‘Toyota and Ford are always going to look for something to complain about’

NASCAR teamed up with Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports to field the Garage 56 special entry class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023. NASCAR CEO Jim France wanted to fund an entry operated by Chevrolet team Spire Motorsports for the July Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway, again, leaving Toyota and Ford on the sidelines.

On the surface, it looks like the two manufacturers are getting the short end of the stick from NASCAR. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on Tuesday’s “Dale Jr. Download” that he wouldn’t be surprised if they were upset about both of those occurrences.

“Toyota and Ford are always going to look for something to complain about,” Earnhardt said. “… You’re telling me that if Jim France had went to another Toyota team or another Ford team, they would have accepted that opportunity?”

Ultimately, France’s plan to financially support a Spire entry never came to pass. France was set to work with Spire to put Jack Aitken, a 29-year-old IMSA driver, in the race. Aitken races for a France-owned team in the sports car series. Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reported that “backlash in the garage over the perception of another high-profile conflict of interest in motorsports ownership led him [France] to scrap the plans.”

NASCAR’s Jim France wanted to fund Cup Series entry at Sonoma

Gluck and Bianchi added that the original plan was to field a Hendrick car. However, the four-car limit prevents Hendrick from fielding a fifth car, even an open car. Spire has a Hendrick alliance and appeared to be the next best thing. Earnhardt is relieved that France decided to discontinue the plans.

“I wouldn’t necessarily think it’s a good thing,” Earnhardt said. “That’s the type of thing, for me, that needs to be grandfathered in. It’s like the four charters versus teams can only have three. Had Jim France and his family always owned cars for all of these decades of NASCAR, then you grandfather that in. And if that ever ended, you’d just be done with it. At this point, it just doesn’t feel like it’s very productive to do it now. Jim doesn’t need to do it. It’s not like a viable business proposition or opportunity that I think is necessary as a businessman to do it.

“It’s like a here’s a fun thing on the side, we’ll get a guy and he’ll race. Kind of one of those fun things you want to do with your buddies. But it’s not necessary because the dude owns the sport. So, what he might have could have done is shield his involvement. He probably still could have gotten Jack Aitken in a Spire car, still got him on the racetrack and shielded his involvement or his connection to Jack and the partners that would support this program.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report.