INDYCAR: Series Tightening TEAM Payout Criteria

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Series Tightening TEAM Payout Criteria

For the bulk of the IZOD IndyCar Series paddock, there’s no need to worry. For the rest, INDYCAR's TEAM subsidies will come with a caveat: Prove you deserve it.

Marshall Pruett | Posted January 06, 2012

Starting this year, smaller teams like Conquest Racing will need to do more than make the top 22 in order to get a lucrative TEAM contract from INDYCAR. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

For the bulk of the IZOD IndyCar Series paddock, there’s no need to worry.

For others, the new TEAM (Team Enhancement and Allocation Matrix) payout structure and system the series has planned for 2012 and beyond comes with a caveat: Prove that you deserve it.

Introduced in 2008, the TEAM concept, part of INDYCAR’s Leader Circle program, did away with the traditional amounts of prize money that were on offer at each round (except for Indianapolis) in favor of a guaranteed lump sum the series would give its teams each year.

Nominal purses continued to be paid out at each race, but the biggest competition amongst teams was found in earning enough entrant points to qualify for the $1.2 million TEAM entitlements INDYCAR reserved for the top 24 entries. Once inside the top 24, those teams earned monthly payouts beginning the following year.

For 2011, and in a bid to promote more competition towards the bottom of the grid, that number was reduced from 24 to 22. It caused a minor uproar at the time amongst the smaller teams, but the message being sent by the series was clear. The days of doing the bare minimum to get a guaranteed TEAM payout—money that would not have been earned by running around at the back before the TEAM concept existed—were coming to an end.

Within the past few months, two influences helped INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard to call for another major change in the TEAM payout.

“Townsend [Bell] and I were sitting at dinner one night doing some brainstorming, and he brought up the idea of the Leader Circle program being more merit-based than just making payouts based on entrant points—looking at what teams do to deserve those contracts above and beyond what takes place on the race track,” he told SPEED.com. “I really like the concept. If we’re going to make a significant financial investment to help our top 22 teams, I think it’s fair to ask or understand how those teams plan on helping the sport of IndyCar.”

The recent departure of one of Indy car racing’s oldest teams served as the catalyst for Bernard to alter the TEAM payout criteria.

“We took the Leader Circle contracts down to 22 last year because we wanted to put the emphasis more on quality,” he said. “This year, after Newman/Haas dropped out, everybody was asking what INDYCAR was going to do with their two spots—who was going to get that money. We had this happen last year when Gil de Ferran’s team fell out and we had to come up with a way to give that contract to a deserving team or driver, but it still came down to an opinion-based deal on who should get it and I didn’t like that. When Newman/Haas stepped back, we wanted to come up with a more formal system.”

According to Bernard, every team that earned one of the adjusted 20 TEAM contracts through entrant points will need to pay the series a visit to discuss its plans for 2012.

“For this year, to start, every one of the [20] cars needs to make a presentation to IndyCar,” he explained. “We want to learn about their plans, their drivers, their sponsors, how they plan to activate those sponsors, what kind of media and promotions the teams are working on and how they are basically going to interact with the series and our fans. Then, we can sit down and discuss how we can help, how we can cross-promote, activate, how we can work closer with each team to make both sides stronger.”

Bernard made it clear that for the teams that qualified for TEAM payouts under INDYCAR’s 2011 guidelines, payments will take place as promised.

“For the 20 who earned it last year, our feeling is that you deserve it and will get it,” he said. “But we feel that this new exercise will be a good process for my senior management team and to educate them on what’s happening at all levels with our teams. And once teams are finished making their hour-long presentation, we’re going to give them an hour presentation on what IndyCar is doing this year. From there, IndyCar and every team should be better positioned to work more closely.”

Select teams will get to see an early version of Bernard’s new plan as INDYCAR reconciles the TEAM funding that was destined for Newman/Haas.

Under the old system, the entrants that finished 23rd and 24th would have likely earned the two contracts forfeited by Newman/Haas, but starting next week, the series will host teams that finished outside the top 22, along with its two newest entrants as they lobby for the two open contracts.

“If you don’t have a Leader Circle contract and you want one, we’re going to give them to the people who are going to do the most for our sport,” said Bernard. “Whoever’s going to give back the most to the sport. The ones who can show us that you are going to make a difference to our sport are the ones who will win the contracts.”

Bernard also revealed some of what might convince the series to award the TEAM contracts.

Page 1 of 2