What Would a NASCAR Split Look Like for Stock Car Racing?

No one wins a civil war. 

Whoever comes out as a victor made it because of survival, not triumph. 

After the news this week of NASCAR’s on-going charter negotiations with the Race Team Alliance steaming full-speed to nowhere, is the possibility of a war between the two sides forthcoming?

It would not be a conflict fought with guns and soldiers, but words and names, taking the battle in steel racing war machines to venues across the country to duke it out. 

A civil war would ignite over the asphalt prairie lands of the stock car world, with the strategic goal to achieve some semblance of control in the sport’s future. 

Is a war likely with the ignition being a new stock car series started by the car owners? According to recent reports, owners don’t appear ready, at least publicly, to accept that endeavor. That’s good for the series, and evidence that at least some level of sanity exists in the duel of competing interests between the France family and car owners. 

Any action that leads towards carnage in the very stable stock car environment would be shocking. If decision makers were to travel so far down a road of strife in which neither side could come to terms on a mutually beneficial future, and a split ensues, it would be similar to the last peaceful European summer before World War I broke out. That was a time when so many national leaders were oblivious to the destructive force they were allowing to creep into existence. 

That’s what lies ahead for stock car racing if the most unbelievable were to melt into reality. 

While both sides maintaining the status quo seems logical on the outside with smart, rational leaders doing their part, money is a massive mind changer. More so in this era of racing when budgets are in the tens of millions for one car and lives depend on the continual flow of cash. 

But if a war did erupt, say a Split between NASCAR and the owners, how would that progress and what would it look like? 

There’s a lot to unpack in that question. Residually, the impact would be unknown to the racing fan as it unfolds in the three feet between their face and phone. To gauge results, it’s important to look at the near-term goals and consequences, even before any rival series starts, followed by assessing the outlook years down the road. 

To really help put any action by NASCAR and the RTA into context, the best comparison would be to the American open-wheel split that happened…