Take a goooood look at the cars lapping the track at the next NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, or Craftsman  Truck Seriesr ace you see on TV, or go to in person.

Because this may be the last time that you see such a full field for quite a while.

Yesterday (July 16), General Motors announced that they were making some more major company-wide cuts in orderto stay afloat--and that includes a 20% cut across the board in stuff like their racing budgets.

That's going to hurt the tracks that get big bucks for race sponsorships and other promotions, as well as the teams that count on factory support. I can't see them bankrolling anyone who isn't a Chase contender after this season, and it's hard to see why they'd be putting any more $$$ into what used to be the Busch Series, now that that is nothing more than a glorified test session for Cup drivers instead of the development series it had been since its inception in 1982. Ditto for Craftsman Trucks, or whatever theyll call that series once the Sears Craftsman title-sponsor deal goes away.

And if you don't think that Chrysler might not have something similar in mind, think again.

Have you seen how well the "Dodge" teams are doing in Cup this year? (I put Dodge in quotation marks thanks to the generic blob called the car of Tomorrow, which reduced all Cup teams to running the same car with only stickers to tell the brands apart.) How many of them are in contention for the Chase?

And, how does a manufacturer justify spending any more corporate funds on race series featuring cars that the company doesn't even make, yet are called "stock", if the results of those factory-sponsored teams isn't driving CAR BUYERS to the showroom? (Remember "Win On Sunday, Sell on Monday?")

I hate to sound so negative, but the sharpening stone is likely being drawn across more than one budget-cutting axe as you read this.