According to a variety of sources, General Motors will file for bankruptcy on Monday morning after failing to successfully restructure on their own. The United States government will take a sixty percent ownership in the company once GM goes into bankruptcy.

President Barack Obama will address the American public on Monday afternoon, spelling out the next steps for the crippled automaker that was once the giant of the auto industry. The administration is saying the government will provide GM another $30 billion to GM, that is in addition to the almost $20 billion that has already been invested in the Detroit automaker.

This news is a devastating blow to a company that at one point was the top dog in American industry. A true icon of American capitalism, Monday’s bankruptcy filing is sure to change the future of the auto industry for years to come.

What this means for NASCAR and GM’s support of teams within the sport is yet to be determined. Earlier this season, members of the NASCAR community expressed their support for the most successful manufacturer in NASCAR’s history and doubted GM’s fate would come to bankruptcy.

“I think it'd be a big impact, but I don't think that's going to happen," Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. said of a GM bankruptcy while speaking with HardcoreRaceFans.com in Atlanta this March. "I think they're going to restructure and get the bailout, take care of business and be better than they ever were."

"It would be totally devastated," veteran Bill Elliott added on that same day in March. "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."

Now, time is up and what was hoped to have been avoided is happening. Reports are that GM will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at 8am E.T. in New York, marking the beginning of a new era in the American auto industry.

Unfortunately for NASCAR and those teams receiving support from GM, now it is a game of wait and see what the federal government deems appropriate and what is sees as expendable. Hopefully Jimmie Johnson’s dominant performance on Sunday and six Chevrolets in the top-12 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points show that NASCAR is a valuable asset to showcase their product.

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