When a reporter wrote a piece on April 1, 2009 describing how the Obama administration had ordered General Motors and Chrysler out of NASCAR by the end of the year, many were sent into a panic. As it turns out, the story was a bad April Fool’s joke that to most in the NASCAR community was anything but funny. Now, less than two weeks later, The New York Times is reporting the Treasury Department has told General Motors to prepare for bankruptcy by June 1 – and this time it’s no joke.

After receiving $13.4 billion in federal bailout money, General Motors has been under close watch by not only those in the federal government, but most of the motorsports industry. Like a witness unable to intervene, many in the NASCAR community have been forced to sit on the sidelines while the company attempts to restructure itself in order to avoid filing for bankruptcy. However, with Monday’s news it appears this is less and less likely. 

While they continue to proclaim an out-of-court restructuring of the company is still possible, the automotive task force set up by President Barack Obama is beginning to see that possibility fade into the distance. An out-of-court restructuring would require GM to successfully hold talks with both bondholders and the United Auto Workers to work out the details of the restructuring. With this becoming less likely as the days wear on, current chief executive Fritz Henderson understands the company’s predicament. 

“If we need to resort to bankruptcy, we have to do it quickly,” the Times reported Henderson said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The automotive task force has already rejected one revitalization plans proposed by GM last month.

While GM and government officials work out the details of the restructuring and/or bankruptcy, the NASCAR community simply sits by with its hands tied. Uncertainty has been rampant throughout the garage much of the year, with drivers, owners, media and fans alike unsure of what a GM bankruptcy would mean to the sport of NASCAR.

Sure, NASCAR has endured the withdraw of factory sport in the past, a number of times in fact, but never have the stakes been so high. With the amount of money poured into the sport in terms of product support, technical support and sponsorship dollars, a NASCAR without GM at this point would be one of the biggest changes to the sport in recent history – to say the least. 

Speaking with veteran driver Bill Elliott – who drives a Ford – this March in Atlanta, it became clear a NASCAR without GM support would be unlike anything we see today.

“It would be totally devastated,” Elliott said of the impact of a potential GM bankruptcy on NASCAR. “You’ve got all these teams that are relying on millions of dollars from GM, because, from what I understand, they get quite a bit of money right now, you’ve grown to build a deal this big and now that they go away, it’s going to hurt them.”

With teams like Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing relying on GM support, what exactly would a bankruptcy filing mean for the teams that run Chevrolets?

Chevrolet driver and perhaps the most politically-minded driver in the garage, Jeff Burton believes team owners are already making plans for a NASCAR without General Motors. 

“I think those things have already happened,” Burton explained prior to the race in Texas. “I think the climate that we’re in today it would be poor business to not look at the worst-case scenarios.  That’s not to say that we believe a worst-case scenario is coming, but if you turn the news on you can’t help but notice that it needs to have attention paid to it.  Not only from that standpoint, but from the entire company standpoint with all of its sponsors and all of its partners.  Our sport is driven by sponsors and fans being able to participate and when the economy gets bad it gets harder for those two groups to participate.  I think that throughout the company and always we have to be looking at worst-case scenarios, I don’t think we have an option.”

As this story continues to develop, those options are truly starting to dry up. It has yet to be seen whether or not GM will be able to restructure out of court or will be forced to declare bankruptcy. With so much at stake, all GM teams can do is focus on racing and try to put a Chevrolet in victory lane week-in and week-out. In racing, nothing proves a manufacturer’s success like winning.

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