NASCAR Sponsors to Cut Jobs

Apart from teams finding it very hard to maintain or get sponsorship for the upcoming season, the NASCAR series is nowadays confronting with another series of financial setbacks. According to a report presented by NASCAR News, all leading sponsors have announced major layoffs in the next few months.

The most important of them all is the very title sponsor or the Cup Series, the Sprint Nextel Corporation. The guys who bring NASCAR somewhere in the vicinity of $75 million a year – following the deal signed with the series' officials in 2005 – will allegedly cut more then 8,000 jobs by the end of March in an effort to reduce labor costs.

The high number of employees that are expected to be cut from Sprint's payroll represent no less than 14 percent of company's entire workforce. The measure is to be taken following the latest economic crisis that caused the 3rd largest wireless phone carrier in the United States to register $1.2 billion in net loss through the first 3 quarters of 2008.

“Labor reductions are always the most difficult action to take, but many companies are finding it necessary in this environment. Our commitment to quality will not change,” announced the company's CEO Dan Hesse.

Sprint are not the only major sponsor in NASCAR to announce layoffs in the first part of 2009, as Caterpillar, Home Depot and General Motors are also considering similar actions in the months to come.

Caterpillar has announced, through the voice of chairman and chief executive officer Jim Owens, that it has already proceeded to eliminate around 20,000 jobs (almost 18% of the company's workforce). Home Depot will also close 48 stores throughout the US that will lead to almost 7,000 employees cut from the payroll in the next few months. Finally, as announced less than a month ago, General Motors will temporarily close up to 20 plants in North America, while also set to cut 2,000 more jobs in the weeks to come.