyotas for all three drivers, it adds to the marketing effort of that brand. Creating team brand loyalty has proved to benefit both the manufacturer and the team. However, there are rules and regulations. In the past, an automotive manufacturer would have to produce 500 of the cars it would be racing in the Sprint Cup series in order to use them, but this rule has been abolished (2010 37). This will help other brands, especially those outside of the United States like Toyota, to succeed.

Williams concluded her article by stating that "With America's restructured auto industries operating much leaner, the same can be expected of NASCAR teams in 2010" (2010 37).

So, what does this mean for the Joe Gibbs Racing Team and NASCAR in general? The source of this crisis is one from economic forces. The textbook suggests two steps for dealing with economic crises like this, although they will be easier to accomplish in some situations and much more difficult in others. Step 1 would be to realize what caused the crisis and see if it can be learned from and Step 2 is to take action quickly to minimize the intensity of the situation (Crandell 48). As stated in the text, these steps call for " difficult decisions in uncertain times" (Crandell 48).

From what the preview of the upcoming season has shown us, the Joe Gibbs Team seems to be in good shape. Other teams have had to stop racing one or more cars because of a lack of sponsorship. However, Joey Logano has Home Depot, Denny Hamlin has FedEx, and Kyle Busch has M&M's. A possible PR recommendation, from what we learned in class and through the text, would be to ensure that there are back-up plans in place, should the unfortunate situation of losing a sponsor arise in the future.