One of the sport's biggest spokesmen, Richard Childress Racing's Jeff Burton understands times are getting tough throughout America. Major losses on Wall St. have the potential to affect some publicly owned sponsors, home foreclosures and rising gas prices have kept fans at home in front of the television instead of in the stands and smaller teams have been forced to cut costs and focus on staying in business as opposed to running well and winning races.

NASCAR has traditionally been a conservative sport when it comes to politics. John McCain took time to visit the New Hampshire Motor Speedway last week to spread his campaign message to the NASCAR Nation. Richard Petty is one of the biggest Republicans in the sport, bringing the first presidential visit to a NASCAR race in the form of Ronald Regan. Not to mention earlier this year, team owner Joe Gibbs addressed the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Yet, Burton does not feel being a Democrat in the garage is as bad as it once was.

"I think it certainly comes up a lot," Burton said of politics, "Politicians make the laws and the rules and that impacts us as a sport and individuals, so it comes up a lot. I don't think it's unpopular to be a Democrat - I hope it's not. I would like to think that we can make our decisions based on what is best for us as individuals and what is best for the country and I'd like to think that can change from being a Democrat to a Republican every so often. Certainly this has been a heavily conservative garage for a long time, but I would by no means say it is unpopular if you were not a conservative or a Democrat, I hope that's the case."

With sponsorship dollars becoming more and more difficult to come by, Burton understands the hardest hit teams will be what he calls the "little guys."  Next year, Richard Childress Racing will welcome two new sponsors, General Mills and Caterpillar, both of which are leaving smaller, struggling teams.

General Mills will end its partnership with Petty Enterprises at the end of the season, while Caterpillar parts ways with Bill Davis Racing. Earlier this year, the Petty family announced investment company Boston Ventures had taken over the day-to-day management of the team, while Bill Davis Racing has been seeking investors in order to save its struggling team. With these teams straining to balance running in the top-35 and still paying the bills, the sponsors were drawn to the fact RCR currently has all three teams in the Chase.

"It makes it harder for the little guys, there's no question about that," Burton pointed out. "The harder it becomes for the little guys the more endangered they'll become, there's no getting around that. The key for the little guys is to figure out how to become the big guys, but it's very difficult to do because there are only 43 spots."

With only four teams represented in this year's Chase - RCR, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing - it is becoming evident the times of the independent team is over. As Burton points out, those teams struggling to keep and attract sponsors have no room to grow into a successful organization these days.

"For us to have a situation where a smaller team can grow, he has to be able to have a foundation that allows him to grow and we don't have that today," Burton argued. "That's one of the reasons I push really hard to make it so there are 43 teams, not 49 teams. It would enable the little teams to be bigger, and by the way it might make the bigger teams smaller."

In his opinion, one way to provide that foundation for growth is by guaranteeing more teams a spot in the field. The top-35 rule currently locks in the top-35 teams in the owner standings into the race each week. Those teams outside the top-35 run the risk of not making the show week-in and week-out - and for a corporate sponsor making a major investment into a race car, not making the show is not very alluring.

"I think an expansion of the top-35 rule to make it a top-42 rule is what I think we need to do. I think it provides stability," said Burton. "Look, when the economy is going well, it's a whole lot easier. When you really start to see people hurt is when you start to see the economy go bad. Sponsors just aren't going to continue to show up spending the money they're spending today in this economic environment not know if they're going to be in the race. We've got to find a way to sure that up. The top-35 rule is an awesome rule and NASCAR deserves a lot of credit, I just think it should be a bigger rule, it ought to be top-42."

As it appears, times are going to continue getting tougher. With record number of home foreclosures, ever rising fuel prices and more and more Americans out of work, shelling out hundreds of dollars on a race weekend will be coming less and less likely. NASCAR will weather this economic storm, but the "little guys" might fall by the wayside.